-----
I'll let everyone read Bill Hall's letter and come to their own conclusions:
but it seems to me that these were not free as in gratis or in gratuity or
as perquisities, but in exchange for services already rendered, and the
exchange was by mutual in-kind exchange, rather than cash.

I must assume that the Mr. Nanna cited below is some kind of auditor, or
USCF's CPA. I note his recommendation in (C) below, and in his own words,
'no irregularity'.

Should board-members wish to spend their time invigilating board-candidates,
an unusual reversal, then I could only suggest that no one is minding the
store, and a better use of their invigilating time might be to look at the
interim financials which are drawn large in red ink to the tune of -$314,000
according to Donna Alarie.

Of course, most of that has happened on the watch of the current board...
therefore I do not expect to be reading any serious responses here, dogging
down /this/ year's financials

EVEN if I assume the very worst case of all, that Paul Truong has worked
some sort of Jackie-Chan Ninja marketing trick on Bill Goichberg's mind
using one of his famous hypnotic ties; that Mr. Nanna is in fact the janitor
and a hopeless financial dupe, and finally, Susan Polgar actually did take
the money and bought herself a couple of nice emeralds.

Why look at a number x30 the amount of this exchange of services when it
happened on your own watch?
Would that imply a self criticism x30 what is mooted here?

I am tempted to answer my own question by replying that if the same sort of
dogged-vigilance to the present had actually been present these past 8
months, then I could perhaps remember why board members are necessary at
all.

Phil Innes
Vermont
-----

On December 8, 2006, Bill Hall wrote:

To the USCF Executive Board:

Issues raised by Mr. Sloan

A) Susan Polgar Advertising - Susan had/has a credit for publications
advertising from 1) the settlement surrounding the 2004 Women's
Olympiad, which the EB agreed to settle in August '05 and 2) as part
of a trade agreement that I was involved in for celebrity appearance
at two national events. The appearance trade included free entry for
her children and one free room during the event with no fee to be paid
by the USCF.

B) Candidate's Fees - the three candidate's fees in question were
deposited. They appear in the General Ledger in the operational
Account (111100) as a part of the 97210.28 Access for J transaction.
It is further credited into the 970000 account. This appears as a
monthly batch total transaction, because in NY they were tracking many
of the individual transactions in an Access program and then entering
the transactions as a batch entry into Peachtree and the end of the month.

C) Disbursements to Susan Polgar - I have already reported that Mr.
Nanna is confident that there was no irregularity in the 13K
disbursement to Polgar that was questioned. ON the issue of further
investigation, Mr. Nanna feels strongly that this would be
counter-productive and costly. I, too, am hesitant to direct him to
generally dig into the matter. This has the following consequences: 1)
detracts from the business of moving the Federation in the direction
we need to go, 2) it is costly with respect to staff time involved, 3)
it has the potential to politicize the office and I feel it is crucial
the office and the staff be protected from the political aspects of
this organization. We will await direction from the EB on this matter.

I hope this helps with these matters.

Bill Hall
Executive Director
United States Chess Federation
P.O. Box 3967
Crossville, TN 38557-3967
Phone: (931) 787-1234
Fax: (931) 787-1200