"samsloan" wrote in message
ups.com...

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrisfalter Quote: Originally Posted by SamSloan To everyone's surprise, the Executive Director reported back a few days later that Polgar had agreed to this. I have never seen Polgar act with less than 100% integrity in her financial affairs, so I am not surprised at all.

THE PROLOG

I have known Miss Polgar for 22 years.

Well, cough while that may be true, it seems she has known Sam Sloan
rather less over the same period. In a different sense I have known Michael
Adams since he was 4'12" tall, or for 40-some years. He probably wouldn't
know me from, er, Adam.

You have known her for what, three months? If indeed you know her at
all.

Who do you think knows her better?

THINKING REDUX

An interesting question. Perhaps an even better one is what amount of
'knowledge' has been digested and been converted to 'understanding'.

MEANWHILE... BACK AT THE FORUM

1) Don Schultz has made his own response on the Forum, which answer nothing,
and Bill Hall has said less [the new Openess in action!]

2) Board members bore members with 'we were not consulted' commentaries
about especially the Ex Dir, but fail to mention if they /needed/ to be
consulted, of if the Ex Dir acted outside of his contracting scope.

3) When the issue of Frank Niro's action arose, it seems that he did not act
outside his powers, and despite board 'concern' by Schultz and Marinello,
nothing actually changed in terms of his scope of contracting.

4) I keep seeing references to amounts of monies, expressed as $30,000, eg.
though understood these to be amounts /in kind/, and from my own analysis of
CL rates, represent the retail worth of space. The wholesale worth seems
more like $20,000.

ETHICS TOO!

5) Are board members or candidate members /required/ to state other position
held, for direct or indirect financial appreciation of any conflicting
interests?

Example 1: current board member Hough is a CJA official, and board
president Goichberg owns CCA. Does Mr. Hough's position inhibit fair
reporting on USCF by either favouring CJA with news, or depressing reporting
by others?

Example 2: does Mr. Goichberg's ownership of the largest tournament
entity in the USA complete with the second largest tournament entity, USCF?
He is president of both.

Example 3: what roles or relationships, if any, are held at Chesscafe,
who is the vendor for USCF's B&E business?

6) A Chessville question put to Mr. Hall, which he has declined to Answer,
addresses the responsibility he has compared with the responsibility of Mr.
Goichberg, or of their respective offices as Ex Dir and President. By not
answering the question, then whatever contracting role Mr. Hall conducts is
obscured, since it can't be known who else shares the decision making
process.

7) Laying problems of contracting at the door of the Ex Dir's office is
therefore a moot factor, since we do not know anything about his contracting
role which could range from Zero to Absolute.

8) Skating issues based on vendor-relations with USCF's miasmic organisation
is misleading! No politician at USCF has answered any of the above, which,
let's face it, is something they CAN do about fixing USCF procedures while
they are in office. It does not interest me to read what they /would/ do,
since all management is a negotiation of the art of the possible - and such
responses as from Don Schultz yesterday, that in 18 months he /would/ fix
President :: Ex Dir relationship, are replies not answers to what can be
done now.

NEW BOARD, NEW SHOES

9) The new board can continue on the same historical basis with ad hoc and
personality 'understandings' [a generous term] or they can convert the basis
of USCF's management to objective procedures and standards, which is to say,
they can adopt the right stance for any board of management, and not deploy
themselves by working IN the business, but can work ON the business. These
would indeed be new shoes to stand up in.

10) The candidate board member who most closely addresses these issues is
someone who often wrote here - Randy Bauer, who in his Chessville answers
identified these internal standards as the necessary and real foundation to
support a viable organisation, and indeed also noted that many current
practices were quite untenable to the extent that they are constant
liabilities. While I have personally not been in great accord with Mr. Bauer
over the years - I cannot fault him for taking on the least glamorous role
there is, but it terms of institutional praxis, perhaps the most important.

Phil Innes
Vermont


Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if
you have understanding.

Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the
line upon it?

To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone?

Sam Sloan