Appeal from Decision Suspending Sam Sloan from USCF Issues Forum

I hereby appeal from the two decisions of the Forum Oversight
Committee suspending me from posting to the USCF Issues Forum for one
week each.

I appeal on the following grounds:

1. My posting, which stated that the USCF Executive Director, Bill
Hall, is chronically absent from work is valid commentary. The members
are entitled to know that the Executive Director often does not come
into work. That is a legitimate USCF issue and thus is a proper
discussion on the forum. In addition, there is the issue that the
Executive Board has failed to take any action against this chronically
absent employee. Bill Hall is still on the job drawing a high salary
even when he is not there. The members are entitled to know about this
and to discuss this subject.

2. This suspension was done by the Forum Oversight Committee. As
originally set up, the Forum Oversight Committee was supposed to
provide appellate review of the decisions by the moderators. It was
supposed to require two moderators to remove a posting.

What has happened instead is any one of three moderators or any one of
eight members of the forum oversight committee could remove a posting.
In my case, my posting was made on April 1, 2007 (coincidentally April
Fools Day) and nobody commented on it, much less refuted or disputed
it. Then on April 5, four days later, both the posting was removed and
I was suspended. Thus, the forum oversight committee have become super-
moderators. This is improper.

Also, I must point out again that the members of this Forum Oversight
Committee were appointed in an improper way. Bill Goichberg did not
allow any discussion by the board members as to the merits or demerits
of individual members of this committee. He simply announced the
committee. Three of the six members of the board voiced objections to
this committee and to the way in which it was selected. However, a
vote of three out of six is not enough to overturn the committee.
Thus, Bill Goichberg used a political trick to get the people he
wanted on the committee. It is clear that Bill's plan all along was to
have me suspended from posting to the forums and that was the reason
why he adopted this tactic.

3. I am a candidate for election. Candidates for election should not
be suspended from posting for any reason. If a candidate posts
something false or in bad taste, it is up to his opponents or to the
general membership to refute it. It simply cannot be allowed that
members of the board who oppose a certain candidate can use their own
hand-picked stooges to suspend a candidate from posting.

As this matter concerns the election campaign that is going on right
now, I request that this appeal be heard on an expedited basis.

Sam Sloan