The real issue here is that the rule that an employee may not be a
board member or a candidate for election to the board is not just a
USCF rule. It is a standard rule that applies generally to all not-for-
profit corporations.

Not-for-profit corporations do not have to pay taxes. If employees
could be board members and run the organization then all corporations
would convert to not-for-profit status, just to avoid the payment of
taxes.

This issue never came up until recently because in all the years that
I have been a USCF member since 1956 I do not recall it ever happening
that the lines between being a board member and an employee were ever
blurred. However, in the last few years there have been several
dubious cases, the 2006 election being one of them. In the 2006
election, two of the candidates were doing office work for the USCF.
In the 2005 election, Bill Goichberg was employed as Executive
Director and then resigned just in time to announce that he was
running for the board. In the 2007 election, Polgar claimed to have a
contract to write a monthly column in Chess Life magazine for five
years (although this turned out not to be a signed contract, but a
verbal contract based in part on email exchanges) and nevertheless ran
for the board.

These questions need to be addressed, and that is probably the reason
why Larry Cohen raised the issue in starting this thread.

Sam Sloan