JOEL CHANNING

In every professional area I was in, electing some rich guy
to the Board of the school or society or whatever was always
seen as a magic bullet, and they always ended up costing more
than they provided to the organization. It's a fool's solution. --
SBD

A comment on Sam Sloan and Dr.Dowd's comments re
Joel Channing.

First, to Sam. Joel Channing IS rich -- very
rich. He got that way by LOVING money not merely
for what it does but for what it is. If you don't love it
per se, you may nonetheless go very far in the
wealth race, but there is no doubt that this Mammon
mooning, which is not often the same thing as greed
among the rich, helps.

Channing came to the Board promising to improve
the Federation by employing his expertise. He does
not believe in handing out money. Like Maurice
Wertheim, the fabulously rich investment banker and
chess angel of the 1930s and 1940s, Channing probably
believes that social organizations need to prove that
they deserve to exist by doing well -- and not merely
by doing good.

To Dr.Dowd, my experience of observing very rich
people on Boards is the precise opposite. They often
contribute a great deal in terms of financial wisdom
and business savvy.

The problem with a Channing-type giving a few
million to the USCF or to the Chess Trust, for that
matter, is that it would be the equivalent of dropping
raw meet in a river teeming with killer snakeheads or
piranhas. The problem with lavishing contributions on
the USCF is identical with the problem of sending
humanitarian foreign aid to African kleptocracies.
The local cut-throats end up fighting each other over
the manna from hell and start buying modern weapons
for civil wars to win the loot for their own pockets.

Are the hungry maws of the chess community in
New York City comparable with snakeheads and
anthropophagic despots? There are some differences
in style and even actual conduct, but the similarities
are more significant.

Yours, Larry Parr



SBD wrote:
On Apr 9, 8:58 am, samsloan wrote:

That is why he was elected. Now, we are told that we have to spend
$13,000 that we would otherwise not have to spend just to keep him on
the board. Meanwhile, he has not provided one thin dime to the USCF
since he has been on the board. Every time he drinks a cup of coffee,
he charges it to the USCF.


That is how rich guys get rich. They make their own, and spend other
people's, money.

In every professional area I was in, electing some rich guy to the
Board of the school or society or whatever was always seen as a magic
bullet, and they always ended up costing more than they provided to
the organization. It's a fool's solution.