The Real Reason Joel Channing Resigned
On Apr 14, 5:32 am, samsloan wrote:
Bill Brock states on the New York Times Gambit Blog, "Mr. Channing had
a vision, and a sense of the concrete steps USCF needed to take". I
would like Mr. Brock to tell us what his vision was and what those
steps were, because I never heard Mr. Channing state those things. In
his nearly three years on the board, Mr. Channing never made a motion
that failed to pass. The board repeatedly deferred to his wishes,
based on his supposed superior business experience and judgment. For
example, the USCF changed its entire accounting system to the way Mr.
Channing wanted it done. This all had to be changed back after all the
accountants stated that this was wrong. Mr. Channing supervised the
construction of the new USCF headquarters in Crossville, Tennessee,
which we were subsequently informed we are not allowed to sell. All of
Mr. Channing's motions involved spending money on some aimless
boondoggle, flying 20 USCF insiders to Florida being one example. In
three years on the board, Mr. Channing never made a proposal either to
reduce expenses or increase revenues, even though the USCF was
suffering horrific financial losses. Meanwhile, during my one year on
the board, I made many proposals both to increase revenues and cut
expenses. Every motion I made for those purposes was voted down,
because Mr. Channing openly stated that he would vote against anything
that I was for, thereby nullifying my presence on the board.
The two things that I accomplished that definitely would not have
happened had I not been on the board were getting all the old Chess
Life newspapers going back to 1946 scanned and preserved on CD and
getting the Expulsion of Bobby Fischer that had taken place before I
got on the board vacated. However, due to the strong opposition of
Mr. Channing, I was never able to get Bobby Fischer fully reinstated
as a USCF member, so Mr. Fischer died without being a USCF member.
Every other proposal I made, such as making and broadcasting videos of
our national scholastic championships featuring thousands of screaming
kids, failed because of the knee-jerk opposition of Mr. Channing.
The remarks by Jim Eade, a former USCF Board member, are right on
point. The insistence of Mr. Channing on buying something called
"internet insurance" cannot have been the real reason he resigned. The
real reason was that the board finally stood up to Mr. Channing and
refused to go along with yet another expenditure of USCF membership
dues money that Mr. Channing wanted to make. Mr. Channing realized
that he would no longer be given carte blanche on anything he wanted
to do, and so he resigned.
Sam Sloan
Because of the screwed up mess people of your ilk have made of things.
Congrats!
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