"Sam Sloan" wrote in message
...

Sam Sloan or Tim Hanke break up USCF "Open Meeting"

I attended the USCF Executive Board meeting yesterday, September 29.
The meeting took place over two days, but all day Sunday and Monday
until 1:00 PM was all closed session. After that, the open session
started, and I arrived with my financial comptoller, Sandra Sloan.

The first speaker in open session was Bill Goichberg, who said that he
wanted to make three points. Bill said that no more life memberships
should be sold, economy memberships should be abolished, scholastic
dues should be raised but adult dues should not be lowered, and prison
memberships should be returned to their previous classification.

While speaking on these subjects, Bill Goichberg was rudely
interrupted by Stan Booz several times. Beatriz Marinello, who was
chairing the meeting, had to tell Stan to allow Bill to finish what he
had to say.

Not true.

There was no real discussion about Bill's proposals, until I asked
whether the board had the power and the authority to make the changes
Bill proposed, or if only the delegates could do it. Beatriz said that
this was not clear. The delegates clearly had given her the power to
do anything to cut expenses. It was less clear whether they had given
her the authority to change the dues structure, she said.

You idiot, he was offering his comments on the finance committee's draft
proposal. It wasn't "his" proposal.

After that, there was a long silence. Nobody else wanted to speak.
Finally, I said that I had something to say, but that certain people
in the room will find it objectionable and will want to call the
police to have me thrown out, so I wanted to make sure that nobody
else wanted to speak, before I said anything.

Beatriz looked around the room to see if anyone else had anything to
say. When nobody else wanted to speak, I started.

I said that it appears that nobody on the Board has been reading the
Internet postings of Tim Hanke and I feel that the board should be
concerned about some of the things that he has been saying. I had done
an Internet search early that morning and had found that since the
Executive Board meeting on August 11, 2003, Tim Hanke has made 204
postings to the Internet, consisting of 169 postings from
and 35
postings from
mailto:webmaster%40scleroderma.org .

In the totality of these postings, he has represented himself as a
person with authority in the USCF and he has stated that he wants to
close down the books and equipment business and he wants to stop the
publication of Chess Life magazine in paper format format ....."

With that, Tim Hanke jumped up and started yelling that I should not
be allowed to speak. Stan Booz also jumped up and said that I should
not be allowed to make "ad hominem attacks".

He did not yell and I remained seated.

Beatriz ruled that OK, I would be allowed to speak for three minutes
only. Then Hanke will be given three minutes to reply, and then that
will end it.

Again, Hanke jumped to his feet, saying, "I am not going to take this.
This guy is a liar. I am not going to listen to this. I am leaving."

With that, both Tim Hanke and Stan Booz stormed out the door.

Another convenient misstatement of the facts. What happened was that Grant
Perks said we no longer had a quorum and therefore the meeting was over. So
I got up and beat feet.

Somebody in the audience said that now there is no quorum. Just a few
minutes before this, Don Schultz had excused himself to go to the
restroom. Frank Camaratta had left the meeting just before I had
arrived and Frank Brady had not attended the meeting at all. That just
left Beatriz Marinello and Steve Shutt on the dias.

Beatriz said, "As there is no quorum present, the meeting is over."

Everybody got up and left the room. Just as everybody was going out,
Don Schultz came back in saying, "What happened? I just stepped out
for a few minutes and already the meeting is over. I never saw a
meeting end so quickly."

Bill Goichberg and I explained what had happened. Don Schultz said
that just because no quorum was present that should not have ended the
meeting, as this was an open meeting to give the regular members a
chance to say something, so the presence of a quorum was not
necessary.

Then, we went out into the lobby and watched Beatriz Marinello and Tim
Hanke get in a car together and drive off. Stan Booz went with them.

More misrepresentation of the facts. I didn't go with them, they went with
me in my car.

As I had just arrived there, I was in no rush to leave. My entire time
at the meeting had been less than a half hour, and the total time I
had spoken had been less than a minute, so I hung around and spoke to
whomever was available. Then, Bill Goichberg gave myself and my
financial adviser, my baby Sandra, a ride over to the USCF office,
where I spoke to various people including Grant Perks, Glen Petersen,
Vincent Klem, Barbara DeMaro and several other important and
distinguished luminaries in the world of chess. I also purchased for
$20 the new Danny Kopec - Hal Terrie book, on the strength of the fact
that Tim Hanke has stated that the book will sell when the sun turns
to a cold cinder. I figured that if Hanke says that the book is bad,
it must be good.

Didn't he say, "...all the books..."?

I was right. I bought the book from Vincent Klem and it really is a
great book, with hundreds of tactical, positional and endgame problems
and solutions. I guarantee that it will be a best seller.

While I was waiting for my ride to the bus station, I was standing
outside the USCF building when Beatriz and Tim Hanke arrived in their
rented car. Beatriz was polite and said hello. Tim Hanke stared
sternly straight ahead, avoiding my glance, and went into the
building.

Rented car? Hanke's white Mercedes?

After a while, my baby, who is only 22 months old, started getting
cold, so I decided to wait just inside the door of the building. I
understand that Tim Hanke, who by then was in the office in the back,
started demanding that I be thrown out of the office. I did in fact
leave just a few minutes later.

Had I been allowed to finish saying what I intended to say, I was
going to say that I believe that in Freedom of Speech and that Tim
Hanke should be allowed to say anything he wants to say on the
Internet, but I feel that he should be required to post a standard
disclaimer at the bottom stating that the opinions expressed are his
own and are not necessarily the opinions of the United States Chess
Federation.

I understand that Tim Hanke has been told to cool down his Internet
postings and to stop attacking people like Zsuzsa Polgar. I notice
that Hanke has not posted since the meeting.

When Sam first heard of facts he thought they said jacks and said they are
only for girls and not for real men like him.

StanB