Will Tim Hanke actually take his seat on the USCF Executive Board?

As soon as it became apparent that Tim Hanke had won election to the
USCF Executive Board, somebody asked whether Hanke would be willing to
serve since, during the election campaign, Hanke had not seemed
serious about wanting to be elected.

Indeed, throughout the campaign, Hanke had constantly made racist,
sexist, obscene and derogatory remarks, the kind of remarks that
nobody makes who wants to be elected. It seemed apparent that Hanke
was running as a lark. He was not running as a serious candidate.

Now that Hanke has won the election, he is suddenly complaining that
he wants his expenses paid, including his airplane ticket and hotel
bills for a week of delegate meetings next month. Apparently, Hanke
did not realize that he is running for a VOLUNTEER POSITION. Delegates
do not have, and have never had, their expenses paid.

Probably one reason Hanke did not know this is that he has never
attended a USCF meeting of any kind. Hanke did not even attend the
2001 USCF Delegate's meeting in Boston, although he lives in Boston.
Had Hanke ever attended a meeting, he would know that these meetings
are attended by more than one hundred delegates, none of whom have any
of their expenses paid.

Ever since winning the election on Wednesday, Hanke has been calling
the USCF offices asking to be provided with airplane tickets to fly to
Los Angeles. He has made it clear that he will not attend the meetings
unless his expenses are paid.

Let me make this clear, Mr. Hanke: You have been elected to a
volunteer position with a four year term of office. This is only the
beginning. The Executive Board will meet four times a year for the
next four years. Each of those meetings will last two or three days.
You will be expected to attend those meetings. You will not be
compensated for your time in attending those meetings. Some of your
expenses will be paid, but not all of your expenses. You will never be
paid in advance of the meetings. You will be required to pay your own
expenses, and then apply for reimbursement. You will be reimbursed if
and only if the secretary signs off that you are entitled to
reimbursement.

You cannot expect to come out ahead on this deal. Your incentive for
serving on the board will be your love of chess and your interest in
the development of chess. You are expected to spend both your time and
your money for these purposes, without compensation.

If you did not understand this, you should not have run for this
election. Now that you do understand this, you should decline the
office unless you are prepared to serve under these conditions.

Here are some recent quotes from Tim Hanke on this subject:

On Fri, 18 Jul 2003 14:14:56 -0400, in rec.games.chess.politics "Tim
Hanke" wrote:

The frigging process as it stands now is far from reasonable.

This morning I talked to Barb Vandermark, Frank Niro's assistant. I asked
her (among other questions) when I would hear anything official from USCF
about my election to the Board.

She said my election wouldn't be official till the Delegates ratify the
election. This won't happen till just before the new Board meets on August
11. Obviously I will have to buy plane tickets to L.A. weeks before that, if
I am to get any kind of reasonable price and arrive on time for the meeting.

But wait, there's more. Because I won't be a Board member till the Delegates
ratify the election results, USCF (per USCF President John McCrary, whom
Barb consulted) won't pay my expenses before that date. Till August 10 or
so, I'm a non-person as far as USCF is concerned.

Problem is, all the USCF committee meetings (Financial Committee, Bylaws,
etc.), where the real work gets done, are scheduled for *before* the
Delegates meeting. So if I want to participate in any of the real work of
the USCF's annual meeting, I will have to pay the cost of several days of
hotel & meals.

This does not exactly encourage me to attend the committee meetings and hit
the ground running, fully-informed and knowing all the key people, when the
new Board finally meets.

Meanwhile, all the members of the lame-duck Board are fully covered for
their expenses throughout the committee meetings, even if they will not be
on the Board any longer when the Board actually meets Aug. 11.

To me, this is all frigging ridiculous. I am fully prepared to give up my
hard-earned vacation time to help the USCF, but I was expecting at least to
get reimbursed for major out-of-pocket expenses. As a working person, my
time is money; I am also giving up my family vacation.

Tim Hanke

On Fri, 18 Jul 2003 11:55:54 -0400, in rec.games.chess.politics "Tim
Hanke" wrote:

But if I hadn't been elected, I would certainly not be using my hard-earned
summer vacation to travel across the continent to L.A., without my family,
at my own expense. I mean, let's be realistic. I'm only going to this thing
if I have a role to play.

Tim Hanke