Since all sides have referred to it and the members have the right and
the need to know, I feel that the Polgar Opening Secrets agreement
should no longer remain secret and therefore I have just posted it.

It is at
http://www.ishipress.com/polgar-opening-secrets.pdf
http://www.samsloan.com/polgar-opening-secrets.pdf

Please note that the file is more than one megabyte and it is a slow
download.

The "agreement" consists of nothing more than a letter dated September
9, 2002 from Frank Niro to Susan Polgar and her reply dated September
19, 2002.

That is all there is. There is nothing more.

There was no follow-up. There was no formal signed agreement. There
was just these two letters.

I do not believe that any judge of any court would uphold this
agreement by REQUIRING the USCF to publish the Polgar column. Polgar
through Truong has repeatedly threatened to sue the USCF if it did not
publish her column.

There were tremendous objections to this agreement at the time that it
was made. Among the objections was that Polgar who had never
previously written a column, was being paid more than any of the
regular columnists. Also, none of the regular columnists had
contracts.

Because of this, the board passed a motion that in the future the
Executive Director may not make agreements like this one without board
approval.

Polgar stopped writing "Opening Secrets" more than one year ago. As a
result, I feel that any rights she may have still had under this
agreement have been extinguished.

Sam Sloan

No. It has not been proven false, and thus far in the eight months
that I have been on the board not one single document has ever been
produced dated prior to 2005 that did not come from some other source.

For example, the Seattle Chess Foundation Contract and the Four Way
Contract was found in Michael Matsler's files and the current 2002
letters came from Lucas who presumably got them from Truong.

Bill Hall was supposed to produce an inventory of what is in the 125
storage boxes. He promised to do that seven months ago. So far he
still has not yet produced it.

Sam Sloan

No. This agreement was NOT approved by the board. However, the board
found out about it within a few weeks. It caused a relatively minor
flap compared with the subsequent secret deals between Polgar, Truong
and Niro that the board knew nothing about.

The subsequent deals which the board had no idea about until after
Niro disappeared caused much bigger problems, especially the March
2003 "Four Way Contract" involving the Woman's Olympiad Training
Program. After Niro left office, Truong demanded payment in the amount
of $50,000. I posted that contract a few weeks ago.

Then there were the deals Niro made with Polgar to pay her $2500 to
give a simultaneous exhibition at the Newburgh Rotary club, to pay her
$2 per player for appearing at a National Scholastic Event in
Nashville and to pay her for attending a delegates meeting in Los
Angeles in August 2003. These is no paper trail on these deals. As
noted previously, nearly all the financial records from that period
have been lost, misplaced or destroyed.

Any documents that remain would have been on that laptop computer that
was removed from the USCF's offices on August 20, 2003.

I assume that the September, 2002 letters that I have posted here were
obtained by Lucas from Mr. Truong. Mr. Lucas emailed them to the board
on January 23, 2007. Bill Hall did not have the documents and Lucas is
relatively new, so he must have obtained them from Truong. Of course,
we have no way of knowing whether there might be other documents that
have not been produced yet.

Sam Sloan

Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2007 6:21 am Post subject: More
fabrications by Mr. Sam Sloan Reply with quote
SusanPolgar wrote:
To the FOC members,

Once again, Mr. Sloan has clearly fabricated a large number of items
on the following posts:

- Polgar Opening Secrets Contract
- Entire purpose defeated to suspension of Polgar articles

Both posts have clearly violated a number of forums rules as well as
the Standards of Conduct for Executive Board Members. I officially
request for the threads to be removed and severe sanctions be applied
as Mr. Sloan has repeatedly violated the rules.

How many more times will Mr. Sloan be allowed to fabricate information
as he goes along while violating one forum rule after another to
damage my personal and professional reputation as well as others? Does
he have free range to make things up because it is election time? His
posts are outrageous and unacceptable.

I realize that you have very hard and thankless jobs. I appreciate
your efforts. Thank you for your attention in this very serious
matter.

Best wishes,
Susan Polgar


Ms. Polgar, are you saying that Mr. Sloan has fabricated the letters
forming your agreement to write the Opening Secrets column?

As to Mr. Sloan's other post, please advise exactly what he has
allegedly fabricated?

In closing, I note that you are back from the double standard
"sanction" imposed by Mr. Winchester for calling me dishonest. Did Mr.
Winchester advise you that it was all right for you to post to the
forum again? [Post:37568 Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2007 3:38 pm] I expect
the moderators and the FOC to apply the AUG to you as they would to
anyone else from this point forward.

All the best,
Brian Lafferty
_________________
End the Censorship or Shut Down the Issues Forum

I agree. It seems odd that the paper trail ends here.

I would like to see more documents, or else a definitive statement
that there are no more documents concerning this matter.

Sam Sloan

I have known Miss Polgar for 22 years.

You have known her for what, three months? If indeed you know her at
all.

Who do you think knows her better?

Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if
you have understanding.

Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the
line upon it?

To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone?

Sam Sloan

On Apr 2, 4:01 pm, "samsloan" wrote:

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrisfalter Quote: Originally Posted by SamSloan To everyone's surprise, the Executive Director reported back a few days later that Polgar had agreed to this. I have never seen Polgar act with less than 100% integrity in her financial affairs, so I am not surprised at all.

I have known Miss Polgar for 22 years.

You have known her for what, three months? If indeed you know her at
all.

Who do you think knows her better?

Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if
you have understanding.

Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the
line upon it?

To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone?

Sam Sloan

Sam thrashing again with the usual 'I assume...' without **facts** and
'There is no paper trail...' but that won't stop me, nosirreee. I will
fabricate, insinuate, and slander as much as I can and put forth
baseless Sam-fantasies regarding Susan Polgar for the express purpose
of destroying her reputation, the continuation of the political
hacking I am so famous for, and the propogation of half-truths nobody
can verify and are impossible to confirm.

But hey, it's what Sam does best. Yep, you're the guy I want on the
E.B. .... NOT.

Total Hack you are.

VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR!
VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR!
VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR!
VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR!
VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR!
VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR!
VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR!
VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR!

The members should consider the entire series of events. Polgar entered
into a five year agreement with the USCF to write a monthly Chess Secrets
column for Chess Life. The value of that contract over five years was
$30,000. The contract was agreed to by Frank Nero, Executive Director of
the USCF at that time. The date of the agreement was September 19, 2002.
In 2003 the Susan Polgar Foundation was created and Frank Niro was made a
Trustee of the Susan Polgar Foundation according to the SPF's 2003 IRS form
990EZ. One had does wash the other in chess politics.


wrote in message
oups.com...
On Apr 2, 4:01 pm, "samsloan" wrote:

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrisfalter Quote: Originally Posted by SamSloan To everyone's surprise, the Executive Director reported back a few days later that Polgar had agreed to this. I have never seen Polgar act with less than 100% integrity in her financial affairs, so I am not surprised at all.

I have known Miss Polgar for 22 years.

You have known her for what, three months? If indeed you know her at
all.

Who do you think knows her better?

Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if
you have understanding.

Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the
line upon it?

To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone?

Sam Sloan

Sam thrashing again with the usual 'I assume...' without **facts** and
'There is no paper trail...' but that won't stop me, nosirreee. I will
fabricate, insinuate, and slander as much as I can and put forth
baseless Sam-fantasies regarding Susan Polgar for the express purpose
of destroying her reputation, the continuation of the political
hacking I am so famous for, and the propogation of half-truths nobody
can verify and are impossible to confirm.

But hey, it's what Sam does best. Yep, you're the guy I want on the
E.B. .... NOT.

Total Hack you are.

VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR!
VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR!
VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR!
VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR!
VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR!
VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR!
VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR!
VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR! VOTE FOR POLGAR!

"samsloan" wrote in message
ups.com...

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrisfalter Quote: Originally Posted by SamSloan To everyone's surprise, the Executive Director reported back a few days later that Polgar had agreed to this. I have never seen Polgar act with less than 100% integrity in her financial affairs, so I am not surprised at all.

THE PROLOG

I have known Miss Polgar for 22 years.

Well, cough while that may be true, it seems she has known Sam Sloan
rather less over the same period. In a different sense I have known Michael
Adams since he was 4'12" tall, or for 40-some years. He probably wouldn't
know me from, er, Adam.

You have known her for what, three months? If indeed you know her at
all.

Who do you think knows her better?

THINKING REDUX

An interesting question. Perhaps an even better one is what amount of
'knowledge' has been digested and been converted to 'understanding'.

MEANWHILE... BACK AT THE FORUM

1) Don Schultz has made his own response on the Forum, which answer nothing,
and Bill Hall has said less [the new Openess in action!]

2) Board members bore members with 'we were not consulted' commentaries
about especially the Ex Dir, but fail to mention if they /needed/ to be
consulted, of if the Ex Dir acted outside of his contracting scope.

3) When the issue of Frank Niro's action arose, it seems that he did not act
outside his powers, and despite board 'concern' by Schultz and Marinello,
nothing actually changed in terms of his scope of contracting.

4) I keep seeing references to amounts of monies, expressed as $30,000, eg.
though understood these to be amounts /in kind/, and from my own analysis of
CL rates, represent the retail worth of space. The wholesale worth seems
more like $20,000.

ETHICS TOO!

5) Are board members or candidate members /required/ to state other position
held, for direct or indirect financial appreciation of any conflicting
interests?

Example 1: current board member Hough is a CJA official, and board
president Goichberg owns CCA. Does Mr. Hough's position inhibit fair
reporting on USCF by either favouring CJA with news, or depressing reporting
by others?

Example 2: does Mr. Goichberg's ownership of the largest tournament
entity in the USA complete with the second largest tournament entity, USCF?
He is president of both.

Example 3: what roles or relationships, if any, are held at Chesscafe,
who is the vendor for USCF's B&E business?

6) A Chessville question put to Mr. Hall, which he has declined to Answer,
addresses the responsibility he has compared with the responsibility of Mr.
Goichberg, or of their respective offices as Ex Dir and President. By not
answering the question, then whatever contracting role Mr. Hall conducts is
obscured, since it can't be known who else shares the decision making
process.

7) Laying problems of contracting at the door of the Ex Dir's office is
therefore a moot factor, since we do not know anything about his contracting
role which could range from Zero to Absolute.

8) Skating issues based on vendor-relations with USCF's miasmic organisation
is misleading! No politician at USCF has answered any of the above, which,
let's face it, is something they CAN do about fixing USCF procedures while
they are in office. It does not interest me to read what they /would/ do,
since all management is a negotiation of the art of the possible - and such
responses as from Don Schultz yesterday, that in 18 months he /would/ fix
President :: Ex Dir relationship, are replies not answers to what can be
done now.

NEW BOARD, NEW SHOES

9) The new board can continue on the same historical basis with ad hoc and
personality 'understandings' [a generous term] or they can convert the basis
of USCF's management to objective procedures and standards, which is to say,
they can adopt the right stance for any board of management, and not deploy
themselves by working IN the business, but can work ON the business. These
would indeed be new shoes to stand up in.

10) The candidate board member who most closely addresses these issues is
someone who often wrote here - Randy Bauer, who in his Chessville answers
identified these internal standards as the necessary and real foundation to
support a viable organisation, and indeed also noted that many current
practices were quite untenable to the extent that they are constant
liabilities. While I have personally not been in great accord with Mr. Bauer
over the years - I cannot fault him for taking on the least glamorous role
there is, but it terms of institutional praxis, perhaps the most important.

Phil Innes
Vermont


Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if
you have understanding.

Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the
line upon it?

To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone?

Sam Sloan

On Tue, 03 Apr 2007 11:20:55 GMT, "B. Lafferty"
wrote:

The members should consider the entire series of events. Polgar entered
into a five year agreement with the USCF to write a monthly Chess Secrets
column for Chess Life. The value of that contract over five years was
$30,000. The contract was agreed to by Frank Nero, Executive Director of
the USCF at that time. The date of the agreement was September 19, 2002.
In 2003 the Susan Polgar Foundation was created and Frank Niro was made a
Trustee of the Susan Polgar Foundation according to the SPF's 2003 IRS form
990EZ. One had does wash the other in chess politics.


Nero used to post to these forums. It's surprising he hasn't returned
to explain or clarify this and related issues. As I understand it,
he's still active in some aspects of educational chess.