Illinois Chess Association politics.
I wonder why the true officers of the ica are not listed on its website?
the president is Larry Cohen, but someone else is listed as president.
kevin balcher was the president last year, and is still the webmaster of the
site. doesn't he have the balls to tell who the real officers are? the
metro vice president is howard fried, but he has never been listed. what is
happening here?
this should have been taken care of in january and here it is october.

Welcome to the party. There are no true officers of the ICA. There is an
occasionally-mailed magazine, and we proudly charge our members the highest
dues of any state organization.

In my experience, the ICA is one of those assocations filled with genuinely
decent, idealistic people who are finally incapable of tying their shoes,
much less running a chess organization in a major state. Join our merry
crew, send in your bloated dues and application on the address listed on the
website and you'll get....nothing....in the mail. Eventually a dated
magazine may find its way to you, a lumpen-like thingy detailing the OTB
successes of Chicago metro chess stalwarts like Al Chow, or maybe some
crosstables from the latest Tuley Park quickfest.

Pleased to have something for your check, you'll think things are rolling
now. But then months will pass, and you'll wonder why you joined. Oh yeah,
because you have to join to play in most of our Opens. But they are a
privilege, truly riotous affairs packed with the best of Illinois' chess
talent. Come to one of the Just-Bachler-Clark shivarees sometime and you'll
wonder why you ever considered taking up ice-fishing. Just be sure your ICA
membership is CURRENT, bub...cash station is down the hall if you need it.

TMB

"Eventually a dated magazine may find its way to you, a lumpen-like thingy
detailing the OTB successes of Chicago metro chess stalwarts like Al Chow, or
maybe some crosstables from the latest Tuley Park quickfest. (tmb)
===============
You mean to say the Illinois State Chess Eyecandy is not timely? What do the
players do when they don't get their Eyecandy?

RSHaas

In article , pete
johnson says...

Illinois Chess Association politics.
I wonder why the true officers of the ica are not listed on its website?
the president is Larry Cohen, but someone else is listed as president.
kevin balcher was the president last year, and is still the webmaster of the
site. doesn't he have the balls to tell who the real officers are? the
metro vice president is howard fried, but he has never been listed. what is
happening here?
this should have been taken care of in january and here it is october.

For one thing, they haven't provided me all of the information, although it was
requested several times.

For a second, I notified them several months ago that I didn't have time to be
webmaster anymore but would be willing to continue to post tournament
information until they found someone else.

If you are not happy with that situation, would you prefer that I quit
volunteering to post tournament info now?

Kevin L. Bachler

In article , The Masked
Bishop says...

Welcome to the party. There are no true officers of the ICA. There is an
occasionally-mailed magazine, and we proudly charge our members the highest
dues of any state organization.

In my experience, the ICA is one of those assocations filled with genuinely
decent, idealistic people who are finally incapable of tying their shoes,
much less running a chess organization in a major state. Join our merry
crew, send in your bloated dues and application on the address listed on the
website and you'll get....nothing....in the mail. Eventually a dated
magazine may find its way to you, a lumpen-like thingy detailing the OTB
successes of Chicago metro chess stalwarts like Al Chow, or maybe some
crosstables from the latest Tuley Park quickfest.

Pleased to have something for your check, you'll think things are rolling
now. But then months will pass, and you'll wonder why you joined. Oh yeah,
because you have to join to play in most of our Opens. But they are a
privilege, truly riotous affairs packed with the best of Illinois' chess
talent. Come to one of the Just-Bachler-Clark shivarees sometime and you'll
wonder why you ever considered taking up ice-fishing. Just be sure your ICA
membership is CURRENT, bub...cash station is down the hall if you need it.

TMB

I ran two opens over the summer that didn't require ICA membership. They were
the two worst attended tournaments I have ever run.

Kevin L. Bachler

I ran two opens over the summer that didn't require ICA membership. They
were
the two worst attended tournaments I have ever run.

Thus we can infer that charging extra brings in more attendees? Or that the
magic phrase "an ICA event" brings em in from out of the rain?

Point?

This is one reason I'm glad to see organizations like the Chess in Chicago
Foundation. More big cities need to create their own organizations, as the
state organizations are very poor in reporting for the whole state. Also,
ICA is known to be a "downstate and suburban" organization, so they wouldn't
bother with Chicago unless that meant money for them. The Chicago schools
have over 800 USCF members. You would think ICA would want to benefit from
that, but of course, there is that underlying fear of getting involved with
"urban" areas that keeps chess from being progressive, and that's too bad.

"pete johnson" wrote in message
news
Illinois Chess Association politics.
I wonder why the true officers of the ica are not listed on its website?
the president is Larry Cohen, but someone else is listed as president.
kevin balcher was the president last year, and is still the webmaster of
the
site. doesn't he have the balls to tell who the real officers are? the
metro vice president is howard fried, but he has never been listed. what
is
happening here?
this should have been taken care of in january and here it is october.

In article , The Masked
Bishop says...

I ran two opens over the summer that didn't require ICA membership. They
were
the two worst attended tournaments I have ever run.

Thus we can infer that charging extra brings in more attendees? Or that the
magic phrase "an ICA event" brings em in from out of the rain?

Point?

The fact that it is an ICA event does seem to bring more. One is that Tour
events get ad space in the ICB. Apparently, more people play if it is on the
tour also.

Kevin L. Bachler

"Also, ICA is known to be a "downstate and suburban" organization, so they
wouldn't bother with Chicago unless that meant money for them." (abe)
==============
Gadzooks!! You're saying the Illinois state chess association doesn't
really cover the territory it claims as its domain. And you're saying cities
ought to have orgs.
MensaMan is taking notes.

RSHaas

In article , walter says...

This is one reason I'm glad to see organizations like the Chess in Chicago
Foundation. More big cities need to create their own organizations, as the
state organizations are very poor in reporting for the whole state. Also,
ICA is known to be a "downstate and suburban" organization, so they wouldn't
bother with Chicago unless that meant money for them. The Chicago schools
have over 800 USCF members. You would think ICA would want to benefit from
that, but of course, there is that underlying fear of getting involved with
"urban" areas that keeps chess from being progressive, and that's too bad.


Wow, I'm sure that people downstate don't think of ICA as a downstate and
suburban organization. In fact, I've never heard it called that. Until
recently, with the demise of the cities two major chess clubs, ICA was seen very
much as a metro organization.

If there is any club or organizer in the city that feels they would want more
attention, all they need to do is provide the information, like the other
organizations do. ICA doesn't have enough staff or volunteers to hunt for a lot
of info. It's provided. And they make that request.

Kevin L. Bachler