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| Judge to USCF EB: 'Sit Down and Work This Out' |
| For the 2007 USCF Executive Board (EB) Election, I had a voice but no vote. In the About.com weekly article 2007 USCF EB Election, I supported Susan Polgar and Paul Truong in their quest for EB seats, but the USCF did not allow members residing overseas to vote in the election. For the 2009 USCF EB Election, I have a vote but no voice, unless you consider this little blog to be a voice. The USCF changed its rules on overseas members and I received the official ballot at the end of last week, a day before receiving the June 2006 issue of Chess Life, containing the candidates' final statements. How to vote? The USCF is at a crossroads and may not survive long enough to hold the 2011 EB Election. If you haven't been keeping up with the issues, follow my chain of posts starting with the most recent (see More on the USCF Election) or read independent analysis of the situation from 'The Oldest Newspaper in Illinois': Chess battles rage in court, not on boards. The issues at stake are not limited to a theoretical dispute between chess organizers who dislike each other. They are already touching people who work full time for chess -- USCF Sued by Board Member; Personnel Budget Cut 20% [USchess.org; June 3, 2009; many comments] -- and if allowed to continue unchecked, will touch everyone who is a member of the USCF. *** On 13 April, some pertinent observations were made by Judge Marilyn H. Patel in the California case [the USCF lawsuit on email hacking]. I'm sure there are a lot of members out there who are concerned about what's going on, how their money is being spent; and, you know, their ability to compete, for example, worldwide may be affected. All kinds of things can be affected by this behavior that's going on. So first of all I will tell you what I'm going to do on the motion. But before I do that I think I may talk to the judge in Texas [Polgar's lawsuit], and I will -- I don't know if we need to talk to the one in Illinois [the USCF lawsuit to remove Polgar & Truong from the EB] or not -- and everybody agree to send this matter to mediation or some kind of arbitration. Later:- THE COURT: [The litigation] does have the overtones of [a food fight], but there's a lot of emotion involved. Well, I tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to refer it to Mr. Bolling [a mediator], and I'm going to talk to the judge in Texas and talk to the judge in Illinois, too. Later:- THE COURT: You can sit down in any room together, not on the phone -- in person, face-to-face and work this out; okay? It's amazing how much you can work out when you do that. I know he's the enemy, but -- To be continued...  |
Mon, 08 Jun 2009 13:08:00 +0000 |
| Bill Goichberg's USCF Executive Board Election E-mail |
This morning I received the following e-mail (all links removed):URGENT! USCF EXECUTIVE BOARD ELECTION While there are a number of offensive notions present in this political Spam - two things really tweaked my melon. 1) What are candidate statements in Chess Life magazine for if by a whim Bill can type an e-mail and send it to the entire continental chess list (assuming that he didn't use the USCF e-mail or Life Member list ... that would be unethical). I don't remember giving Bill permission to send me political e-mails. Tournament announcements and important USCF member news, yes - political trash from ANY CANDIDATE (EVEN ONE I SUPPORT) ... nope. The editor of Chess Life will be hearing from me on this one. 2) Bill all but mentions Susan Polgar by name. Even if I agreed with Bill's view of the suit it shows poor judgment on his part to add a negative spin to the campaign. The question isn't "who should I vote for?" ... after reading this the simple minded reader could be confused and read the question as "do I want to be sued?" Nobody wants to be sued (or at least no sane person welcomes the notion). The truth is that Susan cannot maintain a suit against individuals when those individuals acted in their official capacities ... no judge on the planet would alloy it. Quite frankly, the notion that I'm held responsible for the actions of the executive board (positive or negative) makes me ill. Perhaps I should run for an executive board seat in the future ... at least then I would be responsible for MY OWN ACTIONS. |
| More on the USCF Election |
| Continuing with Update on the USCF Election, the May 2009 issue of Chess Life contained the second batch of USCF Executive Board Candidate Statements. In addition to the sites for the three candidates I linked in the previous post, the statements point to sites for two more candidates. Goichberg's site has a link titled 'ILLINOIS ACTION: WHY POLGAR & TRUONG SHOULD BE REMOVED FROM THE BOARD' that leads to a USCF PDF plus another link titled 'EXHBITS RELATING TO ILLINOIS ACTION' (which doesn't work properly, because of an incorrect file name). These PDFs contain photocopies of the original complaint (plus supporting documents) against Polgar and Truong. Legal beagles interested in those documents might also be interested in Goichberg's link to 'OTHER LAWSUITS INVOLVING USCF', where each case is documented with further relevant legal material.  |
Thu, 07 May 2009 15:27:00 +0000 |
| Update on the USCF Election |
In my first post on the 2009 USCF Executive Board election (see Odd Year Means USCF Election, I listed the lawsuits facing the U.S. federation, along with reports from New York Times' chess columnist Dylan Loeb McClain. The Executive Director of the USCF, Bill Hall, recently provided an update on the suits.
McClain also reported on partial closure of two lawsuits.
In my second post on the election (see USCF Election Means Odd Year), I gave some background on the election and listed the 11 candidates who filed to run. The USCF published the first round of Executive Board Candidate Statements (uschess.org) in the April 2009 issue of Chess Life. The online statements are available only to USCF members and, although I haven't been able to find a public copy, links to sites for three candidates are open to the public.
While no one is talking openly about slates, it appears that the Polgar/Truong faction of the Executive Board favors four candidates over the others.
Anonymous comments, often petty, mean, and insulting, appear frequently in Susan Polgar's blog. • To be continued...  |
Sat, 04 Apr 2009 15:35:00 +0000 |
| USCF Chooses Lawsuits Over Delegates |
| Who needs those pesky USCF Delegates anyway? Since they voted Susan Polgar’s way instead of the way the anti-P’s crowd’s way*; the anti’s have now decided to dispense with the whole Board of Delegates voting altogether. They used their control of the USCF to have it file suit today to have an Illinois judge throw Susan Polgar and Paul Truong out of USCF office and bar them from further running for USCF election again. - Yet another lawsuit! How many are there? A half dozen? I’ve lost count. As for pesky things like elections – ugh! Who needs them, whey the powers in control can just use it to hire lawyers and file lawsuits? Now we see the reason why the anti’s haven’t been sweating effort analyzing the tactics of new recall efforts and Board of Delegates Meetings. They’ve decided to bypass the USCF’s Delegates altogether. Not to mention democracy. * See the previous post regarding the decisive Polgar vote at the USCF’s August Delegates’ Meeting. |
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