Updates on the USCF problems

Ron Suarez on Sun Jan 20, 2008 1:41 pm

I am personally very happy for the opportunity to present something that favors Paul Truong and Susan Polgar in this whole issue. I am aware that Gregory, presently snowshoeing, says that I am against Paul and Susan no matter what. I am happy to prove Gregory wrong in this.Susan posted this on chessdiscussion.com in response to Bill's posting here. I must say that Susan's points do apparently have merit.

As to #1 my response is that there is evidence that Paul has denied the charges and as I read Susan's point on this, I must ask if the attorneys asked formally or explained to them exactly what and how they wanted?

On #2, if Susan and Paul did ask for Bill Goichberg to not be on the subcommittee due to possible conflict of interest, I see nothing wrong with that request. I also see no reason why Bill Goichberg's absence on the committee would lessen the quality of the proceedings.

Finally, Susan is asking for complete disclosure of all the facts. Wow, that is great. I do believe that all facts do need to be made public as Susan requested. This argument of Susan's does seem quite a good one to me.

I guess it is now time for the rest of the Executive Board to cough up the facts.I also must say here that these points Susan brings up in no way distracts or obfuscates the situation, in fact quite the opposite. Good job Susan.

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Ron,

Thanks for your input. Unfortunately, there is no winner in this case and the members stand to lose the most, again!

The bottom line is I hope this board will agree to open everything up (starting with the NDAs, correspondence, confidential BINFO and everything else relating to this matter, etc.) or get back on track to do what we were all elected to do. We have wasted enough time and money already.

In the mean time, we will continue to promote chess, organize events to benefit our game, support scholastic, college, military and correspondence chess as well as our professionals and talented juniors.

In the upcoming months, I will propose to have a thorough independent review of how this federation spends money. We need to know why we wasted money to revamp the website TWICE and how the contracts came about. Were there fair and open biddings? I would like to know who approved this and who we can hold accountable for the finances.

We cut the budget for college chess and we cannot afford to finance the US Championship or the Olympiad teams like we used to. We cannot even afford to help our top players like Kamsky for a shot at the World Championship. What happened to the money we were supposed to save? Where did it go? Why are we still financially weak?

Fiscal responsibility is a must if this federation wants to get back on track financially. We need to get back to the basics to find out the real problems and fix them immediately. Our members deserve better. Our members are entitled to know what the board is doing with their money and what direction is this federation heading to.

Best wishes,
Susan Polgar

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Ron Suarez on Mon Jan 21, 2008 10:59 pm

I have said this before and more than once, the USCF needs to make this issue go away so that we can get on with the business of chess and all its activities.

Looking at this whole thing from a distance, we see it is nothing more than people getting upset by someone anonymously posting negative and vulgar statements on the rgcp usenet, where vulgarities and anonymous postings abound.

Even if they prove that ANY one individual was this false poster, what real damages have occurred? The only damages have come from people reading this specific "forum". The Sam Sloan lawsuit appears to have no real life because there is no jurisdiction and because of other legalities. So, what is everyone getting all upset about?

I really like Susan's latest suggestion regarding the total opening of all "confidential" things so that the evidence will show what matters and what doesn't.

So, I guess there is and has been a lot of arguing and debate going on, while the chess wheels have either slowed extremely or even stopped in a lot of areas.

I am going to post these exact comments on both the USCF and ChessDiscussion.com Forums. It is time we get on with things.

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Ron,

Thanks again for your comment. I would like to point out some facts:

Paul and I did not stop doing what we were elected to do. We still promote chess on a daily basis since August 2007. We organized major chess events which brought a lot of attention to chess and the USCF. We visited Seattle, Roanoke, DC, Brownsville, Chicago, Aberdeen and Mexico City, etc. for the same purpose.

We had meetings with representatives from more than 90 schools and ran a number of free chess workshops to help teachers incorporate or bring chess into the schools. We offered to raise money to help Gata Kamsky and we are raising money to help our Olympiad teams this fall in Dresden, Germany. We sponsored prizes for various college chess, military chess and scholastic chess events.

All of our activities did not cost the USCF a penny. I know that Joel Channing contacted a lot of schools and organizations to partner up with the USCF to promote this federation. He also donated money to help our players. Jim Berry and his brother are involved in the US championships and other events in Oklahoma.

If the other board members would like to point out what they have done for chess and the USCF since August 2007, they are welcome to do so. Shouldn’t the members know what all board members and the ED are doing to benefit chess and this federation? And how much did this board majority and ED authorize to spend since that time? And how much more are they willing to go?

When we questioned how questionable contracts were awarded and how to improve the efficiency within the USCF in all facets, an "investigation" suddenly took place. I believed then and I still believe now that my colleagues have made many errors. These errors have caused many problems for the USCF and it will continue to cause problems for the USCF for many years to come unless they change their course of actions. Many chess organizations continue to thrive, why not the USCF?

Things took a turn for the worse once my fellow board members crossed the line and made inaccurate public statements. I had no choice but to ask for full transparency and corrected their misstatements. The last straw was when people want to use my children as pawns in this vicious political witch hunt. Is this what people are willing to do for political power?

As I said earlier, either end this nonsense and get back to what everyone was elected to do for the benefit of chess and the USCF or open everything up for the members to see. We proposed to show all USCF members any evidence we have of who leaked what to whom, who made what deals under the table and for what reasons, etc.

The members should know the severe conflict of interest in various decisions made by the board and they deserve to know how contractors can get their big contracts without fair and open biddings and how non-board members can obtain confidential information to spread out false rumors for political purposes. After all, it is their money and their federation.

Horrible decisions have cost the USCF year after year. Once everything is opened up, everyone can clearly see why the USCF has failed for so long. I have fought the system and won since I was 4 years old. I ran for the board to clean up the problems and I will continue to do so. The USCF cannot continue to survive if we continue to same path of failure. How can we expect different results when we keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again?

Best wishes,
Susan Polgar

Source: Chess Discussion Forum