2-24-17   ------ (the following message is a repost from 2-24-17) -----

NCCA All But Defunct With 15 Members?
So, What About the 60K they Have/Had In the Treasury?!
By NM Leland Fuerstman

(Note: Since this message was posted in February, the Sec/Treas has resigned and a new one appointed while the great excuse maker, Vice President Jeffrey "Pig" Jones, has also resigned. In addition, no administrative reports have been posted showing the balance of their treasury, much less, full accounting of their last Scholastic event. However, they have sold a few memberships to bring their current total to 17!?)

Over the past 10 or so years, I have periodically brought attention to the shabby condition of the North Carolina Chess Association. When I was President in 1984-5, it was a thriving organization with approximately 350 members! I enjoyed the luxury of the assistance of many volunteers who took care of one department or another. (successful managers have the skill to delegate authority). All of the officers were active and the requirements of the constitution were always followed to a tee. We sponsored an annual litany of events and all who participated were required to be members of the NCCA.

As the years went by, a previous officer and attorney from Weaverville, NC was appointed as the NCCA "Legal Adviser." But, as time went on, he went far beyond being just the legal adviser. Without anyone looking, he rewrote the constitution and referred to it as the Articles of Incorporation (probably because it was the only generic blank form available on the internet). His many changes included disenfranchising every member of his right to vote - except to elect officers?! (there is absolutely no evidence that those Articles of Incorporation have ever been ratified by the members). Then, when the so-called elections took place, a slate of inexperienced and unqualified cronies were quickly paraded in front of the members, (whose attendance generally made up less than a legal quorum), and were promptly elected by themselves. The result over the past 5 administrations has been utter incompetence and neglect. Major events which were required by the "Articles" were neglected over and over again; including the North Carolina Invitational Championship, which has been all but abandoned. One of their excuses for the decision not to stage what had been the most prestigious event of the year was that it was too expensive?? In fact, after years of a long series of NCCA events which had curiously been "farmed out" to the presiding officers (which allowed them to personally profit from the events, and the NCCA not, or very little), they abandoned all but the bare bones of the original list of events. Until a couple of years ago, when I recommended that since they have so many Certified Directors among their little tight knit group, they organize and "direct" the events once again for the NCCA's monetary benefit! My hope was that the profits would be used for the good of all North Carolina chess players; with the idea of recruiting many new ones!

Unfortunately, that is not the case. Over the past 4 years, because of a ridiculous executive order by an incompetent President requiring players to renew their memberships on January 1 of each year, the numbers have continued to dwindle to the embarrassing figure that you see now. According to the information which is now posted on the NCCA website, there are a total of 11 paid members whose memberships expire on December 31, 2017. In addition, there are 4 currently active Life Members listed!? That gives you a total of 15 current members of the NCCA. (If they actually did stage the Invitational now, the field would include three 1700 players!?) -- In contrast, the Charlotte Chess Club has 73 currently paid members. There are 2,017 members of the United States Chess Federation living in the state of North Carolina. Only 15 of those players being members of the NCCA is utterly absurd!

But, even more embarrassing is the fact that the memberships of the officers listed on their website to include President Kevin Hyde, VP Jeff Jones, VP Venkataraja Shanmugavadivel, Sec/Treas. Sara Walsh and Webmaster ChaCha Nugroho have all expired!? One would naturally assume that they would be the first to renew. They've had plenty of time to do so. (one chess pundit suggested that they haven't renewed because they don't think it's a good deal! LOL)

The following are two quoted paragraphs from CCC Message 613.
"So, who is responsible for their demise? Since they were "appointed," none of the NCCA officers has done much of anything save direct a couple of tournaments. Collectively, they have provided no agenda, no official reports, no individual statements of opinion, no programs to sell NCCA memberships, no programs to bring new members into chess, no programs to fund "special" players to participate in events around the country, no program to send directors to remote cities to create new venues around the state, a continually out of date website which only serves one main purpose; that of posting upcoming events (with absolutely no control nor oversight over conflicting dates). Otherwise, it fails, miserably. The real problem is, the current officers simply don't care... (Furthermore, it is also my understanding that they all want to quit!? Quit what? They're not doing anything...)"

---
"But, hold the phone, wasn't this past State Championship supposed to have a meeting to elect new officers?? Why wasn't that posted on their website? Well, did the meeting actually take place? Were all of the officers present? How many people were in the meeting? What important business was discussed? Who ran for election? What were the results? Where are the official minutes of that meeting? And, what about the President's report, VP report, V.P. of Scholastic's report and Sec/Treas. report? Furthermore, what is the balance of the NCCA treasury? Considering that the NCCA claims to be a 501C3 Non-Profit Organization, it would be natural to already have that information available and published for all to see." But, these folks published nothing."

Unfortunately, that information does not appear anywhere on their website. Not even the treasurer's report for 2016? However, of far more concern is the estimation that after last year's scholastic event, they had over $60,000 in their treasury!? There has been absolutely NO mention of that money. From my experience, it is virtually impossible to extract accurate information out of any officer of the NCCA. A few chess pundits around the state are curious as to how much of that money still remains? I am, too. Again, all of that information should be displayed in their annual report; which has either never been published, or doesn't even exist. How pitiful...

I remain,
NM Leland Fuerstman
www.charlottechess.com