| 9-13-12 Is the NCCA Now a Dictatorship? Proper Procedure Completely Ignored... By NM Leland Fuerstman As usual, an extremely important concern which I have reported to the North Carolina chess community has fallen on the deaf ears of a whole bunch of incredibly passive people?! The recent annual meeting of the NCCA was a sham?! Though new NCCA President Rudy Abate reported that "there were 40+ people at the meeting," two other witnesses have indicated that there were "no more than 20 total!?" There seems to be a bit of a discrepancy between the two figures. (Yeah, like 50%?!) Again, according to their own Articles of Incorporation, they did NOT have a quorum and a new meeting must be scheduled. Since the "good old boys" were so concerned that some intruder would attempt to seize the throne, both their "Legal Counsel" and Mr. Abate were observed gathering proxies prior to the meeting. And, during the meeting, when someone inquired as to how many proxies they had, W.W. said, "approximately 40." But, paradoxically, after all of their hard work corralling members and coercing them to comply, they forgot to use them. (LOL) Two years ago, before the last election, a well known member inquired as to the procedure for using a "proxy." According to past Secretary Treasurer Gerbin Hoekstra, signatures collected for proxies "must be officially notarized!" Question: Were the proxies collected by W.W. and Abate notarized? Did the Secretary/Treasurer verify each of those names and signatures in order to certify that they were "currently paid" members of the NCCA? The fact is, never were those proxies presented to the new Secretary/Treasurer for verification nor were they used to vote on the two issues which were brought to the floor. Since there seemed to be so little opposition to their agenda, they simply "forgot" or neglected to introduce them? Since the outgoing Sec/Treas. was not present at the meeting, the person conducting that meeting, past President Gary Newsom, should naturally have enlisted the assistance of the incoming Secretary Treasurer to perform the normal duties as required. That would include making sure that they had a quorum, tally the vote, record the minutes, etc. Considering the fact that there were so few members present, it would have been a simple task to write down the names of everyone! A quick scan of the official NCCA Roster would allow them to sell a bunch of memberships real fast to make sure that everyone was legal!? Then, there would be no question about how many attended. They were simply not creative enough to think of that. The NCCA is a non-profit "corporation." And, as such, their annual meeting should be conducted according to standard "parliamentary procedure" using Robert's Rules of Order as a guide (you can download it for free). Over the years, it seems as though one administration after another has allowed the structure of a properly conducted meeting to degenerate into something far less formal? When the officers were elected, they should have immediately taken over their positions. The outgoing president ceremoniously hands over the gavel to the incoming guy and everyone claps! But, instead, the incoming president and other officers rarely spoke and barely participated in the meeting at all? Here I must take issue with incoming President Abate's greeting. His generic response seems to have raised a few brows. He states, "I would like to thank the outgoing board members for doing such a great job!?" Oh really?! Are you referring to past Vice-President of Scholastics Joe Swann who was so heavily touted by Newsom but for 2 entire years "never lifted a finger to do one thing?" Or, are you talking about absent Secretary/Treasurer Gerbin Hoekstra who has lingered for the past 10 years and only made improvements to the roster after NM LF complained? He goes on to "thank ALL of the NCCA members for electing me!" (What, all 12 of them out of 170+ members?! And, if you subtract Newsom, High, WW and the 4 candidates, that leaves 5? How pitiful... It is my understanding there were 2 separate motions presented during the meeting. The first was to elect the officers (no one is really sure of how many votes each received since, to my knowledge, a precise count was not taken and no minutes have been published?) and the second was to "double" the dues to $10!? Even though there were dissenting comments from past Sec/Treas Ken Baxter and obvious votes against the motion, Abate states that "this motion was supported by a unanimous vote??! Does he really not understand the meaning of the word "unanimous?!" Then why would he publish such a statement? Absolutely none of this was discussed, what-so-ever, on the NCCA website "Forum" page ahead of time. Isn't that what's it's for? To simply show up at the meeting and make a motion to double the dues seems more like a "constitutional" question which probably should have gone to "committee" and been investigated. But, in the absence of a "parliamentarian," they chose to proceed with the vote, anyway. And, then, after 8 days of nothing about the meeting appearing on their website, President Abate introduced himself by announcing that ...everyone must now pay NCCA dues in January??? What? Why? (O.K. maybe they do it that way in the American Kennel Club but chess players compete during every month of the year...) Exactly, what is the purpose of such a change? We've only done it this way for 70 years! Furthermore, organizers will be required to give $.50 discounts?? Isn't that sort of like a tax?!? (Honey, would you please stop by the bank and get me a few rolls of quarters?!... just what a Director needs... an entire playing hall full of guys jingling at least 2 quarters in their pockets??! How thoughtless... and how ridiculous?) Furthermore, one can barely understand the convoluted plan to discount $2 and give away a $200 Life Membership? That sorta seems like a wash?! Again, why wasn't all of this business discussed at the meeting? The president simply has no right to mandate important changes and impose a tax on organizers without any discussion at all?! That's what "dictators" do... If he actually did have a good idea, (which none of these are), he would first: 1. write it on paper or actually compose an E-mail and circulate it to the Executive Officers as well as all of the members. The issues should be thoroughly discussed first on their "website forum." Allow members plenty of time to voice their opinion. --- A few members have complained that, like me, they have been "blocked" from participating in the "NCCA Forum" because of their divergent opinions?! (and while I'm on the subject, the use of E-mail allows individuals or businesses to maintain an accurate record for future verification. The recollection of phone conversations have no validity... in this day and age, who doesn't use E-mail?) 2. form a "committee" to research the issues and make recommendations as to the validity of such changes 3. After those recommendations are received from the committee, poll the Executive Officers to determine their positions 4. Take an executive vote 5. Announce the results publicly and allow the "members" to ratify the new policy or changes at a meeting. Since there is no system in place to simply allow members to vote on-line using their E-mail address as verification, they must wait until the annual meeting to vote before any new policies can be implemented. You see, the "members" should decide solely upon the changes; the "President" is required to enforce them. The idea that Abate can just walk in and, days later, make changes, willy-nilly, indicates that he has had little, if no, experience as an administrator of a non-profit organization? In the future, it may be a good idea for him to ask the advice of other more experienced members before making ridiculous knee-jerk decisions!? And, finally, Abate states, "I hope ... we can build on the foundation that our past leaders left us." Are you speaking of their policy of non-accountability with no financial statements for any of their major events ever published, or maybe you are referring to the scholastic championship which has been farmed out to a profiteer who will charge $69 to kids and make untold thousands, or possibly the policy of allowing North Carolina organizers to only give back 55% of the money collected from entries? Other than the mega-tournaments promoted by Newsom's chess company, most of their "organization" was done off-the-cuff and planned for at the very last moment without any discussion by the members. Furthermore, save for the "forum," the NCCA website is normally out of date, poorly maintained and needs significant upgrading. (See Message 480a) There has been no audit of the NCCA in over 25 years? The past few administrations have flatly refused to allow me or any other member to observe the books and ask questions about expenditures. (Some are curious as to why Newsom was reimbursed $704.11 for personal expenses from the NC Open?) It is high time that the impenetrable veil of secrecy shrouding the NCCA be removed. A long time member of the North Carolina chess community said the other day, "the NCCA has, for many years, been a private cabal controlled exclusively by W.W." By the way, the current Articles of Incorporation authored by W.W., with it's special provisions to allow "proxies" for elections, has never actually been "ratified" by the members? So, maybe, now is the time to write a real "constitution" and start all over! Every word that I have written is for the good of the North Carolina Chess community. NM Leland Fuerstman, Pres. Charlotte Chess Club |