September 29, 2019

2^nd CSCA Board Meeting

We held our meeting in the Castle Rock Food Court.

After “roll call” we established there was a quorum.

At 12:00 noon the meeting was called to order.

Attendance:

Paul Covington (President), Kevin McConnell (Vice President), Dean Brown (Treasurer), Ann Davies (Secretary), Griffin McConnell (Junior Rep.), Lior Lapid (Member at Large/Scholastic Director), Gracie Salazar (Member at Large)

Guests: Shirley Herman arrived shortly after beginning of meeting.

Board approved the following motions (at various times during the meeting):

• Acceptance of 1^st meeting’s minutes.
• Agreed to post US Chess document, Safe Play Guidelines, at our tournaments and have the members vote on implementing for CSCA.
• Authorized Kevin McConnell to collect CSCA dues and deposit them at US Bank.
• Eliminating length of tournament memberships except for Scholastic events (this will greatly simplify bookkeeping).
• Authorized researching Credit Card acceptance at tournaments.
• Authorized ordering scoresheets and membership forms as needed.
• Pledged $2,500 for bringing five Titled Players to DO2020.
• Dean and Ann will determine if refunds are due for any who should have only paid the family membership rate.
• Authorized $540.00 to start the Colorado Women’s Chess and Wine Club.
• Established the selection criteria for the Colorado Closed invitational championships. 

Finances:

Dean Brown gave a full accounting of all the finances. He plans to produce an actual CSCA budget once the contracts for tournament sites are signed. All CSCA accounts are consolidated at US Bank.  Three accounts: Primary/Main (the general account) $12,273.36; Invitational (set-a-side for invitational events-primarily overseas) $978.19; and the Scholastic (reserved for Scholastic events and expenses) $20,468.41.

STRIPE – There are no standard operating procedures regarding STRIPE. He noted two additions to the account for $14.28 (two $15 memberships). He does not know how STRIPE memberships get inputted.

Routine Expenses are non-tournament related $648 (stamps, secretary of state payment, US Chess affiliation, insurance, Chess Journalists of America entry fees, domain name). He will budget $750 to cover these routine yearly expenses.

Line Item Budget Expenses will vary year by year and administration by administration. These are primarily site costs. Currently, we only have three tournaments that have site costs associated with them unless we have a tournament in another part of the state. (Colorado Open, Class 2019, Senior/Under 50).

There are five checks still outstanding which have not been cashed. Sheridan check for blitz night has not been cashed.

Outstanding debt – The only outstanding debt is the second half of Loveland for 2019 Class and 2020 Senior/Under 50.

Standard Operating Procedures:

Paul wants to develop a book for Standard Operating Procedures so future boards will have guidelines of things that need to be done. These include:

Operating Expenses: insurance, affiliate fees, domain name fees, State of Colorado fees, and variable expenses (printing costs for membership forms, renaissance festival flyers, awards, bank fees, check fees, credit card/STRIPE fees).

Tournament Expenses: TD fees, stipends for travel, meals, reasonable expenses for those working tournaments, TLAs, paper for printing standings and prize fund listings, site costs, rating fees, STRIPES usage fees, score sheets and others I may have missed.

Tournaments: Scheduling and contracts in progress. Follow up and details in next meeting minutes. Hotel prices have increased and will affect future entry fees.

CSCA—DCC Committee report:

Kevin and Ann met with DCC representatives to discuss whether or not the CSCA would have a part in the Denver Open 2020. After discussion, the CSCA decided to support the Denver Open. We pledged $2,500.00 to support bringing titled players (5 x $500) to the DO2020.  Board members will raise funds to support this effort.

(Added note: Shirley Herman has conducted a fund raiser to support this effort: $1,020 to date has been pledged. Thank you Shirley!). 

Ann is volunteer teaching an All Girls program at two Title 1 schools. Griffin is also volunteer teaching at a school which only works children with autism, dyslexia and ADHD. We hope to raise funds to support these schools next semester.

Colorado Women’s Chess and Wine Club:

is an effort to bring women into chess through chess classes with a social flavor. We did allocate funds to support this effort. (Attendees will purchase their own wine.)

DGT equipment: Lior will expand this research and report his finding.

Colorado Closed Championships:

Set the selection criteria as:

• Top six rated players that apply to play
• US Chess registration must be listed as CO(Colorado)
• February Rating Supplement will be used for player’s ratings.

This applies to the Colorado Championship and the Colorado Scholastic Championship.

The entry fees will be $40.00. First place prize is $150. Second place prize is $90.

Other initiatives:

We are looking into forming Scholastic leagues throughout Colorado schools, restarting the school chess teams’ championship program, and developing a way to serve the underserved areas in Colorado.

Meeting was adjourned at 3:00 PM.

REVIEW OF MINUTES OF MEMBERSHIP MEETING (at COLORADO OPEN)

Paul Covington took the following notes on the Membership Meeting.

President's Report: Buck Buchanan summarized the past CSCA Board year as very good.   

• Colorado Open had 118 players
• Colorado Blitz 26 players
• Denver Open - The DCC and CSCA partnered and the event was a great success
• Colorado Closed could only fill three sections.
• Colorado Class was cancelled due to poor attendance and escalating hotel costs.
• Blitz and Quick events had low attendance
• The City of Manitou awarded CSCA their top nonprofit award.
• Chess Journalists of America(CJA) awarded Fred Spell the winner of the Best State online Magazine. CJA selected Todd Bardwick as honorable mention for his Best Historical article on Bobby Fischer's Visits to Colorado.

Vice President's Report: Kevin McConnell summarized Denver Open as a success.

• Scholastic Girls event had 47 paid players and plans to expand that event.  He suggested better prize fund for lower sections.
• CJA awarded John Watson best tournament article for his Denver Open 2019 report.

Treasurer's Report: Dean Brown reported that a year to date comparison of CSCA account shows a $800 gain. He also reported that all event winners were either paid at the event or by mail. (check mailed next day)

Paul Covington asked that we honor our Colorado Invitational representatives:

• Denker: Akshat Jain
• Barber: Sullivan McConnell
• All Girls: Sara Herman
• Senior: Alaa -Addin Moussa
• Paul and Alaa-Addin represented Colorado in the US Chess membership meeting in Orlando.

Scholastic Report: Todd Bardwick stated there were approximately 275 players at the Scholastic Championship held at the Arapaho Fair Grounds. The site was very good and cost $4,000

Members' Input:

• DuWayne Langseth expressed displeasure at the Boulder Open tournament's slow payment of prize money to Rhett.  JC MacNeil responded that this was not the right place to raise this issue.    Paul investigated and found the check was mailed the day after tournament to the address associated with the credit card that paid for the online entry fee. That check was never cashed. After the correct address was obtained, a new check was issued.
• Earle Wikle asked the board to establish standardized times for championship events, suggested round 1 be G90 with d10 and all other rounds G90 +30 increment.
• Gunnar Andersen suggested two day and three day schedules for Colorado Open.
• Buck reviewed history of past CO. Open Labor Day (Sat. Sun. Mon.) events and noted very poor attendance.
• Rob Cernich encouraged CSCA to promote chess better.
• Brian Wall asked for later start time 10 am (at this meeting Brian stated 9 am was alright).
• JC MacNeil asked for paper voting ballots and advance notice of people running for office.
• Kevin McConnell asked for better CSCA promotions, more scholastic all girls events and women only events.
• Alex Freeman wanted to know the benefits of a CSCA membership? Paul Covington explained advantages of being part of an organization to underwrite events and hopefully bring a US Open to Denver.
• CSCA members also requested some kind of survey be done in order to ascertain Member's opinions. (added by Ann)

Election:

• Buck announced appointment of Todd Bardwick as the 2018-2019 Board selected member at large.
• President:  Paul Covington and Buck Buchanan were nominated, Buck yielded to Paul, elected by acclamation.
• Vice President: Kevin McConnell won by voice acclamation.
• Secretary: Ann Davies won by voice acclamation.
• Treasurer: Dean Brown won by voice acclamation.
• Member at Large: Lior Lapid, Brad Lundstrom and Earle Wikle were nominated. Brad deferred to Earle but Lior received more votes and is the new Member at Large.
• Scholastic Representative: Griffin and Sullivan McConnell were nominated. Sullivan deferred to Griffin, elected by voice acclamation.
• Colorado Delegates: Primaries: Buck Buchanan, and Paul Covington; Alternates: Alaa-Addin Moussa and Earle Wikle.

Meeting adjourned at 3:40 pm.

The membership minutes were accepted as corrected unanimously by the current board.

President’s Plate

I am proud to be selected as President of the CSCA. It is both a great honor and very humbling; I am excited to serve our members. I am also very proud of the new board. Everyone came to the first board meeting ready to work and we hit the ground running. Our first meeting was three hours and with all the ideas flowing, the time just flew. This is going to be an exciting year for chess in Colorado.

Board Meeting Minutes

September 7, 2019

Meeting was called to order at 3:05 PM

Board: Paul Covington, Kevin McConnell, Dean Brown, Ann Davies, Lior Lapid and Griffin McConnell.  Members: JC MacNeil, and Brian Wall. Guests: Gracie Salazar and Meint Olthof.

We had a quorum so the meeting was called to order.

We reviewed the minutes from the Annual Membership Meeting, made some corrections and accepted the minutes as corrected.

We then did training regarding the duties of a 501 (c) 3 board, affiliate responsibilities to US Chess, and obligations to Colorado non-profit law.

Paul read Todd Bardwick’s resignation from the board and scholastic director positions due to his increased responsibilities as his Mom has been put into hospice care. We are thankful for his contributions and leadership Todd has provided the CSCA Scholastic program and sharing his historic perspective of the CSCA. The Board voted to present Todd with a plaque thanking him for his service to the CSCA.

Dean Brown presented the account balances : Main -- $12,139,69, Secondary -- $978.19 and the Scholastic -- $20,623.55. These accounts will be stored in the same bank with separate checking accounts all under the leadership of the Treasurer. Other names will be added to the accounts as needed.

Other actions taken:

• DGT boards purchase: awaiting follow up vote after consulting technical advice.
• Exploring options to supply chess sets and boards for Title 1 school chess program for all girls chess club. Lior to furnish sets until permanent solution is found.
• Exploring funding for Women’s Chess and Wine club. Awaiting more information. Gracie Salazar agreed to organize this activity.
• Kevin to resubmit Grant for women’s and All Girls chess activities.
• Board voted to hold the Class Championship 2019 in Loveland at the Ranch. Scheduled for Oct 26/27.
• Board appointed Kevin, Ann, and Lior to represent CSCA in meetings with Denver Chess Club regarding how to help with the Denver Open 2020. Work in progress.
• Paul introduced using the 501 (c) 3 status for fundraising. Suggested this method as a way to support future chess events. Other fund raising ideas have come forward since the meeting.
• Board appointed Gracie Salazar to fill the Member at Large position.
• Board approved the Hall of Fame program. Randy Canney appointed as committee chairman.
• Board appointed Dean Clow as webmaster.
• Board appointed Fred Spell as Colorado Chess Informant editor.
• Board appointed Todd Bardwick as CSCA Historian.
• Board appointed Lior Lapid as Scholastic Director.
• All these appointments and board members include one year of free CSCA membership to honor their service.
• Tournament dates were scheduled and will be announced shortly. Some sites are not firm yet.

Meeting adjourned at 6:00 PM.

The CSCA Board had a special meeting on the evening of Monday, December 17.  Present were Richard Buchanan, Kevin McConnell, James LaMorgese, Dean Brown, and Todd Bardwick.

We had a discussion of financial matters and the difficulties of using on-line registrations and accounting for the money.  Also there are many players who apparently joined CSCA at the Colorado Open but whose names we do not have.  Anyone who thinks this might apply to them should contact James LaMorgese.

The main item for the meeting was a project that Kevin McConnell is working on.  In it the Denver Open would also hold a girls scholastic championships tournament, and the top section of the Open would include a number of titled masters.  Some of these would receive financial incentives to participate and publicize the tournament among their colleagues.  The Board approved looking into the matter further in co-operation with the Denver Chess Club.  More on this will be coming out as it develops.

The CSCA Board met at Todd Bardwick's house at 6:00, Nov. 25.

Present: Richard Buchanan, Kevin McConnell, Dean Brown, Akshat Jain, Todd Bardwick

Absent: James LaMorgese, Jeff Cohen

Dear CSCA Members, An amendment to the CSCA By-Laws was posted on the CSCA website on July 29, 2018.

CSCA Pres. Earle P Wikle, will motion to withdraw proposed By-laws amendment.

Article IX: Amendments

These By-Laws may be amended by a two-thirds vote of the members voting at any meeting of the membership, provided that advanced notice of at least 15 days, including the exact wording of the amendment, has been sent to each member or posted on the CSCA Website.

Below is the proposed amendment to be voted on at the CSCA Membership meeting.

Article III: Membership

Current 4. Code of Conduct - Given the educational purpose of the Association, it is essential that a civil and sportsmanlike atmosphere exist at all events. Chess players and observers will treat each other, tournament directors, and event organizers with the utmost respect and will not engage in any form of un-sportsmanlike or uncivil conduct to include any form of behavior disruptive to the chess playing environment. Violation of this code is good cause for suspension or expulsion.

Proposed Change 4. Code of Conduct - Given the educational purpose of the Association, it is essential that a civil and sportsmanlike atmosphere exist at all events, and on any social media for the CSCA. Chess players and observers will treat each other, tournament directors, and event organizers with the utmost respect and will not engage in any form of un-sportsmanlike or uncivil conduct to include any form of behavior disruptive to the chess playing environment. Violation of this code is good cause for suspension or expulsion.

Thank you,

CSCA Board

First electronic board meeting for the CSCA.

Attendance:

Present: Dean Clow P, Earle Wilke VP, Jeff Cohen T, Paul Covington S, Todd Bardwick MAL, JC NacNeil MAL, Jesse Williams JR, Bill Williams, Teah Williams, Cela Williams, and Shirley Herman

Meeting called on order about 7:20 PM by Dean.

Attendees:

Board: Present: Dean Clow, Earle Wilke, Paul Covington, JC MacNeil, Todd Bardwick and Jesse Williams. Absent: Jeff Cohen (on vacation). Members: Shirley Herman and Brian Wall Guests: Jodie Williams

Meeting called to order at 7:10. Todd hosted the meeting in his home.

Agenda:

Rocky Mountain Team Chess Challenge (NM vs CO match): Discussion on when to schedule the match which needs to be in coordination with NM. Tentatively scheduled for July possibly in Colorado Springs. Paul assigned the task of coordinating with NM.

It was a good year for the CSCA with the board functioning like a well oiled machine. It was only necessary to have 3 meeting throughout the year, and also kept online contact to a minimum.

Here are the list of motions that were passed this year: Most were unanimous, the exception-the membership vote to not accept the Board’s recommendation to kill the tour by 2 votes following a very lengthy speech in favor of continuing the tour by Buck.