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The Parrot Interviews...
In part one of the interview series, each candidate was asked the same questions about their vision for chess in the USA and how they would go about achieving it, if elected. In part two Chessville asks each candidate board member individualized questions. Question for Randy Bauer: 1) In your previous Answers, and in other writings, you have expressed strong interest in attending to internal standards at USCF, which in some cases are eroded to the point of liabilities. Specifically you have addressed having internal standards by which staff are competency tested or measured against. How would you prioritize the 1, 2, 3 of what needs attention, and how would you implement your ideas from the board level?
As with many organizations, the USCF uses a variety of “shadow systems” (such as Excel spreadsheets) for accounting and reporting purposes. While functional, they do not integrate data; as we build new systems and integrate processes, we need to ensure that we can do our routine financial reporting and queries within our actual financial systems, such as our Peachtree accounting system. Only by getting these systems integrated and functional for reporting purposes will we be able to ensure the accuracy of the data. Going forward, we need to do a better job of records management – as we work through issues surrounding USCF’s benefits program, it is difficult to follow the paper trails. While records exist, they are difficult to access, and we need to budget resources to fix this. As a member of the Board, I will work to ensure that these priorities are understood and supported by the rest of the Board, the Executive Director and staff, and the membership as a whole.
2) Over the past half-dozen years the roles played by Executive Director, Executive Board and Board President have become more than somewhat blurred, to the degree that it is often hard to see where responsibility lies on any one issue. How will you go about re-instating 'institution building' of both staff and standards, ensuring that board directives are met while insulating USCF staff from unwonted personal or political interference from the board?
3) With only rare sponsorship for any USCF programs appearing during the past decade, it has been suggested that the role of external contracting and internal finances play a large part in this failure. What procedures for legally sound and ethically adequate contracting do you propose? What form of insulation or bulkhead for finances are necessary so that sponsors or partners can feel confident about potential investments?
The USCF should improve its procurement process. I think we should look at opportunities for purchasing off contracts of other non-profit organizations or government as an area for savings. We should look at functions that are not part of our core competency that might be better contracted for their provision. We should bid contracts over a fixed amount. As the candidate who has chosen to address these questions of standards of performance, much will rest on the internal competencies you can establish, especially in view of any increase in interest in chess. Are you happy being identified in this entirely necessary if unglamorous role? Is the result of any failure to perform the issues you identify, to undercapitalize on any success - therefore wasting the opportunity?
4) Are you content with current ethical standards in place for the board itself, and its surrounding committees? To what extent do you subscribe to the need for business secrecy versus business transparency in a non-profit institution?
While in a previous Answer, you subscribed positively to the issue of attending to unwonted or gratuitous insult and to women and children in chess - which has been continuous and without check nor other action by previous boards - and which may seriously inhibit women and children staying in the game at all. Would you consider the recommendations of an advisory group of parents of young chess players and of women players, binding on USCF policy, if the recommendations were practical ones that could be performed as proposed by an independent ombudsman to arbitrate the issue?
5) Is there any issue not yet covered by a question where you think your own individual experience is valuable as a board member? What do you hope to be the impact of that experience to the chess public if you become a board member?
Chessville Interviews Chessville Editorials
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