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Too many of us just want to have a club to go to, to have tournaments to play in, or to be limited-participation members in organizations. As a result, too few of us actually pay attention to how chess organizations actually function, and too many of us are filled with apathy. This apathy facilitates the type of abuse that can cripple an otherwise beneficial organization. Keep in mind that USCF is run by people who have moved up from smaller chess outfits, like state governing bodies, large clubs, or smaller independent organizations such as the Chess Journalists of America. These smaller chess outfits are where culprits get their training! But there are steps that we all can take to help bring efficient, ethical operations to the smaller organizations that feed leadership to USCF. First, urge your organization to be incorporated. Incorporating a small organization is not difficult. For most, hiring an attorney isn’t even necessary (though hiring an attorney is a good idea). However, the benefits of incorporation to the organization far outweigh any inconvenience of incorporation to the members. As a general rule, any potential liability is limited to the assets of the organization itself. If an organization is not incorporated, liability often passes to officers and can pass on to individual members themselves! Think of that the next time you hear on the news that some plaintiff has won millions of dollars from some small organization.
I served as CJA Vice-President from 2003 to 2007. During that time, I became increasingly worried that CJA funds were being funneled to officers and their pals without the approval of the executive board. Treasurer Randy Hough wouldn’t let me see the CJA ledger or copies of documentation supporting entries to the ledger. He wouldn’t even give me the name of the bank holding CJA accounts. A benefit of incorporation in California, and many other states as well, is the law requires that banks make the organization’s banking records available all year long to all officers of the corporation. (In California, the same rule applies to non-incorporated organizations as well.) After research had determined the name of the CJA bank, the treasurer lost his fight to conceal records when the bank provided me with eighteen months of bank statements. A copy of the bank's determination letter can be found at http://chessjournalists.teach-nology.com/, about half way down the webpage. BREAKING NEWS:
Having an effective set of bylaws provides a deterrent to possible unethical tactics, even if your chess outfit is not incorporated. At the very least, the bylaws form an open contract, and the bylaws are legally enforceable. But what makes for an effective set of bylaws? Again a look at CJA provides at least a partial answer by demonstrating what isn’t effective. The CJA constitution only requires two meetings per year, an annual meeting of the membership and a meeting of the executive board to prepare for the annual meeting of the membership. Neither the constitution bylaws assigns any specific duties to the membership. The constitution does assign specific duties to the executive board, amounting to complete day-to-day control of the organization, and Article XI of the constitution specifies use of Robert’s Rules of Order as the official set of procedures. But in violation of our constitution and Robert’s Rules, the secretary/treasurer did not publish any financial statements for eight years, nor during that time did he ever publish any minutes or motions passed at CJA Board meetings, until recently. The only board motion published is the above-referenced motion would have required the treasurer to show financial documentation to other board members at least once a year. However, decisions are made throughout the year. During the Presidency of Los Angeles resident Jerry Hanken, those decisions frequently are made by his calling the two other executive board members living in the Los Angeles area, Secretary/Treasurer Randy Hough and Editor John Hillary, and getting oral approval. With three friends holding a majority position, the other executive board members rarely need to be consulted, much less informed. This “just among us friends” policy even applied to reimbursing travel expenses for the President to attend the USCF Retreat in May 2006. As Mr. Hanken admitted in the June 2006 issue of The Chess Journalist:
Without even a meeting, much less a vote, the board “approved” adding an additional 26% to the entire fiscal year 2006 expenditures!
Another area in which CJA’s constitution and bylaws provide an instructive example of ineffectiveness is in regard to elections. Article IX of the constitution states that all completed election ballots are to be returned to the Secretary/Treasurer. However, the bylaws provide that, “Should the Secretary/Treasurer be a candidate for an election, then the Chair of this committee shall be responsible for determining a satisfactory person to receive the ballots and transmit same to the Annual Meeting.” However, neither the constitution nor the bylaws address who should mail the ballots out. This omission has led to controversy. I ran against incumbent Secretary/Treasurer Randy Hough in the 2007 CJA elections. True to the bylaws, completed ballots were held in the custody of someone other than the incumbent. However, that is an incomplete rendering of the story. The incumbent Mr. Hough was running for reelection and left in charge of distributing the ballots. Forty-percent of the CJA members living in my home state of Florida, including two CJA members who were then on the USCF executive board, never received a ballot to cast! This failure to effectively distribute ballots has never been explained. While I am not accusing Mr. Hough of any actual ballot malfeasance, a question at least exists. I also must note that he is now on the USCF executive board. Can he be expected to show more ethical regard for the policies and procedures of USCF than he appears to show for CJA? Does the failure to secure the delivery of ballots to supporters of a political opponent constitute fraud or just a lack of competence? Not only do the bylaws of an organization need to be well-structured to deter unethical tactics, the ethics/discipline system must be well-organized and independent of the organization’s political structure. Again, CJA provides examples of how NOT to set-up an ethics/discipline system. Article Three of the CJA Bylaws defines the duty of the Ethics Committee as: Allegations that a member has violated the Association’s Code of Ethics shall be investigated by the Ethics Committee, which shall determine what action, if any, should be taken. However, by Presidential fiat, CJA President Jerry Hanken has effectively amended this bylaw by declaring that the committee may only consider complaints regarding unethical behavior that are filed by members of CJA. Non-members no longer are considered to have standing to complain about the malfeasance of a CJA member. Only CJA members have that opportunity. With his unilateral pronouncement, President Hanken has greatly eliminated CJA‘s accountability to the public. Moreover, even if a CJA member does file a complaint, it is adjudicated by a political appointee of the CJA President. If the complaint alleges unethical activity on the part of the CJA President, the complaint is “dead in the water.” However, in 2006 Ethics Committee Chair Rusty Miller sent emails to all CJA officials telling them that any complaint I filed would be rejected upon arrival. When the decision is made before the complaint has been filed, without any consideration of the merits of the complaint, there is no real ethics/disciplinary system, and those in power have complete freedom to act as they will, with impunity. I repeat that smaller organizations such as CJA provide the “feeder system” that identifies potential leaders for major organizations such as USCF. For USCF to recover and thrive, those of us in clubs and societies, such as CJA, have a responsibility to USCF to give the future USCF leaders training in best practices and require that they complete their leadership education under the tutelage of organizations that are committed to truth, ethics, and the betterment of all around them. ****************************
Editorials reflect the views of their author(s), and not necessarily those of Chessville or its Editorial staff. |
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Where
do we get these “leaders” from? The financial and management problems
within USCF are well-known. However, those working to determine how and why
USCF found itself in such trouble have only skimmed the surface. They may
have looked at actions and events within USCF, but they likely have not
looked at the more systemic problems, such as the character of those who
volunteer for leadership positions.
Another
benefit of incorporating is that the corporate status confers rights to
information upon members and, especially, upon directors. The Chess
Journalists of America provides a classic example.
