2014 GTCL AGM Minutes

published by admin on Tue, 2014-05-27 09:41

MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE GREATER TORONTO CHESS LEAGUE

APRIL 26, 2014

Attendees

Michael Barron (President)

Ilia Bluvshtein (Vice-President)

Nicholas Varmazis (Treasurer)

Marcus Wilker (Secretary)

Brian Fiedler

Chris Field

Alex Ferreira

Ted Winick

Xuekun Xing

Connie Zhou

Jane Zhong

Joey Zhong

Agenda

1. Announcements

2. Executive Reports

a. Tournament Coordinator

b. Director of Communications

c. Secretary

d. Treasurer

e. Vice-President

f. President

3. GTCL Awards

4. Election of 2014/2015 GTCL Executive & 3 directors at large

5. Election of Regional OCA Vice-President

6. Election of OCA/CFC Governors

7. 2014/2015 GTCL Budget

8. OCA reorganization

9. CFC Youth Coordinator and Youth Committee

10. 2014/2015 GTCL Tournaments

11. GTCL Cup – May 26, 2014

12. Ontario Open 2014

13. CYCC 2015

14. New Items

1. Announcements

Michael Barron noted that several chess parents would be joining us at 12:30 for the youth-related items, 9 and following. Accordingly, he expressed the aim of completing items 1-7 by noon in order to stay on schedule.

2. Executive Reports

a) Tournament Coordinator

Evgeni Tobolovsky was not present, but Michael Barron conveyed his annual report.

Michael Barron noted that, while many GTCL events had run quite well, there were a few setbacks in the regular GTCL Tournament schedule. The Toronto Women’s Championship and Toronto Junior Championship did not run during the past year. Lack of interest had been a factor, but he recommended that such tournaments be planned and announced well in advance: the end of the season (end of June) was agreed upon as a reasonable deadline. There has also not been any Toronto Blitz Championship – see #14, new items.

In the ensuing discussion, it was suggested that best practice was for organizers to have events planned at least six months in advance.

Next, Michael Barron clarified the current state of affairs with respect to the uncertain status of the 2014 Ontario Open, which has been the subject of wide commentary and suggestion. The good news is that the event, as it now seems, will run in Toronto after all, and on Victoria Day weekend as usual.

Specifically, Bryan Lamb has secured the Macedonian Hall for Saturday May 17 to Monday May 19 – but is asking for help organizing the event. Alex Ferreira was asked to help arbitrate the event, which would allow it to be FIDE-rated, but unfortunately his work schedule does not allow him to be free that weekend. Nevertheless, he hopes to be available to help with registration on the first day.

After explanation and discussion of the tortuous soliciting process for the Ontario Open this year, it was broadly agreed that, with no clear bid from a Toronto organizer, GTCL should have passed up the event at some point, allowing bids from outside GTCL to be entertained. The unexpected unwillingness of several major Toronto organizers to run the event, and the subsequent delayed failure of several promising alternative options, partly explains why this was not done.

To ensure that there is no further confusion, the following backup plan has been agreed upon: if for any reason the 2014 Ontario Open cannot run at the Macedonian Hall over the Victoria Day weekend, a proposed merger of the event with the Toronto Thanksgiving Open would be announced immediately, with an end-of-June deadline for organizers to finalize their bids and GTCL to announce the merged event in final form. (It was pointed out that there is some historical precedent for Thanksgiving as an alternate date.) Failing any such Toronto bid, come July the 2014 Ontario Open will be opened up for outside bids to run the event over Thanksgiving.

Meanwhile, since the tournament is now running at the Macedonian Hall on Victoria Day weekend, as soon as the flyer is prepared, copies will be printed and made available at GTA clubs and club members will be encouraged to register promptly. GTCL member clubs will submit lists of registered players from their clubs.

The tournament will likely not be FIDE-rated. This may be disappointing to a few players, but it was agreed not to be a cause for major concern.

In addition, Bryan Lamb will be contacted, and volunteers will be recruited to provide such assistance as he requires.

Furthermore, it was suggested that beyond the $500 in OCA support usually given for the event, GTCL might be able to add its own contribution – see #7, budget.

Finally, Evgeni Tobolovsky does not wish to stand for re-election to the Tournament Coordinator position.

b) Director of Communications

Egidijus Zeromskis was also not present, and Michael Barron briefly summarized his written report.

There were some problems with the GTCL website, which were repaired promptly.

Egidijus Zeromskis has been closely involved with many events and activities at Aurora Chess Club.

Finally, Egidijus Zeromskis is willing to serve another term as Director of Communications.

c) Secretary

Marcus Wilker noted that his activities as secretary had not been very notable, but as an executive member his reflections on the past year led him to ask about two issues: first, whether GTCL might be able to provide additional support for tournament directors, and second, whether GTCL might make a larger effort towards a broader mandate beyond merely sanctioning tournaments.

Asked what kind of support he had in mind, Marcus Wilker clarified that GTCL might help locate suitable venues and connect organizers with possible financial backing.

In the ensuing discussion, it was proposed that for some of the larger events, such as the Toronto Open and Toronto Labour Day Open, GTCL might be able to arrange financial backing. A reasonable form for such backing would be to find individuals willing to back up losses, from a certain minimum to a certain maximum. In this way the organizing team would take the first loss, but further losses would be secured by the backer, up to a certain maximum point. In such cases, the financial backers would probably want to be involved with some of the details of the event.

Furthermore, GTCL might be able to help in pursuing sponsorship. It was noted that it might be effective for the GTCL to offer a variety of items on its calendar to potential sponsors, rather than for organizers to seek sponsorship on an event-by-event basis.

Finally, the GTCL Tournament Coordinator might be able to compile a venue list, especially where venue owners are interested in hosted chess events and willing to offer discounted rates.

On the second point, it was pointed out that GTCL already has, as part of its mandate, “to promote interest and participation in chess at all levels.”

To that end, it was proposed that the GTCL might have a media coordinator, tasked with promoting chess. It was agreed that this must mean chess in general, and not just tournaments.

Marcus Wilker is willing to serve another term as Secretary.

d) Treasurer

Nicholas Varmazis presented the one-page GTCL Financial Statement for Fiscal Year 2013/2014. He explained the two-column separation of cash amounts actually received and allocated to expenses, on the right, from non cash resources such as book donations and cash amounts merely held in trust such as CFC memberships, on the left. GTCL received $1,130 in cash, and spent $1,137 on expenses for a net loss of $7. In addition, GTCL received $731 in non-cash donations and moneys held in trust. Cash on hand at the end of year was $1,959.

Subsequent discussion supported the inclusion of non-cash amounts, since they are real resources obtained, and approved the two-column form of presentation.

Questions about the net loss, especially since further deficits are budgeted, were postponed for #7, the budget.

The financial statements were approved, as presented.

Nicholas Varmazis is willing to serve another term as Treasurer.

e) Vice-President

Ilia Bluvshtein noted that his duties in the past year had included supporting the President, which he takes to be the main role of the Vice-President.

In addition, following a six-month (!) period when OCA was unable to provide GTCL with a cheque for money received from CFC, he undertook, as directed by the President, a careful analysis of the OCA. The purpose of the analysis was to prevent such a situation from ever reoccurring. His report on the OCA is # 8 on the agenda.

Illia Bluvshtein is willing to serve another term as Vice-President.

f) President

A full President’s report had been sent out by email, but Michael Barron repeated the main points.

He noted the growth of chess in the GTA, especially with the continued development of the Annex and Aurora clubs.

He listed the successful GTCL events of the past year, thanking the organizations responsible: the Toronto Senior Championship and GTCL Team Competition at Willowdale Chess Club; the Toronto Open, Toronto Closed, and upcoming GTCL Cup at Annex Chess Club; and the Toronto Youth Chess Championship (for the first time ever!) by Yuri Lebedev at the Knights of Chess Club.

He repeated his regrets, already mentioned in the Tournament Coordinator’s report, that the Toronto Junior and Toronto Women’s Championships had not occurred, and that there had been no Toronto Blitz Championship – again, see #14, new items.

While it would be ideal to have all events for the upcoming season approved at the GTCL AGM, this is not possible this year. However, GTCL will aim to have its yearly calendar finalized by the end of the season (end of June).

Michael Barron is willing to serve another term as President.

3. GTCL Awards

Michael Barron noted that no previous discussion this year had gone into the decision, and he opened the floor for nominations. Graeme Knight, who has been active at Aurora and has spent the past year working on his FIDE Arbiter certification, was nominated, but it was pointed out that he had won the award last year. Alex Ferreira was nominated, but declined his nomination claiming that most of the work for the events he had been involved in this year had been done by others. The two successful nominations were for Marcus Wilker, in recognition of his helping organize GTCL events at Annex and of his maintaining good Toronto chess web exposure through the Annex website, and for Tyler Longo, in recognition of his regular commitment all year to being club arbiter at Annex, as well as of his work at the Toronto Open and Toronto Closed. The vote was carried unanimously.

Nicholas Varmazis will receive CFC numbers for the winners, and will mail cheques to CFC for a one-year membership renewal.

4. Elections of GTCL Executive for 2014/2015 year

President – Michael Barron (by acclamation)

Vice-President – Ilia Bluvshtein (by acclamation)

Secretary – Marcus Wilker (by acclamation)

Treasurer – Nicholas Varmazis (by acclamation)

Director of Communications – Egidijus Zeromskis (by acclamation)

Tournament Coordinator – Alex Ferreira (by acclamation)

Directors at Large (by unanimous vote) –

Chris Field, Bob Armstrong, and Francis Rodrigues

Additional Director as Annex Chess Club Representative (by unanimous vote)

Ted Winick

5. Elections of Regional OCA Vice-President for 2013/2014 year

Regional Ontario Chess Association VP – Evgeni Tobolovsky (upon his nomination, discussion of his election was postponed to item #8, OCA reorganization, at which point he was approved by acclamation)

6. Election of CFC/OCA Governors for 2014/2015 year

CFC/OCA Governors* (by acclamation)

1. Michael Barron

2. Ilia Bluvshtein

3. Marcus Wilker

4. Egidijus Zeromskis

5. Chris Field

6. Nikolay Noritsyn

7. Evgeni Tobolovsky

8. Bindi Cheng

9. Xuekun Xing* [Sasha Starr]

* The category of chess parent was considered a positive development in the selection of OCA/CFC Governors representing GTCL. However XueKun Xing requested more time to consider her willingness to stand. [After she later declined, Sasha Starr was chosen to replace her.]

7. 2014/2015 Budget

Nicholas Varmazis presented the proposed 2014/2015 budget, projecting $1,499 in revenue (including $300 in sponsorship and $99 to host the website), $1,574 of expenses, for a net loss of $75.

In discussion, a point was raised about the perils of deficit budgeting: many good organizations have gone under because of this practice. It was explained by Michael Barron and by Nicholas Varmazis that the bank balance of the GTCL was currently higher than it needed to be, based on some events had not run in the past. The funding for these events, it was thought, was best passed along to future events rather than enlarging the GTCL bank account. Therefore the deficit budget should not be described as GTCL living beyond its means, but rather as GTCL using unspent funding from previous years. The GTCL financial plan is to continue to operate deficit budgets until the bank balance is reduced to the range of $1,000 to $1,500, roughly two-thirds to a whole year’s operating expenses.

$200 was again given to support the Toronto High School Championship.

An additional $200 was added to the Tournament Support line, raising net expenses to $1,774 and net loss to $275, and lowering the projected bank balance down to $1,684. This covers an additional $200 this year as a one-time amount to support the Ontario Open. Future support for the Ontario Open is not promised, but will be decided based on the GTCL financial situation at the time. This decision was approved by unanimous vote.

The whole budget was then approved by unanimous vote.

8. OCA Reorganization

Ilia Bluvshtein gave a power-point presentation, outlining his analysis and recommendations for the OCA.

As context, he explained that this fall there had been no transfer of CFC funding to GTCL, and that continued lack of action on this issue from OCA had required an excessive amount of follow-up actions. Furthermore, the OCA President had not returned email regarding the Ontario Open. In addition, a question about the borders between GTCL and SWOCL, despite having been brought up at the past OCA AGM, had completely been dropped.

He noted that OCA constitutes an “additional bureaucratic layer” in Ontario that does not exist in other regions of Canada. Most provincial CFC affiliates directly sanction tournaments and promote chess, but the large geographic distances in Ontario have resulted in most of such functions being passed on to the OCA’s four member leagues, representing Eastern Ontario, the Greater Toronto Area, Southwestern Ontario, and Northern Ontario.

The remaining functions not covered by the leagues are not actually being performed by OCA at all. Such functions included coordinating interleague championship matches, mediating disputes between leagues, and promoting chess in Ontario.

At the moment, he described the OCA as essentially dead.

An inactive and ineffective OCA, which after all does not have very much left to do, since most of its powers are divested to the four regional leagues, results in a weak link between the leagues and hampers future development of chess in the province.

In the face of this situation, two possible courses might be followed: either (Option 1) to eliminate OCA altogether, and have EOCA, GTCL, NOCL, and SWOCL become direct affiliates of CFC; or (Option 2) to reform OCA so it is better able to fulfill what should be its functions.

Option 1, while it would eliminate the bureaucratic layer in a one-time effort, requires legally dissolving the OCA, changing the constitutions of all four regional leagues, and changing the constitution of CFC. Basically, it amounts to a “legal nightmare.”

Option 2, does not remove the additional bureaucratic layer, but it mitigates its effects, and is relatively easy to do.

The main reform in the proposed Option 2 is to have each league delegate one member directly to the OCA executive. This requires only changing the OCA constitution. This will provide a better link between the leagues, install automatic responsiveness of OCA to the leagues, and increase the chance of having more active volunteers in OCA.

In discussion, an additional benefit of both preserving and significantly reforming OCA was raised. Chess in Canada is most likely to receive government funding at a provincial level. Past scandals and an inactive OCA will make future funding unlikely. A revived OCA, however, after having undergone a significant reform, might stand a good chance of lobbying the provincial government to support chess in the province. This chance would likely be lost were OCA simply eliminated.

As a current action plan, Illia Bluvshtein announced that he undertakes to volunteer as OCA president in 2014. He will campaign on a specific platform undertaking to bring the proposed changes to bear in the OCA structure and upon election will immediately initiate a revision of the OCA Constitution in accordance with the proposed reorganization. Prior to the upcoming OCA AGM, which has been announced to take place near Victoria Day weekend, he will contact the other leagues with the aim of securing support for OCA reform.

In subsequent discussion at the GTCL meeting, it was announced that the plan is already supported by Bob Gillanders and Hal Bond.

It was agreed that OCA’s function is more than the leagues, and its aim would be to support chess in the province, not just chess tournaments.

At the end of this discussion, the plan received unanimous support from the GTCL Executive and Board.

After this discussion, Evgeni Tobolovsky was voted unanimously as Regional Ontario Chess Association VP – see item #5.

9. CFC Youth Coordinator and Youth Committee

Several parents, Xuekun Xing, Connie Zhou, and Jane Zhong joined the meeting partway through, specifically in order to be present for this agenda item.

Connie Zhou spoke of her concerns with Canadian Youth representation. She has been unable to receive any email reply from the current CFC Youth Coordinator, Frank Lee. She stated her confusion about qualification from CYCC for WYCC, NACC, and the PanAm. She has been unable to get information about whether her son, who came in third place at CYCC, can be an official representative. Despite not hearing from the Youth Coordinator, she said that CFC President Vlad Drkulec has announced official Canadian players at NAYCC using last year’s CYCC results, but this has yet to be followed up by clarification from the Youth Coordinator.

Xuekun Xing noted that CFC Youth Coordinator is a big job. She believes that the Youth Coordinator’s work is made easier when assisted by a Youth Committee, as it was in the past. There is currently no such committee.

In discussion of the parents’ concerns, GTCL decided to recommend CFC to elect a Youth Committee at the AGM, and recommend Xuekun Xing, Connie Zhou, and Jane Zhong to be included in the Committee. GTCL further decided to urge the CFC Governors to deal promptly with the lack of response from the current Youth Coordinator and the apparent unwillingness of the CFC President either to have the Youth Coordinator provide appropriate response or to replace the Youth Coordinator.

10. 2014/2015 GTCL Tournaments

The GTCL will try to finalize its 2014/2015 team calendar by the end of July, with bids expected by the end of June.

Accordingly, bids are now open for the 2014 Toronto Senior, Junior, Women’s and 2015 Toronto Closed Championships, the 2015 Toronto Open, the 2015 Toronto Blitz Championship, the 2015 GTCL Team Competition, and the 2015 GTCL Cup.

11. GTCL Cup – May 26, 2014

Marcus Wilker presented the Annex Chess Club bid to host the GTCL Cup on May 26. The event is four-on-four team chess at a rapid time control of 15’ + 5”. Teams qualify in two categories. First, championship teams represent a Greater Toronto Area chess club. There was some discussion about strict criteria for established clubs and actual club members on the team, but it was agreed to keep “chess club” and “represent” fairly loose. There is no rating cap in this category. Second, U1800 teams are made up of any four or five players with an average rating of the top four players below 1800.

In discussion, it was suggested to move the start time up half an hour to 7:00 pm, with the event hoping to be completed by 11:30 pm.

12. Ontario Open 2014

This item was already clarified in discussion pursuant to the Tournament Coordinator’s report in # 2 (a).

13. CYCC 2015

-

In discussion, a conflict was pointed out for a CYCC on Easter weekend, since it is the traditional – and proposed – date of the 2015 Toronto Open. Annex Chess Club, who is hoping to host the Toronto Open again in 2015, is quite limited in their site availability, so it is difficult for them to move to a different weekend.

Xuekun Xing and the other chess parents agreed that the main point was to have the event early, to coordinate better with other nations’ YCC events and with the WYCC, the NAYCC, and the PanAm. A March break weekend was suggested. March Break is not standard across different Canadian school boards, but missing a couple extra days of school, even if they were not March Break holidays, was considered a perfectly acceptable option.

14. New Items

a) Toronto Secondary School Chess League Championships

Chris Field presented his report from the TSSCL Team and Individual Championships. This year saw one of the biggest turn-outs in recent history of the event, with 16 teams in the Team Championship and 49 players in the Individual Championship.

He appreciates the GTCL support his event receives, which is much needed. He also appreciates the support the event receives from UTS, who hosted the events again this year.

The top team at the Team Championship was the UTS A team, with Joey Zhong, who was present at the meeting, playing board 3. The Individual Championship ended in a three-way tie between Christopher Knox, Nicholas Vettese, and Joey Zhong, with Knox winning on tie-break.

b) Harbourfront Centre Chessfest presented by Scotiabank

Ted Winick, president of Chess Institute of Canada and founder of Annex Chess Club, presented an exciting joint venture of the two organizations.

Harbourfront Centre has removed a parking lot east of the Harbourfront Pavilion and have opened up a new space called the Exhibition Commons. Harbourfront Centre contacted Annex Chess Club to host a chess event this year, and, combined with the Chess Institute of Canada, they are putting on the first annual 2014 Harbourfront Centre Chessfest.

The events run on June 15 and August 10 this summer. Harbourfront Centre is giving the space (10,000 sq ft), and Scotiabank is supporting the event with a reasonably large donation ($5,000). Bator Sambuev is running a simultaneous exhibition, there will be a blitz tournament with a top prize of $1,000, Hans Jung is giving a blindfold chess demonstration, Erik Malmsten is presenting the history of Canadian Olympiad teams, and Regency Chess will be selling chess merchandise. There will be face painting, dress-up, giant chess, and open tables for casual chess and chess lessons.

The event will be in support of the 2014 Canadian men’s and women’s Chess Olympiad team.

It was moved to have the GTCL sanction the blitz event at Harbourfront Centre Chessfest as the 2014 Toronto Blitz Chess Championship.

It was suggested that high school volunteers could help with the event.