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.

About one wees until the 2019 Class Championships Tournament in Loveland. This event offers 4 games against players in your own rating range. Click here to register... I hope to see you there!

The October edition of the Colorado Informant is up!

In This Issue:

CO Hall of Fame 2019 Colorado Open 2019 Sinquefield Cup Report St. Louis Rapid & Blitz Parker to Paris Grand Chess Tour Memories of 1969 Grand Chess Tour in Croatia Gunnar does it again! The Chess Detective

Download the October Edition

Oct 26 & 27 in Loveland at the Ranch...the 2019 Colorado State Class Championships. 4SS, G90/+30s. Prize Fund is 70 % of entry fees. Entry fee: online $40, $50 at the door. CSCA & US Chess memberships required. Reg 8:30-9:40, After 9:40, 1/2 point bye for first round. Sections: Master/Expert, A, B, C, D, and E. Unrated play in top two sections or price limited to $50 in E. Round times 10 AM and 3 PM, Sat & Sun. Entries to Paul Covington, 748 Cardinal St, Colorado Springs, CO 80911, cell 719.310.7542

2^nd Board Meeting Agenda,         Sep 29, 2019

Welcome-- Attendance--- quorum?
Call to order:
Approve 1^st meeting minutes: (please review the meeting minutes online)
Safe play guidelines (US Chess—please review)
CSCA Budget – Dean
Funding / Voting
DGT Boards – authorize four with clocks but order one for testing
Chess & Wine club funding
Title 1 funding for All Girls chess club
Colorado Closed: Qualifications announcement
Scholastic State Championship: When are the next payments due?
Scholastic All Girls
Tournaments’ Locations--entry frees--prize funds--start times--round times
            Class 2019:
            Senior/Under 50:
            Closed:
            Class:
            Quick/Blitz:
            Open:

CSCA-DCC Committee report
Fundraising report
Holding CSCA-sponsored rated chess tournaments in underserved areas of Colorado (Pueblo, Grand Junction, Durango, Ft Morgan, Aspen-Vail, Trinidad)
Startup program to provide guidance for organizing city school leagues around the state
CSCA survey of members’ thoughts and wants?
Should we use Instagram and Twitter to communicate with members
Ann’s found issues with our Membership records: how do we fix this problem?

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.