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Date: 13 Jul 2008 08:40:48
From: samsloan
Subject: Failure to Disclose Expenses of Board Members
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Failure to Disclose Expenses of Board Members
The USCF By-Laws clearly state that all payments to board members must
be disclosed in the delegates call and on the website. This provision
is found in section 42 page 39 of the current Delegates Call.
It is not on the website, or at least I cannot find it, but page 7 of
the Delegates Call shows the following VOLUNTEER EXPENSE REPORT paid
during the fiscal year ending May 31, 2008.
Don Schultz $65.00
Randall Hough $1717.81
Susan Polgar $930.91
Joel Channing $620.79
Please note that no expenses were claimed for Sam Sloan or Beatriz
Marinello, even though we were on the board from June 1, 2007 to
August 14, 2007, during that fiscal year.
However, we know that Susan Polgar has been paid at least $3000 while
she has been on the board. We know this because she wrote articles
published in six issues of Chess Life magazine from September 2007
through February 2008 and she was paid $500 for each article. She also
wrote articles for Chess Life for Kids magazine but we do not know if
she was paid for those articles.
Payments to board members for anything other than reimbursement of
expenses is strictly prohibited by the by-laws. In this case, the
board claimed to have used a loophole in the law provided by Section
27 (2)(a) which states:
"a) Except where noted below, no Executive Board member or a member of
his immediate family may receive financial compensation from the USCF
for any reason, except for standard reimbursement of expenses, during
his tenure on the Board, or for two years after completing his tenure
if such compensation results from bids accepted or agreements made by
the Board during his tenure. In claiming expense reimbursement, a
Board member must claim only that portion of expenses that were
incurred in non-political activities that were a legitimate exercise
of the Board member's duties. Any unusual expenses for which
reimbursement is questionable must be referred to the full Board for
consideration. Board members are expected to exercise all reasonable
frugality in incurring expenses to be reimbursed."
However, the board, meeting in secret, agreed to pay Polgar the $3000
based on the immediately following provision:
"An immediate family may continue to receive financial compensation if
such compensation results from an agreement made prior to the board
member becoming a candidate."
However, this is improper. Note the language. It says the immediate
family member may receive compensation. Under no circumstances may an
actual board member receive financial compensation.
Polgar has claimed that she made a verbal agreement with Frank Niro in
November 2002 while Niro was Executive Director to write a column in
Chess Life magazine for five years for which she would be paid $500
per month. There are no paper copies of this agreement, presumably
because the laptop computer on which this agreement was made went
missing on August 20, 2003. However, the board accepted her word for
it. Also, since her column was suspended for three months while she
was a candidate for the board, she was allowed to get paid for writing
the column until February 2008.
However, the point now is: THIS MOST BE DISCLOSED.
Neither the Delegates Call nor the website contains any mention of
this secret deal to pay Polgar an additional $3000 while she is on the
board. The secret deal was made during the honeymoon stage just after
Polgar took office and was made Chairman of the USCF.
Another concern is that Polgar has gone on an unprecedented binge of
international travel since she got elected to the board. Only this
past week, she has been in Argentina and in Sardenia. She has traveled
to Mexico, Germany, India, Scotland, Hungary and several other
countries plus numerous states of the United States and indeed almost
everywhere but California (where Paul Truong says he is not willing to
go), all in the months since she got elected to the board, whereas
prior to the election she generally stayed in one place.
One wonders: Where is she getting all this money for International
Travel?
Is she getting the money from the USCF?
Are they using some other loophole, such as the loophole they claim to
be using to pay her the $3000 for writing for Chess Life?
Will somebody please call upon the board or Bill Hall to address the
question of how much money Polgar and Truong have actually received
from the USCF FOR ANY REASON since they were elected to the board?
Sam Sloan
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Date: 15 Jul 2008 17:29:56
From: Randy Bauer
Subject: Re: Failure to Disclose Expenses of Board Members
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On Jul 15, 7:01=A0pm, samsloan <[email protected] > wrote:
> [quote=3D"chessoffice"]SamSloan wrote:
>
> "Unfortunately, most members seem to have forgotten that it was you,
> Randy Bauer, who led us down the disastrous road to Crossville. That
> terrible mistake almost killed the organization."
>
> This is outrageously distorted. =A0The critical vote on moving to
> Crossville was a motion by Don Schultz, on Oct 17, 2004, to delay a
> decision for two weeks. =A0This motion was defeated 4-3 with Schultz,
> Brady and Bauer in favor and Marinello, Hanke, Shaughnessy and Shutt
> opposed. =A0The same four then voted to move to Crossville. =A0During the
> discussion, Bauer said the following of the move for quick approval of
> Crossville:
>
> =A0"I hate the idea that we're leaving money on the table. =A0I do not
> believe in my heart of hearts that we've gotten the best possible
> deal."
>
> Now Sam would have us believe that Bauer was the leader of the push to
> move to Crossville? =A0How absurd.
>
> Bill Goichberg[/quote]
>
> Another example of selective memory by Bill Goichberg.
>
> Yes, it is true that Randy Bauer voted on the good side that one time.
> However immediately thereafter he switched sides and became the most
> aggressive proponent of the move to Crossville. There were several
> more votes after this one and each time Bauer spoke in favor of the
> move. He also posted that our expenses in Crossville would be so much
> lower than in New Windsor so that the move would pay for itself in
> just a few years. Our actual expenses turned out to be higher. Even
> after Bauer lost the 2005 election and there were only a few days left
> in his term of office, Bauer supported Bill Hall in starting
> "construction" by scraping just a few inches of dirt so as to make it
> a contractual obligation of the USCF to complete the move and go ahead
> with borrowing $650,000 to build the building so as to make the
> construction irreversible.
>
> If we had stayed in the basement of the abandoned church in Crossville
> we would be far better off now. Now we are stuck paying off a $650,000
> mortgage on a building we are not allowed to sell because the Mayor of
> Crossville J H Graham (probably my sixth cousin) says that we will not
> be allowed to leave there for 15 years because of the "debt" we owe
> the town of Crossville because of using their abandoned church.
>
> Sam Sloan
This "analysis" explains why you were such a lousy board member and
now such a lousy board commentator.
While the Board was making its decision on whether or not to move to
Crossville, I actively sought to slow it down and did NOT support the
Crossville proposal - twice. However, once the decision was made and
there continued to be four votes for it, what exactly was to be gained
from not seeking to make the move go as well as possible? It wasn't
going to save the USCF by having the execution of that move turn into
a disaster.
You can now look back and decide whether the DECISION to make the move
was appropriate - and my votes tell you where I stood then and still
stand now. However, once the DECISION is made, leaders of an
organization have to move on and make those things work.
In fact, while many (including perhaps you, Sam?) argued that the
actual move would bankrupt the USCF and throw it into turmoil, that
was not the case. Whether, in the long run, it was the best move for
the USCF - well, what's the point of putting that at my feet? I never
made that decision.
Randy Bauer
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Date: 15 Jul 2008 17:01:08
From: samsloan
Subject: Re: Failure to Disclose Expenses of Board Members
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[quote="chessoffice"]SamSloan wrote:
"Unfortunately, most members seem to have forgotten that it was you,
Randy Bauer, who led us down the disastrous road to Crossville. That
terrible mistake almost killed the organization."
This is outrageously distorted. The critical vote on moving to
Crossville was a motion by Don Schultz, on Oct 17, 2004, to delay a
decision for two weeks. This motion was defeated 4-3 with Schultz,
Brady and Bauer in favor and Marinello, Hanke, Shaughnessy and Shutt
opposed. The same four then voted to move to Crossville. During the
discussion, Bauer said the following of the move for quick approval of
Crossville:
"I hate the idea that we're leaving money on the table. I do not
believe in my heart of hearts that we've gotten the best possible
deal."
Now Sam would have us believe that Bauer was the leader of the push to
move to Crossville? How absurd.
Bill Goichberg[/quote]
Another example of selective memory by Bill Goichberg.
Yes, it is true that Randy Bauer voted on the good side that one time.
However immediately thereafter he switched sides and became the most
aggressive proponent of the move to Crossville. There were several
more votes after this one and each time Bauer spoke in favor of the
move. He also posted that our expenses in Crossville would be so much
lower than in New Windsor so that the move would pay for itself in
just a few years. Our actual expenses turned out to be higher. Even
after Bauer lost the 2005 election and there were only a few days left
in his term of office, Bauer supported Bill Hall in starting
"construction" by scraping just a few inches of dirt so as to make it
a contractual obligation of the USCF to complete the move and go ahead
with borrowing $650,000 to build the building so as to make the
construction irreversible.
If we had stayed in the basement of the abandoned church in Crossville
we would be far better off now. Now we are stuck paying off a $650,000
mortgage on a building we are not allowed to sell because the Mayor of
Crossville J H Graham (probably my sixth cousin) says that we will not
be allowed to leave there for 15 years because of the "debt" we owe
the town of Crossville because of using their abandoned church.
Sam Sloan
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Date: 15 Jul 2008 02:43:40
From: samsloan
Subject: Re: Failure to Disclose Expenses of Board Members
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On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 12:18 AM, Randy Bauer
<[email protected] > wrote:
That's it? That's the predictor of the USCF demise?
Anybody who has ever taken a single statistics course want to point
out the dozen or so flaws in this "analysis?"
Meanwhile, there is still this nagging issue of actually balancing the
budget (don't give me the 'cut the waste/fraud/abuse' canard). Care
to take a shot?
Randy Bauer
Sure. Easy. All you have to do is lay off a few people who do not
provide any vital service to the members and who do not bring in any
money.
Your claim to fame is that in the distant past you were Budget
Director of the State of Iowa.
However, that hardly qualifies you to run a business. Business run on
profits and the bottom line. State governments just rob from the rich
and give to the poor.
I have a short list of four people who could easily be cut from the
payroll without any loss of essential membership services. With those
cuts, the USCF will be profitable and have a tidy surplus.
No. I am not going to tell you who is on my list, all of whom are nice
people whom I have nothing against. We are not talking about being
nice to people. We are talking about the survival of the organization.
Absolutely, the one thing we should never do is cut the only three
membership services, namely Chess Life magazine, Chess Life for Kids
and the membership cards. Cut those three things and there will be no
reason to join the USCF. By the way, rating service is not really a
membership benefit. The rating fees at least theoretically pay for
that, not the membership dues.
Also, you complain about Mike Goodall's comment that once online Chess
Life magazine will become "free". You say that the members will be
provided with passwords so that only they can read it online. However,
as Dr. Brady, whose opinions you dismissed in such insulting terms
since he is merely the chairman of a journalism department of a major
university, points out, online publications do not work. Nobody reads
them. Nobody is willing to pay anything for them. Can you point to a
single successful online publication anywhere in the world that makes
money? You can not! Have you taken a survey to see how many members
would be willing to pay $29 a year just to be able to read Chess Life
online? You will find very few who will be willing to pay for this.
Those few who are interested will just borrow a friend's password or
find some way to hack in. Also, you still have not produced a
prototype of this online publication that you propose. Will it be a
downloadable PDF file or an ever changing HTML file? Also, you have
not responded to Hanon Russell's implied threat to stop paying the
$150,000 per year he is paying for his monthly ads in Chess Life and
to file a lawsuit over this and related issues.
Goichberg's claim that all you have to do is cut Chess Life, Chess
Life for Kids and the membership cards and presto the USCF becomes
profitable is ridiculous. His projections are based on the assumption
that all 86,000 current members will continue to pay membership dues
after all these services are cut. Goichberg's claims are so absurd
that people are starting to question his sanity and senility.
Unfortunately, most members seem to have forgotten that it was you,
Randy Bauer, who led us down the disastrous road to Crossville. That
terrible mistake almost killed the organization. You were voted out of
office with good reason. However, the members forgot about that and
two years later voted you back in. Now you are on your way to
finishing the job of destroying the USCF as we know it.
Sam Sloan
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Date: 14 Jul 2008 07:16:13
From: samsloan
Subject: Re: Failure to Disclose Expenses of Board Members
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Two points: it's unfair to compare your expenses with mine, as I pay
my travel and get reimbursed. You simply had USCF pay for your travel
directly. Also, Polgar did give an exhibition in California in March.
Randall Hough
Is that true, Sam? Did your "lack of expense reimbursement" result
because the USCF paid directly for your flights.
If that is the case, doesn't your claim about USCF reimbursement to
you sound remarkably similar to a lie?
I'm shocked.
Randy Bauer
I do not know why you two are bringing up this issue. I have made no
complaint about the $1717.81 expense money that was paid to Randy
Hough. I realize that he lives in Los Angeles and therefore his
expenses are higher than those of us who live on the East Coast, where
real chess is played.
I am also not complaining about the $930.91 expense money that was
paid to Miss Polgar, even though so far she has only attended one
board meeting in person, that being the meeting in Crossville where
the summons and complaint was served.
I am only complaining about the $3000 that we know was paid to Susan
Polgar that is not disclosed in the 2008 Delegates Call. I note that
none of you have responded to that issue.
However, as long as you ask, I paid my own train ticket from New York
City to Cherry Hill NJ for the August 2007 board meeting, the only
board meeting during the relevant time period. Aaron Kiedes a friend
of Ken Thomas and one of the directors at the US Open, gave me and my
family a ride home after the event. The USCF did not pay for my
tickets nor did I request reimbursement for my transportation or meals
during that event.
If you are also wondering about the previous fiscal year, yes, it is
true that the USCF paid for my airplane ticket to attend the USCF
Executive Board meetings on February 2-3, 2007 in Monrovia, California
and the meetings on May 17-18, 2007 in Stillwater Oklahoma. I did not
request reimbursement for meals or any other expenses for those trips.
As to the meeting on November 17-18, 2006 in Stamford Connecticut, now
it can be revealed that Beatriz Marinello picked me up at my home and
drove me to that meeting in her car and drove me home after the
meeting was over. Again, I did not request reimbursement for meals or
any other expenses for those trips. (I am always happy to have a
beautiful woman pick me up and take me places.)
During my one year on the board, the only time I requested
reimbursement was for my first board meeting in Chicago, August 13-14,
2006. That was necessary because part of the Goichberg-Channing plot
to stop me from taking office on the board was to make it so expensive
for me to attend the meetings that I could not afford to get there. As
part of the plot, Channing instructed the Crossville office NOT to
provide transportation expenses for me to attend the meeting in
Chicago. I have the emails to prove that Channing did this. At one
point, the office called and told me that they had reserved a rental
car for me. The rental car place was in a remote location on the north
edge of the Bronx next to the border with Westchester County. I took a
subway and two buses and walked to get there, and when I got there I
found out that although they had reserved a rental car, the USCF
office was not going to pay for it. I had to pay for it myself, and it
was a high priced car, as all the economy cars had been taken.
It also happened that on just that day the police in London had broken
up a ring that planned to blow up airplanes in the sky over North
America. (Coincidentally, that incident came back into the news today.
See news reports today entitled, "5 men plead guilty in trans-Atlantic
airline plot".)
Now, of course I realize that the plot to blow up airplanes flying
over North America probably had nothing to do with the Goichberg-
Channing conspiracy to stop me from getting to the board meetings in
Chicago, but the effect was the same. This made it impossible for me
to catch a flight to Chicago. I know this because I hung out at La
Guardia Airport all day long trying to catch a flight to Chicago,
without success.
So, the only way for me to make it to Chicago to attend the meetings
was to rent a car. Since the USCF office was not going to help me I
had to find one myself. All the car rental agencies were sold out too
because of the same terrorist plot to blow up airplanes. Fortunately,
I was able to find a new car rental agency with an agent who had
frequently rented cars to me from the former agency and knew that I
was a safe driver who has never had an accident and so she gave me the
last car on the lot.
There was still the money problem. Now I can reveal something I have
never revealed before because it might get them into trouble: I have
three former board members to thank for their counter-conspiracy to
help get me to Chicago. They are Dr. Frank Brady, Fred Gruenberg and
Jerry Hanken. (I have previously said that former board members helped
me get there but I have never provided their names so as not to get
them into trouble.)
Each of the three of them offered to help me financially or to pay for
the rental car to get me to Chicago.
By the way, as it turned out, I did not need their help. I got to
Chicago at my own expense (with only pennies to spare). However, their
offers to back me up were very instrumental in getting me there plus,
very importantly, in convincing my wife to let me go and to accompany
me on the trip.
After the meeting was over and after the efforts of Joel Channing to
stop me from attending the meetings by depriving me of the funds to
get there knowing that I have a wife and child to support, Channing
decided to show what a "big-hearted guy" he is by inviting me to
dinner just at the very moment I was on my way out the door to get in
my rental car and drive back to New York. I was called back and asked
to have dinner with Channing. Ever since, I have deeply regretted
accepting that offer, for several reasons, mainly because ever since
Channing started telling everybody how he had given me and my family
something to eat, as though we had accepted his charity. Also, by
accepting his offer I had to stay one more night in Chicago and I
missed the deadline for returning my rental car and had to pay for one
more day and the bank hit me for $120 bounced check charges.
There was another incident at this same meal that Randy Hough will be
happy to tell you about. When Joel Channing invited me and my wife and
child to dinner, Randy Hough mistakenly thought that he had been
invited too and sat next to me. Randy finished his meal fairly quickly
and left before the rest of us did. When the waitress came with the
check, Joel Channing pointed to me and said, "I am paying for him",
and then pointed to the empty chair left by Randy Hough and said, "but
I am not paying for him".
This caused the waitress to chase around the hotel until she found
Randy Hough, so that she could demand that he pay his check, which he
did.
Went I got back to New York, I sent in the invoices and requested
reimbursement for the car rental fee. I did not request reimbursement
for meals or any other expenses. Don Schultz said that the efforts by
the other board members to prevent me from attending the meetings in
Chicago by denying me the funds to get there had been "shameless" and
said that the USCF should reimburse the $120 bounced check charges
that arose after I returned the rental car one day late. However, did
not request reimbursement for the $120.
During my one year on the board my only request for reimbursement was
for the car rental, gas and toll charges to drive to the meetings in
Chicago. I never requested reimbursement for meals (at McDonald's) or
any other expenses during my one year on the board. That is the reason
why, as Randy Hough points out, my expenses were lower than that of
anybody else on the board who requested reimbursement.
Does that answer your questions?
Sam Sloan
PS I am interested to learn that Miss Polgar recently gave a chess
exhibition in California. Was Truong there too? Do you have any idea
why Truong stated repeatedly during the board meeting in Crossville
that he was willing to go to any of the 49 other states but he was not
willing to go to California?
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Date: 13 Jul 2008 15:45:10
From:
Subject: Re: Failure to Disclose Expenses of Board Members
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samsloan wrote:
> On Sun, Jul 13, 2008 at 12:00 PM, <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > The USCF By-Laws clearly state that all payments to board
> members must be
> > disclosed in the delegates call and on the website. This
> provision is found
> > in section 42 page 39 of the current Delegates Call.
>
> The Delegate Actions of Continuing Interest are NOT part of the
> Bylaws.
>
> However, the Delegates Call is itself available on the website
> (and was
> on the website BEFORE it was mailed out to members), so this would
> appear
> to meet that requirement.
>
> --
> Mike Nolan
>
>
> Dear Mike Nolan,
>
> Are you saying that the "Delegate Actions of Continuing Interest" are
> not actually part of the by-laws and therefore a board member may be
> hired and paid by the USCF for work he or she does while on the board?
>
> I certainly hope that is not what you are saying.
>
> Sam Sloan
Learn to read, Sam. You stated that DACI-27 was part of the Bylaws. It
isn't. (You do understand the difference, don't you?) You stated that
the DC was not available on line. It is. Mike's post says nothing
about Polgar or payments. It simply points out that you're a dullard.
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Date: 13 Jul 2008 09:59:33
From: samsloan
Subject: Re: Failure to Disclose Expenses of Board Members
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On Sun, Jul 13, 2008 at 12:00 PM, <[email protected] > wrote:
> The USCF By-Laws clearly state that all payments to board
members must be
> disclosed in the delegates call and on the website. This
provision is found
> in section 42 page 39 of the current Delegates Call.
The Delegate Actions of Continuing Interest are NOT part of the
Bylaws.
However, the Delegates Call is itself available on the website
(and was
on the website BEFORE it was mailed out to members), so this would
appear
to meet that requirement.
--
Mike Nolan
Dear Mike Nolan,
Are you saying that the "Delegate Actions of Continuing Interest" are
not actually part of the by-laws and therefore a board member may be
hired and paid by the USCF for work he or she does while on the board?
I certainly hope that is not what you are saying.
Sam Sloan
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Date: 13 Jul 2008 12:24:52
From: Ray Gordon, creator of the \pivot\
Subject: Re: Failure to Disclose Expenses of Board Members
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Can you quote the Volunteer Protection Act now?
--
--
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