Since the results of the election were announced, I received countless email and messages from members across the country. The two main issues that practically everyone brought up are:
– It seems that thousands of members of the USCF did not receive the voting ballots. That includes me, WGM Jennifer Shahade, her brother IM Greg Shahade, her father FM Michael Shahade and other members across the country. The ballots were not included in Chess Life as usual. This time, the ballots were sent out separately. I have no idea why. The winning margin came down to less than 100 votes. There is something seriously wrong with this picture.
– Many members did not know that Mr. Sloan was a convicted felon and he had served time in jail. He has also openly admitted of committing many other criminal actions including inappropriate relations with young female and illegally looking up people’s credit files without their knowledge. His website is filled with filth and the contents are completely inappropriate for young people. On top of this, Mr. Sloan has publicly posted false information about many members, supporters, sponsors and partners of the USCF.
Another thing that many people are outraged about is the alleged endorsement of Mr. Sloan by a former USCF President and former NJ State Chess Federation President. I certainly hope that it is not true. So far, there has been no denial by the former USCF President. These are the words that were published by Mr. Sloan:
“Leroy Dubeck (Past President of the USCF and the NJ State Chess Federation) called a Special Meeting of the New Jersey State Chess Association just to announce that he was supporting me for election to the Executive Board and to recommend that the association endorse me for election, which it did.”
As the founder and President of the Susan Polgar Foundation, a non-profit organization that promotes the educational, social and competitive benefits of chess for young people, especially girls, I cannot accept Mr. Sloan as a board member of the USCF, an organization with approximately 50,000 young members.
The Susan Polgar Foundation wants to have nothing to do with Mr. Sloan or any project he puts forth. We put the welfare and best interests of the young players first and we want to stay as far away as possible from Mr. Sloan. I do not want my children near Mr. Sloan and I do not want Mr. Sloan near any chess event that the Susan Polgar Foundation organizes.
I hope that USCF members will call and write to the USCF to express similar sentiments. It is simply unacceptable and unfathomable to have someone with a background like this serve on the Executive Board of the United States Chess Federation.
This Sloan guy seems to be more horrible than Kramnik ! 🙂
I agree that it would be horrible if mr sloan showed up at one of your tournaments.
just having him associated with uscf is horrible.
I dont think they can force him from his position. they have to wait for Beatice Marinello to serve out her time also.
USCF is a disgrace. he should not have been allowed to run. how did he ever get on the ballot.
I did get a ballot. and I voted the same day. I did not vote for sam sloan.
When I heard that Shahade did not get a ballot it looked fishy to me too.
just who are the people who voted for him. has anyone stood up and said they voted for his guy. maybe the entire election was totally fixed.
It is good to hear that people are waking up to the mess at uscf. but they seem to be able to ignore the public and do whatever they want.
getting this mess fixed is not going to be easy.
hmm…another screw up by uscf…why am i not suprised? How the heck did this guy get on the ballot is what i wanna know. I DIDNT GET A BALLOT!!! sunshine is right, this ballot thing seems very fishy…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Susan…I’m not American and this guy has absolutely nothing to do with me..but..I had no idea who this guy was before you started mentioning him on your site. I checked out his site to see what he was all about. And you know what? you’re right.There are a lot of crazy people in power though…(I won’t name names..haha) American chess (and the world for that matter) is lucky you’re not shy with you words. Guys like this are dangerous…But what bothers me even more is the system that allows a person like this to develope. Perhaps he’s a sympton and not the disease…(shudder to think) Thanks for letting the world know about these kooky things. You’re great.
Mike Magnan
I looked at his website and this guy seems to be a crazy pervert. People like this are really dangerous
i did get the ballot but I did not vote because I did not know any of them.
So now that we agree that this person is a pervert, who are we supporting for next election?
I will recommend one thing, Susan. You should get an email address of people interested in chess from you.
You can send your mailing list free chess training stuff like tactics, openings and other information similar to your site.
This is a great way to send them information on who you endorse come election time.
In any case, we should take steps come next election this does not happen again.
No confidence of vote for Mr. Sloan! Outrageous records from Mr. Sloan’s history!
Thank-you for your efforts in exposing this character and USCF issue Susan. It is just what we need. It is a sad chapter in the USCF.
Take care,
Gregory Alexander
What an insane disgusting egomaniac?
The fact that he can put stuff up on his website and garner even one vote from another civil human being is mind-boggling!!!!!
Actually, the USCF election is not a done deal yet. The delegates meeting has to certify the election at the US open. Most of the delegates don’t even show up at the US open. If all USCF members put pressure on their respective state delegates not to certify this election, this will be annulled.
I, too, never heard of Sloan until reading it here. But you can look him up on his website, and more informatively, on Wikipedia and links from there. You can also read the candidate statements on the USCF website (apparently published in the June 2006 issue of Chess Life), in which part of Sloan’s position is to specifically attack three of the other candidates.
The man is an intelligent and accomplished but paranoid and twisted eccentric. In his many appearances in court, he seems to be convinced there’s some conspiracy against him and his family. While interesting to read up on, I agree with Susan that the man shouldn’t be in any position of influence.
I am not an expert on USCF procedures, but, from what I can gather, a person gets on the ballot by collecting a specified number of signatures and paying a fee. I am not an insider, but it strikes me as extremely unlikely that current members of the board wanted Sam Sloan to be on the board with them. There has been some discussion at the USCF forum about the choice of method to send the ballots. Here is a Nolan comment (Fri Jul 21, 2006 9:44 pm) from that discussion:
“A postcard might work for an EB election, it wouldn’t have worked this year, with 53 state elections to be held. The personalized ballot technique that we used this year (listing only the Delegate candidates for that state) probably wouldn’t work with a ballot in the magazine, because of postal regulations.
It is not clear how much it cost to put the ballot in Chess Life in the past. Jamie Anson estimated it at around $12,000 in 2003. Glenn Petersen thinks that is way too high, but he hasn’t come up with an exact cost either.
I’ve already had a discussion with Daniel Lucas about the possibility of having the ballot in the magazine next year. It’s on his list of things to discuss with the printer.
The changes that were made in how Chess Life is bundled might interfere with having the ballot in the magazine, assuming that we can get our printer to solve the other technical glitches that occurred the last two times we used that method.
Also, we received quite a few complaints from people who couldn’t find their ballot in the magazine. In 2005 some of those complaints were apparently justified, but I know of at least one case in 2004 in which a USCF staff member visited the individual complaining about not getting a ballot (a friend of his) and showed him where the ballot was in his June Chess Life.”
samikd said…
This Sloan guy seems to be more horrible than Kramnik ! 🙂
Kramnik???
He is one of the nicest guys out there. I take it you meant someone else?
I received a ballot and voted that same day. I, too, did not vote for Mr. Sloan, having both read all of the candidates’ statements and been given a heads-up about him from a trusted, long-time tournament organizer. It is very difficult for me to believe that Mr. Sloan garnered a winning number of votes without some kind of irregularity occurring. All one needs to do is to go to his web page and read it to see that he should not be in a position of leadership in anything.
A few thoughts/questions:
1. As the parent of a young chess player, we initially joined with a scholastic membership. I am assuming that that would not entitle you to vote in these elections? Or am I wrong about this?
2. There are tens of thousands of parents of young chess players who would be alarmed to learn that Sloan is in a position of leadership with the USCF but they are all on summer vacation mode so I’m not sure what you can do about reaching them now. The scholastic tournament season starts in September with the Winter Nationals in December and it sounds like it would be too late to take action then.
3. Young women players should be especially offended by this guy. Putting aside whether or not he is a pervert/sexual deviant/predator (and I am not willing to look at the creepier sounding links on his website), he is a sexist pig! I read one of his recent posts on the USCF website and he suggested putting photos of famous “girl chessplayers” on the cover. I’m sorry but I don’t think Susan Polgar, Judit Polgar, Irina Krush, Jennifer Shahade should be called “girl chessplayers.” Is this 2006?
4. In terms of contacting the USCF, to whom should we direct our communications? Even better, could someone who is computer savvy set up one of those web page petitions where you can sign in/leave comments? Alternatively, maybe Susan or someone else (any lawyers out there?) could draft a form letter to the USCF that anyone interested could copy and paste and make their own letter.
Hi Nychessmom,
I will do whatever I can to help. I can also set up a dedicated web application at http://www.tatiana.net/ if it would help. I promote chess to our kids, and teach chess in the classroom, as well as having a 7 year old daughter. I need to do something here. Susan would be the far best at promoting any idea though.
Susan, if you need web assistance with design, programming; or even hosting space, let me know. My conscious would bug me if I sat around and did nothing before the state delegates meet.
Gregory Alexander
These are the email of the USCF board members, ED, Scholastic Director, Scholastic Council and Attorneys:
chessdon, chessjoel, chessoffice, Rtannerae, bhall@uschess.org, jnash@ushess.org, HJWinston, BeatChess, amchesseq, aviv@vmerchant.net, stephenshutt@yahoo.com, coach_hawkinson@cox.net, hdsabine@citlink.net, nietmanm@aol.com
You should write to them!
Sloan’s election is a disgrace, I’ll agree, but I don’t think there’s anything that can be done about his election now. The delegates meeting won’t have any legal justification under the USCF bylaws to overturn the results, unless (as I understand it) deliberate malfeasance is show.
It looks like we’re stuck with him for the next year. Perhaps the only thing your foundation can do is to refuse to partner with USCF on any projects while Sloan is on the board, thus avoiding the taint.
What USCF really needs is a major house-cleaning, with all the old guard and tinpot politicians being thrown out.
Mr. Sloan lied to all USCF members about his background. He stated even as yesterday that he has no criminal record when he does. This is a flat out lie. He served time in jail. If someone lied to be elected, I think that’s enough ground not to certify the results.
I did not get a ballot or a chess-life magazine for the past 3 months! Does the USCF hate me or something?
The usenet post where Sloan claimed no criminal record was carefully worded; in context it meant no FEDERAL criminal record. His conviction was by a state court for some stuff that he did during a post-divorce child custody dispute. The details are complicated but both sides were doing weird things (as is typical in that type of battle) and I actually consider the conviction somewhat minor compared with other issues about him.
If you want to be disgusted, you should go check out some of the posts on the USCF Issues Forum relating to Sam Sloan. Some idiot who calls himself “artichoke” (maybe that is because his head contains vegetable matter instead of a functioning brain) seems to be taking the tack that even if it is true that Sloan has a predilection for young girls, that’s just some eccentric personality trait and won’t have anything to do with his actions on the USCF board. Where has this guy been? Hasn’t he heard about the multiple law suits against the Catholic Church because of some priests predilection for young boys? This artichoke guy and the others like him who voted for Sloan clearly think that Sloan is the man to get to the bottom of the financial problems of the USCF. (As if. You don’t need Sloan. You need a major forensic accounting firm.) He thinks that his sexual problems can be “contained.” Big news flash: Sexual predators don’t get cured. Does the USCF really want this guy roaming the halls of tournaments, possibly coming on to a young female chess player and getting a lawsuit for sexual harrassment or worse??????
I’m no lawyer, but it looks to me like this is not a valid election, since the bylaws explicitly say:
Section 5. Elections
A. Regular Elections. Executive Board members shall be elected by the Voting Members. Ballots for that purpose shall be included in an issue of Chess Life to be mailed prior to June 10 with ballots to be returned no later than July 5 of a year in which there is an election so that the ballots can be counted no later than July 20.
I’m going to suggest to my state delegate that this election be declared invalid. Perhaps we could do this in an organized fashion? Any ideas?
Please indulge me for a moment and consider the following scenario. Imagine that there is a large student chess tournament with teen age kids. Everyone is having fun, and this very nice person walks up to and congratulates an attractive young lady after her game. They start to talk. He has the gift of gab; funny, intelligent; and well spoken. The young lady is a little bit cautious around him though, her intuition tells her that he is not all that he seems. She is tempted to turn away. However, just when she is about to walk away, this guy tells her “I am also an Executive Board member for the USCF…” He offers to give her a few free lessons to help her improve her game…
Years later, you read this individual bragging about his exploit on the web.
Can you imagine this? Is this scenario really that far fetched? This is what I fear.
Gregory
They basically have to make a decision:
Me and thousands of members including young people or Mr. Sloan.
The battle is drawn. My integrity and the integrity of the SPF will not be compromised.
Best wishes,
Susan Polgar
http://www.PolgarChess.com
I personally think that Susan has an ethical obligation to entirely drop support for the USCF if Sam is duly elected. She works with our children, and her organization has to have a ‘kids first’ policy. You can’t exactly excite the mothers of our children by having an affiliation with another organization that just elected someone who likes to brag about ‘having’ under age girls in other countries, and posts there picture all over the internet; can you? This might not be the fault of any one in particular in the USCF, but it does not matter. If Sam serves on the EB, it will be a fact that the USCF does not take a ‘kids first’ policy. Therefore, I applaud her for making an ethical stand. IMO, Susan is doing what is necessary.
I contend that the USCF should immediately draft a ‘kids first’ policy. It can be quite simple, such as having an extra clause stating that ‘we will not allow anyone to serve, or represent the USCF that has in the past, or potentially could, harm young children. If there is a concern regarding a USCF employee, or representative, inform the USCF ethics board, and we will investigate this issue’ yada yada yada.
Take care,
Gregory
> Me and thousands of members including young people or Mr. Sloan.
As much as I lament the election of Mr. Sloan, assuming he was elected “fair and square”, I think there are limits as to how far this should be taken. If we all quit every organization that we had some disagreement with, no organization would have any members. I know people talked about leaving the USA because George W. Bush is president, but for the most part that doesn’t happen. I’m sure that there are many corporations that many of us support or patronize that have business dealings that we might find objectionalbe, or executives with less than perfect resumes.
If there are grounds to declare Mr. Sloan’s election null and void, then I would hope those avenues would be pursued. But, if not, hopefully in a year (when his term will expire) USCF voters will be better informed (and kudos to Susan and others for pointing out this issues) and will elect better candidates. But a mass defection from the USCF doesn’t seem like the answer. On a related note, did anyone leave the USCF over the highly controversial articles by Tim Taylor (where he referred to his involvment with prostitutes while playing at chess tournaments) that were published in Chess Life a year or so ago?
By the way, Bobby Fischer has made some incredibly racist, hateful, and offensive statements in the past, and there are plenty of chessplayers out there that will continue to defend him because he was a great chessplayer, and criticized the USCF for revoking his membership.
Anonymous said
If we all quit every organization that we had some disagreement with, no organization would have any members. I know people talked about leaving the USA because George W. Bush is president, but for the most part that doesn’t happen.
I think the point here is not that the USCF risks losing Susan’s membership. What they risk losing is my potential membership (I have been an outsider, considering joining, for about 3 years), and more importantly the potential memberships of thousands of scholastic members. I am personally not looking forward to convincing parents whose kids who just want some tournament time to join this organization, and it looks like I can kiss corporate sponsorship goodbye for at least a year.
As promised, I’ve contacted my state delegates. I suggest you do to – that’s why they’re there.