Problems and Solutions

mnibb wrote:

Would any candidates care to post or repost what they consider to be the 3 most important things they would like to achieve for the USCF and how they would attempt to achieve them? I’m pretty sure we have seen some of this and if you don’t want to post again, that’s fine. Just an opportunity to keep your ideas fresh in your minds and ours.

Here is the answer from FM Paul Truong:

1. Create Fiscally Responsible, Sound and Balanced Budget as well as Effective Spending: It is ridiculous that the USCF keeps on losing money. This is not acceptable. We need results, not excuses. I have proven that we do not need to overspend to achieve results. We just need to pay attention to the details and be willing to self evaluate what works and what does not work and improve things immediately. The current system simply does not work. The left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. We need to stop wasteful spending. We cannot continue the tax and spend strategy. We need to be much more conservative with our budget and money.

2. Create and Implement Effective Marketing, PR and Promotion: This will potentially help increase memberships, revenues and sponsorships. It does not make sense to keep on fighting about a dollar here and there while there is a large untouched market out there. The big problem is not the dues. The big problem is many do not feel that they are getting their money’s worth. While we do have many things to offer, how can everyone know if we don’t tell them? Most people cannot even find information on the website.

3. Reach out to the Local Affiliates, State Chapters and Volunteer Base to create and maintain a strong support and relationship with membership groups such as adult, scholastic, collegiate, correspondence, military and internet chess. We are not utilizing and doing enough to maximize our support groups. Many want and can help. All these membership groups will affect each other in the future.

For example: Scholastic –> Youth –> College –> Adult (correspondence or military and many are interested in email or Internet chess regardless of the age, etc.) We need to partner up with others such as ICC, FICS, WCN, ChessGames, ChessMail, and PlayChess, etc. We can do non-exclusive co-promotional agreements which will not cost us a penny but will bring us incredible results. This way, the drop off rate will be minimized and the revenues will increase.

And in all three of the areas above, the board MUST MUST MUST conduct themselves with respectability, integrity, credibility and professionalism.