Under the leadership of USCF President Bill Goichberg, Vice President Jim Berry, VP of Finance Randy Bauer and Executive Director Bill Hall, the USCF lost approximately 1,500 members (according to Mike Nolan) in February in comparison to 12 months ago and almost $420,000 (according to USCF Chief Financial Officer Joe Nanna) in the first 7 months of this fiscal year.
In the month of March, the USCF lost 2,049 members. In the month of April, the USCF lost another 2344 members! The USCF membership was nearly 96,000 in 2003 and it is less than 80,000 right now!
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Why are they allowed to run again if they caused so many problems for this federation?
Bill Goichberg and Jim Berry want another 4 years. They’re running again.
That isn’t the right question.
Any one can run.
The question is why would the members vote to have them in for another term?
You can’t place the blame fully on them. In an economy undergoing recession, paying chess dues goes out the window.
In reply to “Anonymous” @ 4:34:00, I would point out that George W. Bush was elected twice… no one can figure out why for either instance…
As I life member, I’m disgusted with how Mr. Goichberg and Mr. Berry are handling members’ money. Nothing will change unless the members toss them out or file a class action against these individuals.
The USCF needs to be disbanded.
It is way too dysfunctional.
I’m tired how we are held hostage to USCF simply because
– it has control of ratings
– it holds our national representation in FIDE.
USCF-run businesses (magazines, tournaments, store, etc) have all had financial problems.
Free our ratings and free our national representation from the shackles of the inept USCF!!!
Goichberg has no problem making big money for his company Continental Chess. But when he took over the top USCF spot, he abused members’ funds repeatedly for his own political gain. The USCF is paying his buddy Jerry Hanken $$$$ to write articles about CCA events. Mike Atkins also wrote about CCA events. Why?
When will the corruption end? I’m tired of the same people spending federation’s money like their own personal account. Time for Goichberg, Berry and Hall to go.
This election I will be very careful that those I vote for are good people who oppose the old corruption. If I can not find 4 people opposed to corruption then I will vote for less than 4.
I will not vote for anyone that Goichberg supports. I will not vote for the funny farm four. Goichberg, Sloan, Mottershead, Lafferty.
I am a life member. I play chess every day. Chess is such a wonderful game. I am sick and tired of the corruption. Susan is my only hope for an honest future for chess.
Chess deserves a lot better than Goichberg running uscf for his own personal gains.
Can anyone point me to a source of information about this alleged “corruption”? Thank you in advance.
You’re joking, right? Goichberg is using the USCF for personal gains. He’s using USCF money for his own political agenda.
Berry is clueless. He does what Goichberg says. So does Hough and Hall. They vote with Goichberg 99% of the time.
When you don’t pay to play with Bill, he’ll use USCF money to go after you. Just ask Larry Evans and Susan Polgar.
What is Bill G’s “personal agenda”? Maybe I am just naive. I personally have had it with the back and forth bickering between Polgar and Goichberg without knowing WHY it’s happening in the first place. So that’s why I asked where I could find information.
I like what Polgar has done for chess, and I voted for her last election, but I don’t want to vote anyone onto the USCF board anymore without knowing some facts.
I cannot say for sure, but I suspect both parties are at fault. Randy Bauer has expressed dissatisfaction with Susan, and he’s not anyone’s lackey.
Bauer? Dissatisfaction? Are you serious? He’s the most incompentent VP of Finance ever. He lost his reelection to Sam Sloan until Polgar carried him in the last election. This is a lifelong politician who would do anything to advance.
Isn’t it amazing that all these corrupt and crooked people have nothing to say about the USCF attorney doctoring court evidence? Even the NY Times refused to print anything which could damage Goichberg and his gang. But all of them have no problem smearing GM Polgar dozens of times daily on rec.games and the USCF forums.
Here are the only candidates who are not corrupt:
IM Blas Lugo
WIM Ruth Haring
Eric Hecht
Mikhail Korenman
Mike Nietman
The rest of them will only make the USCF go under.
I like those five candidates too. They all seem like they are straight shooters who are not in Goichberg’s pocket or payroll and also not from the rgcp troll group or from the I just joined the USCF 5 minutes ago group. But there are only four slots open, no?
I guess we’ll know more about those 5 candidates in the coming months. A vote for Goichberg, Berry, Lafferty, Mottershead, Sloan, or Atkins is a vote to continue the same USCF as usual.
The fact is that Bill Goichberg is just completing four years as USCF President, four years of failure and enormous financial losses. By even conservative calculations, the USCF has lost more than $500,000 during the four years that Bill Goichberg has been USCF President. That is half a million dollars. Before then, Bill Goichberg was executive director and before that he was Vice-President and a board member. We have a decade of failure under Bill Goichberg and the time has come for him to go back to running chess tournaments which he is quite good at and let the running of the USCF as a business go to serious business people.
only vote for one candidate. That way you effectivly vote against the others
Here is ONE example of why I am no longer a member. Some time ago the USCF announced a competition to design the first US Chess postage Stamp. Our scholastic Chess Club sent in enteries. Not one student even received an acknowledgment of receipt. They put in lots of effort and were completely ignored. This is SOP for the USCF. They are getting exactly what they deserve. They take the grassroots money and cater only to high ranking players.
I would like to support the USCF Store, but they charge $10 to ship a book! Obviously, the Store part of the USCF is out-of-touch and likely other parts are too.
I wouldnt be surprised if he gets reelected. In a country where people thought plausible electing Sarah Palin as Vice President …
Its time to give goichberg and the mob their due time on cnn. If this ever got on cnn, uscf will be done!
I am just beginning to follow this ongoing chess controversy regarding the board (fake postings / undisclosed marriages / disastrous financial decisions etc.). I have seen numerous conclusions without any basis to the conclusion. Please someone, support your conclusions with facts so that I can reach my own conclusion. As an example, when challenging Mr. Goichberg as corrupt please answer the following question: Mr. G is corrupt because . . . . The information you provide in place of the ellipsis will be more important than your conclusion. Thanks so much to all of you.
Dear Voting Member,
I wish I could believe what the President and Vice President of the USCF have written to you during this election cycle, but I am writing to tell you that I cannot. They are not openly lying to you, in my opinion, but they are transferring their own massive confusion and misunderstandings of fact to voting members. Our most experienced financial analysts are telling us that we have a financial problem. Schultz, and Goichberg are telling you that we do not.
The facts are clear. Schultz and Goichberg are wrong.
It is small wonder that voters are getting distinctly different accounts of the USCF’s financial status. The leaders of the organization, the very people you ought to be able to trust, are openly, if not intentionally, misleading you. I wish that Don Schultz and Bill Goichberg had not chosen to make Mike Cavallo’s performance in issue in this campaign, but they have.
They Are Wrong About Our Debt
Mike Cavallo has openly boasted about adding $300,000 in capital improvements while maintaining the same level of debt during his tenure in office. Bill Goichberg wrote to you and stated pretty much the same thing, citing the capital improvements and putting the addition debt figure at $78,000. The problem is that this is simply not the case. I wish to again stress that I do not believe that either Cavallo or Goichberg are intentionally lying to you. I believe that they are confused.
When I asked Bill to justify the figure he cited in his letter, it became apparent that he was double counting a $200,000 liability. He counted it first separately and then again under accounts payable. Mike Cavallo was making the same, rather elementary, mistake. His handling of these capital improvements is open to question, but even granting the assumption that they were handled competently, the contention that the debt level remained the same while doing so is ludicrous.
The latest USCF Operations balance sheet available to me is that of April, 1999. Our notes payable (loans) total $464,644.97 this year as opposed to $175,000 last year, which is an increase of $290,000 (rounded). This is from last year to this year! It is absurd to try to blame, as both Cavallo and Schultz repeatedly have done, previous administrations for what we are responsible for today. One is normally allowed a one year grace period, for scapegoating a previous administration, but I think it peculiar to President Schultz to have done so for his entire term of office.
The other big ticket liability item is accounts payable. This April the figure is $432,771.36, while last April it was $225,045.11. The rounded difference is $208,000. We owe more people more money, and we are not paying what we owe in a timely manner.
Simply by adding notes payable to accounts payable, it is crystal clear that we owe close to a half million dollars more than we did last year at this same time!. Cavallo and Goichberg may try to tell you otherwise, but the facts are against them.
They’re Wrong About the Candidates
This increase in debt would be a trend that reasonable people would be concerned about. Yet we have our President calling Steve Doyle’s financial analysis reckless, Goichberg relentlessly mounting personal attacks against the Treasurer, and both Goichberg and Schultz trying to convince voters that it is the candidates themselves who are exaggerating our problems!. What is really reckless is the continuing cycle of first denial and then scapegoating seen throughout the Schultz administration.
Perhaps I’m being unfair. When considering liabilities one ought to also consider assets. Our cash on hand is $7,872.41, which is insufficient to meet payroll, let alone pay down our line of credit! In March two checks were credited as paid accounts, but the checks were kept locked in the office safe until they could clear. This is not in accordance with the generally acceptable principals of accounting, and a further symptom of our cash flow problems. No, I’m not making this up.
If we are struggling to simply pay our bills today following the cash rich Christmas selling season, how are we going to survive the cash poor summer months? More loans?
They Are Wrong All Over Again
Bill Goichberg and Don Schultz have been misrepresenting the facts to voters, and this has led to some confusion. For me personally, this is Deja Vu all over again.
Many of you know that I consider Tom Dorsch a hero. Way back in 1996, he blew the whistle on office management and the federation’s finances. Goichberg and Schultz reacted in their now all too familiar patterns. Don blamed somebody, anybody else, and Bill launched into personal attacks against Dorsch, which have been unrelenting for nearly three years now.
The counter attack against Dorsch culminated in the 12/23/96 motion to remove the Treasurer from core responsibilities inherent to his office. They made the dubious argument that there was no intrinsic relationship between finances and the office of the Treasurer. In a word they tried to shut him up.
Tom did not shut up, but carried on despite the continued attempts to destroy his credibility. His voice grew increasingly more strident. Finally he was vindicated. Five past presidents asked the delegates to formally restore the powers of the Treasurer and they did so by acclamation.
When Mike Cavallo was hired he explained to Goichberg and Schultz that Tom had been correct, or if anything, Tom had been understating the extent of our problems at the time. Mike did an excellent job of controlling expenses in his first year and we seemed headed in the right direction. This proved to be an illusion.
They Were Wrong About Profitability
Both Cavallo, in a press release, and Schultz in his president’s report made extravagant claims as to our profitability. I’ve enclosed those documents as addenda. Our audited financial statement for last year showed a deficit of over $20,000. Where were the profits they predicted? Were they lying? I don’t think so, I think they were confused. Incidentally, these misimpression’s were never corrected, and remain, to this day, what many voters consider to be the facts.
Expense cutting, Mike’s strength, can only take an organization so far. At some point it has to produce sufficient revenue to fuel growth. We remained in a period of stagnation and decline. This year it caught up to us.
Deja Vu Part Two: They Are Wrong Again
In our December, 1998 Board meeting, Treasurer Tom Dorsch again informed the Board of a looming financial crisis. He was immediately attacked by Goichberg. Goichberg demonstrated his ignorance of the situation by issuing an Internet posting that claimed that the deficit was primarily due to stock market fluctuations. He added that we might even run a surplus!
Dorsch asked for the finance committee to review his work, and it turned out that the people with actual financial credentials agreed with Tom and not Bill. They recommended an emergency meeting to be held at the site of the US Amateur Team East.
They Were Wrong to Not Attend
Goichberg and Schultz skipped the meeting. No, I am not making that up. Schultz was actually in the building, but chose not to attend Apparently, these officers of the federation were disinterested in helping to determine the fate of the organization.
They Are Wrong About Dorsch
Perhaps a few of you are beginning to understand why Dorsch becomes frustrated from time to time. Schultz and a Board majority have done everything in their power to frustrate the Treasurer. They consider it a political victory when they aggravate him so much that they get another sound bite!
Dorsch has been right on the issues all along. They are reduced to trying tomake Dorsch an issue. We’ve already seen some of the twenty promised hit letters. Why are they so afraid of this guy?
First Dorsch blows the whistle on problems that everyone now routinely agrees were problems, and they try to strip the guy of his responsibilities. Then we think things are getting better under Cavallo, until we learn that Cavallo and Schultz were playing with fantasy figures last year. They were completely inaccurate, but never issued retractions. After the auditor discovered all the accounting errors in our big turn around year we ended up with a deficit! (I believe that Schultz will be the first President to run a deficit in each of his three years in office.)
When Dorsch blows the whistle on problems in the office and with our finances in December, 1998 Schultz and Goichberg respond with denials and personal attacks. This whole time Schultz and Goichberg are uncritically accepting of whatever Cavallo tells them, and escalating their attempts to discredit Dorsch. It is small wonder that Tom crosses the line from time to time.
These people are infuriating!
Yet, they control the press releases, the web site and the pages of Chess Life. They are confused, but they have the power. Dorsch has valiantly
fought the good fight against the entrenched powers that be, at great personal cost. He is a hero.
They Are Wrong About Next Year’s Budget Too
The biggest travesty of our May, 1999 budget meeting involved the funding for the (alleged) FIDE World Team Tournament. Cavallo proposed funding $30,000 for the event. It turns out that there is no such tournament this year! Who is our Board FIDE liaison? Don Schultz. These guys are confused.
They are telling us that everything is under control, but confusion reigns supreme. I predict that these sorts of mistakes will increase in frequency in the future, because of a misguided policy concerning office staffing. We are hoping to balance the books on the backs of people who are already overworked and underpaid.
http://georgejohn.bcentralhost.com/Geor … s/je1.html
This was a letter from Eade
They Are Wrong About Our Staffing Needs
There have been two primary responses to the financial crisis that Cavallo, Goichberg and Schultz are pretending does not exist. First, they cut pages in Chess Life. Second, they are letting people go without replacing them.
We can argue the wisdom of cutting one of the few tangible membership services in an era of membership stagnation and decline, but I am most
concerned about the disregard for the professional staff. Theirs is the smallest voice of all. Who will argue for them?
If you guessed that I would, you would be correct. The club director left, the associate director Eric Johnson has gone, and our accountant followed soon after. There is a trend here and it is not a healthy one.
There is no intention on the part of the team of Cavallo, Goichberg and Schultz to replace these people. They are simply asking others to do more with less. Again. This policy is already backfiring. Morale is at or near an all time low. People are discovering that there are better opportunities elsewhere, and the USCF is simply no longer a good employer.
It has long been accepted that we need two executives in the office. We’ve been operating with only one, and he is only in the office three days a week on average. We went from two directors and near universe coverage to an environment where Mike’s absenteeism has really caused problems.
We need to hire a number two person. Mike cannot do the job by himself, and I would argue that no one can be successful in that job by themselves. Mike can continue to hold down expenses, as the de facto comptroller, but we clearly must have a Marketing Executive to capitalize on revenue opportunities, if we are to recover and sustain our fiscal health.
Above all else, don’t continue to balance the books on the backs of the people who remain. Get them some help.
They Are Wrong that Smear Tactics Will Work
Or, at least I hope they’re wrong about that. Goichberg is working harder to defeat Dorsch now than Bill did for his own candidacy in 1996. His personal vendetta has stretched almost to three years. He has used personal attacks, Ken Starr tactics such his Ethics filing, and hit letters to bring Dorsch down.
Do you really think it is because Dorsch has a sharp tongue and doesn’t pull his punches? Or is that Bill understands that his time is past and that Dorsch represents change. Bill belongs in our Hall of Fame for his many contributions over many, many years, but he has been wrong on the issues right down the line during his current Board service. The Internet is our future, but Bill will not profit from it, and he has been frustratingly slow to grasp it. It is time for Bill to get out of the way.
Instead, he orchestrates a nation wide campaign of hate. He digs up people like this Babcock person to write his hit letters for him and ensures that every voting member sees it. You will find my response to her holier than thou screed at the end of this mailing.
Bill has managed to win some share of small triumphs, such as getting the Ethics committee to slap Tom’s wrist with a reprimand. I do not consider Bill to be a white collar criminal, and I wish that Tom would not make such remarks, but I would much rather have Dorsch, warts and all, leading us into the future, than have the Schultz/Goichbergs clinging desperately to the past.
They’ve controlled the media, but the haven’t told you the truth.. Don’t believe them, and don’t let them confuse you.
—————————–
Watch out for the mudslide!
While the overwhelming majority of USCF Delegates enthusiastically welcomed the changes proposed by the Blue Ribbon Committee on USCF Governance Reform, there was determined resistance from the small but vocal group that weilds extraordinary power and influence in the USCF. I call this group “the special interests.” The special interests failed in their attempt to derail the reform movement, but they have not abandoned their efforts. This is seen by the fact that the first election under the new system this year has been nastier and more personal than any election since at least 1978.
The special interests have targeted the reform candidates, in particular this writer. In Hawaii (1998 US Open), I was promised by Jerry Hanken that he and his colleagues would generate “twenty hit letters” and guarantee my defeat if I chose to run. Although at the time I was leaning against running—three years like the last three is punishment enough for trying to better the organization—I then knew that I had to make the race.
Sure enough, the special interests have fulfilled their pledge to make this a nasty campaign. They have two objectives: to discredit the new reform bylaws, and to exercize veto power over a candidate who has been immune to all their bribes, blandishments, and threats. If their “twenty hit letter” strategy succeeds, we can look forward to this type of mudslinging as a permanent feature of USCF elections, because any strategy that succeeds will never be voluntarily abandoned.
The personal attacks rely on the strategy of taking statements out of context, slightly altered, or misinterpreted—even sometimes completley abricated—to try to show that the victim has bad character.
USCF Treasurer Tom Dorsch
Misrepresentations in Goichberg’s Campaign Statement
The April Chess Life has just arrived and the campaign statement of USCF President Bill Goichberg is on page 35.
After recounting his long record as a tournament player and organizer, only in the final sentence does Goichberg say what he has actually accomplished. He states: “While Office and Manager and executive
Director, USCF improved from approximately $400,000 debt to $200,000 surplus, not counting building sale, with record profits in fiscal 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 after seven consecutive years of losses.”
There is a lot omitted from this. The so called “profit” comes from mostly two items: First, the “gift” of “free land” valued at $264,000 by the City of Crossville. However, that was an Indian Gift, as the USCF cannot sell the land and thus has no real right of ownership. Secondly: Most of the cash profit was the sale of the building in New Windsor for $513,000. Since the building that the USCF had owned for 37 years had been depreciated down to nearly zero, the proceeds from the sale was almost all “profit”.
However, then the USCF proceeded to build a much smaller building for $650,000 in Crossville Tennessee, which we now cannot sell because we do not own the land under it, so we are now $137,000 in the hole plus we are locked onto Crossville.
Also, Bill Goichberg was just an employee then, so he cannot take full credit for this. Much of the credit must go to the board, which was in opposition to Goichberg much of the time.
More importantly, Goichberg makes no mention of his four years as USCF President from 2005 to 2009. The reason he does not mention this is obvious: The USCF has lost more than a half million dollars during the four years that Goichberg has been president. The USCF has just been bailed out by the $350,000 bequest which has already been almost completely spent. Otherwise, the USCF would be nearly bankrupt now.
Sam Sloan
Harry, with all due respect, you just joined the USCF for the first time about three years ago. You seem to be suggesting that all the problems that the USCF faces are because of me. You even suggest that I should be kicked out of the USCF. You are stating that, if only I and a few other miscreants would go away or be kicked out, “The USCF would be in very good shape financially, the Executive Board, Staff,
and members would be considering, how to correct other problems and how to promote the Game of Chess and it’s Players of all ages”, and everything would be just hunky dory.
If you would read a little more and write a little less you would find out that these problems go back a long time. These are not new developments. I first joined the USCF in 1956. Like most other members, I stayed out of chess politics and did not even bother to keep track of the elections for the first 40 years until 1996. It was then that I realized that there were serious problems and I started to get involved.
The problems I thought we had then are trivial compared to what we have now. Actually, the year 1996 when things seemed bad was actually the peak in terms of memberships, revenues and sales. We were profitable up until then. It was then that the downward slide began.
You will note that Bill Goichberg’s candidates statement says, “with record profits in fiscal 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 after seven consecutive years of losses.” Do a little math. Seven years before 2003 was 1996. That was the last profitable year. That was also the year when Bill Goichberg was first elected Vice President of the USCF. Goichberg was Vice-president from 1996 to 1999 and now has been President from 2005 until now. In every one of the seven years that Goichberg has been on the board, the USCF has suffered huge losses, whereas all the years leading up to 1996 were highly profitable. Also, as Tim Redman has pointed out in another thread, during the 1996-1999 period although it seemed like the losses were minor, only $20,000 in one year, in reality our losses in operations were huge, over $300,000
in one year, but were shielded by big stock market gains, as the LMA was mostly invested in stocks. Because of the profits in the stock market, an outsider reading the financial statements would think that we were doing OK. Then, when the stock market started going down, the operating losses added to the stock market losses created huge deficits.
So, altogether, for the total of seven years that Goichberg has been on the board, three as vice-president and four as president, the USCF has suffered close to a million dollars in total operating losses, but Harry Payne, a newcomer, thinks that Goichberg is doing a great job and will vote for him and thinks that everything would be sweetness and light if only that Sam Sloan were kicked out of the USCF so he could not bother these people any more.
Since Bill Goichberg’s statement that the Federation didn’t start to lose money until the last year (fy 99) that you were both on the Board didn’t jive with my memory, and since you also have a different recollection, I went back to check the audited financials. Here is what I discovered:
1996-1997 (fy 97)
Increase or (Decrease) in Net USCF Assets: (117,542).
Gain or (Loss) resulting from LMA investments: 120,601.
Gain or (Loss) due to Operations: (238,143).
Thus for that year, LMA gains masked operational losses.
1997-1998 (fy 98)
Increase or (Decrease) in Net USCF Assets: (2,916).
Gain or (Loss) resulting from LMA Investments: 101,283.
Gain (or Loss) due to Operations: (104,244).
Thus for that year, LMA gains masked operational losses.
1998-1999 (fy 99)
Increase or (Decrease) in Net USCF Assets: (226,505).
Gain or (Loss) resulting from LMA Investments: 148,033.
Gain or (Loss) due to Operations: (374,538).
Thus for that year, too, the third year in a row, LMA gains masked operational losses.
LMA gains or losses are due to the actions of the LMA Committee which acts independently of the Board. Operational gains or losses are under the control of the Board and management.
One anecdote. In Istanbul at the Olympiad in Fall of 2000, Sam Sloan approached me expressing serious concern about LMA losses. I’m afraid that he was shocked when I shrugged him off, but my view was that the LMA operated completely outside of Board control and thus I couldn’t do anything about it. In fact, LMA lost (98,096) in 2000-2001 (fy 2001).
Therefore, using the audited financial statements, we can see that serious operational losses started in 1996-1997, and for three years they were masked by gains in the LMA Fund.
Cordially,
Tim Redman
Former USCF President
I eliminated Atkins because he has worked for Goichberg for over 10 years. I see him as a Goichberg vote. His resume in chess life is neutral. nothing great so I will play it safe and pass him this election.
The other 4 seem solid and good. But I too am open to suggestions.
I should add that my vote for Hecht, Lugo and Korenman are solid. Rock Solid. The only other one to consider pass would be Nietman because I know less about him. But his Chess Life statement shows him to be head and shoulders above Atkins. Nietman has the experience. So that makes things pretty solid for me.
The rejections of
Sloan, Mottershead, Lafferty, Goichberg, Berry, Haring were easy. Well I picked up on Haring supporting the lawsuits also and rejected her for that also. She was brought in by Goichberg. I feel confident that in a vote Atkins will vote to keep the lawsuits going. He has simply avoided the issue so far. But he will have to support Goichberg and the lawsuits if he wants to keep his job and friendship.
I wish I could print up my analysis in Chess Life. Some people might not be so well informed if they only use the magazine.
Don’t worry Obama will take over the USCF from us arrogant americans!!. He will fix everthing!.
It would be nice to have truthful answers from Mr. Goichberg, Mr. Hall and Mr. Jim Berry.
1. Did Mr. Hall make a deal to send out discount certificates from other vendors to new USCF members while under contract with Chess Cafe?
2. How long did this go on while under contract with Chess Cafe?
3. How many discount certificates did the USCF send out?
4. Was this one of the issues in the Chess Cafe lawsuit?
5. How much money has the USCF lost so far because of the B and E problem?
6. Was the reduction of Chess Life another issue in the Chess Cafe lawsuit?
7. How much money has the USCF spent so far in legal fees for the B and E issue with Chess Cafe?
I’m looking forward to knowing the truthful answers by Bill Goichberg, Bill Hall and Jim Berry.
Lafferty said the following in a number of places:
“The USCF has flatly rejected this crass attempt by Susan Polgar to keep the USCF membership uninformed…”
But the same USCF (which is controlled by Goichberg, Hall, Jim Berry and Bauer) is desperately trying to hide the screw ups by Bill Goichberg, Jim Berry and Bill Hall with the ChessCafe deal, something which will cost the members perhaps more than $100,000!
It’s Bill Hall and Bill Goichberg who were directly involved in violating the exclusive contract with their vendor. If it’s false, these guys would have gone on the record to attack the people who brought it up. Let Bill Hall and Bill Goichberg go on the record to deny that there wasn’t any discount coupon from another vendor sent to USCF members while under an exclusive contract with ChessCafe. I bet you $100 they won’t ever publicly admit to their screw ups. This is their pattern in the past. They obviously can’t deny it because it’s true and if they lie on in writing, they would face legal problems. And they can’t ask all the USCF members who received this coupon to destroy it. So there are ample evidence out there.
It’s Bauer who wants the tough and direct questions yanked while they work together to lie about Polgar without any evidence. Is this how they honor their fiduciary duty, to deliberately lie to members and waste their money for frivolous lawsuits against their political opponents? None of them could give even one piece of evidence against Polgar but they’re quick to claim that she’s guilty.
It is Lafferty, Mottershead, Jim Berry, Bill Hall, and Bill Goichberg who got the USCF in more than half a dozen lawsuits. But you won’t hear them report that to the USCF members. How long before the same gang will jump in to defend Lafferty’s lies?
Candidate wants USCF B&E dead:
I have bought all my books equipment and software from USCF also. I have always been loyal to USCF.
Now what Lafferty says really gets me angry. This from a candidate for EB. Posted on the USCF Forum no less.
BrianLafferty wrote:
My only loyalty in buying any kind of chess supplies is my wallet.
Basically he admits he has no loyalty to USCF.
Easy question to answer. Go to USCF search and you get Lafferty.
He tells people on the USCF Forum to go to other specific sites. He undermines the USCF book sales.
Lafferty is a big laugh. He is at most 2 years a member and immediately wants to run the place. He caused so much runkus at the cycle site that apparently he was either thrown out or asked to leave or dismissed. Somehow they took action to get rid of him.
The way things are going, I may wind up bailing out USCF all by myself (smiley icon).
But everyone has a plan (or an agenda) for chess and sometimes I agree with parts of plans from people who are opposed to one another. San Sloan tries to scare us by saying Chess Life as a magazine may stop publishing. That’s news? The paper-publishing industry has hit on VERY hard times, not counting all the printouts I run off for my classes.
I hope I hear some specific ideas of what people in the election can do for the USCF or at least chess in America, not attacks on other people. SO far, aside from the attacks, I have mostly read (after one issue) the candidates talking about themselves. That’s like the Titanic trying to avoid the iceberg instead of ramming it.
Personally, I love what Polgar-Truong do for chess here in Lubbock and wonder if it could be done all over the country, but I won’t get a chance to find out if their supporters and opponents tear out each others’ throats.
Goichberg and Hanken are fine essayists in writing stories about big tournaments/ That’s no small thing, becuas3e I have told some of my tenth graders to try to write up their own games for English writing and I bet they would turn out some interesting stuff (apologies to others, but there is too much of giving out lines and not enough of motivation and feeling, which helps make chess writing interesting). But that’s really all I know about them. About other people, even less. C’mon people. We want “meat” in our chess writing. We want “meat” in the proposals for the Federation.
Anyway, enough of the rant.
I would vote for IM Blas Lugo simply because I know him (in “real life”) down here in Florida. He is a gentleman and has an excellent mind for business. He has organized countless tournaments in South Florida and they all are run smoothly and efficiently. Plus he’s very highly rated (has he gotten his third GM norm yet? I forget) — and wouldn’t you prefer to see leadership who actually loves the game, and has the title to prove it?
I would also vote for Susan Polgar.
This is an utterly unsolicited endorsement.
By far the best 4 to vote for are Hecht, Lugo, Neitman, Korenman. They are good for chess. They will work with Susan to fix the problems at the USCF.
Definitely throw out the others. You will never end the corruption by voting for the corrupt.
I am a life member for 20 years and follow all the USCF news closely. The USCF is run keeping everything hidden from the members. Goichberg has probably lost a million dollars these past few years. I think the half a million is a very low estimate. When you include the million dollars he intends to waste on lawsuits for his personal political agenda the loses will probably bankrupt the USCF.
Goichberg hates scholastic chess except to take their money. He throws tournaments for adults. If anyone likes to see young kids do well in chess then vote against Goichberg and Berry. Berry opposed the scholastic community in Oklahoma for years. Terrible scandal as he opposed the official USCF organization in OK and started up a competiting organization because he would not give any recognition to scholastic players. He has done nothing for scholastic players. This isn a part of the hidden agenda of corruption.
Mark these names down.
Hecht, Lugo, Neitman, Korenman