U.S. Chess Federation Elects New Officers
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Joan DuBois
August 6, 2007
931-787-1234 #123
Press Release #21 of 2007
jdubois@uschess.org
(Crossville, TN) The USCF has new officers for the next two years. Former Women’s World Champion Susan Polgar has just been elected as the first ever Chairman of the USCF. Grandmaster Susan Polgar is the winner of four Women’s World Championships and ten Olympiad medals (5 Gold, 4 Silver and 1 Bronze). She was the first woman to break the gender barrier to earn the Grandmaster title with the same qualifications as her male counterpart. She was also the first woman to qualify for the Men’s World Championship cycle. Susan became the #1 woman player in the world at the age of 15 and has remained in the top 3 for 23 straight years. She is currently the Executive Director of the Texas Tech SPICE (Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence) program. She is also the Head Coach of the Texas Tech Knight Raiders chess team.
Current USCF President Bill Goichberg has just been reaffirmed of his position. He was elected to the USCF Executive Board in August 2005. He received his Bachelor of Arts from NY University in 1963. He played in his first chess tournament in 1961 and he holds the title of National Master and FIDE Master. Between 1964 and 1967, Bill worked in the USCF office located then in Manhattan, as Ratings Statistician. He worked again in the USCF in 2004 as a volunteer in the position of Executive Director. Bill has and continues to dedicate his life to promoting chess. He is also a premier tournament organizer in the United States.
Mr. Jim Berry has been elected as Vice President of the USCF. He is a retired stockbroker and presently serves on the Board of Directors of the billion dollar Stillwater National Bank. He played his first USCF game in 1962. Since 1991, he has played in over 230 tournaments including last four U.S. Open Championships. He has also directed over 75 chess tournaments. He twice rescued OK state chapter affiliate from bankruptcy. Since 2002, he found sponsors for over $125,000 prize funds for chess, including the recent US and US Women’s Championships.
Mr. Randy Bauer has been elected as Vice President of Finance. He has over 20 years of professional experience in budget and finance, including nearly 7 years as budget director for the State of Iowa. During that time, the State received multiple national awards for innovation and excellence in its budget processes and financial reporting. He has been actively involved as a chess player, coach, director, writer, editor, and elected state and national representative for over 30 years. He is a life member of the USCF, a national master, former Iowa state champion and Minnesota junior, junior high and senior high champion. As a competitor, he has won over 30 Grand Prix tournaments.
Mr. Paul Truong has been elected as Vice President of Marketing and Communications. He has twenty years of experience in senior management, marketing and PR, specializing in branding, customer retention, advertising and innovative promotion. He is a National Master and FIDE Master with numerous national championship titles. His chess experiences include co-authoring best-selling chess books, coaching national scholastic and Olympiad champions, organizing many high profile chess events, being an award-winning chess journalist and photographer. Paul was the captain and business manager of the historic 2004 Silver Medalist U.S. Women’s Olympiad Team. Paul currently is the Director of Marketing and PR for Texas Tech SPICE program. He is also the Assistant Coach for the Texas Tech Knight Raiders chess team.
Mr. Joel Channing has been elected as Vice President of Business Development. He has an impressive resume which includes, Channing and Channing, Architects and Engineers between 1963-1971; Channing Corporation, President 1971-1991, Chairman of the Board 1991 to present. Also on the Board of Director for US Chess Trust, Mensa, Miami Beach Planning Commission (1970-1973), State of Florida Condominium Advisory Board (1979-1983), Community Associations Institute, National Speakers Bureau (1980-1984), Florida Home Builders Association Legislative Committee (1979-1982), North Palm Beach Chamber of Commerce 1988-1990. Up until 2000 Channing also served on the City of Palm Beach Gardens Planning and Zoning Committee as well as in 1999 was on the Florida Advisory Council to the Commission on Human Relations.
Randy Hough has been elected Vice President and Secretary of the USCF. Elected in 2006, Randy is an active player and former master. He’s been a National Tournament Director since 1985, having directed several national championships (including the US Open, US Championship, and National High School), and an International Arbiter since 1989. He served as technical director in the USCF office, 1983-86, on the Executive Board previously (1990-93), and has chaired several USCF committees. He is also an organizer, Southern California Federation board member, president of his local club, has taught chess in the public schools, has published dozens of articles in Chess Life, and serves as secretary/treasurer of the Chess Journalists of America. Randy is a Vietnam veteran. With a BA from UC Berkeley and an MA from UC Riverside, he was a government affairs representative for the City of Los Angeles before retiring in 2005.
This is one of the most qualified and diversified USCF Executive Board. Some of the immediate goals of this board are to increase revenues, expand memberships, build a strong, sensible and cost sensitive marketing plan to promote chess and the USCF, aggressively seek sponsors, create strong support systems for scholastic, college, adult, tournament, correspondence, Internet and professional players as well as erect an open and transparent channel of timely communications with its members. This board is also resolutely open to collaboration and cooperation with states affiliates, USCF committees, volunteers and supporters.
The United States Chess Federation (USCF), founded in 1939, serves as the governing body for chess in the United States and is now headquartered in Crossville, Tennessee. USCF is devoted to extending the role of chess in American society. It promotes the study and knowledge of the game of chess, for its own sake as an art and enjoyment, and as a means for the improvement of society. The USCF is a not-for-profit membership organization with over 80,000 members. For additional information on the USCF see: http://www.uschess.org/.
Once I was invited by Randy Bauer to play a chess match in Iowa, however I like playing in places that are not deep in countryside 🙂
Let`s see if he manages to organize chess event somewhere else 🙂
What does “Chairman” do and how does the office differ from “President” and why the new position?
Questions to Jerzy: What was occasion for this match? And where are you from?
Some very nice comments about, those dirty chess politicians.
Congratulations, Susan!
I too am curious to see how the new titles are given responsibilities and duties.
Regards,
Dan Heisman
Re: What does “Chairman” do and how does the office differ from “President” and why the new position?
I think this is the question which is on everyone’s mind. Will Susan give us some hint as to its answer?
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“Randy Hough has been elected Vice President and Secretary of the USCF. Elected in 2006, Randy is an active player and former master.” …Susan Polgar
This is the first sentence used to describe Randy Hough.
It is a small point but this sentence suggests that according to USCF Chairman Polgar, merely crossing the USCF Rating barrier of 2200 does not make one a Master. It appears that Chairman Polgar’s view is that one is a USCF Master only at those times when one’s current rating is great than or equal to 2200. Thus any USCF certificate with the Master title on it is merely a written document that certifies at the time the document was signed, the person named had crossed the USCF 2200 barrier and that is all it signifies.
I say this is a small matter but it still is a potential source of confusion. If Chairman Polgar’s views represent the USCF’s current position, it would seem that USCF Master is not a title but merely a rating class. So maybe the only permanent USCF title that exists is Life Master.
Of course for FIDE, International Master and International Grandmaster are permanent titles and always have been. More recently FIDE Master is a title that signifies that the FIDE rating at one time was greater than or equal to 2300. So there’s some inconsitency between FIDE and USCF on this one. The FIDE Master is for life while the USCF Master is not a title but rather a rating class and only the USCF Life Master is for life.
Chairman brings credibility and opens doors to new revenues, new clients and chairs the meetings. President is usually responsible for financial results.
hubdiggs has a sharp eye but misses the fact that he’s quoting a USCF Press Release, not Susan P.
I guess these short biogs were based on words written by the subjects themselves, and that Randy Hough (USCF 2000) prefers to refer to himself as a former master rather than Master. It more accurately reflects the current ‘state of play’ so to speak: kudos to RH if it was his choice.
AT 2577, though inactive, SP is still in the GM zone.
I am very disappointed by the lack of action at the Executive Board meetings yesterday and today. What happened to all the buildup of “big changes” and “clean up the USCF”?
Everyone played nicey, nicey and swept the controversial issues under the rug. I don’t mind it if the Board had voted down Susan’s and Paul’s motions. I mind them not making any.
To take just one issue that the new Board swept under the rug: the USCF now has a Chairman who will not post to the official USCF Forum because of it’s extreme deficiencies.
And this is just one example.
Regarding Jack LeMoine, “I am very disappointed…”, changes take time. Hopefully you will eventually see some of what you want to see.
Regarding Anon’s theory about the self-deprecating Mr. Hough, IMHO kudos don’t apply. It is an official communication from the USCF and as such there is the opportunity for certain terms to have precise meaning. In any case my guess is that the Chairman read the official chess release before it was released and is on with what it says. My interest in the matter is to observe and learn USCFs position.
wow! first ever Chairman!!
This is great news. Good luck to all board members.
Jack, one change is that there is now a chairman as well as a president. In this new era of (professed) openness, I expect we’ll hear what that’s all about–what the responsibilities of the two offices are and why they figured there’s a need for such a split and how such a new position is in line with the by-laws.
Does each new Executive Board have the authority to create new positions titles and responsibilities for it’s members? Is there a USCF “Constitution” defining the executive positions and the powers of each?
This announcement leaves me very concerned about the ability of the EB to effectively accomplish any of the things we voted for when we elected Susan and her team.
I await Susan’s honest explanation of what happened, and her opinion and outlook as to how effectively this EB will be able to function with Mr. Goichberg remaining in the position of USCF President.
The USCF EB could discover its variety and strengths as a team, e.g. by using the Belbin appraisal method, http://www.belbin.com
Virginia Tech even have a paper on using the method – http://courses.cs.vt.edu/~cs4704/jss.pdf
Quoting from there:
Chairman , also known as ‘co-ordinator’: “A Chairman is calm and listens to other team members well”
Shaper : “also a leader type. Tends to be nervous, extroverted, competitive, argumentative, just to name a few of their stronger characteristics.”
Plant : innovator, introverted, intelligent, inclined to disregard practical details or protocols.
There are other ‘types’, and individuals don’t come 100% one type and 0% the others.
A team of 100%-Plants can be a tragi-comic sight.
Belbin’s point is that a good team needs the variety – but the members need to respect that variety and use it positively.
I am interested in Sam Sloan’s take on these developments. He was supporting Polgar over Giochberg for president and should be disappointed after Goichberg won – so much so that he isn’t showing up any more.
I’m not
if you have the time to delete a post of mine, then you have time to tell us what the chairperson does.
susan, paul, are you there? can you hear me?
Susan, Paul, and Joel Channing were not elected to any of the offices set forward in the USCF By-laws. They are Members-at-Large of the board.
However, the by-laws empower the EB to define the duties of the Members-at-Large, and nothing prevents the Board, apparently, from handing out titles to anybody it wishes, including powerful-sounding titles like “Chairman” or “Vice-President” of this or that. Nothing prevents a majority of the Board from revoking, or altering, the titles, either.
We will eventually learn the duties and authority that go with these titles. The EB didn’t bother to mention this when it announced the titles.
But the holders of these titles are, in reality, Members-at -Large of the Executive Board.