Maca Board Meeting Minutes

04-29-02

Kennedy Senior Center, Natick, Mass

Minutes Prepared by Mark Kaprielian, Clerk

Scheduled:   7:30 PM

Opened:   8:03 PM

Closed: 10:08 PM

  

Board Members

 

Arrive  

Depart

Guests Present

Pres

Robert King

Present

7:50

 

 

V.P.

Steve Frymer

Present

7:30

 

 

Treas.

Bob Messenger

Present

7:30

 

 

Clerk

Mark Kaprielian

Present

7:35

 

 

 

Stephen Dann

Absent

 

 

 

 

Larry Eldridge

Absent

 

 

 

 

Tony Gavelis

Present

7:30

 

 

 

Gus Gosselin

Present

7:30

 

 

 

Peter Lee

Present

9:29

 

 

 

Tim Oliveri

Absent

 

 

 

 

Harvey Reed

Present

7:45

 

 

 

Vacant

 

 

 

 

   Note:  All vote tallies are shown as   For – Against – Abstention, e.g.  5 – 2 – 1

President’s Report

President, Robert King thanked everyone present for their contributions to a successful year.

Minutes

Motion_2002-04-01

            Messenger, Gavelis

To approve the Draft 1 minutes of 01-14-02 meeting with the correction of  minor grammatical corrected.

Passed:  7-0-0

Treasurer’s Report – Robert Messenger

The Treasurer presented the standard monthly report to the board.  A copy will be sent to the Web team for posting.  Total fund balances after all income

Coordinator Reports

Membership Coordinator – Gus Gosselin

Since the last meeting the following approximate number of memberships have been received is 20, which have not yet been turned over to the database processor.

Mass - 14 members of which two are juniors

Other States – 6 members

The Team Tournaments results have not yet been turned over to the database processor.

Database Coordinator – Mark Kaprielian

No Report given

Web Master Report – Mark Kaprielian

The Web Master made the following report::

 

I've completed what I have in past web status reports referred to as "phase one" of web enhancements to the Maca site.

 

I have replaced the fifteen or so different links for pages displaying the Rating lists and Membership status with two pages:

    Maca Membership Status    

    Maca Membership Ratings

 

Both of these pages are available from the Membership Status link or directly by

    http://masschess.org/ASP/Maca/Maca_Ratings.asp

and

    http://masschess.org/ASP/Maca/Maca_Status_General.asp   

 

Both of these pages allow you to pick various options to narrow down your search for information.

 

With the Ratings page you can for example do the following types of thing:

    Find the number of, and ranking of all the 11&12 year olds in any one of the NE states, Male only, Female only or Male and Females.

 

With the Membership Status page, there are many more options available.  You can for example do the following:

    A.    All those receiving Complementary issues of CH ( these are primarily exchanges with other editors)

    B    Verify what the last issue of CH we tried to send to a member was.  Also, if we them tagged as a bad address or expired.

    C    All members whom we are missing DOBs for.  By scanning the membership column we can see which Juniors we don't have complete information for.  This means that they won't appear in the correct age category on the Ratings Page.

    D.    View only the Most recent revisions to the database to see if a change has been processed yet.

 

Benefits realized by the new pages are:

 

    1    Elimination of the use of the program Crystal Reports which generated the 80 plus pages uploaded to the web.  In addition, the maintenance of the dozen or so reports, which becomes very time consuming when a change needs to be made due to enhancements made to the Maca database, which is an ongoing long term effort, has been eliminated.

 

    2    To update the web site, only one file needs to be uploaded.  This file is a sub-set of the Maca database with only membership and rating information contained in it.  No personal information such as DOB, address, phone , etc is present.  The file is generated in a very simple process from the Maca Database.  This will allow future Database Processors to provide the Web team with a single file to update the web site.  Knowledge and Licensing of Crystal Reports will not be necessary by a future Database Processor.

 

    3    Previously, the pages posted up were "static".  That is, the data shown on the page could not be changed by actions of the user.  What ever was generated for the page when it was uploaded to the site was all that was available to be seen.  With the two new pages a high degree of flexibility is now available and allow demographic use of the data by running different variations of the page. 

 

It is expected that the pages themselves should operate pretty reliably.   I have been conducting performance tests on the server hosting our site using a powerful load stress program.  In casual use, I have observed that occasionally when you first go to one of the pages, it comes up with a server related error message.  Generally, one retry of going to the page is all that I have needed to do.  Additional testing of the Server and the page responsiveness will be ongoing.

 

It is my hope and belief that event organizers and Maca staff will find these pages very useful.

 

If you can think of any refinements to the pages, please forward your ideas to me at WebMaster@MassChess.org

 

 In the meanwhile, go see how high on the Ratings list you can get yourself to show up based on narrowing the collection of people.

  

PS:  While I was at it, I revamped the MCC player list to eliminate Crystal Reports.  The page is available on the MCC site via the " Who's Playing at the Club " button or directly by way of

    http://www.metrowestchess.org/ASP/MCC/Mcc_Active_Players.asp 

Report Duration: 11 minutes 8:32 – 8:43

Tournament Coordinator’s Report – Steve Frymer

The Mass Open is well under way with things in place and following the plan.

There are about 10 advance entries so far.

The Danvers tournament was scheduled be either August 3rd or 4th to be held at the Natick Senior Center.  After lengthy discussion it was agreed that the Danvers event which can no longer be held in Danvers shall be discontinued.  Since the purpose of the event was primarily as a fundraiser for the Comeau fund and since there is no longer a patron of the event picking up the expenses ( it was Harry Lyman who has since passed away).  It was also informally agreed that the remaining $800 of the Comeau fund shall be exhausted as per its charter and the fund retired since the Living Memorial Fund is active and covers the purposes of the Comeau Fund.

Report Duration: 16 minutes 8:31 – 8:47

Scholastic Coordinator Report – Tony Gavelis

April 7th was the last scholastic event of the season.  260 players attended.  The event went well.  Having a food truck proved to be a good solution to the food issue.  The High School was happy to host us.  The HS has capacity for 200 players without renting tables.  They would be happy to have an adult event there but would charge us more than scholastics. 

Peter Lee gave the following additional report:

The Chinese language teams were disqualified due to them being a part time school.  Much discussion of the matter was held among board members prior to the event and they had been notified of this well in advance.

We need to tighten up the rules regarding such situations.

There was a situation where an 8th grader wanted to play on a High School team.  The coach protested and board members present that day discussed and disqualified from participating.  This needs to be addressed for next year.

There was also an incident in January regarding improper behavior of a player.  We need to enforce appropriate conduct.

Peter then summarized the scholastic program as follows:

Significant increases in the number and quality of players.  The championship cycle proved to be an effective way to promote participation in both the championships and the Novice sections.

The introduction of Novice sections attracted 50 to 75 players.  This resulted in improved competition in both the novice and upper sections.

Food at the site makes the sites much more player and parent friendly.

Team events are generating may more new players.  Over 50% of players in this years team event were new to USCF.

Recommendations

Restructure the grade sections into smaller groups, eg K-2, 3-4, …

Start to locate more sites in the North shore area.  The Natick area is a proven High attendance area.

We may want to rethink the invitation system for the grade championships to increase the number of players who can participate.

In the Novice sections, players who win three of four games should be made to play up in the next event.  This could be done by using the post ratings generated by SwissSys.

You may want to create a Novice section Championship.

To increase the trophies to the top five places.

Consider holding more than one team tournament per year.  It generates a lot of activity.

Implement an on-line registration process with credit card capability.  This would check for Maca membership and USCF expiration.

Report Duration: 24 minutes 10:05 – 10:29

Publications Coordinator – Stephen Dann

No Report

LMCF – Gus Gosselin

No activity to report since the last meeting.

Clubs and Volunteers – Robert King

Some information will be turned over to the Web Master.

Committee Reports

Investments

No Report

Old Business

Elections

Some discussion about the mechanics of the upcoming election was discussed.

New Business

Elections

 

The proposal is to do this in addition to the typical precaution of colored ballots and designated envelopes.

Motion_2001-04_ 02

King, Gavelis 2nd

To require serial numbered ballots for mail voting of officers and directors in Maca elections.

Failed:  2 – 4 – 1

Report Duration: 24 minutes 9:00 – 9:24

 

Discussion of expense for preparation of the Ballots.  The following details were agreed upon.

·        We want to include the Mass Open flyer with the ballot. 

·        We plan to use the Senior Center to do the stuffing and mailing of the ballots. 

·        We plan on having the printer fold the ballots.

·        Mark Kaprielian must receive all Candidate Statements by end of day Tuesday April 30th to prepare the master files for the election. 

·        Members with expiration dates of March or later will receive a ballot.

·        Ballot Return labels will be for Tim Oliveri. 

·        Mark Kaprielian will prepare the masters and turn them over to Harvey Reed by end of day Wednesday

·        Ballot must include the Bylaws change that says.

·        Remind them to delay sending in the ballot

·        We must get the confirmed list of candidates from Tim Oliveri.  We think it is as follows: President: Robert King and Harvey Reed. Vice President: Steve Frymer, Treasurer: Bob Messenger, Clerk: Mark Kaprielian.  Directors – Gus Gosselin, Peter Lee, Tony Gavelis,  Maryann Reilly,  Frank Del Bonis, Stephen Dann and Tim Oliveri.

·        Harvey Reed will accept master of all the materials and over see that the Senior Center and the printer follow the ballot preparation instructions.

 

Next Meeting

   Motion_2001-04_ 03

King, Reed 2nd

Move to Cancel next Board Meeting

Passed:  6 – 0 – 2

 

 

Motion_2001-04_ 03

Gosselin, Gavelis 2nd

Move to Adjourn

Passed:  7 – 0 – 0