MACA President’s Report

Harvey Reed

10-17-02

 

We have quite a successful year so far. We have Coordinators in key slots, with budgets, and a nominal plan. The Scholastic tournament series has started, and the Adult tournament series starts this weekend. We even also have relatively affordable liability insurance, which is necessary to function, especially for Scholastics. Also, our operations in Scholastics has never been better thanks to Kappy, Peter and Tony!

 

We also have a budget for the year, prepared early (September). This puts us in an incredibly good position to make constructive structural improvements for the future.

 

Since we have such a smooth running ship this year, the differences in MACA Vision that we each have is now becoming clear. The fact that there are differences is disquieting for some, and seen as an opportunity by others. The differences in MACA Vision are illustrated best by the debate surrounding Chess Horizons. The arguments really aren’t about the magazine per se, but around the MACA Vision that Chess Horizons embodies.

 

What I will strive to do in a few words below is to summarize the variety of MACA Visions that I have heard. Undoubtedly, I will not represent any MACA Vision perfectly, yet I feel it is important to record what I understand, and what I hear is important from you the Board members.

 

MACA Vision Perspectives, as seen through the eyes of Chess Horizons

 

  1. “Keep Chess Horizons the way it is, let’s use it as a promotional tool, and find ways to fund it”
  2. “Scrap the current format of Chess Horizons, and plow the savings back into programs”
  3. “Let’s grow the membership, then we can afford Chess Horizons”

 

All of these MACA Visions have the best interest in heart for MACA. What they differ in is their assumptions about the goals and core values of MACA and how to achieve them. In no particular order, some of the differing assumptions are:

 

  1. Promotion is best done with mailers
  2. Promotion is best done with Chess Horizons
  3. When people see Chess Horizons, they want to belong to MACA
  4. When people have a lot of good tournaments they will want to join MACA
  5. People don’t like paying MACA dues, so lets keep dues at $12
  6. We have to give people a good Chess Horizons so they will pay $12 dues
  7. If we change Chess Horizons radically, people will be upset
  8. If we don’t change Chess Horizons radically (and get savings) people will be upset

 

At the base of these assumptions is a set of core values. As a Board we are obligated to sort these out first. I submit, we should spend 30 minutes discussing the following:

 

  1. If we had to choose the single most important value to deliver to an Adult player, what is it?
  2. If we had to choose the single most important value to deliver to a Scholastic player, what is it?
  3. What is the single MACA Vision statement that we can all agree on?

 

Only after sorting this out can we get to matters of promotion, the official “organ” of the organization (Chess Horizons), etc.

 

I look forward to working on this, with you, at the Oct 17 2002 Board meeting.

 

Harvey Reed

President, MACA