Scholastic Coordinator’s Report

Tony Gavelis

10-07-02

Tournament	Site	Confirmation	Reason	Cancellation / Reschedule Risk
Central MA Singles 11/03/02	JFK School Natick	Pending, but expected soon.	Townie red tape. Even a done deal takes time.	NO
Holiday Team Challenge 12/08/02	JFK School Natick	Pending, but expected soon.	Townie red tape. Even a done deal takes time.	NO
Easter MA Scholastic Singles Championship 02/03/03	Milton Academy, Milton, MA	Site is confirmed, different building location confirmed	Last year’s new gym not to be used.	NO
Gus Gosselin Grade Championship 03/02/03	JFK School Natick	Pending, but expected soon.	Townie red tape. Even a done deal takes time.	NO
MA State Champ 03/02/03	Brown School	Pending	Principal not too interested. I’m still working on her.	NO, but I don’t want to squeeze everyone into JFK like last year.
Hurvitz / Team Championship 04/13/03	None		Looking for potential large cheap sites.	???

FFF: Disappointing turnout. Only 107 entries.

New & renewal USCF memberships: 16

New & renewal MACA memberships: 37 (revenue not included in net receipts below)

Net receipts from entry fees only: $1413.00

Final expense report incomplete, but I expect we’ll break even.

Future Tournaments:

All tournament sites in final stages of approval process except

State Team Championship which still needs site.

St John’s High wants to host a singles tournament.

New Site Search Status: Nothing good to report.

Irish American Club, Malden. Not available on dates we need. A nice site for next year.

Sheraton Tara, Framingham has not responded with an estimate.

Keefe Tech Tech, Framingham. I haven’t had time to pursue this site.

Crown Plaza, Natick. Planning to visit 10/11/02

Holiday Inn, Natick. Planning to visit.

Natick High School Contemplating rescheduling team tnmnt to April 6^th if still available.

Miscellaneous:

Insurance issues have been addressed.

TD’s have been confirmed for all scheduled tournaments.

Trophies have been ordered for all confirmed tournaments.

Championship rules need to be addressed ASAP.

Mailing costs are too high – need nonprofit permit in Natick ASAP to cut costs by 50%.

Summary:

We are still behind in committee work owing to a slow start and lack of coordinators time to pursue sites. Committee membership slow in addressing issues. Promotional costs are too high.

Final Comments:

We currently have motivated, competent, dependable, professional and very accommodating Tournament Directors in MACA Scholastic Tournaments. In an effort to retain these quality services and attract additional personnel with similar qualities, we need to compensate them better.

To meet this goal:

1. The internal budget for events will increase the current $100 per tournament stipend to $125 plus expenses effective with the Fall Foliage Chess Fest.

2. Advance entry taking has always been a big headache. MACA has serious problems in attracting motivated volunteer staff. We have recently had a chess parent take on this task, which involves a month’s worth of work per tournament. The task description is published and available elsewhere for reference. In order to retain this person and to encourage and attract people of similar quality, we need to compensate them for their efforts. With this in mind, the internal budget will pay the official, advance entry taker a fee of $0.50 (fifty cents) per each advance entry processed. This compensation is to apply to any person who takes on the advance entry taker position per tournament and is not to exclude officers or directors of MACA. This compensation applies regardless of MACA membership status. This compensation is to apply to scholastic Tournament Director’s, in addition to their Tournament Director stipend, if they also take on the entire advance entries process for the specified tournament. To avoid any conflict of interest, this compensation specifically excludes the current Scholastic Coordinator named Anthony Gavelis. The task description is defined elsewhere.