Massachusetts Chess Association
Board of Director Meeting Minutes
Thursday, September 19, 2019, 7:00pm
Panera, Cambridge, MA
ATTENDEES: Oleg Poliannikov (President), Bob
Messenger (Treasurer), Andrew Hoy (Clerk),
Jeff Caruso, and Steve Frymer.
NEXT BOARD MEETING: Not scheduled
1.
Meeting
Minutes
MOTION: Approval of minutes
from the July 11, 2019 board meeting (AH/JC).
VOTE:
Passed, 5-0
2.
Committee
Reports
Finance / Membership
A donation has been secured for the 2020 MA Open
prizes in the Open section. Total membership is up 22 members since this time
last year.
Elections
Ballots from the 2019 election have been destroyed.
Tournaments / Scholastic
The Girls Championship is tentatively scheduled April or May
of 2020. The format has not been finalized, although the 6RR worked well last
year. The weekend of May 2/3 was discussed (no conflicts at the moment). The
consensus was that there should be at least one qualifier, possibly via a
separate Girls Challenge tournament in October. Alternative formats such as a
10 player swiss were discussed, which would allow for a new tournament in
February or March with 3 qualification spots, and the remaining 7 slots would
be by rating.
The Spiegel finals are finalized. The format will be a 10
player 4SS. The 10 players will include 6 rating qualifiers and 4 qualifiers
from the qualification tournaments. In the high school section 3 qualifiers
will be selected from the GGGC, and the remaining 7 will be via rating.
The Board agreed that there should not be a minimum rating
for the winners from the four Qualifier tournaments. The top sections will be
a two-day tournament, but the 8&U section will remain a one-day event.
Finally, the tiebreaks (if needed) will be a blitz playoff.
The full blitz playoff regulations will be posted online.
Tournaments to be scheduled/planned: MA G/60, MA Open,
Girls Qualifier
3.
2020
Massachusetts Open
Several locations and the overall cost
of the MA Open were discussed. A donation to offset the prizes in the Open
section has been pledged. The Westford site has worked well for tournaments,
with the exception that the ballroom can create noise. It is probably
prohibitively expensive to rent the ballroom for noise abatement.
4.
New
England Open
SENECA has organized the New
England Open the past two years. The overall profit was about $1000 this year,
and between $1500-$2000 last year. The Maine Chess Association wants to
formalize a bid for the event for 2020 (deadline is November 1, 2019).
However, the cost structure with the hotel might not be palatable. If Maine
cannot craft a bid, MACA will prepare and submit a bid (delegated to the
Tournament Committee).
5.
Dmitry
Barash Resignation
Dmitry Barash resigned from the
MACA Board of Directors effective September 2. The Board thanks him for his
service. Since there is now a vacancy on the Board, the current members may
invite people to attend future meetings and possibly join the Board.
6.
Delegates
for the US Open
MA receives 3 delegates for the
USCF annual meeting this year. The number of delegates is based on total
membership in the state.
MOTION: Appoint Ken Ballou and
Robert Messenger as MA delegates (OP/JC).
VOTE:
Passed, 4-0 (1 abstention)
7.
New
Business
The treasurer work is extensive.
Bob is interested in finding volunteers to help with the work as well as
planning. If there are more people involved, financial controls might be used
(i.e. different person keeping the books while Bob continues to write checks).
Oleg is updating the website in
bits and pieces. If there are any errors or omissions the Board is encouraged
to let him know.
There is enough printed material
on hand to sustain the prison chess mailing endeavor for a while.
The final print edition of Chess
Horizons is scheduled for December 2019 with a goal of sending it during
this calendar year.
Several local clubs have had low
attendance. For example, Plainville sent an appeal email asking for any casual
players to consider attending on Wednesday nights.
8.
Next
Meeting
The next meeting is not currently
scheduled.
MOTION TO
ADJOURN
VOTE: 5-0