http://www.georgejohn.com george@neosoft.com

Dear USCF Elector,

In this campaign letter I will explain why I am running for the Executive Board, a bit about my life as it relates to chess, and why I think I am qualified to serve. In particular I will describe my expertise in the area of information technology and why the Board would especially benefit at this time from someone with my professional experience. I will discuss what my current assessment of the USCF is today, and what my vision is for the future of the USCF and chess in the United States.

After you have read this letter, I invite you to visit my Website, http://www.georgejohn.com, which will include links to other Websites you may find of interest in helping you make the important decision of which four candidates you will vote for. I will also include all my campaign writings, including this letter, my résumé, and any future letters. I encourage you to write me with any questions, concerns, and suggestions you may have. I welcome your ideas.

One aside, speaking as a USCF Delegate from Texas, I will read all of the candidate statements, résumés, and other writings including those made (if any) on Usenet (for example, rec.games.chess.politics, see http://www.deja.com). Although I will consider second-hand information, I will attempt to assess both reliability and bias in the source. From experience I have learned that "facts" often prove to be nothing more than rumor and myth. I suggest, if you have a concern about a candidate, ask the candidate for clarification. Too often, people believe in exactly the opposite of what has been reported. Ultimately, I will weigh the candidate’s experience and words as best as I can and vote for the four candidates who I think will best lead the USCF into what remains an uncertain, but potentially very successful future.

I am running because I was asked by several people, whose opinions I respect, to run and because, after considerable thought, I decided I could do a good job. I announced my candidacy at the St. Paul National Delegates Meeting in August, 2000. Since then, I have received many positive, private e-mails of support from members, mostly from those who have seen my posts on Usenet. As an independent candidate, who does not view himself as part of a "slate", I am particularly pleased by the diversity of members who have wished me well in my run. I think my strong background in information technology may be especially helpful to the Board as the organization embarks upon a major enhancement to its information technology systems.

This is a key question. I have included a copy of my candidate résumé in this mailing. It is the same as the one posted to the USCF Website. I hope you will read it since I will only summarize in this letter what is detailed on the résumé.

I have a passion for chess as an intellectual and competitive activity. I have a larger passion to see it grow and flourish in the United States. I played chess as a child, but having grown up in a very small town in rural Nebraska, my opportunities for OTB (over the board) competitive chess were very limited. None of the schools I attended had a chess team or club. I was completely unaware of the USCF.

That changed in the Spring of 1994 when my son, David, joined the USCF and began playing in USCF scholastic events. Since then, I have seen David’s chess rating go from 1257 to as high as 2348. As my résumé demonstrates, although I have sampled a variety of OTB tournament play from small club to large Grand Prix tournaments, my destiny in chess has been as a volunteer, first as a scholastic coach of a middle school team, followed by computer pairings and Webmaster roles, floor tournament directing, organizing tournaments, state and national committee work, and state and national chess politics.

Upon reflection, what stands out most is how much people enjoy chess, even beginners, and what a positive impact chess makes, especially on the lives of children. Chess is considered a prestigious activity and enjoys a great deal of good will in the United States. I have read estimates that between 16 and 25 million people in the U.S. know how to play chess. Yet, we have fewer than 50,000 adult USCF members. Even in large cities, like Houston, our local clubs struggle. I’m convinced we can do much better.

The state of the USCF’s information technology has been an area that has greatly troubled me for some time. From my first experiences with backroom pairing software in 1995 to preparing rating reports for the Houston Chess Club in 1996, I have been struck by how far behind the USCF has been in its use of information technology. This became apparent when I was asked in the summer of 1999 to assess the office upgrade which began in the summer of 1998. It was a task I could not complete because I received an inadequate amount of information to make a reasoned conclusion. Initially, I thought the information was withheld because of the election. However, I have subsequently concluded it was withheld because it didn’t exist. That software project was eventually written off as unusable at a cost well over $100,000.

Without dwelling anymore on the past, I learned three very important lessons from this experience, all of them involving the Executive Director. One, the Board’s choice of Executive Director is perhaps its most crucial decision. Two, the Board’s supervision and evaluation of the Executive Director is a crucial task. And three, the Board must hold the Executive Director accountable for his or her actions.

Due to a variety of reasons, most notably the urgent and critical need to halt the financial losses in operations, little progress has been made in the area of information technology. The office upgrade is far from complete. However, I am extremely pleased to report that action taken at the latest Board meeting has significantly raised the priority of the upgrade with an immediate focus on online rating reports.

Where do I fit in to this picture? I have 20+ years of experience in computing, mostly as a computer programmer. However, I also have considerable experience in project planning. I have interviewed and read many résumés and have been involved in personnel decisions. I have been on the USCF Internet/Computing Committee since 1998 and have been its Chairperson since August, 2000. I was part of the team that visited New Windsor in November, 1999, and assessed the office computing status.

I have a broad range of experience in the area of online chess and have been a member of the Internet Chess Club for many years. If managed and balanced properly, I see opportunities for the USCF and online chess providers to team up in win-win partnerships.

One of the concerns being circulated by some about me is that I am a dyed in the wool supporter of our partnership with GamesParlor. That’s not true. In general I am hesitant for the USCF to be in the software business, given its track record in this area. I also dislike the USCF’s entering into any exclusive agreement for any product it does not own. I have stated these positions explicitly, well before the first meeting with KO Interactive / GamesParlor.

Although I’m pleased a new benefit has been offered to our members at no extra cost to them, I’m concerned about the effect our relationship with GamesParlor has had on our bottom line, our use of scarce office IT staff resources, and our relationship to other online chess companies, most notably the Internet Chess Club.

I believe we will gain greatly by a technology upgrade. However, if elected to the Board I will not micromanage the process. I will insist on an adequate amount of scheduling and reporting, which any properly managed upgrade would require. I see the use of the USCF Internet/Computing Committee, as well as other committees, as having an important role. Having been its chair, I expect to make effective use of this committee should I be elected.

Finally, I will stand as a watchdog over the entire process. In part, the Executive Director will be evaluated in his success in the area of effective use of information technology. One of the key jobs of an Executive Director is to give his employees the tools they need to do their jobs effectively. I plan to hold the Executive Director accountable for doing this well.

Any evaluation of our organization can be summed up in three words, money, membership, and mission.

First is money. Setting aside for the moment the performance of the LMA (life member assets) accounts, the USCF suffered significant losses in operations over the prior four accounting years. Its long-term debt is too high. The LMA is under-funded, possibly by millions of dollars.

The good news is the four-year trend of six-figure losses in operations seems to have been halted. That’s very good news. I would like to think that part of this success was due to the decision to hire a CFO (chief financial officer). The bad news is, except for USChessLive, services seem to have been cut or have suffered. I expect the information technology upgrade will greatly help with this problem.

Second is members. We simply have too few, especially regular, adult members. A healthy organization needs many members. We need to understand why we are losing members and formulate an aggressive marketing plan to recruit new members. Looking to an outside consulting firm that has experience in this area may be a very worthwhile use of money.

We need to support our existing affiliates and formulate a plan to stimulate the creation of new affiliates particularly in regions of the country that have none. I see our affiliates as vital to the generation of new members and in the fulfillment of our mission. When the organization is financially healthier, I would like to see restoring the affiliate commissions followed by the lowering of the regular membership dues.

Third is the mission (http://www.uschess.org/mission.html). We have a broad mission statement. I do believe in principle that the USCF should support all forms of chess. However, I think it’s critical at this time to focus on making certain we are doing some things well before expanding into new areas.

Our foundation is OTB (over the board) chess. If that foundation isn’t solid, any attempt to build on it will likely fail. Personally, I think having many TLA’s (tournament life announcements) in the back of "Chess Life" is part of that solid foundation. Perhaps when nearly all of our members and prospective members have ready access to the Internet and routinely use it to find opportunities for OTB play, the printed TLA’s in "Chess Life" may not be needed, but today they are crucial to our success.

Another foundation is our rating system. I was sharply critical of activity points and worked with a team, which included members of the Ratings Committee, that led to the alternative plan which included a two-year enhanced bonus point system to correct rating deflation and stimulate tournament play. Although I am very supportive of innovative plans to encourage more OTB play, handing out rating points just for showing up to play was not a good solution. Our members’ faith in our rating system is a cornerstone to our success.

Any future changes to our rating system must be preceded by adequate communication with our members in clear terms and emphasizing the benefits. The recently implemented changes to the rating system have considerable value to our members and can be used to encourage our members to increase their OTB tournament play.

Finally, we cannot afford to have further problems like we have had with the processing of rating reports. It’s one of our key services. Improvements to our information technology will be a big help here.

In the near term, although we can’t count on it for significant revenue at this time, we must increase the amount of revenue we receive from sponsorships, donations, and grants. In the 2000 Annual the Executive Director set a long-term target of 20% for sponsorships and grants. That’s a worthy goal which, if achieved, will make the USCF a much healthier organization.

We need to make certain the office is capturing and using best business practices to improve quality and increase productivity. That’s particularly important given the software upgrade. We want our software systems to implement best practices and not mimic inefficient processes.

Once we have met the current financial challenges and have restored services back to an acceptable level, we can actively broaden the mission and promote chess beyond OTB chess. By expanding chess beyond OTB play, I think we will increase the number of people playing OTB, rated chess.

I hope to see many more schools offer chess as an elective. Lanier Middle School, a charter school in Houston, Texas, offers chess as an elective. It’s a very innovative program where the students, with the help of the teachers, prepare lesson plans, and teach each other chess. It’s a remarkable program that, with no coach rated over 1200, produced a National K-8 Co-Championship Team.

I want to see many more schools with chess clubs, especially colleges, and more schools follow the lead of the University of Texas at Dallas and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and offer college scholarships that take into account chess playing ability. I want to see many more amateur team competitions modeled after the highly successful USATE (US Amateur Team East) events.

I hope for a well-organized USCF Website that is the premier resource for information about how to start a chess club, how to run a tournament, how to improve one’s chess, and to find places to play chess. I look forward to a time when our tournament directors can, with a single click of a mouse, submit a tournament through the Internet to the USCF and, if it passes validation, be immediately rated and the tournament report automatically posted to the Web.

I hope to see many people watching and listening to chess commentary over the Internet. I remember listening to the commentary of GM Maurice Ashley at the US Open in Kona. His approach to chess commentary is a model that could make chess much more popular in the United States.

I want to see chess as an official event of the Olympics and the USCF recognized by the US Olympic Committee as the official chess body in the United States. I hope this recognition along with a new 501(c)(3) organization, devoted to the development of amateur chess as a competitive sporting activity, will bring major sponsorship and many new members.

I hope there will be greater recognition of chess as a social good. I recently read a report in the Houston Chronicle which mentioned chess as one of several activities that, when frequently engaged in when a person is younger, will significantly reduce (by a factor of 2-1/2) the chances of a person’s being affected by Alzheimer’s disease later in life. There are studies that demonstrate the positive impact chess has on children’s performance in school.

Finally, I want to see many more people playing and enjoying chess. I hope it will be routine to walk through a park on a beautiful day and see many people playing chess with each other. My goal is for a significant percentage of those people to be members of the USCF.

National chess politics has a less than stellar reputation. I attempted to recruit a person to run for the Board who I thought would make an exceptional Board member. He immediately rejected my suggestion. That was disappointing, but not surprising.

One way we can improve our reputation is for us to be civil to each other at all times. This is particularly necessary for all Executive Board members who represent the organization to the general public. I support healthy, constructive criticism and comments. However, some of us seem to dwell on the past and engage in finger-pointing all too often. We do need to understand our past well enough to avoid repeating mistakes. But once that has been done, we need to move on and look to the present and the future.

We need identify common or complementary goals so we are not working against each other. Instead of arguing over how to divide the current, too-small market, let’s work together to expand the market so everyone wins.

Thank you very much for reading this. I look forward to hearing from you. Please send your e-mail messages to george@neosoft.com. There are many areas I haven’t covered. If you have a question or want greater clarification, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I look forward to working with you in the future toward the betterment of chess.

Sincerely,

George C. John

USCF Delegate, Texas

Internet/Computer Committee Chair

george@neosoft.com

http://www.georgejohn.com

PO Box 710750

Houston, TX 77271-0750

Professional:

20+ years in computer programming and information technology. Extensive experience in GUI design and implementation, database, networking and hardware infrastructure, customer support, and project planning. Have worked on commercial and scientific/engineering applications. Experience with small, medium, and large businesses.

Education:

BA, 1976, Rice University, Houston, TX. Majors in Economics and Behavioral Science.

Non-Chess Volunteer Work:

1988-1993, 800+ hours with Crisis Hotline, a United Way Agency. Volunteer of the month, January, 1990

Chess Volunteer Work & Credentials:

Certified USCF Senior Tournament Director, needing only the RR event to take the ANTD exam.

Backroom experience includes two Texas Scholastic Championships and 2000 National Elementary. Chief Director of many major Texas events, including Texas Team, Southwest Open, State Championship, Scholastic Primary, Junior Open, and Ken Smith Memorial.

Organizer of 1997 and 2000 Texas Region Five Scholastic Championships.

Scholastic Coach, Lanier Middle School, 1996-1997, Bellaire Senior High School, 1997-2001. These teams won five consecutive Texas Scholastic Championships, and finished in the top 10 nationally four years and top 5 three consecutive years.

Submitted four grant requests (all successful) to HISD (Houston Independent School District) for partially subsidized trips to national scholastic events, worth thousands of dollars.

Elected Positions:

Texas Chess Association (TCA), Treasurer, 2000

TCA Secretary, 1999

USCF Delegate, 2000-2002

USCF Alternate Delegate, 1998-1999

Appointed Positions:

USCF Internet Committee Chair, 2000, Co-Chair 1999, member 1998

USCF Denker Committee, 1999, 2000

USCF Scholastic Committee 2000

TCA Webmaster, 1996-1997, 1999-2000

TCA Scholastic Committee, 1998-present

Awards:

USCF, Special Task Force, August 2000

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