Letter to OCA Members from the New Policy Board
Fellow OCA Member,
There was some leadership changes voted in at the Annual OCA Members Meeting
in
First, let’s get straight to the point that you are mostly interested in. There
will be no significant changes in the OCA, including the tournament schedule
and promotion of adult chess in
It’s important to note that Alan Pfieffer won the VP vote by 17, so the adults
voting alone would have elected him. Unfortunately, Steve Wharry has resigned
as OCA President. Therefore, Alan Pfeiffer has decided to accept the
President’s position. Allen is a former past president of OCA and is well aware
of the duties and responsibilities of this position. We welcome him as the new
OCA president and believe he will provide OCA with the strong leadership
capabilities needed as President.
The 13 scholastic members that voted all have permanent USCF ratings (not
provisional) and were completely entitled to vote, according to the OCA bylaws.
11 of them have been to national tournaments, 7 are listed by the USCF in the
100 top players in their grade nationally, at least 5 have been state
champions, and Jason Kalivas won the Reserve section (U-1800) at the Oklahoma
State Championship/Jerry Spann Memorial the same weekend.
You may now be wondering, why did this concerned
group of top scholastic members help elect Sergey Galant, and re-elect Steve
Sawyer and Jacqueline Bentele as Policy Board Members at Large?
Well, it’s simply a matter of establishing independence for scholastic chess
in
There is also the issue of scholastic players paying a mandatory OCA
membership fee for OSCO scholastic tournaments. OCA leadership has been
adamant about this, in spite of the fact that there is only one other state in
the nation that still has such a requirement. Players in OSCO rated scholastic
tournaments receive OSCO membership FREE for their participation (just like the
other 17 states with similar USCF recognized scholastic organizations). This
allows maintenance of a membership role and email distribution of publications
to keep costs down. No more is necessary at the scholastic level. However, OCA
leadership had indicated this is necessary for OSCO to receive their ongoing
support and it was feared that this alone would be enough to cause the bylaws
to be reversed at any time.
Scholastic players who play in adult OCA tournaments will still be required
to join the OCA. One proposed change has been to convert the current $5
scholastic membership into a non-OCB $5 membership. This would also be
available to adults and would help the OCA to not lose money due to publication
costs exceeding the $5. All members, regardless of age, would have to pay the
full $10 membership fee to receive the OCB. This is a good example of the kind
of responsible actions that can be taken regarding scholastic members, for the
benefit of all concerned.
The new leadership will be making a few changes to help secure the future of
scholastic chess in
To assist in such OCA information distribution and further reduce costs,
email will be utilized far more to communicate to the membership. Mike Swatek
has offered to help with electronic communication. Unfortunately, the former
OCA website no longer represents the OCA. So, a new OCA website has been set up
at www.ochess.org (note the K is missing in
the new address). All OCA members are asked to please email Mike Swatek at admin@ochess.org with your email address.
Doing so will allow you to be included on an OCA mailing list that will be strictly
confidential and not shared with any other organization. Email to the
OCA membership will be sent using special software that prevents visibility to
your email address for others on the distribution and will clearly state OCA in
the message subject.
It is hoped that scholastic chess will no longer be a divisive issue for the
OCA leadership and take away from the good that can be done for adult chess in
Most Sincerely,
Alan Pfeiffer, Sergey Galant, Steve Sawyer and Jacqueline Bentele