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Minutes of the USCF mediated meeting of 31 August 2003

This meeting was organized by the USCF to try and reach some resolution between the current and former OCA Policy Board Members. After the meeting minutes, is the OCA President's reply (with input from the OCA Policy Board), submitted by 3 September as requested. You can also see the OCF President Jim Berry's reply.

Mediation meeting minutes from 31 August 03
by Sandy Bowman for Ralph Bowman, USCF Moderator.

To: Guy Hoffman
From: Ralph E. Bowman Date: 9/01/03
RE: Meeting in Stillwater, Oklahoma on 8/31/03 between members of the Oklahoma Chess Association (OCA) and members of the Oklahoma Chess Federation (OCF), also part of the discussion was the Oklahoma Scholastic Chess Organization (OSCO).

Persons present: Jaqueline Bentele, Frank Berry, Jim Berry (OCF president), Tom Braunlich, John Dunlap, Jim Gray, Alan Pfeiffer (OCA president), Alex Relyea, Steve Sawyer, Mike Swatek, and Chuck Unruh. My wife, Sandy Bowman, was present to take the minutes and I was present to act as Moderator of the meeting.

General Summary: All of the persons present participated in the discussion. At the end of approximately one hour and twenty minutes I concluded the meeting because it was obvious to all parties that no compromise was going to be reached at that time.

Important points on which there appeared to be agreement: 1. That the OCA election held on 6/29/03 was a legal election because all persons voting were OCA members. 2. That Alan Pfeiffer is the president of the OCA, although there was some disagreement about the order of resignations. However, Steve Sawyer did have a copy of emails that seemed to point out that Alan was the president and that the OCA does have enough members on the board to conduct business. 3. That the persons comprising the OCF are a majority of the most experienced organizers/tournament directors in Oklahoma.

Compromises offered, but rejected, during this meeting: The OCA offered two compromises: 1) Those persons who resigned from the OCA Board shall have the ability to rescind their resignation and take their place on the Board. 2) The OCF may appoint anyone of their choosing to fulfill the vacancies on the OCA Board. The OCF offered two compromises: 1) They would be the state affiliate and would allow Chuck Unruh on their Board to act as Scholastic Liaison. 2) All of the first compromise and the OCF and OCA would each be responsible for the State Scholastic Championship in alternating years. Tom Braunlich and Steve Sawyer worked on a fifth compromise that the scholastic persons would vacate their offices in the OCA and any persons the OCF wanted could step into their spots if they would simply guarantee that OSCO could have full authority over scholastic tournaments.

History of the division: The current OCA officers felt that those persons on the OCA Board prior to the June meeting were not living up to a verbal agreement made in March, 2003 to allow the scholastic people (i.e. OSCO) to have a voice in the organizing/scheduling of scholastic tournaments. Therefore, the scholastic people (i.e. OSCO) felt they needed to control the vote in the annual meeting and get people elected who were friendly to scholastics. When that occurred that upset those persons who then formed the OCF. The OCF contention is while the election was legal, it was "rigged" (a "hostile takeover") and now they feel the OCA is "tainted" and they will have nothing more to do with it.

Note: There was discussion about one person, Fred Roper, which was germane to the topic. Fred Roper has been the principal organizer/td for the Oklahoma Scholastic Championship for a number of years. The problem the OSCO people had with him is that he charged $800 to organize/td a tournament. The OCF people did not want Fred Roper excluded from future scholastics. It appeared there was mutual respect from all as to Fred Roper¹s abilities, the problem, from the OSCO viewpoint, was with the amount he charged to direct a tournament. It was unclear to me if Fred Roper is claiming affiliation with any group.

Final Note: The OCF feels that they should be the USCF State Affiliate because they represent the organizers/tournament directors who have put on the largest and most successful tournaments in Oklahoma, have been responsible for the increase in OCA membership over recent years, and have most of the past editors of the state newsletter. The OCA feels they should continue as the USCF State Affiliate because they have been elected at the annual meeting and are attempting to have "business as usual" in Oklahoma.

I informed all that I would be sending this to you today. The presidents of both OCA and OCF, who have been copied on this email, are to make a response to you on or prior to Wednesday, September 3. Please do a "Reply to All" that you have received this email.

OCA President's Reply
drafted by the Policy Board  and submitted 5:37AM on Wednesday 3 September 2003.

Mr. Hoffman,

The entire policy Board of the Oklahoma Chess Association would like to thank you, Ralph and Sandy Bowman for your consideration in arranging and mediating the meeting last Sunday.

The meeting seemed to go quite quickly and covered a lot of ground. Consequently, there are a few points that deserve more visibility as part of this process. Please consider the following as further support of the current OCA Policy Board’s ability to honor its obligations to the USCF and its members.

1. John Green joined the meeting a bit late and did not appear in the minutes. He wrote the original bylaws of the OCA in 1982, which were at that time recognized by the USCF as a model for State Affiliate Bylaws. John is currently assisting in the much needed update of the OCA bylaws, which have undergone numerous revisions since 1982. This bylaws update is still in process with input from all who care to participate, including the former leadership. The bylaws will be considered for approval only when the update is something that will return control of the organization to its members and can stand the test of time. This will include a process for Policy Board resignations, elimination of the Policy Board’s ability to change the bylaws, and many other improvements included in the draft on the Governance page of the OCA website at www.ochess.org .

2. There have been at least four editors of the Oklahoma Chess Bulletin. Three of these, John Dunlap, Alan Ball and John Green, support the current OCA policy Board. Only the most recent editor, Frank Berry, does not support the current OCA leadership.

3. Five of the seven current OCA Policy Board members are also current USCF TDs. The other two have also directed many tournaments, Chuck Unruh prior to his recently ended chess retirement and Sergey Galant before leaving the former USSR. Steve Sawyer alone has organized the six largest USCF tournaments in Oklahoma over the last two years, averaging well over 100 players each. Considering the size of the sections, there has only been one Oklahoma tournament in the last year that would have required a TD with more than Club level qualifications. A Local TD could have done the job in that instance, of which there are several that support the current OCA Policy Board.

4. Those on the current OCA Policy Board brought in conservatively 150 new USCF members in the last two years, several times more than representatives of any other chess organization in Oklahoma.

5. The OCA currently has the top active rated player, Chuck Unruh, and last years State Champ, Sergey Galant, on the Policy Board. Also, the current State Champ, John Dunlap, is a very active supporter of the current OCA Policy Board.

6. The statement in the meeting that “the OCA has conducted no tournaments in the past 2 months” was very misleading. There has been only one tournament larger than about a dozen participants, and it was recently converted from an OCA event to the auspices of another organization, as published in the TLAs. The OCA Policy Board is organizing two very significant tournaments in the next two months, for which corporate sponsorship has been recruited to guarantee prize funds. The first is a large open tourney in Oklahoma City on 18-19 October. The second is the Bela Rozsa Oklahoma State Class Championship in Tulsa on 1-2 November, which had to be rescheduled due to OCA Immediate Past President Steve Wharry refusing the OCA board request to continue his 8-9 November Alzheimer’s tourney as an OCA event.

7. Due to weaknesses in the bylaws in recent years, a small group of higher level TDs have been able to control the OCA Policy Board and Oklahoma chess in large part. This has been done in a dictatorial manner with instances of exclusion and vilification of those with different opinions, which is inappropriate for the leadership of a membership organization. That same small group has also dominated the organization and direction of major tournaments, denying other TDs with an active interest the opportunity to do so. Needless to say, this “leadership” style has alienated many members, as evidenced by Alan Pfeiffer’s overwhelming victory over the old guard in the recent OCA elections, even if you discount the votes of the youth members.

8. The previous leadership abandoned the OCA Policy Board immediately upon losing its majority on the board at the recent member’s election. In less than an hour, a decision had been made to form a rival organization to attack the OCA. Many assets of the OCA were converted by the defecting leadership to the benefit of that rival organization, including: the almost complete OCA quarterly publication, the website at www.okchess.org, the membership mailing list, and the historical archives. Furthermore, requests for financial records have not been honored to provide backup for the transfer of funds to the new officers. For a short time, the Oklahoma State Affiliate listing on the USCF website was improperly changed to reflect that rival organization who had misrepresented it self to the USCF. And finally, the rival organization approached the USCF States Committee with a very misleading or unbalanced complaint about alleged misconduct of the current OCA leadership, in an effort to also convert the USCF State Affiliate status, which is a valuable asset of the OCA membership.

9. The OCA has been in existence since 1946. Last month it was incorporated in Oklahoma as a non-profit organization. It has a policy board elected by its chess playing members with a set of bylaws governing it, unlike any other “adult chess organization” in Oklahoma. Through changes in the bylaws, the current leadership intends to return the OCA to its proper function as a membership organization by and for ALL its Oklahoma chess playing members, with much better involvement and accountability to the membership. The current Policy Board was elected legally and ethically, and is demonstrating its ability to serve its members and govern the organization in a responsible manner.

In closing: The OCA highly values its State Affiliate relationship with the USCF and has yet to see any compelling reason for this relationship to change. The current OCA leadership has conducted itself in a forthright and respectful manner, in spite of some serious challenges that have been put forth very unprofessionally on several recent occasions. The current and rightful OCA leadership is demonstrating its ability to fulfill its obligations to the USCF and its membership. Furthermore, any recognition by the USCF of an organization led by individuals that have conducted themselves in the manner described in point 8 above would be a serious concern under almost any circumstance.

We wish it had not been necessary for you to invest your time in this situation that has resulted from the actions of a few disgruntled individuals. It was sincerely hoped that some resolution could be accomplished Sunday that would allow those individuals to return to significant positions in the OCA leadership. However, they don’t seem interested and we are quite willing and able to proceed without their support.

Once again, thank you for your consideration in this matter.

Respectfully,

Alan Pfeiffer OCA President
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OCF President's Reply

Dear Guy Hoffman and Ralph Bowman             Sep 3, 2003

Ralph did indeed make a valiant effort to bring the two sides together. After 70 minutes the FOUNDATION put it's offer on the table but the OSCO/OCA made no offer ...nor counteroffer... during the meeting. Therefor they did not bargain in good faith and the conciliation was not to be.

The OCF still believes that the OSCO/OCA has never been legal because of the resignation issue of Alan Pfeiffer and the lack of a quorum to meet and conduct business.

The OCF also believes that the USCF should award the Oklahoma affiliate state chapter to the OCF because of our 20 year track record and 20 year future plans of providing monthly large tournaments to area members of USCF. The OCF is composed of the most experienced, highest certified and most active TDs in Oklahoma. According to Dr Wharry (recent OCA Prez and new past prez of OCF) "The percentage of USCF tournaments directed in the last 5 years which were organized by these OCF officers approaches 100% of all tourneys organized in Oklahoma.”

We think that if you decide to award OSCO/OCA the affiliate state chapter then we feel that everyone would be watching a bus loaded with OCA members being driven by blind drivers headed for a brick wall with a horrifying result. They should stick to Scholastics and leave Adult chess to us.

Guy - we will be sending you by snail-mail supporting comments by other OCF officers that are too lengthy for this e-mail.

I repeat that we are just a half-a-dozen active tournament director/organizers who plan and execute monthly rated events 10 to 12 months in advance. If we can't meet as OCA officers then we will meet as OCF officers. We are unified.

The OCF hopes one or both of you (Ralph and Guy) can make one of our tnmts in the near future.

Thanks to both of you for your time and efforts.

Jim Berry, OCF President