Massachusetts Chess Association

Board of Director Meeting Minutes

Wednesday, August 25, 2021, 7:30pm

Virtual Meeting

ATTENDEES: Andrew Hoy (President), Robert Messenger (Treasurer), Jeff Caruso (Clerk), Director Yi Wang, and non-voting guests Dima Barash, George Mirijanian, and Charles Slade. Directors Paul Arond and Oleg Poliannikov joined later.

Called to order at 7:42pm.

1. Membership Secretary’s report

Mr. Messenger presented a report on membership numbers from 2020 to 2021 (see below).

Mr. Arond joined the meeting.

2. Minutes

MOTION (AH/JC): to approve the minutes of the July 7, 2021 Board meeting.  Passed 5-0.

Unanimous consent motion (JC): to suspend the rules and to approve the Executive Session Minutes from the July 7, 2021 Board meeting, distributed earlier by email.  Passed 5-0.

Mr. Poliannikov joined the meeting.

3. Upcoming tournaments. 

Mr. Hoy, Mr. Messenger, and others discussed plans for upcoming tournaments.

The New England Open will now require masks, and appropriate notifications will be made via email and the masschess.org website.  Mr. Messenger clarified that day parking (not overnight) will be free at the Massachusetts Open.  The Senior Open TLA has been submitted to US Chess and so we don’t have the possibility of adjusting the entry fee or prize fund to make it profitable this year.  The Board discussed holding the Pillsbury Memorial in December 2021.

Members continued to discuss upcoming scholastic tournaments, including the Winter Team Challenge and the Girls Championship Qualifier.

Mr. Mirijanian asked what would happen to the Greater Boston Open, which usually takes place the second weekend in October.  The board considered this at an earlier meeting and decided that this year the state championship tournament would take precedence for that weekend. If another weekend can be found this fall, we would consider holding the GBO then.

4. Presentation by the Boylston Chess Club

Mr. Slade, Treasurer of the Boylston Chess Club, made a presentation describing the Club’s prospective new quarters in Medford. He wants to explore having MACA assist with financing in exchange for a permanent home for the MACA office co-located with the BCC, and a venue for MACA tournaments.  Mr. Hoy noted that as President of both MACA and the BCC, he plans to recuse himself from voting on decisions regarding the proposal.

5. Date of the next meeting

MOTION (AH/JC): the next meeting will be on September 29, 2021, at 7:30pm, via Zoom. 

Passed 6-0.

6. Scholastic tournament planning

Mr. Wang opened a discussion of Scholastic Tournament planning for the Spiegel Cup. We need to make decisions soon about rules for qualification and whether we will have the Spiegel Cup Series as well as the Qualifier tournaments. We should eliminate the discrepancy of age versus grade level between our tournaments and the Denker, Barber, and Rockefeller tournaments. We should organize Girls Championship qualifiers so that entries are not just based on rating. While the Spiegel Cup Series is important to the Board it may not be manageable this year because of COVID-19.  

This will all be discussed in detail by the Scholastics Committee.

ADJOURNED at 9:38 pm.

Minutes written by Jeffrey Caruso, MACA Clerk