Submitted by Mark Kaprielian
07-19-98

I request to have the following Motions put on the agenda PRIOR to any budgetary discussions or Motions.

Motion 1: To explicitly list the programs and activities to be actively pursued as part of MACA fulfilling its mission of promoting chess in Massachusetts.

Motion 2: To have a committee appointed to draft a Mission statement, based upon the list of programs and activities of the organization that has been approved by the board. The mission statement should be worded in a way that makes clear the purpose of the organization and the means by which the organization pursues the fulfilling of that purpose. This committee is to be comprised of three board members with Mark Kaprielian as the chairman.

What follows is the supporting text for the above stated motions:

MOTION 1:

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I think a number of people are missing the whole context of why I'm always bringing up things like percentage of resources allocated towards CH. I'm taking the long view. CH is just one piece of the picture. Let me state again that I'm not anti CH. I am however, pro organization.

I think we need to take a cold, hard look at just what we are doing as an organization versus what we could be doing.

It seems to me, from the responses I've read, there are some different views of what "promoting chess" means. I'd like to put forward my thoughts on what it means and move towards figuring out what the current board really wants.

It seems to me that if MACA were promoting chess successfully, then some reasonable results to expect would include:

1. An increase in USCF membership of first time joiners.

2. An increase in USCF renewals and an improved retention rate.

3. An increase of MACA membership because they realize the benefits of membership as part of the process that brought them into chess.

3. An increase of membership at club from "people off the street" to joining.

4. A regular pace of calls and emails coming in requesting information on where to play and learn.

If we were in the business of promoting chess it would be reasonable that we would be actively engaged in the following activities as a significant part of our efforts and expenditures:

1. Running promotional ad's in the newspapers.

2. Putting together or obtaining a promotional video for use on cable systems as part of their community service requirement.

3. Running radio ads announcing events such as those listed below

4. Running free classes for the public with promotional material on hand.

5. Starting chess clubs in schools

Personally what I'd like to see as benefits of membership is the following;

1. More places, primarily clubs, to play chess.

2. Strong attendance at whatever events I go to

3. Low cost entry fees for events

4. Lots of events to choose from

5. Good venues for playing chess

6. For the public to have a positive attitude toward participating in the game

7. Someplace I know I can take my kids (if I had any) to learn and enjoy the game

8. A publication that keeps me informed of what's happening on the local chess scene.

9. A web site so I can find or get to whatever chess info there is about what's going on in the local chess scene.

10 Knowing that as a supporter of MACA, that I can readily point to the good things the organization is doing and claim pride and satisfaction from it.

If we are an organization, shouldn't we have the following things in place for the survival and perpetuity of the organization:

1. Clearly defined, clean, no-nonsense bylaws.

2. A statement of Policies for every area of endeavor (coordinator areas)

3. A means by which information is clearly and reliably archived and transmitted to the incoming board.

4. A set of clearly defined tasks so that we can solicit the help of volunteers. People will help if they know a task is of limited time and effort.

5. A clear way for people to contact us to volunteer and a timely response process in place.

6 A clear way to provide feedback to the organization and a confirmation of its receipt and appreciation.

We do seem to have a projected income based on events we have already planned. What we do not have is a clear understanding or agreement on which of the above items are we choosing not to pursue? Let's write them down as part of our Policy so that we won't have to revisit the issue every time we get someone new on the board. Let's be clear about what our mission and then give it full support both with effort and with funding.

After all this, I think that a simple answer to what I think is a simple question will clearly identify the overall direction of what this board really wants to do.

Please identify yourself as supporting one of the two perspectives on what MACA is all about:

Mission A. We are an organization that promotes chess through a variety of programs.

Mission B. We are an organization that publishes a chess magazine and tries to do some other good things for chess as well.

I believe that MACA has for some time been pursuing Mission B. If you don't believe me, I'll try and illustrate my point with a little riddle and several clues.

A. What do we spend almost all of our money on every year?

B. What do the MACA volunteers/board members spend most of their time either doing or worrying about every year?

C. What makes the idea of providing free entry to our members as a benefit a crazy idea (it would have a bad effect on the one thing we really, really want to do)

C. What is seems to be the focus of most of the contention that arises in the organization every year?

D. What thing has caused more people to quite or give up on doing work for MACA every year?

E. What provides the best soap opera and rumor mongering among those in the know in our membership?

E. Here's the best clue. What thing, every year, has the same solution of, "If we can just get the right person in there"

As further evidence, could someone show the return on investment for our various promotional campaigns? How about a copy of our reports tracking the growth and demise of clubs and what we've tried to do to in support of the clubs. How about a copy of what we send to every affiliate club telling them about the support and help they can get from us. About the only thing that has been moderately successful, and then only because of the hard work and personal dedication of a small collection of people, is the scholastic program. Couldn't the support and effort from the organization be much greater than it is? It seems to me that the success of the program is based on the effort of the few people who choose to devote their energies to it, not to the organization and the things it has in place to support it. Case in point, if the top three people who are working on the scholastic program were to suddenly stop, would we have a scholastic program? I believe the answer is no.

For myself, if the board is really pursuing Mission B, I need to change my focus and quit yapping about all those other things. If it's Mission A that the board chooses to pursue, then people need to start looking at things differently.

This is the point of my motion to formalize just what we are doing so that we can all be heading in the same direction.

MOTION 2:

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By creating a mission statement we accomplish several things.

1. It serves as a guideline and reminder for all our actions.

2. It serves as a summary statement of what MACA is all about and can be used on many pieces of our promotional material as well as serving as the trailer to Radio and newspaper advertisements.

An example mission statement previously drafted by myself for another organization.