Massachusetts Chess Association

Board of Directors Meeting Minutes

Wednesday, March 16, 2022, 7:30pm

Boylston Chess Club, 40 Norris St., Cambridge, MA and via Zoom

ATTENDEES: Andrew Hoy (President), Steven Winer (Vice President), Robert Messenger (Membership Secretary), Jeff Caruso (Clerk, Elections Chair, Bylaws Chair), and Directors Paul Arond, Latanya Sweeney (Education Chair), and Yi Wang.

CALLED TO ORDER at 7:35 p.m.

1. Minutes

MOTION (AH/LS): to approve the minutes of the February 16, 2022 Board meeting.  Passed 7-0.

2. Elections Commission

Mr. Caruso presented the Elections Commission Report.

3. Membership Report

Mr. Messenger presented the Membership Report. Mr. Hoy presented some points from an analysis of the period from 2016 through the present: membership dropped by around 200 just after we ceased publishing Chess Horizons, and dropped again during the pandemic.  We are now approximately back to our pre-pandemic levels but have not gained back the levels of the CH days.

4. Education Committee

Prof. Sweeney spoke about reviving league chess among schools in Massachusetts.  She also outlined plans for a teacher training scheme for the summer, with certification by MACA.  Several board members expressed interest in working on the league chess initiative.

5. Upcoming tournaments

Mr. Hoy led a discussion of dates and arrangements for the Spiegel Cup Finals, the Hurvitz Cup, and the Girls’ Championship. Between school calendars and summer vacation there are no perfect dates in May or June, so the Scholastics Committee will choose three dates based on venue availability.

Mr. Hoy reminded members about the planning calendar that he emailed recently.  If we keep this up to date we can avoid surprises; possibly it can be accommodated on the new website.

6. MACA Website

Mr. Hoy announced that he plans to switch over the website to the new code base on April 11. Some board members will assist with testing prior to that point.

7. Masks requirement

With COVID numbers down, many towns have dropped their requirements about wearing masks indoors. The Board considered whether to relax our requirements with respect to MACA tournaments. We don’t know yet how the situation might change in May. By consensus, we will keep the requirement for the G/60 Championship and the 4th Spiegel Qualifier, but we will merely announce that “masks may be required” in the Massachusetts Open publicity, and make a final decision closer to the event.

8. Annual meeting

MOTION (AH/SW): The time and place of this year’s annual meeting will be on Monday, May 30 at 9:00am at the site of the Massachusetts Open.  Passed 7-0.

9. Bylaws amendment vote

Under the rules for amendments, MACA members can vote to approve or repeal the recent Bylaws amendment in the upcoming election. Mr. Caruso proposed giving the voters advance notice of this.

MOTION (JC/AH): To post in Chess News a description of the Bylaws amendment passed on January 12, and a recommendation by the Board that it be approved by the voters.  Passed 7-0.

10. Boylston Chess Club

The Boylston Chess Club is close to making an offer on a property in Boston as their new headquarters and would appreciate a letter of intent that MACA intends to continue holding some tournaments there as in the past.

MOTION (AH/JC): To authorize the President to compose and send such a letter of intent.

In the discussion, it was established that this does not bind MACA to anything in the future, merely stating the fact that we have no plans at this time to make a change.

Passed 5-0-2, Mr. Hoy and Prof. Sweeney abstaining.

11. Next meeting

Unanimous consent motion (AH): the next meeting will take place on April 6, 2022, at 7:30pm at the Boylston Chess Club, 40 Norris St., Cambridge, MA.  Passed without objection.

ADJOURNED at 8:46 pm.

Minutes written by Jeffrey Caruso, MACA Clerk

Report of the Elections Commission

March 16, 2022

(as corrected)

VOTER REGISTRATION

Voter registration closed February 28.  No new registrations were received. A total of 117 people are registered, 109 for online ballots and 8 for paper ballots.

NOMINATIONS

Nominations closed February 15. Fifteen candidates were nominated (one of them for two positions), as follows:

   President:   Andrew Hoy, Robert E. King

   VP:              Steven Winer

   Treasurer: Bob Messenger

   Clerk:          Jeff Caruso

   Director:     Paul Arond, Oleg Poliannikov, Nicholas Sterling, Prof. Latanya Sweeney,

Yi Wang, Dmitri Barash, Robert E. King, Robin King-Franklin, Igor Klempf, 

Alonzo Ross, Elsie Smits

All candidates have met the MACA membership requirements.

Candidate statements were submitted by 8 of the candidates for publication on the masschess.org website. They will also be printed and mailed to voters receiving paper ballots.

This year the ballot will include approval of the Bylaws amendment passed January 12.

The projected timeline is as follows:

April 28: mail out paper ballots 

May 1: send out electronic ballots 

May 27: voting deadline for online ballots 

May 27: voting deadline for mailed paper ballots 

May 28: voting deadline for paper ballots submitted by hand

May 28-30: publication of results

- Jeffrey Caruso, Chair of the Elections Commission