NEXT BOARD MEETING: Tuesday, April 16, 2019 at Boylston Chess Club, Cambridge, MA
1. Meeting Minutes
MOTION: Approval of minutes from the January 30, 2019 board meeting (JC/RM).
VOTE: Passed, 6-0
2. Committee Reports
Elections
Voter registration ended on February 28th. 17 new registrations were received, ail for the online ballot option. There are 139 total voters registered, including 131 online ballots and 8 paper ballots. The ballot design has been finalized for both online and paper ballots.
Nominations closed on February 15th. Thirteen candidates were nominated for twelve total positions. Ali candidates meet the MACA membership requirements.
One candidate, currently nominated for a directory position, attempted to nominate himself for President on February 19th, after nominations had already closed. He was informed that nominations have closed and his nomination could not be accepted. The Board unanimously affirmed the decision of the elections committee.
Prison Chess
Steve Frymer has made contact with a couple of Florida prisons. He mailed a box of chess magazines to one facility du ring the last week of February, and there will be additional mailings to this facility. He is waiting to hear from a second facility.
LMCF
Nine chess sets were granted to the Dartmouth MA Middle School in January, the first grant of 2019.
Scholastics and Tournaments
Ali four qualifiers for 2018-19 have been completed. The finals are scheduled for Sunday, March 10th. Nicholas Sterling will be the chief TD and will be assisted by other MACA TD's.
The Hurvitz Cup is scheduled for March 24th at the Boxboro Regency. This will be the first event at the hotel after a one-year hiatus when events were held in Marlboro.
The Girls qualifier and championship will be held on March 31st and April 27th-28th respectively. For the championship, one girl will qualify from the March tournament and five will be invited by rating.
For the 2019-20 season, the first qualifier has been scheduled for September 29th at the Westford Regency. There is also an attractive offer on the table from the Hilton Garden Inn in Burlington for either November 17th or 24th. Steve Frymer has been in contact with additional hotels, including one in Dedham and one in Woburn in an effort to solicit additional bids. So far, the Westford and Burlington bids have been the best deals.
The current plan is to limit Spiegel Cup Series to the SU and the 11U age groups next year as the 14U section had little interest amongst the higher rated players in the state.
The feedback received for the new format of the GGGC, specifically its use as qualifier for the high school section of the Spiegel Finals, has been generally positive. The time contrai in the future should be G/60 since the high school players are stronger, and the middle school sections had low attendance, so next year the scholastic committee will consider merging several of those sections.
The MACA scholastic tournaments have generally used age to determine a player's section. At the national level, grades are used instead. The scholastic committee will discuss potential ways to change the grade school sections and their benefits.
Based on discussions with players and parents, there is strong interest in running the high school championship as a closed round robin. The Girls Championship scheduled in April is a pilot for the format.
The Girls Championship will have a qualifier on March 3i5t (the Girls Challenge). Bath events will be held at the Boylston Chess Club. The ove ra li winner of the top section of the Girls Challenge will be invited to join the top five MA players by rating for the two day round robin held on the last weekend of April.
The Westford site is significantly cheaper than alternatives. There is one big room that is a long way from the lobby. At the Mass Open, the configuration of one room will not be sufficient because of the one-day scholastic sections.
The Board recognized the generous donation of time and reduced/foregone TD fees by the many TDs that support MACA.
Dmitry Ba rash and Steve Frymer have served as co-chairs of the scholastic committee since the January board meeting. The MACA bylaws do not allow this.
MOTION: Appoint Steve Frymer as chair of the scholastic committee (JC/RM).
VOTE: Passed, 6-0
Finance
The reporting for MACA's investment incarne has been brought more into line with GAAP. Going forward, dividends received will be reported as incarne every year instead of rolled into the current market value of the account.
The Vanguard money market fund that was setup last year has been outperforming the Citizen's Bank CD. Bob will setup check writing privileges on the money market fund after the new board is seated. Andrew also suggested Vanguard mutual funds for longer term investments, based on the good experience that the BCF has had with them so far.
ln light of the end of Chess Horizons, there is additional funding freed up for MACA's use. Seve rai possible uses were suggested, including expanding the prison chess program, increased spending on educational efforts, giving additional chess sets as part of the LMCF, and holding additional tournaments or clinics.
Membership
There has been a slight decrease in total MACA membership since the last board meeting. Bob shares historical data with Ken Ballou: there might be opportunities to examine the data and draw actionable conclusions about membership. Despite the decrease since the last meeting, total tourna ment attendance is generally increasing.
A couple of observations: most new members join or renew at tournaments; many unrated players (and new MACA members) played at the Hurvitz Cup.
Chess Horizons
The penultimate issue is tentatively scheduled for release at the end of the month. Severa! board members offered to help Nathan with formatting submitted games.
Website
Tiffany Wang, Nathan Smolensky, and Oleg Poliannikov are working together to understand and update the back end code. The main goal is to enable multiple people to make website updates.
3. New Business
The budget committee will formulate a budget and present it at the next meeting. Bob Messenger is chair of the budget committee and members include Steve Frymer, Andrew Hoy, Nathan Smolensky, and Oleg Poliannikov will be invited to join.
Mailchip email blasts will be sent out to remind players about the Hurvitz Cup and the Girls Challenge.
4. Next Meeting
Next meeting will be on Tuesday, April 16, 2019 at 7pm at the Boylston Chess Club. The meeting was later cancelled
MOTION TO ADJOURN
VOTE: 6-0