Re: ED departure: We don't need no stinkin' discussion on the Forum

[samsloan]

On May 17, 2:11 pm, bruceykin...@gmail.com wrote:
> Back in the early 2000's, this forum was driving the USCF powers that be crazy because they were unable to control the narrative or silence the critics.  That was from my understanding the entire reason for creating a USCF moderated discussion board so that it would replace RGCP and they would be able to control what topics were discussed and not discussed and also could censor, delete or silence anyone who broached topics they deemed sensitive.
>
You make several excellent points. The USCF Issues Forum was set up so
that the discussion on sensitive issues could take place there, not
out here, where children under the age of 16 can read it.

Now that they have banned all discussion on the departure of Bill Hall
from the USCF Issues Forum, we are forced to discuss it out here where
mothers cannot protect their kids from learning the facts of life.

When I was elected to the USCF Board, at my first board session, in
August 2006, Joel Channing passed around a hand written note basically
saying that Bill Hall should be fired. I was new on the board so I had
no idea how bad Hall was. Jerry Hanken later said that I was the swing
vote. The vote was otherwise 50-50 split on whether to fire Hall or
not. Hall seemed to me at the time to be a good guy. That was before I
got to know him. Because of my vote in favor of Hall he was not fired
at that time and kept his job for another seven years until he was
finally at last fired last week.

Hall kept his job by becoming the mouthpiece for Bill Goichberg. I
could write an entire book on all the bad things Goichberg did.
However, the name of Goichberg never appears. Unless you know what is
going on inside the USCF you would not know that the relationship Bill
Hall had with Goichberg was the same as the relationship Charlie
McCarthy had with Edgar Bergen. Hall wanted to keep his job (without
working because Hall was often missing nowhere to be found) so he just
said whatever Goichberg told him to say.

Sam Sloan

[samsloan]

On May 19, 5:48 pm, bruceykin...@gmail.com wrote:
> Good to see you again Sam.  Goichberg has always had tremendous influence over the ED and for that matter all actions at USCF.  To be honest I can't think of any ED in the past 20 years that hasn't rubbed at least someone the wrong way.  I dropped out of USCF in 2003 or so partly because I saw that hanging around was basically not going to significantly change anything.
>
> Just my opinion Al Lawrence who once lived here in Nebraska was probably the best ED that the USCF has had in many years.  I didn't really know Hall because I left before the move to Crossville or his appointment to be ED.
>
> I still remember meeting with the ED and Bill Goichberg in Framingham after the U.S. Open ended in 2001.  I can't even remember the guy's name now, but just remember Bill and I both insisted that the TLA policy had to change.   Now of course I don't even think the organization has a Chess Life Magazine hard copy anyway so that whole issue would be moot.
>
> I know that Jerry Hanken died Sam but do you know what became of some of the other people like Tom Dorsch and Jim Eade?  Also Steve Doyle.  Is Doyle still alive or around?

Steve Doyle is alive and still running the US Amateur Team East where
I saw him in February, Tom Dorsch has dropped out completely, divorced
his wife and moved back with his mother in Nebraska. Eade is inactive
but I saw him at the USCF Delegates Meeting last year.

The Executive Director in 2001 was George DeFeis. He turned out to be
a terrible, awful Executive Director. Revenues dropped about 50%
during his short term of office. Financial figures he produced during
his term were pure fiction. Between him and his successor Frank Niro
more than one million dollars in LMA or Life Membership Assets
disappeared. We still do not know what happened to all the money but
by 2003 the USCF was virtually bankrupt.

I agree that Al Lawrence was by far the best executive director and
right now I am lobbying for them to give him his old job back.

Regarding the TLA fees in 2001, Goichberg was right. Under DeFeis TLA
Fees had quintipled, multiplied by 5 times. Tournament organizers
could not afford to advertise in Chess Life any more. One casualty was
the Manhattan Chess Club that stopped advertising because of the high
TLA Fees and soon thereafter closed down and went out of business and
has never returned.

Because of having two very bad, possibly criminal executive directors
DeFeis and Niro the USCF made some very bad decisions such as stopping
the sale of books and equipment and putting Chess Life on the
Internet. USCF sales and revenues were $6.5 million in 1999. Now they
are less than $2 million. Membership is dropping like a stone. The
best thing that can be said about Bill Hall is he is not as bad as
DeFeis or Niro. Bill Hall should have been fired in 2006 when we
realized how bad he was. Actually, Goichberg wanted to fire him back
then. Hall survived by becoming Goicberg's lackey, changing Goichberg
from being an opponent to being a supporter of Hall.

By the time I got on the board in 2006-2007 the USCF was under One Man
Rule. Goichberg was running the USCF. Goichberg never contacted the
other board members. We had no idea what he was doing or what was
going on until we read about it on the website. Hall was his
mouthpiece. Hall kept his job by saying what ever Goichberg told him
to say. Goichberg through Hall did things that none of the other board
members would have agreed to had we known about it before it was
announced.

A case in point is at the end of December 2006 Hall announced that the
US Championship would be played as a knock-out tournament played over
the Internet at regional centers. Merrill Lynch was said to be the
sponsor. This was a ridiculous idea and illegal because that was a
zonal year and zonal tournaments must be conducted in accordance with
FIDE regulations, over the board and not on the Internet. Also, nobody
at Merrill Lynch had ever authorized this. This was a 100% Goichberg
fantasy. Later Joel Benjamin wrote an article published in New in
Chess Magazine blaming me, Sam Sloan, for the collapse of this
Internet championship idea. (You can look that up.) Goichberg also
blamed me for the fact that this Internet idea never came to fruition.
I had nothing to do with it. There was no money for it. I have no idea
why Goichberg thought Merrill Lynch would provide the money. Also, all
the players were opposed to this Internet championship except Joel
Benjamin. Benjamin just wanted a big payday.

I could write an entire book on all the bad things Goichberg did.
However, the name of Goichberg never appears. Unless you know what is
going on inside the USCF you would not know that the relationship Bill
Hall had with Goichberg was the same as the relationship Charlie
McCarthy had with Edgar Bergen. Hall wanted to keep his job (without
working because Hall was often missing nowhere to be found) so he just
said whatever Goichberg told him to say.

At my first board session, in August 2006, Joel Channing passed around

a hand written note basically saying that Bill Hall should be fired. I
was new on the board so I had no idea how bad Hall was. Jerry Hanken
later said that I was the swing vote. The vote was otherwise 50-50
split on whether to fire Hall or not. Hall seemed to me at the time to
be a good guy. That was before I got to know him. Because of my vote
in favor of Hall he was not fired at that time and kept his job for
another seven years until he was finally at last fired last week.

A good word must be put in about the staff. The USCF is blessed with
long serving staff members such as Judy, Joan, Walter Brown, Mike
Nolan, Traci Lee and others. They keep the USCF running. All of these
people were with the USCF before Hall arrived. Hall stopped by the
office occasionally to visit. By the way, before him Frank Niro was
even worse. I understand that often weeks went by without Frank Niro
ever coming to the office.

Sam Sloan