The meeting was finally called to order by Mike Nietman at 1:54 during a break between rounds at the Winter Open. Members not in attendance, CK, MM, TF, KB.
- ANNOUNCMENTS: Tom Feeney has a sponsor for the Racine/Kenosha Open. Navstar (Art Peel's company) will be the sponsor.
- STATE CLOSED PROGRESS REPORT: Nothing new to report. TD bid entered. Brian Brzezinski and Matt Roeder entered a bid to direct the State Closed for $200. Motion to accept (Kaul/Noel), Carries, 4-0-1. BB abstains. Motion to accept the budget produced by Mike Nietman, (Noel/Hoffman), Carries 5-0.
- OTHER OLD BUSINESS: Tour Update; The Twin Ports club is having an event 2/21/98 in Duluth. They are scheduled to have a Tour Event in September. Motion to limit Tour status to Superior not Duluth events, (Hoffman/Noel), motion to amend (Nietman) to limit status to all events inside the State borders, ( motion considered friendly), Carries 5-0.
- 1998 NORTH CENTRAL OPEN BIDS: The Holiday Inn, Eau Claire, has committed to room rates of $42 per night for the weekend of the NCO. Motion to accept the Holiday Inn as the site of the '98 NCO, (Noel/Brzezinski), carries 5-0.
- WEAC CONVENTION: This year's convention will be 10/28-30, in Madison.
- 1998 MEMBERSHIP MEETING AGENDA: THE USUAL SUSPECTS; MINUTES, PREZ ADDRESS, TREAS. ADDRESS, Open discussion of topics. Election of officers, etc. NEXT MEETING: after the 3pm. membership meeting, 5/24/98, Oshkosh.
- OTHER NEW BUSINESS: Mike Selig has qualified for a Merit Award for the Arver Amateur. The Treasurer is directed to make the usual contribution to the Selig retirement fund.
MOTION TO ADJOURN (HOFFMAN/KAUL), CARRIES 2:15pm.
WCA DUES CHANGE: Effective at this year's State Closed Championship, the WCA annual dues will be raised to $5 per year. However, if you play in any WCA sponsored event, the annual dues will be free. This dues increase was approved by the WCA membership at the 1997 Annual Membership Meeting by the required 60% vote. This increase will only affect out-of-state members that get a Wisconsin membership because it is cheaper than the local memberships, members that play out-of-state without playing in WCA events, or WCA officers that do not regularly play in tournaments. This will not affect members that already participate in WCA events regularly.
WCA TOUR NOTES: The 1997 Tour was won by Guy Hoffman (686 points). Neil Gleason (648) finished second. John Wagner (567) took the Expert prize while finishing third. Josh Kaul (501) won Class 'A'. Matt Roeder (466) spent most of the year in Class 'C', but moved up to Class 'B' at the end of the year and won the 'B' prize. When doing that, Matt opened up 'C' for Ken Ceterski (400). Ken's brother, Justin Ceterski (467) won the junior prize. Many thanks to the participants of the '97 Tour, and good luck in the 1998 Tour already under way. The prize fund for the '97 Tour was $600. One dollar of every entry fee of tour events goes to fund the tour, so the more participants there are, the higher the prize fund will be. Tournament Directors also receive points for Tour events. The Chief T.D. and first assistant Director receive points based on the median score of their class/100 point group. This information must be sent to the Tour Statistician (me) with the wallcharts.
EVENT NOTES: After a one year vacation, the Arpad Elo Open and North Central Open will return. The Waukesha Chess Club has volunteered to run the Elo this year. It will be held April 4-5 at the Red Carpet Lanes in Waukesha. Contact Yogi Lilly for more details. The North Central Open will be held over the Thanksgiving weekend again, this time at the Holiday Inn, downtown Eau Claire. The Holiday Inn was the site of the 1997 State Closed Championship. Contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for details.
1998 State Championship: Keeping in line with the WCA's policy of giving new T.D's a chance to grow, Brian Brzezinski and Matt Roeder will be organizing and directing the 1998 State Closed Championship in Oshkosh over the Memorial Day weekend. For those of you that don't know them, no need to worry, Guy Hoffman will be there to oversee/offer assistance.