Business

Documents covering the Business of the Wisconsin Chess Association. Here you can find minutes of the board meetings, the current bylaws, letters from the President, and other official documents of the WCA.

Minutes 2/98

  • Written by Jerry Noel
  • Published: 16 November 2004
  • Last Updated: 01 March 1998

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.

  1. ANNOUNCMENTS: Tom Feeney has a sponsor for the Racine/Kenosha Open. Navstar (Art Peel's company) will be the sponsor.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. WEAC CONVENTION: This year's convention will be 10/28-30, in Madison.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.

1998 President's Report

  • Written by Mike Nietman
  • Published: 16 November 2004
  • Last Updated: 24 May 1998

Gruenhagen Conference Center, UW-Oshkosh May 24, 1998

Wisconsin chess is entering an intriguing period. Many new clubs, organizers and tournament directors have popped up all over the state. Growing pains remain. The key to overcoming these growing pains is planning. Organizers must work together when planning events. When selecting dates please consult with our tournament clearinghouse. (Currently this is Guy Hoffman.) Recently three Milwaukee area clubs ran events on three consecutive weekends with generally poor turnouts. Last December two tournaments were held on the same day. Economically, there is a finite amount of dollars our players can spend on events. Organizers must work together to maximize our tournament successes.

Another intriguing part of this period is the outreach our clubs are doing to attract national figures and national events. Congratulations to the Milwaukee area clubs who arranged for GM Bisguier to come to Milwaukee earlier this month for a series of lectures and simuls.

Once again I will be attending the Wisconsin Education Association Council's convention in October in Madison. But this year I've arranged at no cost to us for Beatriz Marinello, the USCF Scholastic Director, to deliver a two hour presentation on why chess should be included in schools. The talk will include a detailed discussion of current studies. She also will be available in our booth on the convention floor. Tell your teacher friends to attend!

The most exciting news of all is that the Greater Milwaukee Convention Bureau, the Milwaukee Public Schools, the UW-Milwaukee Chess Club and the WCA will jointly sponsor a bid for the 2000 National High School Championship.

The bid must be completed by July with the USCF Policy Board awarding the event in November. Volunteers are needed now to assist the organizational team. Sponsors, trophy dealers, computer firms, cell phone companies must all be contacted. On-site volunteers need to be coordinated. The list of jobs is endless.

If you are interested in working on this project, please contact me.

As I'm sure you read, Badger Chess is counting down to its last issue at the end of 1999. With help, in 1982 Bill Williams and Wray McCalester started Badger Chess. At first they alternated each month being the editor. When Wray moved on to the USCF office, Bill took over as full time editor.

The magazine has won several awards. It could have won many more but Bill refused to enter issues for review by the awards committee of the Chess Journalists of America. Let's encourage Bill to submit issues these final two years.

Bill, Wisconsin chess is indebted to you. Thanks for the great run! You've done a super job!!

This past winter, Kirk Plankey started a new magazine dedicated to northeast Wisconsin players and their games. Unfortunately in a recent letter to subscribers, Kirk states that for various reasons he is giving up his quest and that full refunds will be forthcoming.

To begin the new millennium Wisconsin will be without a state-wide publication. At the Board meeting immediately following this membership meeting, I will request that the Board approve the creation of a committee to perform a feasibility study to produce a WCA sponsored magazine.

The WCA normally sponsors six events each year. The State Closed Championship starts off the year. During fall we hold the Wisconsin Junior Open and Veteran's Tournaments, the William Martz Memorial/North Central Open and the Herman Schramm Memorial. Our chess year ends each spring with the Arpad Elo Open.

As many of you know, the 1997 calendar year was not good for us as the Elo and North Central were not held. Thanks to Yogi Lilly and the Waukesha club for running the 1998 Elo. My bid for the 1998 North Central was approved at our last Board meeting. It will be held at the Eau Claire Holiday Inn.

My thanks to Tom Feeney and the Racine Chess Club Board of Directors for switching dates with the WCA this fall. The Junior Open and Veterans Tournament will be held October 10-11 in Oshkosh and the Racine/Kenosha Open will be November 14-15. The switch was due to a booking problem here at Gruenhagen.

As announced last year due to cumulative losses over the past few years, the WCA has changed most of its tournament prize funds from guaranteed to based on. We cannot continue to lose money.

My thanks to John Rummel for taking over the job of maintaining our website. Its new address is

http://www.globaldialog.com/~jrummel/WCA/WCAIndex.html.

Please check it out and send John your tournament announcements, tournament reports and games. He'll be glad to hear from you!

The WCA received $537 this year from the USCF for our state's share of the State Affiliate Support Program money. We used $400 to support four programs and to reserve $137 for future use.

First, for the Junior Open we reduce entry fees for those that send in more than four entries in the same envelope. This helped ease the huge workload for the TD's at the event. Seventy five participated in this program that invites juniors and schools to get active and recruit others to come to the tournament thereby benefiting both the schools and the event long term.

Second, we continue to strive for excellence in tournament organization and direction by funding the Merit Award Program. (If you are interested in more detailed information on this or any other WCA program, please contact me later.)

Third, due to a request from several postal players, the WCA donated $50 to help defray the cost of flyer printing and mailing for the 1998 Wisconsin Postal Chess Championship. We are pleased to help this often overlooked group of chess players.

Fourth, the WCA has started a fund to purchase a proper memorial to Marshall Rohland in the form of a traveling trophy for the winner of the reserve section of the State Closed Championship.

The 1998 Wisconsin Scholastic Championship attracted 373 participants! Congratulations to Madison West for winning their first team championship.

Congratulations to Guy Hoffman for winning the 1997 Wisconsin Chess Tour. If organizers want their event on the tour, they should contact me or Guy, who is the Tour Committee chairman, by the middle of November of the year before the Tour. The Board will be looking at revising the prize fund for the 1999 Tour. With the recent rating deflation we will look at moving the class prizes down one level. This means that the expert prize will disappear and the 'C' and Under prize will be split into a 'C' prize and a 'D' and Under prize.

A great deal of thanks go to all the Board members for their hard work and many hours of time spent on chess endeavors this past year. Special thanks to Guy Hoffman and Matt Merrill who along with myself have our terms of office expire today.

Minutes 5/98

  • Written by Jerry Noel
  • Published: 16 November 2004
  • Last Updated: 01 June 1998

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Mike Nietman was disappointed with the attendance at the previous meeting scheduled for his apartment in Mauston. Only four members were in attendance. B: There is now a chess club in Baraboo, contact person is Dan Silvernail. C: There is a ballot in Chess Life regarding the “one man one vote” referendum. D: The mailing labels received from USCF was missing some current players, Mike expressed some concern. E: New postal rates in effect; $.254 for zip+4, $.186 for bar coded. F: NEW CHESS by Kirk Plankey is now defunct. G: Beatriz Marinello is cutting back the amount of time that she will be available at the WEAC convention.

MINUTES: A; Nov. 2nd typos, Schramm, ELO, 218 not 238 MOTION to accept (CK/JK), carries. B; Feb. 1, Feb. 7, MOTION to accept, (CK?BB), Carries.

ELECTION OF OFFICERS:

  1. President: Mike Nietman nominated by Hoffman MOTION to close, (JN/CK), carries 8-0-1
  2. Vice-President Guy Hoffman nominated by Kaul MOTION to close, (JN/JK), carries 8-0-1
  3. Secretary Jerry Noel nominated by Hoffman MOTION to close, (CK/JK), carries 8-1
  4. Treasurer Chris Krumenauer nominated by Selig MOTION to close, (JK/TF), carries, 8-0-1

1997-98 JUNIOR/VETERAN’S FINAL: The Junior Open had 149 entrants, 75 in the open section, 74 in the reserve section. The cutoff was at 1100. Lots of USCF memberships were sold. Final profit of $210.14 was recorded. MOTION to accept report, (JN/CK), Carries 9-0. VETERAN’S OPEN; 26 entries, low turnout, prize fund slashed, loss of $11.23 Winners were; Justin Ceterski and Patrick Van Dyke, 5-0, with Patrick winning on tie breaks. There was a four way tie for Denker rep. Josh Kaul won the tie break event.

SCHRAMM FINAL REPORT: 60 players, the $35 check from Mrs. Schramm was lost by the T.D. Borman. Profit was $3.51 ($38.51 if the check is found). George Ljaschenko won. MOTION TO ACCEPT, (GH/JN), Carries.

1998 ELO OPEN FINAL: 60 players, $21.33 profit. Alex Betaneli won, 4.5-0.5 MOTION to accept, (JN/BB), Carries.

STATE PRELIMINARY REPORT: 84 players in attendance, 44 open, 40 reserve. 5 players from the U.P. Higher mailing costs this year.

1998 NORTH CENTRAL OPEN BIDS: Eau Claire Holiday Inn, prize fund based upon 90, $2100 + trophy, break even point of 86 players. MOTION to accept the budget, (JN/BB), carries 9-0. T.D Bids, Guy Hoffman and Jerry Noel for $125. MOTION to accept, (BB/MS), carries, 7-0-2.

OTHER OLD BUSINESS, NONE.

1998-99 JUNIOR/ VETERAN’S OPEN BIDS: New dates due to a conflict, entry fee change, $14 with a $4 discount, MOTION to accept as amended, (JK/BB), Carries, 7-0-2. T.D. BIDS: the usual suspects enter a bid for $450 to direct both events. MOTION to accept, (BB/JN), carries.

FUTURE DATES:

  1. 1999 MAR, 20-21 SCHOLASTIC
  2. OCT, 30-31 JR/VET
  3. DEC, 18-19 SCHRAMM
  4. 2000 MAR, 11-12 SCHOLASTIC
  5. NOV, 4-5 JR/VET
  6. DEC, 16-17 SCHRAMM
  7. 2001 MAR, 17-18 SCHOLASTIC
  8. NOV, 3-4 JR/VET
  9. DEC, 15-16 SCHRAMM
  10. MOTION to accept, (TF/BB), carries.

1998 SCHRAMM : There was discussion regarding lowering the postage cost by combining the Schramm flyers with the NCO flyer. TD BIDS: MOTION to table, (BB/JN), Carries.

1998 STATE SCHOLASTIC RESULTS: 373 players in attendance, Madison West won, 6-0, John Carian won board 1, 6-0. Smooth running tournament, enforcer Jerry Noel didn’t have to kill anybody, however, some coaches came close.

2000 NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL DISCUSSION: Same discussion, different location, who will be doing the work, and who will get the credit? Mike Nietman is going to a meeting with Lilian Carter-Pounds. Much heated discussion on the ineptitude of Milwaukee organizers. Bill Williams enters into the discussion to defend his cronies. More heated discussion ensues. MOTION to have the WCA cosponsor the event with the goal of providing much needed expertise, (TF/JK), Josh Kaul enters an amendment to give Mike Nietman discretion on WCA sponsorship, Guy Hoffman motions to table the original motion until we have more information. Motion to Table carries, 5-4 (GH, JN, KB, CK, JK in favor of tabling).

TOUR PRIZES: MOTION to change the Tour prize fund, eliminating the Expert prize, and splitting the Under 1600 to Class C and Under 1400, (JN/CK), Carries.

USCF ANNUAL MEETINGS: No elections this year, Guy is the Delegate.

NONE

A: 1999 State bid; entered by Mike Selig, location is Fond Du Lac, add $3 Junior discount, 45/2, 25/1 time controls, MOTION to accept as amended, (JN/CK), 8-0-1.

B: Creation of Publications committee, including a feasibility study, seeking others to do badger Chess. MOTION to create, (JN/BB), Carries. Committee consists of Selig (chair), Feeney, Brzezinski.

C: 1999 NAVISTAR AMATEUR TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP, May 1-2, MOTION to recognize as official, (JN/MS), Carries.

MOTION TO ADJOURN, (JN), CARRIES.

Membership Minutes 5/98

  • Written by Jerry Noel
  • Published: 16 November 2004
  • Last Updated: 01 June 1998

The meeting was called to order at 3:33 p.m. By President Nietman in the skittles room at the Gruenhagen Conference Center. Board member Matt Merrill was absent. No proxies were presented.

  1. The Secretary read the minutes of the 1997 membership meeting. A motion to accept the Minutes as read was entered by Mike Selig, seconded by Chris Krumenauer. Motion carries.

    Errol Hartman had a question regarding Board resolution A. The Board makes a motion to insert Resolution D, which deletes section 7.3 from the by-laws. Motion carries unanimously.

  2. Presidents Report: Mike Nietman introduced the Board members to the Membership. He then reads the Presidents Report.

    Bruce Shampo has a question regarding the Tour and rating deflation.

  3. Treasurers Report: Chris Krumenauer gives his report on the fiscal status of the WCA. A motion was entered by Mike Selig to accept the report. It was seconded by Tom Feeney as amended. Motion carries with Chris abstaining.
  4. Topics for discussion: The Board accept the adulation from its loyal subjects. There was discussion regarding the 2000 National Scholastic Championship and the WCAs involvement.
  5. ELECTIONS
    NOMINEE NOMINATOR VOTES
    Guy Hoffman Wayne Meier 28
    Mike Nietman Errol Hartman 29
    Mike Selig Tom Feeney 19
    Matt Roeder Brian Brzezinski 10
    Larry Schmitt Errol Hartman 8
    William Murtaugh (write in) 1

Bill Murtaugh made a motion to close nominations, seconded by John Wagner, motion carries.

The secretary distributed the ballots. The election committee compiled the results (see above).

Errol Hartman makes a motion to adjourn, motion carries.

MEETING ADJOURNED.

The Board meeting to follow after a five minute break.

Minutes 6/98

  • Written by Jerry Noel
  • Published: 16 November 2004
  • Last Updated: 01 July 1998

ANNOUNCEMENTS: $100 donation from Scott Kittsley for the Rohland Trophy, $150 in the fund now.

SCHRAMM T.D. BIDS: $100 bid from Yogi Lilly, (he pays his own lodging), MOTION to accept, (TF/BB), Carries.

2000 HIGH SCHOOL CHAMPIONSHIP: The dinner meeting that Mike Nietman attended had 4 others in attendance, Charles Carerros (UWM), Jan Doleschal (MPS), Lilian Carter-Pounds (Mil. Conventions), Arlen Walker.

The Milwaukee Center across from the Mecca, has a 100’ x 200’ room, + 5 team rooms.

Tentative dates: Apr. 12-17, 2000 May 3-8, 2000

7 rounds, 2-3-2 with speed and bughouse side events.

PROBLEMS: Fine Hosts is the official vendor for the center, which means no kickbacks from concessions. Possibly selling books, etc. at the hotels.

TOURNAMENT DIRECTORS: national TD’s have been contacted, all insist on having 3 NTD’s. 3 Sr. TD’s necessary, one for each section. 3 sections, open, Under 1300, Under 1000.

National TD’s have informed Mike Nietman of various items that they feel are important, varying from organization to financial. Mike Nietman has a preliminary list of prizes/trophies. 304 trophies, 75 plaques. USCF has height requirements for trophies.

MOTION TO PURSUE CO-SPONSORSHIP OF 2000 NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL CHAMPIONSHIP WITH U.W. MILWAUKEE, (Feeney/Kaul), CARRIES, 9-0.

MOTION TO ADJOURN, (JN/BB), CARRIES, 9-0.

Subcategories

At least annually, the president of the WCA is required to present a "State of the Association" letter (at the membership meeting held during every championship). These official announcements are kept here.
Here are official minutes of the WCA board meetings.
Here are copies of old and new bylaws.