It has been my privilege to serve as USCF President since August 2005. The
Executive Board will select a new President this August, as there is a four
year term limit.
USCF has seen many changes since 2005. Our website now has interesting chess
news and games, not just ratings and technical info.
Chess Life has
been modernized and upgraded, and a scholastic magazine again offered (
Chess
Life for Kids, better than the old
School Mates.) Adult dues have
been lowered, new national events initiated, tournament memberships restored
to encourage rated activity after a 15 year lapse, and low cost insurance
offered to chess clubs. We are fortunate to have outstanding sponsors
including the Saint Louis Chess Club (U.S. Championship, U.S. Women’s),
Kasparov Chess Foundation (Olympiads), and World Chess Live (Grand Prix,
Junior Grand Prix, College Tournament of Champions). And we are the only
nation to have both our overall and women’s Olympiad teams win medals in
Dresden!
For many years, USCF’s most persistent problem was declining Adult
membership. Beginning with 1995 when dues rose from $30 to $40, we lost at
least 400 Adult members each year, an average of over 1,000 per year, for 11
consecutive years. Senior membership also declined steadily. This type of
deterioration tends to be a vicious spiral, as fewer members means fewer
clubs and tournaments, which in turn hurts membership, etc.
This trend was not unique to USCF, as similar organizations such as the
American Contract Bridge League and Chess Federation of Canada also had
large declines, the latter being even more severe than USCF and resulting in
elimination of their printed magazine.
During the past three years, this destructive deterioration was finally
halted, as our age 20 & older member total increased slightly. Under 20
numbers were not as good, as overall membership declined by 1,481, but this
was still much better than the previous three years, in which we lost 13,145
members.
Financial losses were also once a persistent USCF problem, especially in
fiscal 1997-2003 when money was lost each year and the Federation almost
went bankrupt. 2004 and 2005 had surpluses, but since then, breaking even
has been difficult as expected relocation savings did not materialize,
though Executive Director Bill Hall has held expenses down. We are paying
off an extra $100,000 of our mortgage this year. A new membership structure
including online-only magazine options is off to a good start, but will be
of far more benefit in fiscal 2010. The 2006-2009 fiscal period should end
at roughly breakeven, with unusual negative and positive events
approximately balancing each other out:
Negative: 1) High legal fees due to improper behavior by two board members
and USCF being sued by a board member (see
www.uschess.org/legalupdates),
2) Auditing fees and funding issues regarding past handling of the 1999-2002
employee profit sharing plan, 3) 2006 began with over $100,000 in
unrealistic accounts receivable which had to be written off. Positive: the
$350,000 bequest from Phil LeCornu.
For further comment, please see my campaign website,
www.checkmate.us.