WCA President’s Report

2005 Annual Membership Meeting

Holiday Inn, Neenah

May 29, 2005

It was a quiet year for the WCA but next year should be exciting!

Milwaukee will host the 2006 National High School Championship April 21-23, 2006. The tournament will be at the Midwest Airlines Center while the Hilton Hotel will serve as the host hotel. 1400 of the best scholastic chess players from around the country will participate including a huge contingent from Wisconsin.

But we need your help! If you are a tournament director, this is a great chance to work with talented national tournament directors both on the floor and in the back room and get credits to upgrade your certification.

For volunteers, we’ll need people to help set-up before the event, volunteers to pick-up and take results from the TD’s, volunteers to help at Chess Control, volunteers to assist at the airport, volunteers to help coordinate the media, volunteers to monitor the halls, volunteers to man the demo boards, volunteers to assist at the award’s ceremony and volunteers to help tear down the room after the event. Note that many of these tasks do not require chess knowledge and that several could easily be handled by coaches, spouses, parents and friends of the chess community. At the 2002 National Junior High several high school players volunteered their time. But remember also that since this is a high school event open to all students in grades K-12, most of our youth will want to play. So we’ll need a large number of adult volunteers.

If anyone is interested in volunteering or TDing at the event, either go to our website and sign up or let me know and I’ll put you on the list.

The USCF is back on the road to financial recovery. Last year the USCF posted a surplus of $278,000. This year there will be a surplus as well. Next year the current working version of the budget has a surplus of over $600,000. They accomplished this during a year in which they moved to their new temporary office in Crossville, TN. (The publication’s department is still in New Windsor, NY.) Drawings have been approved for a permanent building in Crossville. Construction should begin in August.

The computer hardware is new. Systems are being re-written. It is now possible to upload tournament report data generated from your computer pairing program. Tournaments are rated within days. In fact the recent Supernationals National Scholastic Championships of 5230 players was rated the Wednesday after the event! (It should be noted that before a rating supplement is produced the events rated in the previous two months are re-rated in chronological order to preserve the accuracy of the ratings.)

USCF President Beatriz Marinello has been acting COO since late last year but will give that role up this week. Last weekend the Executive Board appeared to be split 3-3 on a new Executive Director. However, I just received word that the Executive Board hired Bill Hall from Crossville as the new ED by a 5-1 vote. He will start June 8.

The June issue of Chess Life will include a ballot for all eligible voters over the age of 15. The ballot will be for four members of the USCF Executive Board. Candidates statements have been published in the April and May editions of Chess Life. Please read those over before voting. If you have any additional questions, please contact me or Guy Hoffman for input on the candidates. But do vote!

I continue to urge tournament organizers to contact the state tournament clearinghouse Guy Hoffman for open dates on the tournament calendar. Organizers must strive to avoid scheduling events on the same weekend as another organizer as this only forces the player to choose one tournament over the other. Without a conflict players are able to play in each event. Guy can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The WCA sponsors the Marshall Rohland Memorial/Wisconsin Closed Championship, the Arpad Elo Open, the William Martz Memorial/North Central Open, the Wisconsin Memorial and the Junior Open/Veterans Tournaments. All are open for bids from state organizers and tournament directors. If you are interested in more details on how to bid for these events, please contact any board member.

Plan now to attend the 2006 US Open in Oak Park, IL in August 2006. The 2007 event will be back in Cherry Hill, NJ.

Congratulations to Madison West for three-repeating as State Scholastic Team Champion. Last March 510 students participated. The K-8 team champion was the University School of Milwaukee while Marion won the K-5 team championship.

At Supernationals Madison West finished third in the K-12 Championship section. This is the highest finish of a Wisconsin team in a championship section of a national scholastic event since 1976 when Two Rivers won the title. In all Wisconsin teams brought home eight top 25 team trophies (including USM winning the K-12 Under 900 section) and 18 individual top 25 trophies.

Good luck to Jeremy Kane of Madison West in the 2005 Arnold Denker Tournament of High School Champions and to Amy Vogedes of Milwaukee James Madison High School in the Susan Polgar Invitational for Girls Tournament. Both of these events will be held during the US Open in Phoenix in August. Qualifications was based on finish in last year’s Junior Open.

Congratulations to Guy Hoffman for winning the 2004 Wisconsin Chess Tour. Organizers desiring to have their event considered for tour status need to contact Guy by November of the year before the tour.

Arlen Walker has revamped our website. If you haven’t visited it lately, please do so at www.wischess.org. If anyone has any content to submit, please contact Arlen for details.

I want to thank our treasurer Ken Rasmussen who has shaped up our financial reports. In the future it will be easier to mine important data from them.

The terms of office of Peter Webster, Jerry Noel and Arlen Walker expire today. All have served the WCA well. My special thanks to Peter and Jerry as they’ve indicated a desire to not run for re-election. Peter has at least two lengthy tenures on the board dating back over 30 years and including a term as president in the 1970’s. His advice was always pertinent and to the point. Jerry also has served for a number of years many as secretary. I can only wonder who will inherit the empty half of Guy’s cooler. Thanks immensely to both Peter and Jerry for their dedication during their tenure on the board.