2019 State Scholastic Chess Tournament Planning Committee Meeting

April 21, 2018

Agenda and Minutes (in italics)

Present: Wyatt Hendrix, Steve Wong, Kathy Richards, Ed Rudnicki, Oisin O’Seacord, Tom Sandford, Dan DeLuca

The meeting was called to order at 10:07 a.m.

1. Venue

Teams 375

Individuals 116

Rooms ~$1,200

Event Insurance ~$350

We discussed the possibility of exploring options other than the UMO Memorial Union to host the tournaments. Venues that will be looked into include: The Wells Conference Center at UMO, Hilton Garden Inn in Bangor, The Cross Insurance Center in Bangor and the Augusta Civic Center.

2. Dates & Separate Date(s) for High School Event(s)?

The following dates were chosen for the 2019 Scholastics: Teams March 9, Snow Date March 16, Individuals March 23. The committee came to no conclusion about holding a separate tournament for the high school teams.

3. ChessKid.com to attend 2019 Teams

FM Mike Klein, from Chess.com and ChessKid.com, has expressed an interest in having a ChessKid.com table at the 2019 Teams event.

4. US Chess Membership Requirement (for non-Novice sections)

Teams had 38 players who needed USCF membership (38 x $3 = $114)

Individuals had 4 players (4 x $3 = $12)

From a phone virtually anywhere at any time; DOBs, addresses, emails, texts, calls

All students wishing to compete in Championship sections at the Teams and Individuals events will be required to be US Chess Members at the time of registration. What this means is that MACC will no longer be responsible for tracking down students’ addresses and dates of birth in order to purchase memberships for non-US Chess members. Considering the ease by which players, parents, and coaches can purchase US Chess memberships online via computer or cell phone, this requirement was agreed upon as very reasonable.

5. Increase entry fee to $10 (375 x $3 = $1,125); (375 x $10 = 3,750)

With $10 entry fee & no membership headaches fee calculations are simple.

Not having to calculate various dollar amounts for different aged players purchasing US Chess memberships and increasing the entry fee from $7 to $10 will make things much easier for MACC, players, parents, coaches, and schools. For example, if a team has 10 players, the fee is $100. If a team has 17 players, the fee is $170. These simplifications will make billing and payment much easier and more streamlined.

6. TD & TL Compensation ($2 per player would = 375 x $2 = $750)

The committee decided on the following compensation schedule: Floor TD’s $2 per player in their section, MACC Treasurer $0.50 per player, Overall tournament director and coordinator $1 per player.

7. Invitation to Individuals 3.0 or more points in any section

To simplify the offer of invitation to the Individuals tournament, the committee decided to offer free entry fee to the Individuals tournament for any player in a Championship (non-Novice) section at the Team tournament who scores 3.5 points or more.

8. MACC TD Handbook & Adopting Standard Operating Procedures

The MACC TD Handbook will be made available on ChessMaine.net and will be upheld as a guideline for all those wishing to serve as a tournament director at the state scholastic events. Of course, if there is a discrepancy between the MACC TD Handbook and the Official Rules of Chess, The Official Rules of Chess will supersede.

9. Offering Byes

The committee decided to keep the first-round requested bye option open to players. Requests for subsequent round byes will be handled on a case-by-case basis.

10. Sections & Trophies

There were no trophies offered for top girl player or top unrated player at the 2018 events. The committee decided to continue this practice. It was suggested that the person responsible for trophies do some comparison pricing between Northeast Trophy, Crown Awards and other trophy manufacturers in an attempt to lessen the $1,100 trophy expense. Title 9 law as it applied to equity in the awarding of trophies was discussed.

11. Simple Entry Form

The simplified entry form for the 2018 events was considered acceptable. With the new US Chess membership requirement, the entry form will be revised further to make submitting information to the overall tournament leader/director easier.

12. Accepting PayPal & Credit Cards

The committee discussed making available payment via credit card at the state scholastic events via a Squarespace account or something similar and a smartphone.

13. Choosing Denker, Barber, & Girls reps

The representative from Maine for the Denker tournament will be the highest scoring player in the high school Championship section at the Individuals tournament. The representative from Maine for the Barber tournament will be the highest scoring player in the K-8 Championship section at the Individuals tournament. Choosing the girls representative engendered a discussion of how best to select the girls representative to the girls national invitational tournament. Tentatively, the committee considers the highest scoring girl in the high school championship section at the Individuals as the representative. If there is no girl in the high school championship section, then the high school U1200 and K-8 sections will be used respectively. There was also some discussion of bringing back an all girls tournament and of having a four girl invitational round robin tournament to select the girls representative.

14. $400 for 4 copies of SwissSys for 2 TD Seminars (Northern & Southern)

Offering TD seminars was discussed. It was suggested that the Zoom app be used to offer the seminar to the widest possible audience and that rather than copies of SwissSys for four participants, two copies of the US Chess Official Rules of Chess (per seminar) will be awarded at random to two participants.

15. Zoom Video Conferencing $149.90 per year or $14.99 per month

The Zoom app was praised as an effective conferencing platform. The committee agreed to reimburse $14.99 for a month of Zoom membership as needed for meetings.

16. Other Items

The committee agreed to offer a K-1 Championship section at both the Teams and Individuals events with the following requirements: a minimum of four three-player teams from four separate schools will be required to have a separate K-1 Championship section at the Teams. If this requirement is not met, K-1 Championship players will be merged with the K-3 Championship section. K-1 team awards will consist of a first place trophy and three medals for the top-scoring players from the first place team. For the Individual tournament, a minimum of eight players will be required to hold a K-1 Championship section. If this requirement is not met, K-1 players will be merged into the K-3 section. K-1 Individual awards will consist of first, second, and third place trophies.

17. Action Items

Dan, Tom, and Wyatt will look into alternative venues and pricing and get back to the committee.

Dan will secure four copies of the US Chess rulebook for the TD seminars and a method of accepting credit card payments for the state scholastic events.

All will consider the best method to choose a girls representative to the girls national invitational.

Andy will do trophy pricing reconnaissance and report back to the committee.

The meeting was adjourned at 12:50 p.m.