Leland: Concerning your last letter, I will have to speak up since the bylaws were actually updated on my watch as NCCA president.

When I took over in 2006, the bylaws we were operating under were from 1988. A bit dusty. I worked a full day with our lawyer Wilder Wadford (Land of the Sky organizer and NCCA Hall of Fame member) to update them. It took longer than I wanted, but we got it done.

I wished I had known about the computer-generated, fill-in-the-blank method you speak about. Now, you tell me!

The bylaws (the old bylaws, too) state that the bylaws can be amended by a majority vote of the board. That is what happened here. To be honest, except for some language updating; the new bylaws are not that different in spirit from the old ones. The NCCA charter, which was approved by the membership in 1988, remains the same.

So, if there is a problem with them, I will take the blame. However, I think we are better served with a freshly scrubbed set of bylaws rather than a 20 year old version that was woefully out of date.

As for memberships, during my tenure as an officer (2004-2008) I kept memberships at $5. Since we had no hard-copy publication, it seemed silly to charge people more. Chess is expensive enough without adding to the burden.

Non-voting scholastic members were not charged. Why? Well, for the four years I was in office, the scholastic organization that ran the N.C. State Scholastic paid the NCCA $5 for every player in the tournament. In a sense, they were paying their $5, so why tax the kids twice?

For a state that only charged $5 for membership, we made our money go a long way. We give the largest cash prize scholarship of any state, $1,500 to the K 12 champ. Our financial support for the Denker and Polgar reps are equal to the most generous states. Other states are jealous of a long running N.C. Invitational (which you have played in many times). Last year, we had two FMs and four NMs, all active players whose presence is helping us groom the next set of Masters.

Victor has a good group of officers helping him with the NCCA and they are busy setting their own agenda. However, for the two issues you raised, I will take responsibility for our actions.

Randy Wheeless

Past President,

N.C. Chess Association
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Randy:
 
Thanks for your prompt response. There is no question that you made significant inroads in bringing the NCCA out of the dark ages into the modern era. No one can deny all of the good work which you accomplished  for the organization. But I, like any other member, have the right to raise issues which I believe are important to all of the members of the NCCA.

At this juncture, I would like to recant what I implied about my old friend Attorney Wilder Wadford. Wilder is a good guy. Though he is not directly associated with the NCCA anymore, he still volunteered his time to create the "thing" which we now have. But, there is still some confusion as to exactly what the NCCA is? Are we, in fact, a corporation? Are we, in fact, a 501c3 status Non-profit organization? Other state organizations have a "mission statement", a "constitution" and a set of "by-laws." We have a "corporate charter?!" I am still a bit confused. Maybe someone could clarify that for us.

LF