Below are the unapproved minutes of the September 3rd meeting of the TCA membership.
Call to Order
President Eddie Rios Called the Meeting to order at 8:35am
Present’s Report
President Rios reminded all that TCA has a non-profit mission. There were introductions of the officers. The following items were noted:
- Texas in now on the map with Vish Viswanath on the USCF Executive Board.
- TCA has a new website
- Jim Hollingsworth volunteered to manage the TCA Facebook page.
- A request was made for persons interested in being a USCF delegate.
- Consideration is being given increasing the number and preparation of TDs.
- Consideration is being given to providing financial help to USCF delegates.
Approval of Minutes
No minutes have been submitted for approval.
Treasurer Report
Treasurer Swafford intends to have a financial statement by September 10 and published in the next issue of “Texas Knights”. The current tournament accounting is not complete, but about $2,700 is in BOA account. The following items were noted:
- A long-term strategy for corporate relationships to improve corporate giving might be considered.
- A donation button should be added to the website.
- The current Southwest Open tournament is operating at a loss as was predicted, and it was suggested
- that the greatest factor in the loss is the norms tournament.
Election Business
Results from the Recent TCA Elections are as follows:
52 of 179 distributed ballots were cast
2 were paper ballots, 0 cast; 177 ballots were electronic, 52 cast
Candidate: President ******************* Dr. Aaron Guerra: 2 votes (4.0%) Eddie Rios: 46 votes (92.0%) Luis A Salinas: 1 vote (2.0%) Richard Newman: 1 vote (2.0%) Abstentions: 2 Candidate: Vice President ************************ Tom Crane: 4 votes (8.5%) Forrest Marler: 43 votes (91.5%) Abstentions: 5 Candidate: Secretary ******************* John Hyltin: 45 votes (100.0%) Abstentions: 7 Candidate: Treasurer ******************* Barb Swafford: 51 votes (100.0%) Abstentions: 1
Vish Viswanath moved to approve election Results. Luis Salinas seconded the motion. The motion to approve the election results passed unanimously.
Old Business and New Business
Item 1
Luis Salinas moved that TCA award itself the 2020 South Texas Scholastic bid. The motion was seconded by Jim Hollingsworth. The motion passed with seven votes for, zero against, and one abstention. The 2019 Super State and 2019 Texas State and Amateur Tournaments were awarded to Luis Salinas.
Item 2
Luis Salinas withdrew his previous motions to make a TCA College Chess Committee, to define Texas Collegiate Superfinals in the Bylaws, and to make those changes go into effect immediately. Without objection he substituted a motion to change Article IX Section 1 O to read:
- Texas Collegiate Championship.
This tournament shall be held in the fall, and open to students enrolled full-time or part-time in col-leges or universities. The highest finishing Texas player will be Texas Collegiate Champion. There will be only be individual prizes.
The motion passed with 9 votes for, 0 against, and 0 abstentions.
Item 3
Luis Salinas withdrew his previous motion to change Article IX, Section 1 U and a motion to make the change immediately. Without objection he substituted a motion to change Article IX Section 1 U to read:
- The Southwest Collegiate. This tournament is now being organized by the Texas College and Uni-versities. They determine the dates and format.
The motion passed with 9 votes for, 0 against, and 0 abstentions.
Item 4
Luis Salinas moved that the following change be made to Section 2:
Section 2. Annual Junior Chess Meeting
The annual junior chess meeting shall be held during the North/Central Texas Scholastic Champion-ship and the South Texas Scholastic Championships or in every third year the Super State Scholastic. The tournament director or organizer shall plan for this meeting to take approximately ninety minutes. The Agenda shall focus on issues unique to Texas Junior Chess. If North/Central and South Texas Scholastic meetings pass contradictory motions, then the matter will be resolved at the South-west Open Membership Meeting.
The Motion Passed with 9 votes for, 0 votes against, and 0 abstentions.
Item 5
Luis Salinas moved to modify Article V section 5 F to read:
Regional Directors shall be appointed by the President to each geographical area of Texas (as specified in Appendix). Regional Directors should reside in the Region they represent.
The motion failed with 0 votes for, 9 votes against, and 0 abstentions.
Item 6
Eddie Rios moved that the following changes be made to the Bylaws:
The regional Scholastic Championships must be held within the Region it belongs to.
The Regional Scholastic Championship shall be awarded by the Region Director explicitly. In case of competing bids, the scholastic rep for the region and the Scholastic Chair shall form two thirds of the committee along with the Region Director to make the awarding decision.
Submission for a Regional bid must be done by an employed scholastic sponsor of the School Club that is submitting.
A letter from the school administrator (Principal) recognizing the sponsor as a full time contracted paid educator for the school must be submitted as part of the bid. A letter for said Sponsor sub-mitting a bid and asking for same. A Flier designating all required information for the vent, must be included. A copy of the bid shall be sent to its perspective Region Director before July 15 of that year. Only one event per school will be awarded until the regional schools run full circle. If more than one District then a different district will be considered each year. If more than one bid, then the Region Director shall make the choice based on “best bid” and use a criteria that is applied to all bids. The Region Director ay consult with President if need be.
These shall be open only to students residing in or attending school in same region as the tourna-ment. [Notes: (1) A TCA region that does not hold a regional forfeits its priority in the next bidding cycle for the Texas Scholastic Championships and for the Texas Grade Championships. (2) If a re-gional draws less than 150 players the previous year (or is not held), then the next year the regional can be held as an open event. It will be up to the organizer to decide whether out of region players can win trophies.
Vish Viswanath moved to table the motion and the motion to table was agreed upon by acclamation.
Item 7
Jim Hollingsworth moved that the President appoint a fundraising chairman to lead a committee to raise funds for TCA. During discussion, it was determined the motion was unnecessary because the TCA President has the authority and power to create programs and appoint individuals into any posi-tion as he deems necessary. Jim Hollingsworth withdrew his motion. Subsequently, Eddie Rios ap-pointed Jim Hollingsworth as TCA’s statewide Fundraising Chairman, to develop fundraising strate-gies and programs, and to represent TCA with corporations and charity organizations such as the United Way.
