From: Sam Sloan <ishipres <at> BEST <dot> COM>
Date: 10 dec 1996
Subject: No Subject

RESPONSE OF BILL GOICHBERG, USCF VICE-PRESIDENT AND POLICY BOARD MEMBER, TO
SAM SLOAN


It sounds like Sam has been talking to the same "highly placed and informed
source" who smeared George Filippone on the internet and hounded him into
deciding to leave the Federation.  His message is incorrect in a number of
respects:

1) Schultz is not to be called "Director of Operations."  No proposal was
made at the conference call to give him or anyone else this title.

2) It is false that "Director of Operations" is a position which did not
previously exist.  When Al Lawrence was Executive Director, George Filippone
was Director of Operations, as you can confirm from the Chess Life mastheads
of that period.

3) To say that the Board voted 7-0 for the removal of George Filippone on
Nov 17, 1996 is misleading, as it makes it sound like the Board fired
George.  The motion the Board voted for was that the Board and George have
agreed that he will leave the Federation in February 1997.  This resulted
from George indicating his desire to leave due to the irresponsible attacks
being made on him.  A majority of the Board wanted George to stay, and in my
opinion still would like him to stay as of today.

4) My personal opinion is that George Filippone has done an unusually fine
job as Acting Executive Director, considering that he was in effect doing
both his old job and that of Al Lawrence, that the position of Scholastic
Director was vacant, and that he was continually harassed and hounded by
unfair and misleading attacks and smears from the USCF Treasurer.  I also
believe Tom Dorsch is a disgrace to the USCF and that the best thing he
could do for our organization would be to resign from office.

5) In no way are the President and Executive Director now going to be the
same person.  Don Schultz has been granted no special title or powers, nor
will he be paid.  He will simply be spending substantial time, as President,
in the USCF office over the next two months in an effort to smooth the
Executive Director transition.  This was not a very controversial motion and
only Dorsch voted against it.  This motion will appear in the minutes of the
conference call to be distributed to the Delegates; before you attack what
you think has happened you really should learn from a reliable source what
has actually happened.

6) It is also incorrect that the Board decided to hire Mark Graffeo at the
December conference call; this was done at the November Policy Board meeting
and no Board member expressed any objection.

Graffeo may not be a chessplayer, but is a retired IBM executive who used to
earn about $500,000 per year and is believed to have substantial business
expertise.

Bill Goichberg