[Chessclub] Vote of confidence measure for Brian Mason to be hold a 2nd term, chess club accomplishments for this year.

[Gregory Alexander]

Hello all!

This has been a very enjoyable y earacting as your Co-President for the
chess club. My tenure as the Co-President will be up later this spring, and
I want to thank each one of you for all of your participation, ideas, and
personal efforts to make this club grow and succeed. I especially want to
thank Brian Mason- no one could ask for a more dedicated and energetic
Co-President.

Soon, an email will be sent out to our active members to hold a vote of
confidence for Brian Mason. The Co-Presidency system allows each
Co-President to serve for two years. In the first year, the Co-President is
elected, after he or she serves as the Co-President for one year, the active
club members are asked to vote upon his confidence to serve for one more
final year. This vote of confidence measure is meant as a check to ensure
that only strong Co-Presidents can be nominated for a second term. At the
end of two terms, the senior Co-President must step down, as I am doing this
year. This will be my last month as your Co-President, but I hope that you
will choose to nominate Brian to a well-deserved 2nd term.

In the confidence vote for Brian in the next week, I strongly encourage our
active members to give a vote of confidence for Brian Mason. As the
departing Co-President, I feel that it is my responsibility to campaign for
a positive vote in Brian's vote of confidence measure. Hopefully, this
precedent will be carried on in the future. Without further ado, please
allow me to list some of the major accomplishments that we have achieved
during this year.

Major Accomplishments:

It is amazing to think how far we have come in just a year! Last year, we
did not have a constitution, competition ladder, and we did not participate
in or host any events. We met once a week, and even on a good day, we could
only attract 3- 4 players. As David Orendorff, Brian Mason can attest,
often, only one of us showed up during a meeting only to find that we had no
one to play. It was quite difficult to sustain the member's interest in the
club. However, the previous President, David Stauffer did a good job
motivating more members to come in the Spring Quarter, and he was very
active in seeking candidates to take the club over and carry it into the
future.

After consulting with David S. and each other, Brian and I decided to run
the club as equal Co-Presidents. We wanted a Co-President system to ensure
leadership continuity. The previous UW chess clubs failed 3 times within the
last decade due to lack of continuity. A strong President would carry the
club for a few years, and then graduate, and the UW chess club would often
fold. Brain and I made quite a few goals when we took over the club last
year, and we planned carefully to set out to achieve them. With your help,
most of our goals were realized.

New Constitution and club framework:
First, we needed to develop a new framework for the club, and attempt to
build and maintain a club culture. Our previous constitution consisted of a
paragraph stating that the chess club was a place to play chess, and every
member was considered an officer. It was our goal to have elected officers,
and adopt a new constitution that would help us to build new traditions.
After a 4 months effort, we finally adopted the new constitution on October
1 2004.

Recruiting and retaining new members:
Our 2nd goal was to set up a chess club presence in the Dawg-Days event in
the fall. Since this event occurred on the 1st day of the fall quarter,
several of us met during the summer months to plan this event. The Dawg-Days
event went smoothly, and we attracted many new members to the club. This set
an active and successful tone to have our chess club successful kick-off
event, which attracted 26 members! In the first few months of the year, we
were able to increase our exposure by having lunchtime chess events in the
Hub cafeteria where we met and attracted several new members. In the winter
quarter, we were very lucky to have Tammy Currey come forward and take the
role as the activity director. She posted fliers throughout the campus,
bringing some more talented members to our club. Under the direction of Paul
and Brian, we were also able to have a successful fund raising activity in
the spring and were able to use this event to recruit new members.

Establishing a competitive environment and sustaining club interest:
I believe that we were successful in creating a friendly, yet competitive
environment that helped to foster and sustain club activities throughout the
year. After our kickoff pizza event, we drafted new competition ladder
guidelines, and held a successful club tournament that attracted 16 players.
The competition ladder has worked for us throughout the year, and to this
day; we are still having challenges. Also, we were able to finally put
together inter-collegiate competition with other colleges with a Varsity and
JV team. After playing and beating a strong USC team, we now can consider
ourselves a real chess team!


Acknowledgements:

I want to acknowledge David Stauffer for running the club for 2 years and
passing his knowledge over to Brian and I. Without David's efforts, we would
have had to start from ground zero.

Brain Mason: he has been instrumental and vital part of our club. He has
devoted at least 6-10 hours per week to running and growing the club. I
believe that Brian will continue making this club stronger next year.

Kenneth: Kenneth has been helping the club behind the scenes since last
spring quarter. We met many times over the summer to draft the constitution,
to plan the Dawg Days event; he ran the initial determination of ranking
chess tournament in the fall, etc. We will miss his presence when he moves
on after graduation this year.

Kaui, Riley and David O:
we met several times over the summer to discuss and draft a new
constitution, to plan the Dawg Days event, etc.

Riley: I hope you bring in more of your Rugby mates; we still have to figure
out how we can have a combined Rugby/Chess match one day!

David O: Our most senior member by tenure. David was in the club last year,
and I have enjoyed playing chess with you in the last year and a half.

Paul Reeves: when we talked to Paul during the dawg-days event, we were very
excited to have him come aboard. He is a very strong player, and was a
former chess club President for his high school team. Paul fulfilled the
Treasure role, and helped us strategizing everything from the competition
ladder, to taking an active role running the fundraiser this spring. I
expect Paul to continue his active role in the club into the future.

Tammy Currey: in the winter quarter, we were very lucky to have Tammy Currey
come forward and take the role as the activity director. She posted fliers
throughout the campus, bringing some more talented members to our club. I
hope that you can stay with us, even in a limited role, next year.

Marc: until recently, our strongest player. Marc, I appreciate your advice,
humor and your presence in the club. Dude, you are a kick to be around!

Keegan: behind Brandon, our most active member. Also- the guy right behind
me on the ladder. Thanks for keeping me on my toes Keegan!

Alex: In the winter quarter, Alex was always around asking to play everyone
a game or two. I hope you are active next year Alex- I like your competitive
style of play. You have a fun personality and are easy to be around. Hey, I
never asked you- do you surf?

Curt Collyer: I am humbled that you have decided to join our chess club
Curt. I did not expect to be able to attract a National Master during our
first year. It will be a huge benefit to have you continue to be a part of
our team in the future.

Brandon Farrell: Brandon has been the most active member of our club. He has
shown up pretty much on every meeting, he is the co-captain of the JV team,
and has announced a desire to run for as the new Co-President. I think we
have an excellent candidate in Brandon, and wish him luck in carrying our
club into the future.

And finally, I would like to acknowledge all of the members of our chess
community, it has been a pleasure to serve you and I look forward to
finishing off the year strong.

Sincerely yours,

Gregory Alexander

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