We sent a short Q&A to Chess Victoria boss candidate Gerrit Hartland and, thankfully, he agreed to answer them. We appreciate Mr Hartland's very frank approach. His involvement in Victorian chess affairs, we understand, goes back to the 60's. He also currently holds the position of CV vice president as well as captain of his club, Box Hill. Good luck to him and his team.
TCG: What motivated to you form the Unity ticket?
GH: I wanted to present a program of change to CV and I needed a committee with me that agreed with the program. It would be counterproductive to have a program and then elect a committee that does not agree with it.
TCG: Except for Kerry Lyall and Elliott Renzies, most personnel on your ticket are pretty much drawn from the current officialdom.
GH: The people on the ticket were selected because they liked the reform proposals, and have worked with me before. They are my friends and believe me when you get to my age you do need a little help from your friends .
TCG: Some, like Michael Baron and Dromagoj Dragicevic, have expressed concerns at your proposal to move all CV activities to BHCC facilities on a rental share basis. Given that you're a current committee member of BHCC, you can see where their concerns are coming from - specifically, that the club now appears to be a financial winner from such an arrangement. Isn't there conflict of interest at play here?
GH: It is a misconception to think that the proposed rent from CV would reduce the rent to BHCC It is increased rental for the whole building allowing CV The Box Hill Ches Club and Canterbury Junior Chess club unlimited and unrestricted access to the venue. It will not reduce the rent to the latter 2 organisations. The venue will make an excellent chess centre with storage for CV equipment. There is no conflict of interest in proposing an arrangement which willl benefit all of Victorian Chess. Conflict of interest is usually shouted by Bulletin [board] (Gerrit is referring to Chess Chat, Australia's most popular online discussion forum - TCG) afficionadi who have nothing useful to say.
TCG: Give us your quick assessment of the Wastell leadership.
GH: Gary is a meticulous administrator who has a tendency to cross all his tees and dot every i. He is also an excellent arbiter and I was most surprised when he made that embarrassing mistake at Elwood. He usually stuck to his decisions. He decided, for instance, never to read the bulletin board or post on it or read Amiel's blog. And stuck to it. I wish I could do that, I am a bulletin board junkie .
TCG: You're proposing Wastell to be a life member of CV. You know, that's not going to be popular. Isn't this proposal a potentially bad start for you?
GH: Gary Wastell has been president of Chess Victoria for well over 20 years and any self respecting organisation would honour a president after such long and loyal service. Those who oppose this proposal should be ashamed of themselves.
TCG: David Beaumont observed that there is a lack of representation from the Western clubs. How will you reach out to these Western clubs?
GH: There is indeed a lack of that representation and the team hopes that during the year people from other districts will come to us with help and new ideas. There is plenty more that needs changing.
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8 comments:
Does Mr Hartland intend to have alot more events for ChessVictoria?
And if so,can he give a rough idea as to what those events will be?
Our interstate readers may not be aware that Boxhill CC is based in a Freemasons building.
Under Wastell's leadership they havnt rented a "permanent venue" in a long time.
Now Team Unity is proposing to give $4,000 dollars for rent when they could have meetings at peoples homes.
No one really believes their is going to be many new events,most of this "new committee" is already involved with chess administration and they havnt organised anything significantly better then what we had 5 years ago in regards to chess in victoria.
This leads us to the question,why would the Freemasons give ChessVictoria unlimited access to their building when Boxhill currently pays more than $4,000 a year for using the building 2 nights a week?
Doesnt make economic sense,does it?
Arosar,you should ask Mr Hartland whether he is a Freemason.
We need to know because some things just dont add up.
Why should people be ashamed of themselves for criticising Wastell's lifetime nomination?
In the mid 80's ChessVictoria was renting a building in the centre of the city under Wastell's leadership. It was hardly ever used and was a huge drain on funds.
It was also not unusual for people to get ridiculously low prize money[$5 dollars more than entry fee] from winning an actual tournament at that venue.
Wastell makes Gletsos look like a fiscal magician.
quote from BARON is "Has MCC been considered as the CV headquaters or not at all?"
The answer is yes.
For MCC when they moved from Peel Street they asked chess vic. to stump up $7000 a year for hosting all vic events and central use of Leicester Street for chess vic..
It wasnt 7,000,more like 5.
MCC NEVER needed rent from ChessVictoria to survive.
MCC moved from Peel street,a building that they owned..to Leicester street..a much bigger and more expensive building[roughly 370,000] which they also owned. The purchase of Leicester street was possible due to the sale of Peel street and Mr Rudzitis leaving a sizeable bequest to the club.
Personally speaking I dont think ChessVictoria should be paying any club $4,000 dollars a year to be based there. ChessVictoria doesnt actually need a venue that often for its "events". The Vic champs is their prime event,plus a few school events. And that isnt worth $4,000.
The money could be better used .
My understanding is that Mr Malejew is not particulary welcome at Boxhill due to his weird behaviour.
While not formally banned,my sources say that he would have his tournament entry rejected if he applied.
And it would appear his complaints to the Bendigo Bank/tournament sabotage may make him very unwelcome at both Boxhill and Elwood CC.
AtA: Now Team Unity is proposing to give $4,000 dollars for rent when they could have meetings at peoples homes.
MS: May I remind the readers that Peter Parr offered a building to the NSWCA cost free for meetings, coaching, socials, et cetera, on the condition that the NSWCA ran its events their at a a few hundreddollars a day (= about $3k = about the bank interest - inflation on the $80k it has not used in years.)
Big cities should have a "home-of-chess."
There is a big difference here Matt.
ChessVictoria organises very few events throughout the year compared to NSWCA.
ChessVictoria normally pays $100 a day or less when currently renting venues. They havnt needed to use a venue for 40 days in a year in a very long time.
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