Friday, February 17, 2006

Ex-Prez Comes Out

After more than a year in "hiding", the much beleaguered ex ACF president, George Howard, has finally come out. Basically, he owed people, mainly money. And below are snippets of what he had to say in the ACF's latest newsletter.

I would like to formally apologize to the Australian Chess Federation (ACF), all the state associations, junior leagues and the chess public in general for my tardiness in payments as well as other issues. It was always my intention to pay all the fees but due to health reasons I found this overwhelming. I just needed some space and rest. Throughout this time, I still intended to pay the fees off.

And later, he lists exactly what he owed.

1. The $4000 Junior Development Fund was something I promised and will pay for
2. Rating fees will be paid for (like any tournament)
3. Karthick Rajendran was owed some money and I had promised to pay him for that. I apologise to Karthick as I know he needed the money at the time.
4. The Bulletins were a complete disaster - there were errors in keeping records of who paid, errors in backing up files on computers. I intend to pay for the ACFs reimbursement of people who paid for bulletins.
5. Any other fees that have not been listed above.

I suppose the important thing is that Mr Howard has made public promises. Any failure on his part now to deliver, preferably in a timely manner, means that those of us who were not in that ridiculous tournament can bear witness on behalf of those who were. And now even the whole world knows about it.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks CGM for drawing my attention to the Newsletter. While I was reading...I noticed the interesting "Michael Grossman - father of Alex Grossman who participated in the Australian Junior Champs - lives in California, and offers the following perspective oin the differences between US and Australian junior chess. The family is associated with the Box Hill Club in Melbourne and they have Australian citizenship.
".
The father corresponded with me via e-mail prior to December last year, but I am struggling to remember meeting the family at any time. Surely a curious circumstance. I guess time will reveal all.

starter

Anonymous said...

Who is this clown starter making a post that has nothing to do with Mt Buller?

As far as the disastrous Mt Bullcrap tournament is concerned, George Howard's letter of apology in the ACF newsletter is good to see and long overdue. Still, given George Howard's previous broken promises on Bullcrap, it will only be when he has actually paid off these Bullcrap debts that the Australian Chess community can be satisfied and this shameful episode in Australian chess can finally be put to rest.

By the way, Amiel, you have been proven 100% correct with your views on Mt Bullcrap.