Monday, March 20, 2006

Fishy Tales in Queensland

Something is fishy in the northern state of Queensland. Yesterday afternoon, a Chess Association of Queensland insider, came out swinging on Australia's liveliest chess bulletin board. (The poster was using the handle, "Arrogant-One").

He opened: "As many people have become aware, the CAQ is in a state of disarray."

Actually, the insider's salvo began with a verbatim copy of the CAQ president's resignation letter. But that little potato turned out to be so hot that the forum moderators immediatelly went into overdrive. The post disappeared within minutes.

Now I've never liked potato. It's a boring food. But this one potato I like. For that seems to have been the beginning of CAQ's recent problems.

According to our inside man, the CAQ president, Howard Duggan, suddenly retracted his resignation. The VP was reportedly incensed! He was there ready to take over but that chance now disappeared.

From our inside informant:

[T, annoyed by the backflip, then criticised Howard Duggan and Bill Powell (a new CAQ Council member who was not elected at last year's AGM but rather was elected by Council itself in its first meeting of 2006) for causing strife and discord relating to the foolishness of [a retracted] resignation.

Terse emails were exchanged by all CAQ Council members, and ultimately Howard Duggan (leader of the Trifecta voting block of Ian Murray, Gail Young, and himself) initiated a motion of non confidence in the Vice President!

This motion passed with the support of Bill Powell by a margin of 4 votes for (the Trifecta and Powell) 3 votes against, and one abstaining.

The matter will now have to be dealt with at a Special General Meeting, expected on 17 April 2006.

Alarmed by this blatant airing of their dirty laundry, CAQ Secretary, Ian Murray, chipped in with: "CAQ Council is using due process under its constitution to remove the cause of the current discord (viz the VP). The constitution provides opportunity for all parties to be heard, but that forum is not the Bulletin Board - no debate will be entered into here." Presumably, that will be Mr Murray's one and only post.

Who would have thought that the normally quiet Queenslanders could be so dramatic? As if all this wasn't enough, Queensland chess player Dion Sampson , who has certain ambitions himself, joined in:

It is my unfortunate duty to give the real objective report on this matter.... However, I shall refrain if I am contacted by the President or Secretary within the next 7 days and the motion to impeach the Vice-President of the Council is rescinded.

There are serious, serious problems afoot on the CAQ Council.

We wait for further developments in the ensuing debacle up north.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The copy of Howard Duggan's email was deleted not because its contents were a hot potato but because the reposting of private emails on the board is not permitted.

Anonymous said...

What is going on with those Queenslanders? They need to get their act together before it is too late!