My case for guidelines and change of leadership-PICA remembered.

There was a blend of old and new committee members after the PICA elections in 2009. On my ticket was the secretary and one of the 2 VP's. While the old team had the President and treasurer.

So I argued that we were voted in for change and that we represented almost half the membership. And I wanted to deliberate proper guidelines. It was soon apparent to me that even the new team that were voted in for change on my ticket did not want proper guidelines.

One of the signals was that someone called Sumant's dad and told him that I was responsible for the removal of Sumant and I got an irate phone call from him in the middle of the night. Now this is strange on 2 counts. First, Sumants name was never on the list and second, why was an internal PICA discussion "revealed" to a 3rd party albeit with distortions.

To figure this out we need to understand the nature of State Association politics. Unlike MCF, the officials in State Associations do not make money. During my time there I had to fund most of my activities doing PICA work. So if its not money, what is it?

This is my observation.

Status and ego. To be seen on the podium. To be able to tell friends that they have the way in for State representation. So it is about illicit power.

And guidelines take that away. With guidelines, you cannot bring in your friends, your students or even your own child via the backdoor.

I came in as an ordinary committee member having rejected the VP post during elections. But I quickly saw that unless the President was on board, any effort for guidelines will be frustrated. More so if the secretary and treasurer was also not on board.

But there is more. There is also the culture. Even though I have explained time and time again that I do not have the power nor do I want the power to choose selectively, the parents did not believe me. And this is a big problem too. The anxious parents now turn to the people who can "fix" things.

And so the old ways are re-empowered. Guidelines out of the window. So how things will work now is selection will go to those closest to officials.

If we want fairness for all, then the parents too need to play their part. They have to accept proper written guidelines, vote in people they trust and not interfere in selection. And of course we must also have clean competition or it all won't work.

So it's a tall order. And it all starts at the top for the Associations. Without this it will be very difficult to get a GM. Many young talent will disappear as they will have been selectively filtered out for reasons that has nothing to do with chess.

Are you starting to understand this 3rd blog war that is now on again?