Michael Atkins is Running for the Board

[quote="MichaelAtkins"][quote="samsloan"]I agree that Mike Atkins is
very well qualified to be a member of the board, especially since he
promised to reverse my loss in round five of the 1956 Virginia State
Closed Championship.

I am concerned however that I was informed about three days before he
announced his candidacy that Mike Atkins had been recruited by you-
know-who as a "Stop Sam Sloan" candidate.

What do you have to say about that?

Sam Sloan[/quote]

I had been thinking about running for the board since late summer. It
was one of my underlying reasons for resigning as an active director
for CCA after the Atlantic Open in August, although I kept this reason
to myself. I don't think it is good to be an active employee/hire of
someone else on the board. I had the petition ready for signatures at
the Northern Virginia Open in November, but a tournament B/80 drew 117
and I got so busy in making sure the tournament ran well that I forgot
about the petition. Providing a well-run event for the participants
seemed more important at the time than campaigning for myself.

I am not a natural politician and I don't feel comfortable asking
people to sign petitions so I asked David Mehler at the Eastern Open
if he would do that for me. In case we didn't get 30, I asked Bill if
he would do that in Vegas. We got a lot more than 30 total. While I
suppose if elected, I would vote with Bill more often than not since
we have similar interests in tournaments and USCF, I will always vote
my mind and for what I think is in the best interest of chess. It is
up to the voting members of the USCF to decide whether they want to
"Stop Sam Sloan." Recent chess elections have been dirty and ugly,
just like the recent Presidential election. I don't intend to do that
nor attack people on the Forums. I'll state what I believe in and if
enough people like that I'll be on the board, and if not, I won't. I
hope you can also adopt this, can you Sam?

Michael Atkins [/quote]

Thank you for your forthright discussion of the issues.

The issues that I think will come up during your election campaign are
the facts that:

1. For the last more than the last ten years you have worked at Bill
Goichberg tournaments as an assistant director. You state that you
resigned in August, four months ago, to prepare to run for the board.
Does that make you sufficiently independent of Bill, who will also be
a candidate?

2. You state that Bill Goichberg collected most of the signatures to
get you on the ballot and that you collected none of the signatures
yourself. Again, your independence from Bill Goichberg will be called
into question.

3. Bill Goichberg is just finishing up a term of four years as USCF
President. He is running for re-election to the board. We have
experienced a situation over the last four years where Bill Goichberg
has always had votes on the board in his hip-pocket in that he has had
people on the board who never vote against him, no matter what. This
is how he holds on to power. Will you be one of those hip-pocket
votes, or will you be genuinely independent of him?

These are the questions that you will have address and that the voters
will have to decide about. I know that already the knives are out and
are being sharpened by others (not by me) because many USCF voters do
not want another four years of dictatorial rule by Bill Goichberg.

Sam Sloan