President: Doug Spencer has a forceful intellect, and his USCF rating reflects it. That, combined with his steady, unflappable personality, will make him a fine president.
Vice-President: Donald Stubblebine, whom I have known for more than forty years, is a strong, level-headed, wise leader. He has a sharp and eclectic style of play.
Secretary-Treasurer: Mike Lionti is appreciated and respected for his hard work, honesty, pleasant disposition, and good manners. He does the bulk of the heavy lifting for both the RCC and the CCCR, directing tournaments, event planning and organizing, and serving the digital data needs of the community in his post as webmaster. Possesses a technologically indispensible familiarity with computer procedures for filing USCF rated tournament reports.
Update: Doug Spencer did a first-rate job of moderating the meeting and outlining areas of concern. Similar to Haiti under President-for-Life Papa Doc, elections are held only when club officers retire or die. This year there were no elections. The meeting was unpublicized and the minutes were not published at the official website. Perhaps they are not genuinely elected officials. Maybe there simply isn't enough interest. If so, the CCCR is a clique, not a legitimate, democratic club.
I'd also like to read about the annual picnic held at Mendon Ponds in July. Event announcements are rarely posted at the website, but occasionally some are made at the clique meetings.
It's just a board game. Nothing to get serious about. CCCR is primarily an older men's fraternal organization with some limited competitive chess. Because it's an official USCF affiliate, you can play rated games and achieve a master's certificate. So, please be careful with them. They're sensitive and they'd like to stay that way. They don't want any troublemakers. You can show solidarity by humbly and respectfully visiting the real community chess club now. If you don't like their terms, tough, go to the chess club down the street. The Internet Chess Club or Free Internet Chess Server are alternative choices.
verlager 12/30/2009 501(c)(7) status for CCCR? "If your club is organized for pleasure, recreation, and other similar nonprofitable purposes and substantially all of its activities are for these purposes, it should file Form 1024 to apply for recognition of exemption from federal income tax." -Uncle Fed.
Incorporating under IRS code 503(c)(7) as a Social & Recreation Club would allow the CCCR to handle monetary transactions in a bank account specifically for that purpose. (addendum). Running the finances through an officer's personal checking account is unacceptable. The IRS doesn't like organizations paying out monies to individual members ("private inurement" or "private benefit") unless that is their charter. But there is a way out. CCCR Officers should read and understand IRS Publication #557, page 48 and file the proper forms. Failure to comply means that we don't have a chess club.
- Obtain an employee id number (ein)
- Create and sign an organizational document (bylaws)
- Seek status as an unincorporated association under IRS 503(c)(7)
The local IRS Office is located at 255 East Avenue, Rochester, NY 14604. Hours are Monday - Friday 8:30am-4:30pm. Telephone (585) 263-5840. They take walk-ins, but they don't give tax advice over the telephone. For IRS tax advice: Personal: 1-800-829-1040. Business: 1-800-829-4933.
If a chess club meets at a public library and collects no membership dues or fees, then a club constitution or bylaws is not required. But once such a group starts taking in money, things change. That group must be run openly and the members are entitled to have a say in its affairs. This includes having and adhering to a set of bylaws.
verlager 11/17/2008Great news! I am advised via email that the CCCR treasurer is refusing discourse with me through email or telephone, outside of regular CCCR meetings. He has notified the CCCR membership and officers of this fact. I will abide by his request not to contact him.
This communication issue means that we probably won't become "blood brothers", as I had hoped. Native Americans would often slice the wrists of two braves and tie the two wrists together. It was believed that the blood mixed and united them as ... blood brothers. As one of the finest trackers and trappers east of the Mississippi, I'm sure he's familiar with this method of bonding.
Words can't convey the depth of my regret. I offer a complete and utter retraction of any remarks made without basis in fact, not fair comment or motivated by malice. Mike Lionti is a talented visionary and a remarkable man of destiny. He deserves our unanimous approval and admiration. We shall not see his like again. God bless you, Mike! We love you!
verlager 11/13/2008 To his credit, the CCCR Treasurer has publicly stated that CCCR will investigate the feasibility of 501(c)(7) status for CCCR by contacting an attorney and/or an accountant for some professional advice. Please see the official CCCR website for more info on this matter. While I am generally precluded from contacting Mr. Lionti, I can offer my public encouragement for this correct and legal course of action for the CCCR treasurer in this 501(c)(7) matter.
verlager 1/21/2009 Mail theft of United States Postal Service (USPS) mail is a serious federal offense. The United States Postal Inspection Service has a complaint form in the event that your mail goes missing from your local chess center.
verlager 12/30/2008 Definition of Fraud: All multifarious means which human ingenuity can devise, and which are resorted to by one individual to get an advantage over another by false suggestions or suppression of the truth. It includes all surprises, tricks, cunning or dissembling, and any unfair way which another is cheated. Source: Black's Law Dictionary, 5th ed., by Henry Campbell Black, West Publishing Co., St. Paul, Minnesota, 1979. Here is an easier to understand definition of fraud.
verlager 11/10/2008 The Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary is a high security prison housing male inmates in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania and houses approximately 1,500 inmates. An adjacent satellite prison camp houses minimum security male offenders. The Lewisburg Penitentiary was opened in 1932. This penitentiary is one of four federal prisons in the county and ten prisons within Union County and the adjacent counties.
In July of 2008, the Correctional Officers at Lewisburg Federal expressed concerns about underfunding. Over the past four years, union leaders and other officials have been lobbying in an attempt to quell staff reductions and cutting costs. The Federal Bureau of Prisons has proposed $143 million in possible spending cuts, including not replacing vehicles and equipment, eliminating overtime, reducing corrections officer training and a possible cut in officer staff positions. Under such conditions, many of the Correctional Officers expressed concerns about their own safety.
Lewisburg Penitentiary has housed many infamous criminals, such as Jimmy Hoffa, John Gotti, Whitey Bulger, Leonard Peltier, Alger Hiss, Robert Lee Johnson, John Wojtowicz, Henry Hill, Angelo Sepe, Paul Vario, Thomas DeSimone, Robert Thompson, Wilhelm Reich, Samuel Roth, Carl Upchurch, and Bayard Rustin. The prison is known for its "Mafia row," or the G Block, a maximum security wing which houses many Mafiosi.
(The facility also lacks a chess club. Could we consider donating $100.00 worth of chess sets and boards from the Rochester Chess Center to inmates in various Lewisburg prisons for inmates interested in forming a chess club?)
