The sport of chess remains rudderless, five weeks after the national body was shut down by the resignation of president Rusell Smith together with five members of his executive.
Since then, no effective measures, consistent with the T&TCA's constitution, have been taken to get the organisation back into operation. As far as DR is concerned, this failure reflects dismally on the commitment of the entire chess community, its clubs and their members.
True, the internecine squabbling and the subsequent departure of association officers had created an unprecedented situation and something of a constitutional conundrum. But still, that scenario was not so intractable as to impose a virtual stalemate on efforts needed to reconstitute the organisation.
All that seems to be needed in such a situation is a measure of goodwill and communication among member clubs leading to united action. If, in the circumstances, the procedure required to call the annual general meeting is not constitutionally clear, then at the very least the clubs could summon an ordinary meeting to explore the possible way forward and to ensure that decisions taken to organise the AGM are either unanimous or will not meet with queries and objections later.
The difficulty arose with the virtual disappearance of the Management Committee which could not muster a quorum following the mass exodus of officers. And since calling the AGM is the direct responsibility of the MC, matters came to a sudden halt.
How then to proceed? Failing the MC, the constitution passes that function onto the Association's Tribunal which must be activated by "a petition consisting of at least 33 1/3 per cent of the organisational membership."
As far as DR can determine, this requires at least four member clubs calling on the Tribunal to summon the AGM. At the time of writing this article, however, the Tribunal, headed by Carlyle Singh, has not received a formal request comprising that number of members.
But in any case, Singh explains, the matter is certainly not as simple as that. In organising the AGM, the Tribunal is obligated to provide a number of items which, having regard to the executive's virtual "abandonment" of office, may be extremely difficult to obtain.
The constitution, for example, requires the AGM agenda to include the reading and confirmation of minutes, the president's report, presentation of financial statements and audited balance sheet, trustrees report on the utilisation and status of the Association's assets plus other reports and correspondence.
Having regard to his full-time job, it may well take several weeks, if not months, for Singh to hunt down these ex-officers and still there is no guarantee that he would be able to retrieve from them the documents, statements and reports needed for the AGM. After all, they sided with Smith in his dispute with senior players and may well be inclined now to wash their hands of the Association and current attempts to get it back on track.
Deadline for the Tribunal to summon the AGM is 30 days, failing which "the responsibility passes sequentially to the Board of Trustees."
The agony now being experienced by the "headless" sport of chess should have serious lessons for subsequent administrations. In the interest of the game, they should refrain from engaging in such bitter and divisive quarrels particularly with senior members in the vanguard of the sport. Indeed, they should always see the wisdom of "stooping to conquer," of earning support by an understanding of and respect for those players with long and committed careers. As the world's greatest mind game, chess is unique for the cognitive benefits it confers on its adherents, particularly as an adjunct to the education process. Small wonder then that societies across the globe are introducing the game into the curriculum of their schools on a systematic basis.
Against this forward movement, the breakdown of the T&TCA and the current agony to put it together again is sad indeed.
It would be quite unfortunate also if, because of the current situation, T&T finds itself unable to be represented at the Caribbean Absolute Team Championship to be held in Guyana this month. According to vice president Roderick Noel, shortly before it collapsed, the Association had chosen a national team according to the usual criteria. Half the price of airline tickets would be met by the T&TCA while room and board would be provided by the organisers.
Noel told DR that he would still make an effort to send our team to the Georgetown tournament which revives a regional contest popular in the post war years. We hope he succeeds.
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