Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference. – Winston Churchill
Assuredly, demonstrating a negative attitude with clear absences of transparency, prime examples of high-handedness and pellucid cases of disinterest is tantamount to courting disaster, and has contributed the demise of many. Heads of organisations, sport not being the least among them, have been known to hasten their downfalls with such carefree acts of indiscretion.
On Wednesday, April 13, 2016, the Stabroek News sports editor carried a story headlined: ‘Chess Federation to stage AGM May 15 – Greenidge’. The news came as a surprise to the chess fraternity, except, of course, for a selected few. The constitution of the Guyana Chess Federation (GCF) states, unambiguously, in part, “The annual general meeting, of which at least four weeks prior notice shall be given, will be held not later than March each year.” Traditionally, from the inception of the first annual general meeting in the early 1970s, a notice was published in a daily newspaper by the GCF to alert the public of its intent. The column is not aware this has been done. It seems as if a 2016 annual general meeting for the election of a president and his or her office bearers, was intended to be shrouded in secrecy.