New GCA Board Members

The GCA announced the names of the two new members of the GCA Board on its Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/georgiachess?fref=photo).

“We had a productive Executive Board meeting tonight. The Board appointed WIM Carolina Blanco as 2nd-Member-at-Large and Nick Thompson, former President of the Emory Chess Club, as Secretary.”

The new members replace Tim Payne and Frank Johnson, who resigned. The GCA has yet to publish any word as to why the former members left the GCA Board.

This is dated Oct. 22, 2014, the night of the Board meeting. A few hours before the meeting I was asked the location of the meeting. Not knowing, I went to the GCA website and found it was “TBD.” This is now being called the “stealth” GCA Board meeting.

The Know Nothing party has added at least one member who knows something. A player does not earn a title, even a lesser title, without knowing something about chess. I know nothing about Mr. Thompson, and was unable to find a Nick Thompson from Georgia on the USCF website.

There are now four women on the Board, only one of whom plays chess, and they outnumber the men 4-3. The number of appointed GCA Board members also outnumber those elected by a 4-3 margin.

A nice picture of new GCA Board member WIM Carolina Blanco can be found on The Chess Drum website in the article,
“Reflections of the Millionaire Chess Open.” (http://www.thechessdrum.net/blog/2014/10/22/reflections-of-the-millionaire-chess-open/)