Author: Ed Trice
Date: 07:57:31 01/12/04
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Hello Jim, > >The US doesnt play chess really. USCF has 90,000 members out of 1/3 billion >people and just went bankrupt (over about $300,000 - chump change to a pro >basketball player) and had to sell its store to an english firm. In Ocotber 2003 I spoke to Grant Perks (heck of a name for someone in an interim Financial position of a struggle non-profit organization!) about what was happening to the USCF. He arranged for me to meet with Stan Booz and two of my investor associates. We all went over the books of the USCF. The USCF balance sheet was at -$2,000,000. The $300,000 of which you speak was part of a revolving line of credit which was asked to be brought current by the bank. If this occurred, the USCF would not have sufficient funds to procure inventory for the upcoming (at the time) Holiday Season. The USCF had also received 10 sealed bids to take over their Products & Services division. This would typically do between $2,500,000 to $3,000,000 per year in gross sales, but citing competion from Amazon and eBay, they could not maintain their high (some would say overpriced) margins. I offered my help to the USCF, but Stan Booz was a little cagey and less than receptive. He was telling me how Yasser Seirawan wanted to buy the Scholastic Segment of the USCF member base, amounting to some 50,000 of the 85,000 members, and I think this tainted his interpretation of my offer. In the end, we all left the meeting, unsatisfied. Just wanted to let you in on some of the numbers, and what they represent. --Ed
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