1. What role would you hope to play on the board?
I currently serve as chair of the Club’s finance and the tournament committees, and I hope to continue in these roles. In addition, I work closely with the Club’s president and executive director on many issues and as a mentor to the executive director, particularly as he transitioned into his role. I would expect this to continue as well.

2. What experiences qualify you to serve as a Board member?
In addition to being an active player at the Club for many years, I have an extensive business and financial background. Prior to my retirement 3 years ago I was a partner at a Big 4 international accounting firm, Deloitte, and a CPA for 36 years. In addition, I have served on the finance/investment committees for several other not-for-profit organizations.

3. What would you hope to achieve as a Board member?
I would like to build on the following successes from the last year or so:

• Club finances – we have worked hard to improve the Club’s financial position. Today the Club is in excellent shape financially, which allows us to make investments in our space, equipment, and our staff. We have also increased transparency so that the full board is very well informed on the financial position of the club. As chair of the finance committee, I will continue to look for ways to improve the Club’s financial health.


• Tournaments – since I was appointed chair of the tournament committee, we have focused on improving the existing tournaments and adding different events, including:
  • Organizing the Club’s first Women’s Championship
  • Reinvigorating the Club Championship
  • Introducing the Team tournament, monthly Adult only tournaments, Morning Masters, Quads, among others.
  • Increased the number of FIDE rated tournaments to 8 per month.
  • Started online relay of the top boards in our monthly Premier and U2400 tournaments on Chess.com and Lichess.
  
  
• I hope to continue to experiment with different events including:
  • Organizing a very strong Super Swiss tournament in July to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the famous New York 1924 tournament.
  • Organizing a Club Rapid and Blitz Championship in the fall.
  • Organizing a Club Senior Championship which will run alongside the 2nd Women’s Championship in the late fall.

1. What role would you hope to play on the board?
Greetings Marshall Chess Club members! I’m National Master Mike Hehir, and on June 25 th I’ll be asking for your vote for the Board of Governors. I hope to continue serving as the chair of the Membership Committee and being a part of the Tournament Committee. Together with our President and fellow Board members the club has undergone a rapid period of growth, with membership more than tripling since you first voted me in.

2. What experiences qualify you to serve as a Board member?
As part of the Tournament Committee under Ed Daley, we’ve worked hard to give our members a varied calendar of events to play in. Whether you want to increase your FIDE rating, play in action or blitz tournaments, or take classes to improve the Marshall is the place to be. As chair of the Membership Committee, we strive to find out what our members want. Your answers to the recent survey help us to do that, so thanks to all of you who responded.

3. What would you hope to achieve as a Board member?
Moving forward, I hope to continue working with my fellow Board members. They’ve done a fantastic job in all areas. We have a brand-new elevator, DGT boards for major tournaments, and a great lineup of chess celebrities appearing at the club. I’d also like to acknowledge our great staff. They make sure the rounds begin on time, the club is clean, and everyone has a great time. If reelected, I promise to help the club grow even more.

Yours sincerely,
Mike Hehir

1. What role would you hope to play on the board?
I would submit that this is the wrong question. The correct one is what have I done for the MCC since I have been a member of the board?

• As former head of the finance committee I introduced transparent electronic record keeping and compliant tournament payments and tax submissions (1099s).
• I negotiated away $22k of tax penalties with the IRS and for the first time in decades we started submitting our tax returns on time without any audits or penalties.
• During the pandemic I kept the club solvent by accessing all available public programs that allowed us to pay our entire staff through the crisis and negotiated a small business loan that allowed us to reopen with sufficient reserves that has enabled our recent expansion in members and financial stability.
• I have been the President of the 23 West 10th Street Corporation (our building) where I successfully renovated the entire exterior of the building for the first time in over 80 years making us compliant with all NYC building codes. Negotiated a major bank loan that allowed us to replace our century old elevator with the latest technology. All of this and the day to day maintenance for a 180 year pre-Civil War building that consumes up to 20 hours per week of my time.
• I am the current Treasurer for the Marshall Chess Foundation that has donated over $200k in Chess causes with an emphasis on disadvantaged youth.

2. What experiences qualify you to serve as a Board member?

• I have 35+ years of corporate experience as a Senior Partner in a multi-billion dollar consulting firm where I spent many years on its finance and ethics committees.
• I was the head of the finance committee for the Virginia Special Olympics board of directors that saw the organization through the 2008 banking crisis without any loss of revenue or services for the athletes.
• I was a member of the Gettysburg Museum Board of Directors that opened its new upgraded facility.

3. What would you hope to achieve as a Board member?

• I would continue to keep our single major asset, the building, in good repair and maintenance while dealing with the all too frequent repairs that a 180 year old building will continue to experience.
• Renovate our now vacant fourth floor apartment and get it rented as soon as possible to maintain our corporation’s cash flow.
• Continue on as Treasurer for the Marshall Chess Foundation.
• Continue on as a Member of the finance committee.

1. What role would you hope to play on the board?
If elected to the Board, I would strive to bring more educational opportunities for members and to improve the tournament-playing experience.

On the educational front, I have enjoyed new initiatives like GM Djurabek’s classes for 2000+ players and camps for class players as well. I also attend almost all of the seminars hosted on Tuesdays by top players like Shankland, Vachier-Lagrave, as well as talks by local heroes like Ashley, Krush, Jennifer Shahade, etc. I would be honored to help select/invite speakers and teachers to share their wisdom, and to craft appealing events that members will want to attend.

As part of my job at Chess.com, I oversee and help create chess.com/events pages for chess clubs hosting tournaments from across the world; I pay attention to the kinds of tournaments and events they run - and I can report back with ideas I see working. For example, in the U.S. I pay close attention to the San Francisco Mechanics Institute, the Charlotte Chess Center, and the St. Louis Chess Club - I’ve communicated with the latter two directly. I’ve been pleased to see new tournaments like team formats and adult-only events and would try to bring in more.

2. What experiences qualify you to serve as a Board member?
I think my perspective as a former chess teacher and current chess journalist could benefit the club. In the past, I worked as both an English teacher (three years) and chess teacher (full-time, two years), and in 2021 I started working for Chess.com. I am currently the news manager; in that role, I write articles about the most important chess events (for example, I covered the Candidates this year), I assign news articles to others on the team, and I also post from the Chess24 social media accounts. I follow and read about chess every day.

I try to keep my ear close to the ground, to have my thumb on the pulse in the world of chess, both locally and internationally. This means that I’m aware of all major games by top players, as well as up-and-coming juniors; many of them, of course, are rising here in New York and at this club. I’m also an active player and generally play at the Marshall at least once a week. I hope that, as someone who loves to play chess myself and is also involved in the international chess scene, I can bring a fresh and informed viewpoint. At heart, I’m a chess nut.

3. What would you hope to achieve as a Board member?
As a Board member, I would hope to improve the membership experience for those who play at the club and attend its various programs. From the moment I started playing at the club, sometime in 2015, it’s been an irreplaceable institution in my life - it’s like a second home for me - and I hope to bring this experience to other people. Since I started playing at the Marshall regularly, the club has only gotten better. There are plenty of tournaments for a variety of levels, chances to meet and play against strong players, and countless opportunities to get better at the game. I hope that another nine years from now, others will feel the same way and that I can contribute to that growth.

1. What role would you hope to play on the board?
Dear Fellow Members of the Marshall Chess Club,

I am honored to have served on the Board of Governors for the past years and am running for re-election to continue that service.

The primary mission of each Board member should be to safeguard the Marshall Chess Club's most important assets: our historic building, the club’s prestige, history, and reputation, while maintaining the Club as the heart of chess activities in New York City, the U.S.A., and the world.

My main contribution to the Marshall Chess Club has been organizing social events for members. I believe that chess clubs must reinvent themselves in these times of online playing and learning. Chess is booming, and we need to embrace online chess, streaming, and other technologies that are driving the growth of the sport/game. Simultaneously, we must preserve and promote our chess community and social events that bring chess enthusiasts together.

The Marshall Chess Club is the heart of chess in NYC and one of the most prominent and historic entities in the world.

2. What experiences qualify you to serve as a Board member?
My experience as a chess player, my active role in scholastic chess, former President of the U.S. Chess Federation, current Delegate at Large, FIDE Vice President for almost eight years, and my active involvement in promoting chess for children and people with disabilities make me a qualified candidate for the Board.

3. What would you hope to achieve as a Board member?
I would appreciate your vote. Please feel free to contact me to share your views, comments, and ideas on how to improve our beloved Marshall Chess Club. You can reach me at Beatriz@chesseducators.com or 917-553-4522.

1. What role would you hope to play on the board?
I have been on the Marshall Chess Club Board for 17 years, most of that time as Vice President and briefly as Interim President. Also currently on the Finance Committee. My main goals have been to reduce expenses, increase income and provide the best possible experience for our members in terms of programs, events and facilities.

Some examples:

• Arranged for super GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave to twice visit the Club for a lecture and simul. Established relationship with French governing chess entities for future events
• Negotiated favorable contracts for summer and school holiday chess camps
• Designed and supervised renovation of expanded playing space on garden level, increasing the number of potential tournament attendees
• Managed the year-long process of fabricating and installing new windows in Club and throughout building, reducing heating and cooling expenses
• Spent two years converting the building from oil to gas heat, installing new heating plant and negotiating permits and approvals with city agencies, resulting in savings of over $50,000
• Negotiated initial building mortgage and re-financed lower interest rate from our management company
• Initiated renovations and upgrades of residential apartments to keep rents at market levels and maintain positive cash flow. This helped subsidize operational costs for the Club.

2. What experiences qualify you to serve as a Board member?
My years on the Board and as an active tournament player (rating 1900+) have given me a knowledge of the Club, our building and the chess community. I ran my own film and television production company for many years which gave me exposure to business, finance and logistics. With our membership approaching 1500 (the largest in the country), our Club has become a more complex operation, requiring Board members with broad experience and a willingness to spend the many hours needed to keep things running smoothly.

3. What would you hope to achieve as a Board member?
As our membership grows and becomes more diverse, it provides challenges and opportunities. The challenges are creating a rich and varied schedule of tournaments, events and classes that will appeal to our expanding number of younger players, adult beginners and stronger players. We have an obligation to reach out to women (of all ages) and make them a larger part of our population, as we did with the very engaging Women in Chess event, which I was asked to co-host. Finally, our members are talented and accomplished in a variety of professions. We have the opportunity to develop a dialogue with them to utilize their collective knowledge and ideas to enhance the Club well into the future. It would be my honor to be a part of this process and continue to contribute to our exceptional and unique Club.

1. What role would you hope to play on the board?
As a first time member of the board, I know my first term's focus would be on learning and supporting other and especially senior members of the board. However, having been involved in / run chess organizations for 10+ years, I know my strengths lie in helping out with operations. From running local tournaments to organizing classes and education, I've learned (through many mistakes!) the pitfalls that can arise from trying to put on tournaments and create educational content. I'd seek to partner with members of the Tournament and Education Committee to understand their current process, and I'd try to improve it if I could in any small way.

That all said, I know from my experience as well that the best chess organizations I've been involved with operate flexibly, and whether it's through my experience in finance, my background in executive function, or any other way, I'd seek to help however I could.

2. What experiences qualify you to serve as a Board member?
I think my first qualification comes from the passion I have for playing chess, especially at The Marshall. I began learning from my dad at 4 years old, along with my brother. The competitive spirit we all share, as well as those memories, help me feel close to them whenever I play. Since my first tournament at 8, through my frequent weekend visits to The Marshall in college just to play games, I've relished every time I get to be involved in the community.

Beyond that, I've been involved in chess leadership for 10+ years. I was president of my chess club in high school and college, I served as captain of both teams, and I've organized local chess events for friends and family alike. I've seen the financials, operations, and personal relationships required to make a successful chess organization and foster a productive community.

I know there are many ways of engaging with chess, and I'd seek to support all of them – from competitive play to Friday night socials, from amateur to GM.

3. What would you hope to achieve as a Board member?
As I said, my first goal is to learn. Smarter folks than me – and certainly better chess players than me – have served this club well for a long time. If I could end my term with enough knowledge to support the club's functioning, I'd be quite happy.

Beyond that, my primary goal would be to engage with the broader community and try to make chess as accessible as possible. I've spoken to so many folks who initially were intimidated to come to the Marshall, or didn't think they were chess players. Once they came, they saw what a wonderful community we've all created, and they all have come back. I'd hope to achieve a club that's even more inclusive of every kind of chess player, whether through more programming like the Women and Girl's Open, or through events and lectures that highlight a wide range of stories. If even one person came up to me and said they'd been encouraged to found our community where they otherwise wouldn't have seen themselves, that will feel like an achievement to me.

1. What role would you hope to play on the board?
I would hope to play a very active role on the board, serving in whatever role or on whichever committee most needs me. I think working on programming, development, and finance areas could all make sense depending on the current board composition and needs of the club.

2. What experiences qualify you to serve as a Board member?
I am an active member of the club, both as a player and as a parent of a scholastic player, so I have a good feel for the club from a club-level adult perspective and a strong child player perspective. I have experience with the NYC Chess community as an active member of the Chess in the Schools board, and a proven track record of participation and fundraising for them during my time there so far. I am also on my children’s school (Speyer) parent chess committee and have worked in collaboration with the MCC to put on a successful scholastic quad tournament this past year with maximum capacity turnout and a profitable first run with an eye to doing more of them. Outside of chess, I am a successful small business owner of 15 years with experience building and managing projects and working in small groups of people both in person and remotely. And I do love chess.

3. What would you hope to achieve as a Board member?
As a board member, I would like to learn more about the MCC and get to know its members and staff better in the short term. Longer term, I would hope to leverage my relationships in the chess community, particularly the scholastic chess community, to help develop more membership, more profitable membership, and create opportunities for collaboration and new programming. Also, as an adult learner who enjoys being at the club, I would hope to continue to cultivate a sense of community among members and build on the social/fun atmosphere the club naturally provides.