CITL 2nd Annual Festival - A Huge Success!

A blink of an eye and it's already been 2 years since we first launched the program back in June 2009! To celebrate our 2 year anniversary, the Chess in the Library organization hosted its 2nd Annual Festival at the North York Central Library. There were over 150 people coming from each corner of the city to join the festivities, including participants, parents, volunteers, librarians, sponsors, donors and the media. With 76 participants representing 8 different libraries and 23 volunteers to help organize the event, this festival was the most successful event yet! However, not everything went so smoothly as we wished...

June 25, 2011, 11:30 am: The majority of the participants, parents, special guests and media were already on the second floor of the library, waiting for check-in, which starts at 11:45am. Leading the group of volunteers, I walked up to the second floor after a successful election in the morning, feeling as if the day couldn't get better. Well, at that very moment...our dreams were almost crushed. Suddenly there comes a librarian, whom I've never ever met before and for all I know, she was never involved in any CITL matters. She bluntly tells me that we are only able to enter the room at 1pm, despite the fact that our booking was for noon.

Imagine - a floor packed with 150 kids, parents, guests and media waiting to be served. We've got 30 minutes to do the check-in and setup everything for the opening ceremony, previously scheduled to commence at 12:15pm. Right when your anxiety level is at its heights, your mind is buzzing with thoughts of all the people waiting and bumping into you, a stranger just pops up and tells you that the event shall be delayed for an hour and that that "this is not debatable". For the first time in my life, I didn't know what to do at all.

I thought about all the happy kids anticipating the festival and all the volunteers who surrounded and depended on me. I knew that whatever I do, I can't let myself fall apart right then and right there. But I am one lucky girl, blessed to have a such an amazing volunteer team who told me: "Yuanling, we've got your back. Don't worry,don't worry...everything will turn out just fine."

So I cleared my head and thought of possible solutions to the problem. Crowd control is very important when you organize a large event like this. I grabbed a few desks and told the volunteers to start the check-in process ASAP. To ensure that we wouldn't create a mess, I told the participants to form 3 straight lines for check-in, one for each section. There were over 150 people waiting for us and we must try to do everything according to the plan. At the very least, we kept the bad news within the volunteers for as long as possible, or else we would've really lost control of the people. Meanwhile, we printed a copy of the email with the promise that room setup for our event will start at noon, hoping that it would clear the misunderstandings. And so it did, with the help of Tom from NYCL.

Regardless, I know that this post should be a report on the festival but I wanted to share this story with all of you today because of several reasons. First of all, I've learned a life lesson that day - no matter what barriers come in your way, you've just got to keep moving forward. If you've done nothing wrong, then God will help you and luck will be on your side. Second of all, perhaps the majority of you who follows Chess in the Library thinks that it is an easy job to undertake - how hard is it to run a chess club in a local library, right? Well, now you know the things that I, as well as the volunteers at times, go through. It's not easy. Finally, it was at that very moment that something hit me - I, Yuanling, the Founder of the CITL, is no longer alone like she was on June 20, 2009. It was truly after this incident that I felt like a part of a big family, a family that would support you no matter what. So I want to give a big thank you to all the volunteers for joining CITL and giving me what I needed the most - moral support.

The big family of CITL volunteers. :)

Now let's get to the real report of the festival! The flow of the opening ceremony was done very smoothly, starting with a short clip (should be available on YouTube soon), speeches and ending with the announcement of the 2011 CITL Volunteer of the Year Award. I'd like to thank our special guests, Vivien Canning, Maurice Smith and GM Mark Bluvshtein for making their appearance and presenting the Volunteer of the Year nominees and award winners with certificates and trophies. To see what Mark has to say about the festival, check out his latest blog post: http://markbluvshtein.wordpress.com/2011/06/26/what-happened-this-weekend-2/

Commencement of the opening ceremony - the white screen in the background is where we showed the video

The audience. All the volunteers are lined up on the right hand side of the wall, wearing the special CITL T-shirts!

Me welcoming everyone to the festival. :)

Michael Kleinman, the 2010-2011 CITL Vice President, says a few words to the audience.

Kevin Wu, the 2010-2011 CITL Executive Director, despite being the youngest member of the CITL Executive Board, has showed his capabilities as a leader in this organization.

Tom Maragos, NYCL librarian, is the one who saved the day! Honestly, without him, I really don't know whether we would have a happy ending that day. Thank you so much, Tom!

Maurice Smith, one of CITL's main donors, takes an hour out of his busy schedule to support the festival! Maurice said a few touching words on behalf of all CITL donors and sponors. Thank you Maurice!

Vivien Canning, the Branch Head of of the Humberwood Branch in Etobicoke, is one of the most enthusiastic librarians that I've ever met! Humberwood was one of CITL's very first locations and right now, it is our of the most successful locations! Thank you Vivien for always supporting us!

The six 2011 CITL Volunteer of the Year nominees with their certificates presented by Maurice and Vivien. Since Yuan Dai could not make it to the festival, Lennart (far right) received the certificate on behalf of Yuan.

GM Mark Bluvshtein announces the 2011 CITL Volunteer of the Year winners

So who won the award? I want to give a BIG congratulations to the 3 outstanding youths:

Gal Gross, winner of the 2011 CITL Most Dedicated Award
Jesse Feng, winner of the 2011 CITL Most Innovative Award
Yolanda Zhang, winner of the 2011 CITL Best Instructor Award

The media. Thanks to Bob Armstrong, we were able to get several media coverages for the festival.

After the opening ceremony, the team tournament began. Every participant wore a sticker with their library name on it - something new that we introduced this year to show team spirit! We had enough time to play a 4-round Swiss, far better than last year's 3-round Swiss.

a beautiful tournament sitea beautiful tournament site

The referees of the Grade 3 & Under section announces the pairings to the kids

Games in action - there were 2-3 volunteers taking the role of a referee in each section. They would ensure that the kids were playing again the right opponent and that the results were marked correctly.

The Open section in action

Cool chess kid - is he playing chess or poker? :)

Naeema Garcia, age 5, is one of the youngest contestants in the tournament. Her shirt says "cute by psycho" ^_^

In between the games, the participants could visit the puzzle booth set up by Hazel and Lennart and take a shot at some trivial questions such as "What colour is CITL's logo?". There were also a set of chess tactics for the participants to solve, ranging from super easy to super hard, with a total of 5 difficulty levels. For a full list of questions and answers for Hazel's puzzle contests, check out her latest blog post: http://checkmateupdate.blogspot.com/2011/06/citl-quizzes.html

Hazel and her puzzle contest booth

Hmm...how to solve this problem?

However, the activity that caught most people's eye was of course...the GIANT CHESS SET!!! :) Everyone has so much fun moving the pieces, which were almost the same height as some of the younger kids!

Let's see if you can play chess equally well on this gigantic board!

Another blink of an eye and the festival was over. It was time to present the awards to those who fought the hardest in front of the chess board! We gave out a total of 27 medals to the top 3 teams in each of the 3 sections (Grade 3, Grade 6 & Open), as well as 9 trophies for the top 3 finishers in each section. What's even more exciting is that this year, we bought a large annual trophy for the library team that won gold in the Open section. Not only will the library's name get engraved on the trophy, this winner library will keep the trophy on display for an entire year and until the next CITL Annual Festival.

On behalf of the organization, I want to give a special thank you to the Southam family, who was not able to make it to the festival this year. It was them who donated the beautifully designed marble-based trophies as well as the big annual trophy. Some of you may know the background story behind these trophies from last year's festival, but others may not. Todd Southam, the younger son of the family, was one of Canada's brightest and most promising chess players a few decades ago. During his chess career, he won numerous trophies and plaques from local tournaments to international ones. As a FIDE Master, he was not only his family's pride, but also Canada's. Unfortunately, he passed away at a very young age, leaving his family and the country in great sorrow. When the Southams heard about the Chess in the Library program back in the summer of 2009, they immediately donated all of Todd's trophies to us, thinking that Todd would be very happy to see his trophies redistributed to a new generation of young chess players. Today, all of the 18 trophies that belonged to Todd are now shining ever so brightly in different chess families located in each corner of the city, encouraging the kids to keep playing this royal game. And so, we named the trophies "The Todd Southam Award". Todd and his family's contribution to the chess community will always be remembered, and we really believe that up there in heaven, Todd smiled when he saw all of this happening.

The awards, donated by the Southam family, are ready to find a new home.

The North York Central team, volunteers and librarian were all super excited about winning the large annual trophy! Congratulations to team NYCL!

We gave out a total of 12 book prizes for the puzzle competition winners as well as the contest winners. All these books were donated by some very generous people, so thank you!

It's so sad when I realized that it was already over...*sigh*. However, we did get many emails from parents telling us what an amazing time their kids had and that was enough for us to feel reassured. All the time and effort put into this event was worth it. Although the event was only 5 hours long, we gave over 76 kids an amazing experience that will forever be a part of the wonderful memories of their childhood.

For more pictures on the CITL 2nd Annual Festival, check out our web album here. I will be posting the individual and team results shortly.

2011-2012 CITL Executive Board Elections

Last Saturday morning, the Chess in the Library organization held its 2011-2012 Executive Board Elections, in which there were 8 candidates for 5 positions and 21 volunteers present to vote for the next CITL Executive Board. Candidates and volunteers rushed to the North York Central Library at 9am in the morning, shortly after the library first opens its door for patrons. Below are the list of candidates and with their respective target position. Click on the names to see their written campaigns:

President
Yuanling Yuan, Grade 11

Vice President
Gal Gross, 2nd Year University
Kevin Wu, Grade 10
Michael Kleinman, Grade 11

Treasurer
Mike Ivanov, Grade 10
Aaron Zhang, Grade 11

Director of Communications
Vivek Chachcha, Grade 10

Art Director
Linda Fu, Grade 11

Once everyone arrived, a special Chess in the Library T-shirt was distributed to them. We asked 2 different artistic students to design a T-shirt that would represent Chess in the Library. Below are the designs:

Designed by Hazel Smith

Designed by Lennart Batilando & Edited by Kevin Wu
The banner says "Chess in the Library" and the bottom of the king says "est. 2009"

We ended up using the second design by Lennart and Kevin but I want to thank Hazel for putting so much time into this. She learned how to use the vector draw software just for this - now that's what I call dedication.

I would say that the one of the most successful things of this festival was this T-shirt. This isn't just any T-shirt - it's something that unites all of us, like a big family of volunteers. Whenever someone walks past us, they would stop for a moment, just a split second, to see what is going on. We not only attract the attention of outsiders but also each other. Everyone felt as if they fit in and the barrier between those who previously did not know each other just came down. We are one big family.

Let's take a look at some pictures and short clips captured at the election:

front view of the conference

back view of the conference

Art Director candidate Linda Fu makes her speech

Director of Communications candidate Vivek Chachcha delivers his speech

Treasurer candidates (from left to right) Mike Ivanov and Aaron Zhang stand side by side during question time

Vice-President candidates (from left to right) Gal Gross, Kevin Wu and Michael Kleinman during question time

me making my presidential speech

I want to say congratulations to each and every single one of you who chose to run in this election. It means that you care. You care about Chess in the Library and moreover, the promotion of chess in Canada. You were brave enough to stand up in front of a crowd and present yourself so thoroughly. Even if you didn't win in the end, the fact that you took this initiative tells us all that you've already won. As the Founder and President of this organization, I am really, really, really proud of you all. This is exactly what I envisioned the program to be - full of enthusiasm and initiatives from the leaders. I couldn't possibly ask for more.

Some of your speeches were very inspirational and they really touched me deeply. Each candidate suggested something new for the program, from chess workshops to a meet-and-greet breakfast. We added in a 5-min question session after the speeches for each position were completed. I was a little surprised at how profound some of the questions were!

The ballets were counted by 2 random people at the festival that were not affiliated with any of the candidates in this election. They tallied the votes and wrote the results on a small piece of paper, which was then placed into a small envelope. It was only until the closing ceremony of the festival that I opened the envelope and announced the results.

I'm proud to say that we an amazing team of leaders that will be bringing the program to new heights in the upcoming year. I believe that you will do your best and I know that are capable. :)

A BIG congratulations to the 2011-2012 CITL Executive Board:

From left to right: Vice-President Gal Gross, Treasurer Aaron Zhang, President Yuanling Yuan, Director of Communications Vivek Chachcha and Art Director Linda Fu

To those of you didn't win - don't give up! If you set your heart on contributing to CITL, you can do so without being on the executive board. Like our new Vice-President Gal once said in this speech, we need the general volunteers to help out in whatever way they can. Remember - the 5 of us are on this executive board not for the glamour that goes with the title of our position but for the ultimate purpose of this program - to promote chess in Canada.

So if you are proficient in facebook - why not manage a facebook page for us? If you are proficient in twitter - why not setup a twitter account for us? As long as you want to contribute, there is always a way for you to use your specialty to show everyone what you can do. Most of you have lots of potential so if you didn't succeed this time, I encourage you to try again next year. To succeed, you must believe!

Finally, I want to dedicate a few words to the past Vice-President Michael Kleinman and Executive Director Kevin Wu: You guys have been amazing this year and I cherished the times when we worked hard together to create innovations for Chess in the Library. I want to thank you both for always being there for me, regardless of the situation. Your contributions to Chess in the Library will always be remembered and I hope that you continue to be a part of us! :)

2011-2012 CITL Treasurer Candidate - Aaron Zhang

Below is what Aaron wrote for his campaign:

Glad to be back everyone! I’m happy to say that I will be back in action at the 2^nd annual festival at NYCL on Saturday! In case you don’t know me, I am Aaron Zhang. I was one of the first volunteers of Chess in the Library, having joined the program when it opened its first branch at Brookbanks. Then, after we opened a second location at Pleasant View, I permanently settled there. Today, I come to all of you because I see myself as the best candidate for CITL’s 2011-2012 treasurer. Hopefully, you will also agree with me after reading what I have to say.

First of all, I’m not just another high school student wanting something to put on my résumé. To be honest, I don’t think I’m even going to write this on my résumé even if I get elected. I am running for Treasurer because I love the ideas and people driving CITL and feel that this program could use my experience and expertise.

Ever since I first became a student at Macdonald, I’ve been involved in many large-scale fundraising events; this includes the extremely successful Relay for Life, which has been bringing in over $40,000 each year in donations for the Canadian Cancer Society. Outside of school, I’ve also been working for an international media company. There, I have been responsible for gathering new corporate sponsors and maintaining relations with current sponsors. Some of the sponsors I have brought in include some of the world’s largest corporations—Samsung, LG, and RIM.

On top of my work experience, I believe that I’ve proven my knowledge and skill in the many business-related events I’ve participated in. I was the 1st place winner of the Toronto Student Business Plan Competition, the MBA Virtual Stock Challenge, and the DECA Toronto Principles of Finance event. Today, I’m proud to say that I’m also the fund manager of an equity portfolio valued at over $30,000. It is both my passion and proven skill in the business world that has led me to my current acclaim in my school as Little Warren Buffett.

As a candidate for treasurer, I already have many plans for CITL for next year. The first step I intend to take as treasurer is to secure a non-profit business grant from the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development. A past award winner of the Ministry’s business competition, I’ve been told that I could apply for the Youth Entrepreneurship Grant and receive thousands of dollars’ worth of funding. With the new funding, I intend to work with the Director of Communications and Art Director on a large-scale promotional campaign to dramatically increase membership at CITL. One of my ideas is to advertise and hold a large CITL meet-and-greet breakfast for new members. This will not only increase membership tremendously, but will also warrant media coverage, which will in turn increase the chances of us receiving corporate sponsorship.

Of course, actions speak louder than words. Therefore, I don’t believe in repeatedly making promises to get donations, expand the program, and whatever else any treasurer candidate would say. What I do not say, however, I let my actions put into words. Remember, though, for me to take action, you must take action too: Vote Aaron Zhang for Treasurer!

2011-2012 CITL Vice-President Candidate: Michael Kleinman

Below is what Michael wrote for his campaign:

Re-elect Michael Kleinman as Vice President for CITL!

Running again has been a difficult choice, with outstanding running-mates, the grade 12 year approaching, and the goal to become an International Master before university. I was very ambivalent in running, but I remembered why I first joined Chess in the Library. I wanted to give back to the community of chess, in return for all of the experiences that it brought me.

First of all, it has been an absolute honour to be able to represent the Chess in the Library organization as vice president this past year. Through meetings with a manager of Toronto public library, attending the openings of new branches, and crafting out the volunteer handbook, Chess in the Library has grown, and its been a pleasure to see.

Next year, a primary goal would be to expand. If you break it down, our organization is just awesome. We’re giving many children an opportunity to learn and appreciate the game of chess, who likely otherwise would have not been able to. Likely, these children will improve in many other areas of their life, its really awesome.

Also, I feel that we should have better means of communication. I would hope that we could have around 10 mentors, volunteers with a lot of experience. After sessions, these mentors could talk, and aid newer volunteers, increasing the strength of our network.

I really hope many of you come out and vote. This is an organization with a great initiative, and your vote really impacts the future of this organization.

See you guys Saturday, and the festival will be awesome!

Sincerely,

Michael Kleinman

2011-2012 CITL Art Director Candidate - Linda Fu

I know this is a bit late but I still have to post it. Below is what Linda wrote for her campaign.

Hello guys,

Being someone who's been with the organization for more than a year, I have definitely seen the organization prosper under the hard work and dedication of everyone on the CITL team, including the execs. However, I think this organization still has an endless amount of space to grow. Every time I volunteer at the Bridlewood Branch, seeing the kids play chess and their smile of reward afterwards just keeps on bringing warmth to me, knowing that my small contribution of teaching the kids basic chess principles has brought them joy and experiences that they haven't experienced before. But I feel like being someone extremely passionate about the artistic field, I can use my strength to contribute even more to this organization, which is why I am running for your art director.

As your art director, the main focus is to make CITL look appealing to chess minds of all ages. As seen by the next festival coming up, CITL has many events that needs artistic input, like flyers, T-shir designs, invitations, banners, you name it! These methods of communication is the first thing that grabs people's attention when they are introduced to CITL, and thus it is my goal to make it as artistic and creative as possible. And of course, promotion of branches will need the attention grabber as well, since it is our goal to expand CITL across the country, a catchy flyer will definitely make the job easier. Also, I plan to work with the director of communications to make the website as appealing and artistic as possible, so youth who loves to go on the internet can get all the CITL information, while at the same time enjoying the creative layout and appearance of CITL's website.

Having an extensive background in inDesign and photoshop, graphic designing is not a problem. I have experience working in this field as I am the layout editor of my school's newspaper, and as well as layout editor of a national magazine.

I will be bringing the magazine and my school's newspaper to the festival for y'all to look at, and hopefully they show the passion I have for arts and a perfect candidate as you're arts director.

Thank you for reading this, and please support me on Saturday!

Linda Fu

2nd Annual Festival Pre-Registration List Updated

This should be the final list. We have a total of 76 players this year representing 8 different libraries! That's almost half as more as last year's figure (55 players). Here is the pre-registration list:

Open Section

Team	First Name	Last Name
BB	Eno	Masha
	Vlad	Bardalez
	Tonia	Tong
BRW	Zelin	Liu
	Andres	Escobar
FV	Yang	Ji
	Newton	Xu
	Edmund	Rong
HW	Mann	Parekh
	Niruthika	Puvaneswaran
	Avni	Kaur
	Gaajen	Sivarasacumar
	Tina	Vo
NYCL	Soorena	Miralami
	Kristen	Li
	Catherine	Li

Grade 6 & Under Section

BB	Jonathan	Zhao
	Dylan	Chen
	Jonathan	Chan
	Cassidy	Wang
	Henry	Li
	Jaden	Wang
DV	Melalee	Gordon
	Minhyun	Hwang
	Seonghyun	Hwang
	Bradley	Ho
	Adesh	Leaver
	Joshua	Jorda
	Yvan	Nguyen
FV	Victor	Rong
	Helen	Chen
	Bruce	He
	Erkhes	Bayan-Altai
GE	Callum	Denault
HW	Jaanani	Sivarasacumar
	Anjan	Gnanatheevam
	Rajan	Kandola
NYCL	Raelyn	Song
	Harry	Zhao
PV	Serena	de Vera
	Anji	Zhang
	Oliver	He

Grade 3 and Under Section

BB	Tiffany	Yan
	Benjamin	Lin
	Maxwell	Tong
BRW	Jennifer	Zhang
	James	Gao
	Alan	Li
	Aarabhi	Krishnakumar
	Mandaran	Krishnakumar
DV	Julianne	Jorda
	Diana	Lin
	Edward	Hidalgo Lopez
	Jeremias	Campos
	Ba Son	Nguyen
FV	Calvin	Pan
	Anthony	Chen
	Anar	Bayan
	Evan	Liu
	Brian	Xian
	Ray	Liu
GE	Aydin	Kachra
	Benjamin	Lemke
	David	Teresi
HW	Kevin	Johny
	Alen	Johny
NYCL	Kalan Raven	Samaroo
	Haotong (Hazel)	Guo
	Jouhan	Pathmanathan
	Kalan Raven	Samaroo
	Alum	Jivra J.
PV	Naeema	Garcia
	Ayah	Barghout
	Santiago	de Vera
	Domenic	de Vera
	Eric	Sun

2011-2012 CITL President Candidate - Yuanling Yuan

Hey guys,

First of all, I just wanted to say that being your 2010-2011 CITL President and representing all of you was an amazing experience. I want to thank everyone for always believing me and giving me the chance to show everyone what I can bring to our organization. In the past year, Chess in the Library has grown to a total of 21 locations (the last one hasn't been posted yet) and spread to another province - Alberta. It was my dream to see CITL operating in every single province of our beloved country.

For the past month, I've been busy preparing for the CITL 2nd Annual Festival, which will happen this Saturday. Being the leader of the organization, I was responsible for sending out invitations to participants, sponors, donors as well as media. I'm proud to announce that there will be at least 2 TV stations coming to the festival - Fairchild and WIGUP.

I believe that each and every one of you has witnesses what I've contributed to the organization, so I just outlined the main ones. However, at our age, the sky is the limit. If you say that I've done well this year, well then, I can do better. Below is a list of short-term goals that I would aim towards accomplishing if elected as your 2011-2012 CITL President:

- spread the program to a total of 30 locations by June 2012
- have the program spam over at least 5 provinces in total (so 2 more than now)
- create an application form for libraries that wish to join our network
- have the CITL Handbook available online
- dedicate a special page on our website to volunteers (Volunteer of the Month Awards, etc)

Certainly, more ideas will come to me as time goes by but nonetheless, I can only do these things if you re-elect me as your 2011-2012 CITL President! :)

2011-2012 CITL Director of Communications Candidate - Vivek Chachcha

Below is what Vivek wrote for his campaign:

Hey everyone,

My name is Vivek Chachcha and I am a grade 10 IB student at Victoria Park CI. Unfortunately I have not had the chance to meet many of you, but hopefully I will get the opportunity to meet all of you at the upcoming festival.

I only discovered my love for chess about a year ago when I was stuck with no internet and the only interesting game on my computer was chess. I often visit the local library and through these visit I eventually discovered two great things: the Youth Advisory Group (YAG) for Brookbanks library and CITL. I have been a volunteer for Chess in the Library at Brookbanks Library for the past year now and find the experience greatly rewarding.

While I have not yet had the chance to contribute as much as I would like to the program I think this is the perfect opportunity for me to give back to CITL. I personally believe that CITL is one of the greatest programs offered at the Toronto Public Libraries. It creates an environment for players to meet and play with each other while at the same time providing the opportunity for new players to learn and discover the great game of chess.

Despite these great attributes of the program, I think Chess in the Library could be improved with a new and up-to-date website. The internet has become the number one pass time for youth and children alike and by creating and maintaining a newer website, CITL has the potential to expand its horizons even more.

I have been a part of several web design teams over the past years and have become adept at dealing with CSS, HTML, Flash, and PHP as well. Here are some websites that I have helped develop and help maintain right now:

http://pantherpress.ca/

http://victoriaparkci.com/

http://forum.youthactionnetwork.org/

I have the motivation, the skills, and the passion for this job; so when you are voting this Saturday morning, please vote for Vivek Chachcha as your Director of Communications!

Thank you for taking the time to read this speech!

2011-2012 CITL Vice President Candidate: Kevin Wu

Greetings fellow volunteers,

Thank you for an amazing year! As your current executive director, I have absolutely enjoyed the experience, which was quite a lot of work but in the end very gratifying. You’re probably itching to get on with your doings, but take a minute to read what I have to say.

We have come a long way from the small organization it was when I first joined. Back in the summer of 2009, it was but at a few libraries scattered around North-eastern Toronto. Through the efforts of the executive board, but more importantly, through the efforts of all of our volunteers, CITL has been able to grow into nationwide effort.

Personally, I have been ushering new programs in at libraries across the city, sometimes alone and sometimes with my executive-mates Yuanling and Michael. Meetings with TPL officials were also a regular occurrence, where we discussed the future of our program in various aspects, including regulations, expansion, and police checks. Our CITL handbook to be handed to every new volunteer has been polished throughout the year.

Nearing that time of the year again when all get together, the annual festival at North York Central Library, I believe firmly in doing everything but stand still. Trophies and certificates, letters to the mayor, press releases, all the little bits and pieces that complete a celebration on the scale of ours, not a single piece has been left untouched. You, as the volunteers, as well as the patrons of our program, deserve as much.

This coming year, I believe it is time for me to take a step forward and become the Vice President of CITL. My experience will certainly be an invaluable asset to CITL in dealing with the librarians that we must maintain contact with as well as the everyday issues that the executive board has worked through this year.

It’s often said that every chess master was once a beginner. Likewise, our organization was once barely walking on its feet, but we are now on the road to greater things. I believe that together, with our collective, organized efforts, CITL has many bright days to come, and I hope that, by serving CITL as Vice President, I will continue to be graced with amazing experiences and good times with the wonderful people in this organization.

Yours Sincerely,

Kevin Wu

2011-2012 CITL Treasurer Candidate: Mike Ivanov

Below is what Mike wrote for his campaign. He has given me permission to post it on my blog. :)

Vote Mike Ivanov for Treasurer of Chess in the Library!

Hi everyone! My name is Mike Ivanov and I have been volunteering for CITL at the North York Central Public Library since last September. In that time me and a few other volunteers developed our program to be a great way for people of all levels and ages to learn and play chess. Personally I taught chess at my branch to any newcomers and promoted our program as much as possible to the point where we regularly have around 10-15 visitors come to our program. Our team of volunteers is very proud of our efforts and hopes to do even better next year.

I have always wanted to help chess in Canada grow and prosper which is why I joined CITL in the first place. I believe that by becoming the treasurer of Chess in the Library I will be able to help much more people in Canada become chess players which can and will change their lives for the better. It will also get me experience working with a wide variety of people which will surely be useful in my future. I am also a tournament player and a part-time teacher which will help me take a bigger role in CITL as I am fairly familiar with the Canadian chess scene.

I think that I am highly capable of being the treasurer of CITL and maintaining CITL’s finances having dealt with raising money and finding sponsors for organizations before. I’m also very dedicated to expanding our organization and raising awareness for it across Canada and I will try to pass on these values to anyone I work with while I’m treasurer.

If I get to be treasurer of CITL I’ll do my best to improve it by doing things like attracting sponsors to our program and maintain good relations with our current sponsors and organize fundraising events with the idea that in order for CITL to expand it will need more resources and publicity. Also I’ll do my best to promote our organization wherever possible and with enough publicity, interest and sponsors we should be able to expand our great program and help people of all ages learn and play chess in all 10 provinces!

John F. Kennedy once said “think not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country”. In our case I think it means that to promote chess in Canada you can’t complain that the government isn’t doing it, you have to take that responsibility in your own hands and do it yourself. I believe that in order for Canada to have a strong chess community we must unite and work together to expand CITL. If that means me taking a bigger role in an organization that wouldn’t be possible without volunteers like us than I will gladly do so and encourage others to do the same since any organization no matter how big in the end started as a small group of people with a common goal. Lastly I sincerely hope that at one point in my life I’ll be able to say that I’ve helped hundreds if not thousands of kids and adults alike start the journey that I’ve been on for over 10 years, the journey of chess. It will give them memories and virtues that will stay with them and contribute to their everyday lives and in my mind that’s what chess is all about!

2011-2012 CITL Vice President Candidate: Gal Gross

Below is what Gal wrote for his campaign. He has given me permission to post it on my blog. :)

Good evening everyone!

My name is Gal Gross and I’m a Mathematics and Computer Science major at U of T.

I’ve been a member of the Youth Advisory Group at North York Central Library for over two years now, and ever since I started, I’ve been lobbying for a chess club at NYCL, but to no avail. Things only started to get going when Yuanling and Chess in the Library offered to start a program there. Backed up with positive feedback from other librarians, suddenly the chess club seemed like a possibility. But that possibility still lay in the future. Room booking at NYCL is done 15 months in advance. At least six different departments compete for space, and getting a spot is very hard to do – getting a regular one almost impossible. After many months of patient prodding, we finally got our chance and I’ve been with CITL ever since.

North York Central, being the largest library in the city (excepting maybe the Reference Library), was and remain the ideal candidate for the hosting of CITL Annual Festival. I’ve had the pleasure to help out with this event both this year and last one–when an article I’ve wrote about it was published in the August 2010 issue of Canadian Chess News (see attached). Unfortunately I cannot attach the document; however, if you are a CFC member, do check out the August 2010 issue of the CFC e-magazine!

Since I joined, we voted in a wonderful and dedicated group of individuals in our first elections. Thanks to their efforts our organization has flourished and we can now boast over 20 locations in Toronto, and several locations throughout Canada. Chess in the Library is an organization I’m very proud to be part of.

While being wildly successful, we remain fragmented. We each volunteer in our own clubs, largely without feedback or support from other members. I think the stage is set and the time is ripe to advance CITL to the next level. The challenge we are facing is building a strong community.

There is power in numbers – we all know that. People are forever looking to connect with other people; banding together for a common cause or a shared interest. In Chess in the Library our mission is to promote the majestic game of Chess across Canada, but how? What is the best, most efficient and self-sustaining way to promote it? Look around in the countries where Chess is a much more popular pastime – look around and you will found a strong community of players.

The Annual Chess in the Library Festival is the only opportunity we had so far to get together, and it has proved to be a wonderful experience, showing us the potential of the chess-playing community. Why won’t libraries in the same region do field-trips to one another’s clubs? Send representatives to hold regional tournaments, sanctioned by CITL? Why not bring chess into the open, and have family picnics and chess-related activities while the weather permits? Why not hold workshops, and give chess lessons to promising players? Why not have more collaboration between club leaders, exchanging ideas about how to make our clubs bigger, better, more well managed?

Amidst all of these events, we should also have a reliable and easy way of communication. The forum on our website is not so much dead as never even having had the chance of being alive. And while we have a beautiful website, it is largely out of date factually, which means that people visiting it are not likely to return or get helpful information. Our website is our front, the face we show to the world. It should be a hub, buzzing with activities. We should have news; forge electronic alliances with other major chess organization in Canada – and with our sponsors! We should display the latest updates from executive’s blogs, have banner for events. We could also create a Facebook and Twitter groups. Most importantly, we have to do it together.

These simple ideas can help us grow into a movement, when we think big we’ll grow big too. Word will travel, people will get interested in activities, and we’ll promote our organization and everything it stands for while having fun.

I think I can help us grow in this direction, but I know you can. While I’m running for the role of Vice President, and I see everything I’ve described as part of the mission, no single person can build a community or grow a movement. Whether you’re running for a role in the current election or not, I know you have something to contribute. Maybe you’re an expert Facebook user and could manage a CITL page; maybe you’re a person of the great outdoors and know the perfect spot for a chess-related activity; maybe you have experience as a tournament director and would like to help with those regional tournaments; maybe your just enjoy writing in an online forum and can help us make ours more lively; and maybe you have some other brilliant idea that could really make things that much better. Whatever you think you can do, do it! Let’s make CITL into a nation-wide movement!

Yours Faithfully,

Gal Gross

Upcoming 2011-2012 CITL Executive Board Election Details

So last year's executive board election was held a few days before school started and the voting process was done through emails, which wasn't a very good idea because the votes would not be anonymous. We also decided last year that this year's election would happen on the same day as the annual festival. Since the festival is happening on June 25, 2011 from 11:45am-4:30pm, we will do our election at the NYCL study hall from 9-11am.

This year, the executive board proved to be quite useful. We had several meetings with the TPL manager in charge of our partnership with them and we put together several documents such as the CITL Handbook, CITL Volunteer Contract and recently, the CITL Volunteer Application Form. All of these will be available online soon. I'm sure that other than me, the other 2 executive board members Michael and Kevin enjoyed the process as well. It's was quite a successful year for all of us!

Anyways, if you feel that you want to be more involved with CITL than just simply volunteering at the library, then this is your chance to give yourself an opportunity to learn to become a true leader. Show us what you can do! Don't wait until graduation from university to start experiencing these things - the earlier the better!

Last year we only had 3 positions because we didn't know how things would go. However, now that we've got a taste of democracy, the executive board has decided to add 2 more positions. The 5 people elected will be representing CITL when meeting with our partner (TPL) or any potential sponsors:

President
- sets a typed agenda in consultation with other executive members for all formal CITL executive meetings
- acts as the leader and primary spokesperson of the CITL executive
- responsible for tracking all volunteer hours
- responsible for contacting potential locations to host the program (expansion)
- evaluates annually the performance of the organization in achieving its mission
- maintain a blog with posts on a bi-weekly basis

Vice-President
- fills in for the President when the President is not available
- acts as the secondary spokesperson of the CITL executive
- sets dates for all CITL executive meetings (once a month or once every 2 months), annual festival and otherwise
- responsible for contacting medias when needed & any written documents (excluding the constitution & volunteer hours letter)
- maintain a blog with posts on a bi-weekly basis

Treasurer
- responsible for contacting potential sponsors and donors
- manages finances of the organization
- directs any fund-raising activity/tournaments/events
- maintain a blog with posts on a bi-weekly basis

Director of Communications
- is aware of all events occuring in the organization and maintains the website accordingly (www.chessinthelibrary.com)
- check and replies to all webmails (info@chessinthelibrary.com) at least 2 times a week
- works with the Art Director to ensure that the website is visually appealing and user friendly
- maintain a blog with posts on a bi-weekly basis
*eligibility - must know how to code a website

Art Director
- responsible for designing all forms of posters, advertisements, flyers, invitations, etc that involves creativity and graphics
- works with the Director of Communications to ensure that our website is visually appealing and user friendly
- maintain a blog with posts on a bi-weekly basis
*eligibility - must know the basics of graphic design and must display at least 1 piece of past artistic work at the election

The 5 people will get together every month to two to discuss CITL issues & innovations. The 5 will vote to settle important decisions that are best for the organization. The list of responsibilities above doesn't indicate everything they do, but it is their main job. Eg. VP can also help with expansion (President's job) while President can help with financing (Executive Director's job).

How the election works:
In order for you to become a candidate in this election and run for a specific position, you will need to write a few paragraphs on:
-what you have done for CITL already (if you don't have any it's okay)
-why you want to get the position
-what makes you the best candidate for this position
-how do you plan to make CITL better

Please do read the list of responsibilities and consider carefully if you are willing to commit to it. Again, it's a wonderful opportunity for anyone who wants to increase their leadership abilities. The deadline for candidate submission is Thursday June 23, 2011 at midnight. All candidates will have 2 minutes to speak in front of everyone on the morning of the festival. Then, ballots will be distributed and the voting process will begin on site. Only those who are present that day and have volunteered at CITL in the past/present/future are allowed to vote. The current executive will make sure that an uninterested party counts the votes. We will announce the election winners at the closing ceremony of the festival.

CITL 2nd Annual Festival Pre-Registration List

We have received 52 registrations with one week to go before the festival begins! The North York Central Library has not sent in their registrations yet, along with some minor changes from other branches. Here is the list so far:

Open Section

Team	First Name	Last Name
BB	Eno	Masha
	Vlad	Bardalez
	Tonia	Tong
FV	Yang	Ji
	Newton	Xu
HW	Mann	Parekh
	Niruthika	Puvaneswaran
	Avni	Kaur
	Gaajen	Sivarasacumar
	Tina	Vo

Grade 6 & Under Section

Team	First Name	Last Name
BB	Jonathan	Zhao
	Dylan	Chen
	Jonathan	Chan
	Cassidy	Wang
	Henry	Li
	Jaden	Wang
DV	Melalee	Gordon
	Minhyun	Hwang
	Seonghyun	Hwang
	Bradley	Ho
	Adesh	Leaver
	Joshua	Jorda
	Yvan	Nguyen
FV	Edmund	Rong
	Victor	Rong
	Helen	Chen
	Bruce	He
	Erkhes	Bayan-Altai
GE	Callum	Denault
HW	Jaanani	Sivarasacumar
	Anjan	Gnanatheevam

Grade 3 & Under Section

Team	First Name	Last Name
BB	Tiffany	Yan
	Benjamin	Lin
	Maxwell	Tong
BRW	Jennifer	Zhang
	James	Gao
	Alan	Li
DV	Julianne	Jorda
	Diana	Lin
	Edward	Hidalgo Lopez
	Jeremias	Campos
	Ba Son	Nguyen
FV	Calvin	Pan
	Anthony	Chen
	Anar	Bayan
	Evan	Liu
	Brian	Xian
GE	Aydin	Kachra
	Benjamin	Lemke
	David	Teresi
HW	Kevin	Johny
	Alen	Johny