Starting to put the pieces together

Hello, everyone! As the first chair of the newly elected CoCo Board of Directors, I’d like to start by saying that it is my great pleasure and privilege to join this team of dedicated, insightful people who love the game and will be working to bring the CoCo’s vision to life. While much of the crucial groundwork took place before the board members were elected, there is still a sense of new beginnings, with great opportunities ahead to collaborate in building a vibrant and responsive organization that we can all be proud of. I can’t wait to see where this journey takes us, and I’m glad and grateful for the support of our membership every step of the way.

There are seven members of the CoCo Board of Directors, and if you’re close to the Collins tournament scene in North America, you’re probably familiar with most of us; we’ve all been involved in the game, and the North American Collins movement in particular, for many years. You can read more about each board member here.

Becky Dyer

Conrad Bassett-Bouchard

Evans Clinchy

Puneet Sharma

Geoff Thevenot

Peter Armstrong

Steve Pellinen

The board members were elected in September by a vote of the CoCo membership - we believe very strongly that our members should have a voice, and our commitment to having an elected board rather than an appointed one is one reflection of that value. Rather than having all decision-making power concentrated in a small executive group with the board merely serving as an optional advisory body, as we’ve seen in much of the governance of the game in North America to this point, the CoCo takes more of a collaborative approach. The board will work closely alongside executive leadership in all areas, and all of us are committed to being responsive to the concerns and input of our members. That’s the kind of difference that makes me happy to serve on this board, and I think you’ll find it a refreshing change as well.

Before I start talking about our meetings, we have some great news to share: The CoCo is now officially incorporated as a nonprofit organization in the state of Washington! Credit goes to our Executive Director, Jennifer Clinchy, for making this happen - it’s a big first step toward establishing a sound operating basis for the organization, which will help support all our efforts in the future. Our next step is to file for 501(c)(3) federal tax exemption status.

So far, the board has held one regularly scheduled meeting, plus one additional meeting to approve the CoCo’s articles of incorporation and bylaws prior to applying for incorporation. The minutes of these meetings can be found here. Our first order of business was to appoint a chair (myself), treasurer (Peter Armstrong), and secretary (Evans Clinchy). Since it was our first meeting, we spent some time getting our bearings and discussing the current state of the organization; we agreed that a sensible next step would be the creation of a comprehensive strategic plan for the CoCo along with a virtual tournament strategy for 2021, so the board’s efforts in the latter part of this year will be focused there. 

Another essential aspect of setting up a new player organization for success is ensuring a sound and transparent financial foundation. Peter, in his role as the CoCo’s treasurer and chair of the Finance team, has conducted an audit of all transactions, expenses, and fees and is setting up the organization’s accounts. Discussions on fundraising approaches have also begun, and Becky Dyer is working on setting up a donor communication and tracking system. As with any nonprofit organization, fundraising is a key element of our future growth, so the board will certainly be spending significant time developing our strategy in this area.

The most noteworthy recent news in the broader game community has been the arrival of the Woogles platform for online play. Woogles has the potential to create exciting new possibilities for tournaments as well as helpful tools for learning and practicing the game, so we’ll definitely be looking at ways we can partner with the Woogles folks to offer our members some great events and other resources in the future.

I’ll close by once again giving a big shoutout of gratitude to our membership. It’s your participation, encouragement, and support that will drive and inspire us. After all, we’re players, too - and with your help, we can build a great organization that puts the game and its players first.