Her News Interviews Carol Meyer: US Chess Executive Director and a Role Model

Carol Meyer: “… I think it’s really important in all things that we do that we have role models who can support us or mentor us in the things that we care about, and chess certainly is no different.”

BY CHLOE COHEN - THE CHAPIN SCHOOL - COACH & COLUMNIST

Carol Meyer - photo courtesy of US Chess

Even in the midst of a global pandemic, it’s shaping up to be an eventful year for chess players and chess enthusiasts alike. For this third installment in Her News’ Interviews series, Her Move Next interviewed Carol Meyer, Executive Director of the United States Chess Federation (US Chess). From staff management to event preparation, Ms. Meyer’s work is integral to much of US Chess’ day-to-day operations. To learn about the future of over-the-board tournaments, professions in the chess world, FIDE’s upcoming women-in-chess initiative, and more, read on! Responses have been lightly edited for clarity.

Can you walk me through a day in the life of a US Chess Executive Director?

Sure; there’s no typical day. My responsibilities range from staff management and overseeing all the different departmental activities that we run: communications and events and membership and administration and accounting. All of those folks report up to me, including our program area [leads]. And you know, things just happen. Right now, we’re preparing for the U.S. Open, which happens annually, usually around the first of August, goes for about ten days. And at that event, we have our annual governance activities, and so our delegates come, and there’s a lot of advance work that needs to be done to do the business of the organization. So right now, we are in the mode of getting ready for that: receiving motions from our delegates; getting our budget finalized for the next year––actually we’re moving to a two-year budget cycle, so that’s new this year––and all of the planning that goes into that, assuming we’ll get the all-clear to actually have the event in-person (and, of course, we’re also preparing for the contingency should we have to move it online). So, [in] a typical day, it’s usually catch-as-catch-can. I spend a lot of time working with our Executive Board on governance-related activities. I also answer a lot of inquiries from members; I get calls from people outside the organization. No two days are alike.

What is the most rewarding aspect of your role?

I think going to events and seeing people celebrating the victories, however large or small that they are. Somebody having their first win ever to somebody winning a whole tournament––it doesn’t matter. Everybody’s victories are different and they’re meaningful to them, and I love being some small part of that and helping them celebrate.

You talked about communications; what does that look like [for US Chess] in terms of reaching out and that kind of thing?

Communications, I think, is the biggest challenge that any organization has. In a year where we’ve been finding ourselves having to make things up on the fly, we’re not always remembering to communicate those things that we make up. We have multiple channels that we use to communicate. Of course, we have Chess Life and Chess Life Kids, our magazines, but we also have an online news magazine, if you will––we call it Chess Life Online––where we share tournament reports, news about the organization, and our partners’ news, as well. We also have four podcasts that drop every month. Every Tuesday, we release a new podcast. And we’re starting to dip our toe into video and doing things like webinars to train our members on different aspects of the roles they play to make US Chess run, such as [training for] tournament directors. Learning how to run better events online is one example.

Given that chess is disproportionately dominated by men, has being the only woman on the US Chess Executive Board impacted your experiences?

I would say not. You know, I’ve had a lot of work experience where I’ve been the only woman in the room or in group, and I can say that I’ve been treated with nothing but respect from members of the board since I arrived at US Chess. And I haven’t felt in that context that being a woman was either a negative or a positive; I’m just one of the eight who serves on the board. We certainly would like to see more women run for US Chess Executive Board in the future. This year we don’t have anybody lined up to run, but that’s something our new nominating committee is working on: helping identity people who are interested in running and willing to run to help us bring different voices to the governance of this organization. 

To what extent is having women role models important for girls who play chess or who want to play chess?

I think it’s really important. When I came to US Chess three and a half years ago, I had a definite image of what a chess player is, and that person doesn’t look like you or me [that person is not a woman]. And so, I think it’s really important in all things that we do that we have role models who can support us or mentor us in the things that we care about, and chess certainly is no different. I’m a member of the FIDE Women’s Commission, and we have worked to get 2022 [named] the year of women in chess for FIDE. Right now, we’re planning a number of activities and events in the leadup to that as well as a series of events in 2022 to really shine some light on the disparities and the fewer opportunities for women to advance in chess––not just as players, but as arbiters, as organizers, and all. We want to begin to make progress, and FIDE’s administration is certainly receptive in championing the idea, as well.

And that connects perfectly to my next question, which is: I’ve seen US Chess’ Women in Chess initiative as well as its live and online Girls Clubs. Keeping in mind the notable chess gender gap, what other steps is US Chess taking to promote chess to girls and women? Has US Chess collected any data on how effective those actions have been?

So, we’ve not done anything recently on the effectiveness of our online activities. Jen Shahade, who’s our women’s program director, is overseeing a number of grants that have been given to some of our member affiliates to run programs specifically for girls and women. And part of the grant-making process is that we get reports back––and I didn’t think to check with her before coming online today––but we did do a number of surveys over the course of several years in the girls club rooms that we ran at national events. I did the data analysis on these [surveys]; the thing that really stood out is: girls come to compete and they come to win. So, don’t make any mistake. It’s not just about being social; girls want to come to chess events to compete and win. But importantly, I think they also want to meet others like them who share their interest in the game, strike up friendships, because a lot of the girls who either submitted a survey form or were interviewed as part of one of the short films we did indicated that they were one of very few or the only girl who played chess in their grade or at their school. So, we don’t want to lose girls who are interested in the game because they don’t feel like there’s anybody there to support them.

US Chess is making many technology upgrades, perhaps most notably its recently-revamped website. Is there a new US Chess strategy or focus?

We are in the tail end of the first wave of a major information technology, infrastructure upgrade. It really was our membership database and some associated services that we launched last July. We’re doing some of the cleanup on that right now, and we’re planning for next steps of that [the project]. Certainly, we want to be able to take advantage of additional capabilities, like more use of video, more interactive activities online, and those are things that are all very much in not just the discussion stage, but the planning stage for a future rollout. And the pandemic has slowed us down a little bit. Everybody is impacted financially from the effects of the pandemic, so we’ve slowed our timeline down, but we still hope and expect to be able to deliver some new services in the coming years.

And speaking of the pandemic, is there a timeline, threshold, or government announcement that US Chess is awaiting in order to consider having national over-the-board tournaments again?

Yeah, so we’ve been very clear in the way we’ve approached this. We defer to all federal, state, and local guidance on when they feel it’s safe to reopen. We really hope that the U.S. Open will be able to go forward in New Jersey this summer, but if we had to make a decision today, we probably wouldn't be able to have it because of the state restrictions on gatherings. And so, we’re monitoring things really closely. We only want to do it if it’s safe to do so. It’s [avoiding over-the-board events] the prudent thing to do. We know that a number of our members have held smaller events, and appear to have done so safely, but when we’re talking hundreds of people, if not thousands of people, we don’t have confidence yet that it’s the prudent thing to do and the guidance certainly doesn’t suggest that we should take that step.

And even post-pandemic, is there reason to think that online tournaments are going to continue to be prominent and that they’ll exist in this online format?  

I think online chess has a place and will continue and will be part of what US Chess offers in the future after the pandemic. But I think our bread-and-butter remains over-the-board chess, and just anecdotally, the things I hear, people are really eager to get back to the community of players, seeing friends, [and] playing their best over-the-board games. You know, we’ve learned a lot. And while the game is fundamentally the same [online], you have different challenges from over-the-board chess. There seems to be some sense that there’s more opportunity to cheat when playing online, and our online events certainly have had some evidence of that. That’s not to say that cheating doesn’t happen in over-the-board events––I’m sure it does––but that’s a concern we have. Game integrity is really important to not just us as an organization but in fairness to the players who play above board. And we’re absolutely committed to game integrity and taking care of those situations where people fall down and don’t do their best.

Do you have any advice for players considering a chess career? 

I’d probably be the wrong person to ask. I fell into chess as a non-profit leader, not because I was a player. I’m just amazed at the talent that is out there and how people are using not just their chess ability but other talents that they have to parlay their love of the game into a career, like people who are streaming or doing commentary or writing: journalism, social media. We certainly have, I guess you could call them chess professionals. And you don’t have to be a player to be working in chess. There are people who are professional tournament directors or professional organizers, and all of those roles are really important to making the events happen and providing the opportunities for people to play.