| |
BGonline.org Forums
Epilogue
Posted By: Rich Munitz In Response To: post final post (Rod)
Date: Monday, 10 January 2011, at 5:12 a.m.
I’ve had a week or so to digest the uncomfortable and unfortunate exchange of posts regarding the USBGF / Rod Covlin situation. I’ve also spoken at length with Rod this past weekend at the NY Metro tournament. There is really no substitute for face to face discussion. I’m glad we had the chance.
I’ve worked with Rod for a long time and know how selfless he is in trying to do good for something he believes in and to invest his time and money to make it happen. The NY Backgammon Meetup and ultimately the USBGF was born out of Rod’s generosity, vision and caring for this game and its success. As one of the original three board members with Rod (and Lynn Ehrlich) on the organization that later became the USBGF, I have had many conversations with Rod and have been in a position to know things of his intent that others may not. I feel I should share some of this just to ensure that Rod’s reputation is not unfairly damaged due to omissions of relevant facts. I am speaking for me here – not the USBGF.
While as I have stated, I stand by Perry’s account of the events that had occurred, and I believe that Rod should have immediately turned over the Intellectual property when asked, I am not in any position to say with any authority, but I do not personally believe that Rod had actually ever breeched any of his fiduciary responsibilities while serving as Executive Director of the USBGF.
Back when we were creating the precursor not-for-profit US Backgammon Association, there was really no functioning organization in place. The organization was Rod. He did all the business work. He paid for all sorts of start-up expenses personally – including the purchase of some internet domains, and put his own money into the organization’s bank account. Rod had told me of the somewhat haphazard way this stuff was done and that the domains were in his own name since the organization didn’t have any credit cards, and maybe not even a bank account at the time. He was very clear that he intended to eventually donate it all. Rod was the generous benefactor and was asking nothing of me or Lynn but our time, reputation and contacts in the backgammon community to help make this a success.
A year or so later, we now had transformed into the USBGF and agreed at our first board meeting of our initial 11 members on the USBGF name (though the legal org was still the USBGA), and decided that we should apply for the trademark. Rod got it done. Some time later, when we were thinking about getting an initial website up, I told Rod that usbgf.org was available and that we should grab it immediately. Rod got it done. Now honestly, at this point, I assumed that we were a reasonably well established organization and had simply assumed that these things were obtained in the organization’s name. They were not. Rod never said they were and he never said they weren't. It had never been discussed. It was apparently expedient for Rod to purchase the new domains using his credit card (it seems that USBGF still did not have one yet) and the same personal account that contained all of the other domains. I do not know his reasons for purchasing the trademark personally, since I assume that the government wants a check and the organization did have a checking account. Anyway, in the end, we did learn that Rod was the personal owner of these assets and had paid for them with his own money. I have every reason to believe that Rod’s intent was always to donate these assets as he had told me he intended to do with the original domains. It is true that he had insisted upon handling this as a donation instead of simply transferring ownership for reimbursement when asked. It is true that there was a negotiation and he also insisted upon and the USBGF agreed to a few small things to be done before he would make the donation (which we might have done for him anyway had he simply asked without making it a condition for donating the assets). But Rod absolutely never asked the organization to give him any money or any future consideration, or in any other way caused the USBGF a monetary impact as a result of his personal ownership of these assets. In the end, Rod did donate all assets to the newly established charitable organization as he agreed – as I believe that he had always intended to do.
I have nothing further to say on this topic. Rod and I remain friends and we both want to see backgammon reach its potential.
| |
BGonline.org Forums is maintained by Stick with WebBBS 5.12.