Just before the Isaac Braswell Memorial Tournament to an assembled group (19 players and Maret), I read some words of appreciation from both Tom Sprandal and Jerry Neugarten. I then presented Maret with a plaque. Applause ensued.
I began by explaining that in addition to celebrating and recognizing Isaac Braswell’s contributions to the chess community, the ICA wanted to recognize the dedication and hard work that Maret brought to our board.
I then read this quote from Tom Sprandal, President of the ICA:
“The ICA owes a huge debt of gratitude to Maret for her long and dedicated service to the ICA. For many years she has single handedly maintained the events calendar that we all use to find tournaments. She did that even before she became an officer of the ICA in 2009 and she continues to do it even now. It demonstrates her dedication to the chess players of Illinois better than anything else I can think of, but it’s only a fraction of what she has been doing and continues to do.
Maret has been the leading force behind revitalizing the ICA’s website. Through her continuing efforts we get roughly 3000 unique hits a month on the site, and now get nearly as much revenue from advertising as from individual memberships. That’s huge. It’s the combination of advertising revenue and membership revenue that allow us to run the Illinois Open and the Illinois Class every year. Without the extra funds we could never attract the titled players that we do.
It has been a great pleasure to work with her over the last several years and I thank her deeply for the opportunity.“
And then I read this from Jerry Neugarten, a Director on the ICA Board:
“Maret is unique in running both a top quality youth program and a top quality adult program, each of which makes chess available at very affordable prices. Both Evanston Scholastic and the adult club there are models much admired statewide. (We patterned our Highland Park Program initially after her scholastic program, and she was enormously helpful.) And everything she does is of the highest quality – a real reputation for excellence.”