Note, this occurred in spite of the influx of scholastic events. Many club tournaments, traditional week-end swisses, and some state association events are experiencing a decline in participation. Another victim is correspondence chess, something I know more than a little about. These players are trading in their postcards for a mouse. So are veteran postal players.
Energy is wasted on fights, ethics complaints, verbal wrestling.
Responsible leadership includes the admission of problems, the will and courage to face them, and the rejection of self-serving denial. Adoption of a fiscally responsible budget-making policy. One of the BRC reforms suggested employment of a Chief Financial Officer, a non-Executive Board employee, whose functions would include budget preparation. With or without a CFO, realistic goals must replace naive expectations. This means that every Executive Board member must be fiscally literate, able to digest financial data, and set priorities with the health of the federation paramount.