Strategic and Business Planning for Healthcare Professionals starts today

Today, Tash and I began co-teaching a graduate course in Strategic and Business Planning at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. Below is the syllabus for the course.

Tash is in her element in front of a class. This photo was taken by Dr. Julie Carmalt at Cornell University, February 1, 2013

Students in PAM 5900, Strategic and Business Planning for Healthcare Professionals

Below is the official syllabus for the course.

New York State College of Human Ecology
A Statutory College of the State University
at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-4401
Department of Policy Analysis and Management
Sloan Program in Health Administration

PAM 5900: Special Topics in Health Administration and Finance:
Strategic and Business Planning for Healthcare Professionals

Term/Year: Spring 2013
Credits: 2 credits
Meetings: Feb. 1, 1:00 pm – 5:30 pm; Feb. 2, 9:00 am – 5:30 pm
AND
Mar. 8, 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm; Mar. 9, 9:00 am – 4:00 pm
Additional Format: Online readings and support via Cornell BLKBD
Lecturers: Frank A. Niro, M.B.A./Sloan Certificate in HHSA, C.P.A. (retired)
Natasha L. Niro, M.A., Interdisciplinary Studies
Room: MVR 153
Office: 3M07 MVR Hall
Hours: By appointment
Contact information: fan3@cornell.edu, nniro@mymail.marylhurst.edu

Class size is limited to 20 participants.
S/U option will be made available for this course, upon request.

Course Description:

This 2 credit intensive 4-day seminar, over two weekends, provides students with a comprehensive overview of the key concepts and related terminology that they may encounter during their professional careers concerning the process of business planning in the healthcare environment.

In most industries, a business plan serves two primary purposes: it acts as a roadmap for managers and it helps to secure financing. Healthcare organizations, particularly those operating in the not-for-profit sector, serve multiple constituencies. These may include boards of trustees, tax exempt bond authorities, bond rating agencies, licensing and accreditation agencies, community groups, and venture partners such as physicians and insurance companies. In order to meet the needs of these varied audiences, a standardized approach to business planning for healthcare organizations has evolved.

Premise of the Course:

Students in the Sloan program are exposed to a variety of theoretical concepts in the areas of health policy, management, organizational development, strategic planning, legal and ethical perspectives, marketing, economics, and finance throughout their graduate curriculum experience. Strategic and Business Planning for Healthcare Professionals demonstrates the practical, real world application of many of the theoretical concepts encountered in other courses. This course focuses on ways that healthcare leaders use business plans to communicate a common vision, develop a viable set of strategies, determine financial feasibility, and package the key decision factors in a meaningful way that allows access to the capital needed for achieving organizational and community goals, and long term financial success.

Texts and Reading List:

Piggot, Carolyn. Business planning for healthcare management. 2nd ed.
Philadelphia: Open University Press, 2000.

Zuckerman, Alan. Healthcare strategic planning. 3rd ed. ACHE
Management, 2012.

Payne, Christopher. (May 2012). “Understanding your capital options.”
hfm Magazine May 2012: 69-74.

NOTE: Purchase of the textbooks is optional. Desk copies will be made available for student use. A list of assigned readings will be available prior to the first weekend of classes. Additional articles may be incorporated. Copies of the magazine article will be provided, either in print or by web link.

Learning Outcomes: (Sloan Competencies in brackets)

Upon successful completion of this course students will be able to
• Interpret and understand the information presented in a business plan.
• Illustrate the interrelationship between strategic plans and business plans.
• Bridge the theory-to-practice gap in healthcare planning.
• Identify risks, and ways of reducing risks, to ensure financial success.
(#6 Financial analysis, including reading financial statements; #10 Strategic analysis and management; #17 Problem-solving skills)
• Format and use a business plan as a component of tax exempt bond financing. (#3 Understanding healthcare financing, regulatory, and delivery systems; #6 Financial analysis, including reading financial statements; #10 Strategic analysis and management; #13 Economic analysis, including cost-effectiveness analysis)
• Understand the importance of sensitivity analysis, utilizing electronic tools such as Excel© spreadsheets in the determination of financial feasibility. (#1 Statistical analysis)
• Develop effective written business plans for healthcare organizations and present plans. (#14 Written communication skills; #15 Oral communication and presentation skills)
• Have experience in working with others to critique business plans. (#11 Advocacy, persuasion, and negotiation skills; #14 Written communication skills; #15 Oral communication and presentation skills; #18 Coaching others and providing constructive feedback; #19 Working within diverse groups)
• Continue the practice of reading professional journals and periodicals
(#3 Understanding healthcare financing regulatory, and delivery systems)

Summary of Sloan Program Competencies:

Strategic and Business Planning for Healthcare Professionals is designed to develop and improve student competencies in the following areas:
• # 1 Statistical analysis
• # 3 Understanding healthcare financing, regulatory, and delivery systems
• # 6 Financial analysis, including reading financial statements
• #10 Strategic analysis and management
• #11 Advocacy, persuasion, and negotiation skills
• #13 Economic analysis, including cost-effectiveness analysis
• #14 Written communication skills
• #15 Oral communication and presentation skills
• #17 Problem-solving skills
• #18 Coaching others and providing constructive feedback
• #19 Working within diverse groups

Assessment and Evaluation:

Student understanding of the course materials will be evaluated based on the following combination of assignments and activities:

Participation, 20%. Students are expected to read assigned materials prior to the beginning of class and to actively participate in all classroom discussions and activities. Attendance at the entire seminar is required, unless specific permission is granted by the instructors IN ADVANCE.

Quiz, 10%. A series of three (3) in-class quizzes will be used to assess student understanding throughout the course. A pair of quizzes will be administered to measure students’ initial knowledge and provisional understanding of strategic and business planning concepts at the end of the first day. These two quizzes will be scored for evaluation purposes but will not be graded. A graded quiz will be administered during the second day of the course. Format for all three quizzes will be a combination of True/False and Multiple Choice questions.

Current Readings, 5% The practice of regularly reading professional journals and other print/online sources in order to stay alert to current information regarding healthcare reform, industry changes, etc. is vital to successful strategic and business planners. Each student will share at least one resource with the class through the Blackboard/Forum. Citations should be in proper MLA format.

Written Business Plan, 35%. Each student will submit a written business plan for an entity or project. Plans will include integration of Excel spreadsheets for presentation of financial data. See separate hand-out for specific instructions.

Presentation of Business Plan, 10%. Students will share a brief presentation of their business plan with instructors and classmates. Presentations may be structured as a hospital executive presenting to a Board; a management consultant presenting to a client; or a financial advisor presenting to a lender.

Critique of Business Plans, 20%. Students will provide real-time feedback to one another through a Q & A period following each presentation, as well as by a prepared evaluation form.

Teaching Philosophy:

Because each of us brings a unique perspective to the group, it is important that all students are given an opportunity to engage in the unfolding of knowledge according to their own process and provisional understanding. We, as instructors, believe in providing an environment wherein students can participate in the learning experience to their best advantage. It is our expectation that students will treat one another with the respect properly accorded to colleagues and fellow scholars, recognizing that while we might not always agree with someone else’s interpretation of the data at hand, we can nonetheless continue to collaborate in the learning process. We consider ourselves co-learners with our students and value the insights and revelations offered by each one.

Class Routine:

As a condensed discussion based seminar, in-class participation by all students is essential. Portions of the required texts will be assigned prior to the first weekend and students must be prepared to discuss them. Supplemental printed materials may be provided during class. No off-campus field trips are required as part of this course. Attendance at the Sloan Strategic & Business Planning Colloquium is strongly recommended. A detailed outline of the course schedule is included at the end of the syllabus.

A Blackboard/Forum will be established on the Cornell.edu website to facilitate discussion and to allow the students to seek help and input from the instructors and each other. The appropriate url address and protocols for use will be given during the first weekend.

Prerequisites:

Working knowledge of Microsoft Excel (2007 or later).

Academic Integrity:

The University Faculty Senate has developed a Code of Academic Integrity that governs all student academic undertakings. Absolute integrity is expected of every Cornell University student. A Cornell student’s submission of work for academic credit indicates that the work is the student’s own. All outside assistance shall be acknowledged. For the specifics of this code of conduct, see http://web.cornell.edu/UniversityFaculty/docs/AIC.pdf.

Course Framework:

We will start by focusing on the relationship between strategic planning and business planning, initially in the context of acute care hospitals and tax exempt bond financing. As the course progresses, we will build and expand to include diversification activities and specialized projects such as outpatient facilities and congregate housing, as well as additional financing opportunities including hospital-medical staff partnerships, joint ventures and access to venture capital.

We will explore the revenue and expense cycles in healthcare organizations, including third party payments from insurance companies and uncompensated care. We will differentiate between operating budgets and capital costs and explore why the distinction is important for business planning. We will look at interest and depreciation as factors affecting cash flow and financial feasibility.

Also during the first weekend, the students will be presented with the essentials of utilizing Excel© spreadsheets to develop financial pro forma statements including balance sheets, income statements and cash flow forecasts. In this context, we will explore the process of sensitivity analysis and the determination of financial feasibility using key financial ratios and indicators. We will discuss the evolution of commercial spreadsheets since VisiCalc and Lotus 1-2-3 and the advanced analytical tools that have evolved over the different versions of Excel© since 2003.

Case Studies: Actual business plans developed in the past few years by existing healthcare entities will be analyzed in detail during class. We will examine a recent health system prospectus for its bond re-financing, with emphasis on the structure and content of “management’s discussion of future plans” (known as Appendix A).

2013 Cardinal Open held in memory of Mike Anders

Michael Anders, 1955-2013

The 36th Cardinal Open held January 25-27 in Columbus, Ohio, was dedicated to a lost friend. Michael R. Anders, associate national tournament director, teacher, bookseller and USCF life member died in a plane crash on his 58th birthday. Mike was a private pilot who often flew between Kentucky and the Caribbean where he once lived and taught. On Friday January 4, 2013, while flying along the coast of Florida, from Fort Pierce, Florida, headed for Knoxville, Tennessee, Mike reported engine trouble and was attempting to make an emergency landing. Sadly, he didn’t make it. His plane crashed into a Palm Coast home, killing him and his two passengers, Duane Shaw, 59, a neighbor of Mike’s in Albany, KY, and Charisse Peoples, 42, of Indianapolis. Charisse was Shaw’s fiancée. Miraculously, the resident of the home, Susan Crockett, escaped with only a minor bruise. The plane was a 1957 Beech Bonanza H-35 and Anders was the registered owner.

Mike's full time job at the time of the crash was Spanish teacher for Clinton County High School in Kentucky. He previously taught school in Cincinnati, and was an active scholastic chess coach and tournament director. Recently he was living in Kentucky, but remained a familiar face at tournaments in Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. He was the bookseller at the 2009 U.S. Junior Chess Congress, a USCF National event held in Anderson, IN and was the section chief at the K-3 SuperNationals in 2009. His most recent TD assignment was at the 21st Kings Island Open in Cincinnati this past November.

Whether he was directing or selling books and equipment, Mike was energetic, maintained a constant smile, and had jokes and stories to share with everyone. He was a class-B player, with a peak rating of 1774. But, more than playing, Mike always enjoyed conversation with other chess players.

Ohio chess organizer Grant Perks, who served as interim USCF Executive Director in late 2003, recalled that Mike was a teacher at Cincinnati Country Day School. “He ran concurrent scholastic and adult tournaments on a monthly basis during the school year,” Perks said. “It was an opportunity for me to bring kids to play in a scholastic event while I played in the open section. Mike organized at least one state scholastic at the school. He also directed the first two Queen City Classics.”

For a short time, Mike owned a barbeque restaurant in the Cincinnati area and then moved to the U.S. Virgin Islands before returning to Kentucky near to resume teaching. Mike enjoyed flying any time he could. “When I took the position at the USCF,” Perks recalled, “Mike willingly flew me to New Windsor at a moment’s notice. I wasn't scheduled to be there until the next week but wanted to reach out to the staff. Flying in for a quick turnaround wasn't feasible with commercial flights.” Mike, as always, was right there to help out.

Remembering Mike to the 190 players on hand for the Cardinal Open, tournament director Grant Neilley said, “It is rumored that Mike hadn’t yet passed the NTD exam, because he couldn’t help answering the questions with a humor the graders apparently didn’t share.” Neilley is president of the Fellowship of the King Chess Club, the sponsoring affiliate of Cardinal Open, a popular regional event held continuously since 1978. He concluded his customary announcements at the start of the event by asking for a few moments of silence and then declared, with a discernible combination of respect, affection and sadness in his voice, “We dedicate the 2013 Cardinal Open to the memory of our friend Mike Anders.”



Grant Neilley, Ohio-based tournament director

This was Neilley’s fourth year organizing and directing the Cardinal Open. He was assisted this year by Myron Thomas and Alex Neilley. Grant Neilley organized his first tournament in 2006 after starting a club the year before. “I was asking around to see how we could raise awareness of our club and boost attendance,” Neilley recalled, “and someone told me the best way was to organize a tournament. I wondered, Ok. How do I do that? I had never even been to one. If I had known then where it would all lead, I’m not so sure I would have taken the first step, and I’m pretty sure my wife wouldn’t have let me. But for some reason, I’ve come to really enjoy it, so I just keep going.”

The original Cardinal Open was initiated by Larry Paxton, who got his start in chess organization as The Ohio State University's chess club tournament director and editor of its weekly Phalanx back in the early 1960s. In 1971, he returned to Ohio and stepped into the presidency of the Ohio Chess Association, floating almost exclusively on the shoulders of David Wolford's Ohio Chess Bulletin and its signature tournament, The Ohio Chess Congress.

According to Larry, “Dick Fuller moved on to Baroque recorder music and I inherited his tournament staff including Susan Boone as O.C.A. treasurer. Susie made the O.C.A. look competent and professional.” Later, an outspoken critic from the Cleveland area said the O.C.A. was useless and hadn't done anything new for Ohio Chess in decades. “Susie and I were offended,” Fuller said, “and challenged.”

“But because of Fischer,” he continued, “the chess calendar was crowded, especially during fair weather months. We found a hole in late January, but had already decided that to rise above the routine, to make the O.C.A. ‘un-useless’, we needed the scale of the Ohio Chess Congress. For a new tournament to break in at that level would require guarantees. We not only wanted a big turnout, we wanted strong players. The risk of such an event in a ‘middlin’ state in mid-winter seemed huge.”

“We called the tournament the Cardinal Open for all its meanings, and held our breath. Although the Columbus Dispatch reported 200 players, we had, I think, 111 and that was enough. The tournament has never looked back. Grant Perks, Randy Ryan and David Hater popularized things like Friday rounds and second chance re-entries in Ohio, and attracted some of the Grandmasters. The Cardinal events have given the U.S.C.F. Grand Prix a strong launch each year.”

The entrants to this year’s Cardinal Open included Grandmasters Alexander Shabalov, Dmitry Gurevich, Alex Yermolinsky and Andre Diamant as well as International Master Justin Sarker and FIDE Master Atulya Shetty, 2012 Denker Tournament co-champion. The clear winner was Brazilian GM Diamant a member of the Webster University college chess team. Webster University will compete for the first time in the Final Four of College Chess in Rockville, MD, in April.

Diamont defeated Shetty in the final round to finish with a score of 4.5-0.5, his only blemish resulting from his fourth round draw with Dmitry Gurevich. FM Carl Boor defeated Shabalov in round 5 to take a share of second place with Gurevich at 4-1. Boor’s only loss was to Diamant in round 3 in what turned out to be the key encounter of the tournament.

John Marcsik of Kentucky and Tom Shutzman of Missouri shared Under-200 honors in the Open section. The Under-2100 section was won by Manis Davidovich of Michigan with 4.5 points, a half point ahead of Awonder Liang, Bill Turner, Chris Bush and John Miller. Tom Rosenbaum of Indiana swept the Under-1800 section with a perfect 5-0 score. Uner-1500 honors went to Matthew Yuan of Ohio (4.5 points). Michael Giglio and Ayush Sunkad, both of Ohio, shared the top prize in the Under-1300 section with 4.5 points each.



Grandmaster Andre Diamant (Brazil and Webster University), winner of the 2013 Cardinal Open

Games from the Cardinal Open will be presented in the next blog entry (February 7, 2013).

Portions of this article will be published in the March 2013 Chess Life magazine and the May 2013 issue of the Ohio Chess Bulletin.

Yermo comes to Cornell to meet with Chess Team

GM Alex Yermolinsky met with members of the Cornell University chess team in Ithaca, NY. yesterday. Pictured are Brian Liou, Robert Xue, Udit Gupta, Anna Levina (partially hidden), Tom Riccardi, Avjol Kapaj, Bo Tharma, Vitaliy Ryabinin, Adam Holmes, Alex Yermolinsky and Frank Niro (photo courtesy of Walter DeJong).

Click here to see similar post in Susan Polgar's blog (1/31/13).

South Dakota to Ohio... via Missouri

We spent Wednesday night in Boonville, MO, where I was disappointed to learn that the poker room at the Isle of Capri casino has been closed down. Today we visited the campus of Webster University in Webster Groves near St. Louis. Alex met with Susan Polgar and some members of the Webster University Chess team.

Pictured above are (l. to r.): Chess Grandmaster Anatoly Bykhovsky (Israel), your friendly neighborhood blogger (US), Grandmaster and former women's World Champion Susan Polgar (Hungary, now US), Grandmaster and former US Champion Alex Yermolinsky (Soviet Union, now US), and Grandmaster Georg Meier (Germany).

Bykhovsky and Meier will play for the Webster University team in the upcoming Final Four of College Chess in Herndon, VA, in April.



Dinner in St. Louis with Meier, Bykhovsky, International Master Vitaly Niemer (Israel), Yermolinsky, and Women's International Master Inna Agrest (Sweden).

Tomorrow we head to Columbus, OH, for the Cardinal Open.

What, no Harleys???

An empty Main Street in Sturgis, SD, bears little resemblance to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally held each year in August. One-eyed Jack's Saloon (pictured below) is open only six weeks of the year. Most people who have been to Sturgis have never seen it looking like the photo below.


Below is a look at Main Street in August!


From here I drove to Rapid City to get my oil changed, and then on to Sioux Falls to meet Alex Yermolinsky, Camilla Baginskaite and Danny Olim for dinner.

Lots of snowmobiles

For most of the morning I saw more snowmobiles than cars in western Wyoming (but no buffalo). Rested at Little Big Horn (Montana) for two hours and reached Spearfish before midnight.

Today I will drive about 400 miles to Sioux Falls where I will pick up a passenger, chess Grandmaster Alex Yermolinsky, 1993 and 1996 U.S. Chess Champion, who will join me for the remainder of the trip to NY.

Along the way I expect to stop in Sturgis to check my antifreeze and transmission fluid. Wonder what the town looks like without 500,000 bikers and their wheels...

Yesterday's mileage: 578
Two-day total: 912
ETA Ithaca: Monday evening, January 28
Planned stops en route: Boonville, St. Louis and Columbus (2013 Cardinal Open)
http://www.neilley.com/chess/2013cardinal.pdf

Day #2, Little Big Horn

Minus 6 degrees with a forecast of "freezing fog" as I head out this morning. God willing, today I will skirt the Tetons, drive past the west entrance to Yellowstone near the spot where Idaho, Wyoming and Montana come together, visit Little Big Horn National Monument (site of Custer's Last Stand) and finish the day in Spearfish, SD, in the shadows of the Black Hills and Mount Rushmore.

Will try to take some photos today along the route.

Yesterday's mileage: 334.2
Today's planned mileage: 578 (longest driving day of the trip)

Heading East

The car is packed and the car fluids topped off. I'm leaving today for Cornell University. Should arrive in Ithaca 3 or 4 days before my class begins. Stops along the way in Sioux Falls SD, St. Louis MO and Columbus OH.

I chose a route that doesn't include Salt Lake City or Denver because of weather fears. Just learned that it will be 61 degrees in Denver on Tuesday and 63 on Wednesday. I hope the rest of my choices on this trip will be better. Look here for status reports along the way.

First sleep stop tonight in St. Anthony, Idaho (pictured above).

2012 Blog Index

Pictured l. to r. Tom & Evelyn Bruso, Hunter Magee, Scott Post and Ray Niro. Photo taken in Taunton, Mass. in May

CHESS

Ted Belanoff wins 2012 Idaho Open April 24, 2012
More controversy brewing in the chess world May 3, 2012
2nd Meridian Invitational set for June 23 May 13, 2012
Susan Polgar Girls Invitational to be held in St. Louis this year
May 15, 2012

Grandmaster Christiansen visits Cornell June 1
SPGI Results July 31, 2012
First Side Event Completed at 2012 U.S. Open August 6, 2012
Hoyos still in front; 14 others within a point of the lead August 12, 2012
Hoyos earns title, Bryant tentatively earns seed into next US Closed August 14, 2012
Time Life Classic Pics Released September 7, 2012
Wood River Progressive Results October 11, 2012
McKay Tartan Book Series Update November 8, 2012

DISTANCE RUNNING

Photos from the 2012 Bob Hersey Memorial, Fitchburg, Mass January 31, 2012

MUSIC, MOVIES & THE ARTS

High School Playlist 1960s January 5, 2012
Hallelujah June 7, 2012

TRAVEL

Cornell Team Sparkles at UAB Case Competition February 17, 2012
A favorite Oregon City spot is closing May 10,2012

Blog Index for 2011 and prior years is located here

McKay Tartan Book Series Update

The Monopoly Book by Maxine Brady (McKay Tartan Series #42, published in 1976). Maxine Brady is the wife of St. John's University professor Dr. Frank Brady, author of another book in the series, Profile of a Prodigy, #29. I met Frank and Maxine when Dr. Brady was on the Executive Board of the U.S.C.F. in 2002.

My quest to identify and acquire all of the titles in the McKay Tartan Books series continues. Following is an updated list, as best as I can determine at this point.

1 Fine, Reuben - Ideas Behind the Chess Openings
2 Fine, Reuben - The Middle Game in Chess
3 Fine, Reuben - Basic Chess Endings
4 Reshevsky, Sammy & Fred Reinfeld - Learn Chess Fast
5 Nimzovich, Aron; Fred Reinfeld, ed. - My System
6 Lasker, Emanuel - Common Sense in Chess
7 Chernev, Irving - Winning Chess Traps
8 Reinfeld, Fred & Irving Chernev - Chess Strategy & Tactics
9 Lasker, Edward - Modern Chess Strategy

11 Wiswell, Tom - Learn Checkers Fast
12 Kmoch, Hans - Pawn Power in Chess

17 Adams, Leon D. - The Commonsense Book of Wine
18 Alekhine, Alexander - My Best Games of Chess 1908-1923
19 Alekhine, Alexander - My Best Games of Chess 1924-1937
20 Carmer, Carl - Dark Trees to the Wind
21 Carmer, Carl - Listen for a Lonesome Drum

23 Sommervell, D.C. - English Thought in the Nineteenth Century
24 Trevelyan, George M. - English Social History
25 du Mont, J. - 200 Miniature Games of Chess
26 Fine, Reuben - A Passion for Chess
27 Capablanca, J.R. - Chess Fundamentals
28 Spielmann, Rudolf - The Art of Sacrifice in Chess
29 Brady, Frank - Profile of a Prodigy

31 Horowitz, I.A. & Geoffrey Mott-Smith - Point Count Chess
32 Napier, William E. - Paul Morphy and the Golden Age of Chess
33 Coles, R.N. - Epic Battles of the Chessboard
34 Alexander, C.H.O'D. - Alekhine's Best Games of Chess 1938-1945
35 Armanino, Dominic C. - Dominoes
36 Horowitz, I.A. - How to Win in the Chess Endings

37 Fine, Reuben - Practical Chess Openings

Col. Ed B. Edmonson, Executive Director of the U.S.C.F., made this notation in the copy of this book in the U.S.C.F. library. Apparently, he wasn't impressed...

38 Euwe, Max - Strategy and Tactics in Chess

41 Euwe, Max & Walter Meiden - Chess Master vs. Chess Amateur
42 Brady, Maxine - The Monopoly Book

44 Tarrasch, Siegbert - The Game of Chess

46 Morrison, Martin E. (ed.) - Official Rules of Chess (2nd edition)
47 Euwe, Max - The Development of Chess Style
48 Golombek, H. - Capablanca's 100 Best Games of Chess
49 Lombardy, William - Modern Chess Opening Traps

51 Soltis, Andrew - Pawn Structure Chess
52 Larsen, Bent - The World Chess Championship 1978
53 Holland, Tim - Backgammon for People Who Hate to Lose
54 Holland, Tim - Better Backgammon
55 Pachman, Ludek - Attack and Defense in Modern Chess Tactics
56 Euwe, Max - Judgment and Planning in Chess
57 Pachman, Ludek - Modern Chess Tactics

59 Bronstein, David - The Chess Struggle in Practice

61 Collins, John W. - Maxims of Chess
62 Soltis, Andrew - Catalog of Chess Mistakes

66 Mednis, Edmar - Practical Endgame Lessons

68 Korn, Walter - America's Chess Heritage
69 Korn, Walter - Modern Chess Openings (12th ed)
70 Mednis, Edmar - King Power in Chess

73 Redman, Tim (ed.) - U.S. Chess Federation's Official Rules of Chess

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So, for those who might be curious about the origins of the board game Monopoly, here is the official authorized version (as provided by Maxine Brady):

The Setting

The stock market crash of 1929 caused mass unemployment for millions of Americans. For Charles Darrow, the financial problems grew increasingly difficult. Once a salesman of heating and engineering equipment, he spent the early 1930s looking for a job. He'd been feeding hemself, his wife, and their son by taking any odd job he could find. He repaired electric irons, did occasional fix-it jobs, even walked dogs - when he could find someone to pay him for his labors.

It wasn't enough, though. Now his wife was expecting their second child. He had to find a way to make more money.

To fill his idle hours, and help him forget his worries temporarily, Darrow invented things. Some of them were fun; others were probably devised in hopes that they would become profitable. He made jigsaw puzzles; he created a combination bat-and-ball, which was supposed to be used as a beach toy; he designed an improved pad for recording and scoring bridge games. They were interesting diversions, but nobody was willing to pay for them.

Darrow's problem, of course, was not unique. Many of his friends and family were out of jobs, and were having trouble affording even such necessities as food and shelter. For them, as for most people, the movies, the theater, and any form of entertainment which cost any money at all was too expensive.

So they got together in the evenings and on weekends, when the offices of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration were closed, and they talked. And after the gloomy recital of that day's particular troubles, the conversation would usually become nostalgic: remember the good old days?

Darrow did. For him and his wife, thinking back to the more prosperous life they had led only a few years before, some of the pleasantest memories were of the vacations they had spent at one of their favorite holiday places, a seaside resort in New Jersey called Atlantic City.

The Game

One evening in 1930, Darrow sat down at his kitchen table in Germantown, Pennsylvania, and sketched out some of the street names of Atlantic City on the round piece of oilcloth that covered the table. The streets he chose were all from the same side of the city: between the Inlet and Park Place, along the Boardwalk. When he finished, Darrow was short one name, so he choose Marven Gardens, a section from nearby Margate. Probably unintentionally, he altered the spelling, and it was penciled onto his board as Marvin Gardens.

He included the three railroads that carried the wealthy vacationers to the resort, and the utility companies that serviced them, as well as the parcels of real estate of varying prices. He wanted a fourth railroad to make his board symmetrical, so he added the Short Line: actually it was a freight-carrying bus company that had a depot in Atlantic City. A local paint store gave him free samples of several colors, and he used them to color his game board. A new game began to take form in his mind.

Darrow cut houses and hotels for his little city, using scraps of wooden molding that a lumber yard had discarded. He rounded up stray pieces of cardboard, and typed out title cards for the different properites. The rest of the equipment was fairly easy to acquire: colored buttons for the tokens, a pair of dice, and a lot of play money.

From then on, in the evenings, the Darrows would sit around the kitchen table buying, renting, developing, and selling real estate. They had little enough real cash on hand, yet The Game, as they all referred to it, permitted them to manipulate large sums of money as they engaged in complex negotiations to acquire valuable blocks of property. The simple, almost crude set exerted a continuing fascination and challenge. As friends dropped in to visit, they were invited to join the game. Soon the "Monopoly evenings" became a standard feature at the Darrow home.

Then the friends wanted to take the game home with them. Each night's winner, a bit heady with his success in the nether reaches of high finance, asked for a set of his own, so that he could show off his financial wizardry. The runner-up, convinced that he could win the next time if he could only hone his skill with a little practice, generally wanted a set too. Darrow had an overabundance of free time, so he began making copies of his board, property cards, and buildings. His delighted friends supplied their own dice and tokens, and often their own package of play money.

But the demand increased, and Darrow increased his output to two handmade sets a day. Selling them for $4 apiece, each set brought him new customers. People kept talking about the new game and playing it with their friends. Through word-of-mouth advertising alone, Darrow sold about one hundred sets, and had orders for many more. But his one-at-a-time production technique simply couldn't keep up with the demand.

Encouraged by his friends, Darrow decided to test the game outside his personal sphere of acquaintances and friends of friends. He made up a few sets and offered them to department stores in Philadelphia, the nearest city. They sold.

With the knowledge that his game was marketable, he attempted to increase his rate of production. A friend helped out by printing the Monopoly boards and the title cards. Darrow continued to paint in the colors and assemble the sets by hand. This partial automation enabled him to produce six games a day. It wasn't enough.

Parker Brothers

By 1934, now fully aware that his interesting diversion had turned into a potentially profitable business, Darrow arranged to have the same friend print and package the complete sets. It looked like they had the problem solved, for a little while. Production was finally keeping pace with sales. But they hadn't reckoned with the Philadelphia sales. Soon, a department store began ordering sets wholesale, in quantities far greater than anything they could accommodate. It became obvious to Darrow that he had only two choices. He could borrow money and plunge wholeheartedly into the game business, or he could sell Monopoly to an established game company. Darrow wrote to Parker Brothers, then as now one of the world's major game manufactureers and distributors, to see if the company would be interested in producing and marketing the game on a national basis.

Parker brothers had by then been in business for half a century, and had become accustomed to enthusiastic inventors sending in new game creations. Some of the ideas had even proven marketable, but, by and large, the company's managers tended to trust the creativity of their own staff far more than they did an unproven novice.

Although Parker Brothers thought the basic framework of the game seemed possibly interesting, they handled the game routinely. Various members of the company sat down at their offices in Salem, Massachusetts, to try it out, as they do all prospective games. They played it several times and found that they all enjoyed it. But the company had evolved a set of inviolable ground rules for "family games," which they held to be mandatory for any game that could be successfully marketed. According to the Parker precept, a family game should last approximately forty-five minutes. Monopoly could go on for hours. Parker also felt that a game should have a specific end, a goal to be achieved. (In their other board games, the players' tokens progressed around a track until they reached the end - which might be symbolized by a pot of gold, a home port, a jackpot, or even Heaven - and the first player to reach this goal was the winner.) In Monopoly, the players just kept going round and round the board. The only goal was to bankrupt the other players and emerge still solvent yourself. Furthermore, Monopoly's rules seemed far too complex to the Parker staff; they thought the general game-playing public would be hopelessly confused trying to learn how to handle mortgages, rents, and interest.

After testing the game for several weeks, Parker Brothers made the unanimous decision to reject it. The company wrote and informed Darrow of this decision, explaining that his game contained "fifty-two fundamental errors." It would never be accepted by the public.

Darrow, of course, was considerably annoyed. He knew very well how people responded to his game. Despite Parker Brothers' analysis, Monopoly was decidedly marketable. Unfortunately, however, it was far more marketable than Darrow himself; he was still unemployed. Monopoly, it seemed, was virtually his only asset.

Therefore, he went back to his printer friend, ordered the production of five thousand sets, and continued to sell the game locally. But locally included Philadelphia, and the department stores there were soon aware that Darrow was increasing his output. They began placing massive orders for the Christmas season. Darrow now found himself working fourteen hours a day just trying to keep up with the shipping.

With the game now being ordered in wholesale lots, Parker's sales representatives soon became acutely aware that the Philadelphia stores were expecting huge sales of Monopoly the following Christmas, the traditional game-buying season. Word was quickly passed back to corporate headquarters in Salem, where the issue was deemed worthy of reconsideration. Then, to top things off, a major New York toy and game store, the prestigious F. A. O. Schwarz, bought two hundred sets out of the original five thousand printing.

Shortly afterwards, a friend telephoned Saly Barton (daughter of Parker Brothers' founder, George Parker) to rave about a wonderful new game she had purchased at F. A. O. Schwarz. It was called Monopoly, and it was hard to come by and in short supply. The friend suggested that Mrs. Barton tell Parker Brothers about it. Sally did. She told her husband, Robert B. M. Barton, who happened to be the president of the company. Curious about a competitor's product, he purchased a copy of the game at F. A. O. Schwarz, took it home and wound up playing it until 1 A.M. The next day, Barton wrote to Darrow, and three days later they met at Parker Brothers' New York sales office in the Flatiron Building.

Parker Brothers offered to buy the game outright and give Darrow royalties on all sets sold. The company insisted, though, on making some revisions which would refine the game and clarify the rules. Some of the staff were still concerned about the indefinite playing time, so they agreed to market the original version as long as Darrow permitted them to develop a variation of the game which could be played in less time. This shorter version was to be printed along with the general rules, to give the public an option.

Darrow agreed and the contract was signed. Later, in explaining why he had decided to sell his brainchild, Darrow related his decision to the monetary commitment he would have otherwise had to make in order to keep producing the game himself. "Taking the precepts of Monopoly to heart," he said, "I did not care to speculate." Years afterward, commenting on the final offer from Parker Brothers, he wrote: "I gladly accepted and have never regretted that decision."

The royalties from sales of Monopoly soon made Darrow a millionaire. He retired at the age of forty-six, to become a gentleman farmer in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, a world traveler with a particular interest in ancient cities, a motion picture photographer, and a collector of exotic orchid species. In 1970, a few years after Darrow's death, Atlantic City erected a commemorative plaque in his honor. It stands on the Boardwalk, near the juncture of Park Place.

Note: This list was updated in January, 2014.