Resignation Rumours

[Nigel Wright]

Tell you what, get Sir Alan in to fire all the incompetents, and sort it out for us. That's the only way I can see any good come of this farce now...

[Charles W. Wood]

Tell you what, get Sir Alan in to fire all the incompetents, and sort it out for us. That's the only way I can see any good come of this farce now...

Your right the ECF should have some non chess players on the board, be it Sir Alan wow that would shake things up.

We never agree with each other, BUT I think we should both stand. What do you think?

At least we can debate without falling out. October is around the corner. (Tongue firmly in my cheak)

[Carl Hibbard]

A meeting report from Richard which (to be honest...) doesn't make matters clearer

http://sccu.ndo.co.uk/bcf.htm

I attended the meeting and I'm not sure how Richard could make it clearer. The item on Membership Issues was a very unfocused discussion, in which, not surprisingly, a large number of people said that they didn't want to pay lots more money to the ECF, especially when it wasn't too clear what would be done with the extra money raised.

Sorry yes the report (as always) is full and fine - it just doesn't make the reason for "mass" resignation any clearer, yes it was going to be hard work but then it always was

[Paul Stimpson]

From Richards report I am very encouarged by this:

(13) World Youth Championships? Stewart Reuben, under Matters Arising, raised the possibility of hosting the World Youth Championships in London in 2012 (but not to actually clash with the Olympics, for obvious reasons). It would be very expensive - perhaps £1M or £1.5M - and would require a major sponsor. There should be something on the ECF website shortly.

Peter Sowray's blog states there is always problems getting enough people to get projects completed. Perhaps a working party should be set up for such activities as these, assuming they are given the green light? People could then be recruited just for the task at hand.

[Dai Carpenter]

There's a lot of care and debate on here and chess has some outstanding volunteers and I wouldn't be as down beat as some on here have been! Anyway I'm not involved in chess anything like enough to be able to talk about chess per se, but I do come from Sports Development and I can tell you how many small national governing bodies of sport are working to try and attract kids and adults to their game. I realise that there's been a lot of points raised on this thread and I won't attempt to address some of them (e.g. whilst there are many things that stop people from playing chess I don't think cost is one of them!).

Anyway, as I see it the two problems are:
1.) The player base is declining
2.) The player base is ageing and junior chess is declining (at least in the areas I've played)
And:
3.) People are perceiving a poor relationship between the ECF and members/clubs

This is actually common for a number of sports too. The most common thing being pushed is developing school-local club links. Whilst ideally this would involve regular chess clubs being set up in a number of schools supported by local volunteers, it's difficult to obtain sustained commitment from volunteers and you want to attract as many schools as possible. So a short cut is to instead run a few 'taster' sessions in schools (i think finding volunteers to do say two or three sessions in total is easier; or if you have only a couple of volunteers - move around and approach new schools). Adapt chess, it doesn't matter if the kids don't know how all the peices work at this stage. Then following this invite the school(s) to some sort of fun tournament at your club - hopefully they'll enjoy this and you'll attract a few kids (and their parents) to try it out a few more times.

The difficulty usually faced is finding volunteers. Towards this many sports are expanding their club accreditation schemes - the basic idea is that the governing body gives sufficient incentives so that clubs see a gain in providing them with volunteers. So for instance in chess, it could be that each club is required to say link with 2/3 local schools as part of the club ECF membership. In return for doing this and becoming an ECF accredited club the club receives:
1.) 2 free coaching/simultaneous sessions a year from a titled/2300+ player (we have enough of them in this country!). Many sports operate a similar 'ambassador' scheme and in chess it already works both ways a bit with the elite players getting free entry to everything 'in return'. (Might also help the clubs raise a bit of cash as members would probably be willing to pay a little to attend these.)
2.) 3 free places in tournaments that are part of the British Championships fortnight (would help also to promote this a bit and stop the slide in numbers competing)
3.) Free entrance into some sort of couty/national club knockout champs
4.) Free/discounted coach and arbiter training (organised regionally)
5.) Members of the club become eligible to play for county/zonal/national/junior representative teams (i.e. to play junior international chess you have to be a member of an accredited club; that may make the parents more keen to help the club out in its duties )
6.) Entrance to some kinda prize draw
7.) Access to a 'member clubs' only section of the ECF website (which could say include the grading list)
etc. There are any number of things you can introduce, but I do like ideas 1 and 2

I just think it's a bit too big to be trying to target compulsory individual membership and reaching out to every single chess player; it's the clubs and the hardcore volunteers that keep them going that I think the ECF should be more trying to wok with. So I'd be pursuing club accreditation and membership instead, and trying to incentivise and assist clubs with developing links with schools. Some sports then stipulate that to play in all competitions (i.e. congresses) you have to be a member of an accredited club, I don't know whether that would be appropriate for chess. Anyway, please feel free to shoot this club accreditation scheme down! Oh, and I don't think I'm proposing any change to the current ECF individual membership scheme (which I guess probably operates on something like you have to join the ECF to play in leagues and that's probably included in your club membership fee?!).

Well done and thanks to all the volunteers that are keeping chess going.
Cheers,
Dai

[John Upham]

Tell you what, get Sir Alan in to fire all the incompetents, and sort it out for us. That's the only way I can see any good come of this farce now...

Nigel,
Which particular items of the AMSTRAD product line do you consider to be their finest?

I was trying to recall anything that they produced that was desirable to own?

Suggestions?

[Tim Spanton]

I cewrtainly think cost is an issue and where is the data to say that junior chess is declining?

Junior chess certainly doesn't seem to be declining in the tournaments I play in - the blighters are everywhere, often sat opposite me.

[Carl Hibbard]

I don't think cost is one of them!.

Anyway, as I see it the two problems are:
1.) The player base is declining
2.) The player base is ageing and junior chess is declining (at least in the areas I've played)

Part of the problem is that the points Dai states as a fact are not agreed by everyone. I certainly think cost is an issue and where is the data to say that junior chess is declining?

PS why does my quote not work properly?

Look at your profile in the user control panel at the top of the screen, the under board preferences and posting defaults - enable bbcode then quotes should work for you...

[Dai Carpenter]

Well as I said, I can only comment for the areas I've played in; maybe it isn't declining, but I would be surprised if the active player base isn't smaller now then it used to be. But either way it's irrelevant. What I do know is that the ECF has 250000 chess boards for schools, all I've done is try and present a possible method for engaging clubs to help out in utilising this.

I also wanted to start the ball rolling on what I would perceive as another problem. There are so many policies now aimed at community development, social exclusion and the work of local organisations, and chess is wonderfully placed to tap into these - it is one of only a tiny number of mainstream activities that young, old, disabled, and men and women can play together. There's a large number of professionals working in community development whom would be delighted to hear from their keen local chess club. There are correspondingly a huge number of sources of funding available to help community groups (i.e. chess clubs) in this work. Sports clubs everywhere are tapping into funding that has nothing to do with sport. So could chess. But to do so the clubs would need to be accredited in some way and have child protection officers, acrredited coaches in operation etc, and have clear plans for development in place such as those I outlined with schools. Again I would suggest that from my perspective as a Sports Development professional it's the clubs the ECF should be looking to target rather than arguing over individual membership.

[Nigel Wright]

Tell you what, get Sir Alan in to fire all the incompetents, and sort it out for us. That's the only way I can see any good come of this farce now...

Nigel,
Which particular items of the AMSTRAD product line do you consider to be their finest?

I was trying to recall anything that they produced that was desirable to own?

Suggestions?

Surely you realise that it doesn't matter what cheap tat Sir Alan has made, but the fact that he is now close to being a Billionaire?

[Dai Carpenter]

That's brilliant David, if you are around at the 4ncl this weekend I would very much like to speak with you about your work there. I would acknowledge that I am more interested in increasing participation in chess first, and playing standards secondly. I think the pyramid model is generally correct i.e. if you have more people at the bottom you should have more people that get to higher levels as a result, but this takes time to effect and there's of course other, more important things that need to be done to develop international chess players. I'll have to have a think about that and observe what some of the titled players on here are saying. I would guess that drop out aged 16-20 is one big problem, though I've nothing to base that on.

If I may make one other point, people are talking about what I would view as silly money on staging big international events to raise the profile of chess. I can cite numerous cases in the past in sport where international competitions held in the UK have failed to inspire any subsequent prolonged increase in participation in the area/sport, and from that point of view could be argued as wasted money. I think linking schools-clubs is a better way to raise the profile - rightly or wrongly I see the numbers playing and profile as very much linked.
Cheers,
Dai

[Sean Hewitt]

ECF Directors
Following the April Finance Council Meeting on 26th April 2008, Martin Regan
has resigned as Chief Executive of the Federation with effect from 31st May.
Peter Sowray (International), Claire Summerscale (Junior Chess & Education;
Women's Chess) and Mike Truran (Non-Executive Director) have resigned with
immediate effect, but have agreed to work with the remaining Directors until
31st May to secure a smooth transition.
As soon as a Board meeting can be convened, a proposal will be voted upon to
appoint Chris Majer as a Director until the AGM in October 2008 and to
invite him to assume the role of Acting Chief Executive until 31st May and
Chief Executive thereafter.
The Board invites applications for the posts of International Director,
Director of Junior Chess & Education/Women's Chess and Non-Executive
Director, the successful candidates to serve until the AGM in October 2008.
Applications should be received at the ECF Office by 12.00 noon, Friday 9th
May 2008 and may be accompanied by a brief statement in support of the
candidate.

I think we need an EGM!

Stewart Reuben has been appointed as Acting Manager of Congress Chess: this
appointment will be confirmed as soon as a Board meeting can be convened.

[Paul Stimpson]

Dai,

If I may make one other point, people are talking about what I would view as silly money on staging big international events to raise the profile of chess.

I think you need to have something big going on to stir interest, I am not sure that without both it will work. I just can't see droves of people taking up chess without some international event in this country to get them excited.

Sure it's silly money, but as long as it is funded by sponsorhip or TV rights or whatever and not from the ECF coffers then this should be done.

I think the twenty-twenty event was a very good idea the format would be great for TV, the problem is it wasn't on TV and therefore only reached those who already knew about it.

The British Chess Championships got some TV exposure, but we need the type of exposure that follows the event and delves into the meat of the game rather than just reporting on 1000 people decending on Yarmouth for 2 weeks. Apart from the expsosure at the start there was no further coverage to my knowledge.

The British Rapidpaly at Halifax would be a great event for TV, it's possibly one weekend in the year we could get something on our screens.

[Howard Grist]

I think we need an EGM!

You need to give at least two weeks notice of an EGM. Bearing in mind the requirements to secure a venue and list candidates for the various directors' positions, this means the earliest a meeting could be held is 24th May - which would leave only a week before the existing directors depart. Letting the board appoint the replacement directors means there is more chance of an effective handover being made.

[Paul Stimpson]

Dai,

Reading your long post on improvements you have some good ideas there.

However I am not too sure junior chess is declining, I certainly think if you look at the UK Chess Challenge figures the 7-11 year bracket is quite healthy. The older age groups do drop off markedly though.

I would have to disagree with this though

it could be that each club is required to say link with 2/3 local schools as part of the club ECF membership. In return for doing this and becoming an ECF accredited club the club receives:

I think that's best left for Junior Chess Clubs to deal with.

Senior clubs in my opinion discourage juniors unless they are very well behaved or very good and probably not if they aren't both!!