Board minutes

[JustinHorton]

I think in general the number of people who post on any given forum is only a small percentage of the number who read it, and I imagine there must be a lot of people who read,regularly or otherwise, but because they aren't expecting ever to post, don't register.

[Mick Norris]

A reality that I think we're all aware of, but don't have an answer to, is the disconnect between the efforts of the ECF (or even the regional Unions) and the typical club player (the only interest group I can claim to represent). Whilst I suspect most, if asked, would support many of the things the ECF sets out to do (junior academy programme, facilitating national championships, ensuring a national presence on the international scene ...) we don't see any connection with our participation in club and league chess, with perhaps the occasional county match or weekend congress thrown in. This has been brought home to me again recently. I suggested clubs throughout my county might invite me to their AGM. I wanted to drum up more support for our county teams that have struggled recently to fill all boards, but also to put myself up for questions on SCCU or ECF matters where I am their representative. Two clubs so far have taken me up on this, but in the latter objective I was met with complete silence.

The reality is most players at my club don't care what the ECF, MCCU or MCF do, and trust me as their elected rep to bring anything to their attention they need to know about

Most players in our county team don't care what the MCCU does, and trust their captain, or our MCCU reps, to bring anything to their attention they need to know about

Most players in our 4NCL squad don't care what the 4NCL does, and trust their excellent captain to bring anything to their attention they need to know about

Players get exercised about paying money (some more than others, and often with trivial increases thereof), their grades (some more than others, and often with trivial increases/decreases thereof ), time controls possibly?

I think you soon find out when there are problems, as you get vocal interventions (especially in the MCF from a handful, some of whom may be known to the Forum whose views may be in a very small minority), so silence may be taken as endorsement that you are doing a good job

Talking of which Julie, I hope you get re-elected as NED

[Roger de Coverly]

(A partial answer is the statistic on the front page that there are 1220 members, which is less than 10% of currently graded players.)

I would think that's actually quite high. There's also those who read but have never registered. It's an open site, so no registration is needed for lurkers.

Is Sussex still a bastion of adjudication? Perhaps there would have been more interest about the ECF if you had reminded club members that the ECF had proposed to abolish it, or at least render it ineligible for grading.

There is an attitude amongst players, possibly correctly, that you appoint or persuade representatives or delegates to attend meetings, so there is no need themselves to attend.

[Carl Hibbard]

I think in general the number of people who post on any given forum is only a small percentage of the number who read it, and I imagine there must be a lot of people who read,regularly or otherwise, but because they aren't expecting ever to post, don't register.

We run at around 10,000 unique users a month as now I have reasonably accurate figures from the analytics.

[Michael Flatt]

Perhaps we could imagine a board discussion in which those who chose to engage with this place discuss their reasons for doing so with those who regard this place as "toxic"?

How do we think such a discussion might unravel?

The label 'toxic' was something a small and but vocal group of individuals wanted to attach to this forum to close down any discussion over which they had no control. Thankfully, that 'nexus' is no longer represented on the ECF Board.

Since the closure of the ECF's own short-lived discussion forum members of the Board are now posting here to such an extent that the forum is close to being adopted as the ECF's preferred medium of communication.

[Julie Denning]

Is Sussex still a bastion of adjudication? Perhaps there would have been more interest about the ECF if you had reminded club members that the ECF had proposed to abolish it, or at least render it ineligible for grading.

Roger,

The bastion still exists in the Mid Sussex League, and if I was accused of being one of the dinosaurs in this regard, I'd have to plead guilty. I don't think there is a solution that will please everyone in the context of an evening league that, realistically, is limited to a playing session of around 3 hours. My preferred option would be seal and adjourn, but due to time and distance considerations, I doubt that would be too popular. However, actual formal adjudications have dwindled over recent years. The view is that in most instances the players take the position home, run it through Fritz or whatever, and reach an amicable agreement with their opponent.

One argument we've often heard against adjudications is that it puts off junior players who can't get their head around the concept of not getting a result on the night. As an innovation for this (16 / 17) season, we're going to run an additional competition, that, whilst not exclusive to juniors, is intended to be more attractive to them. It will have a mandatory, rapidplay, increments time control, with a maximum playing session of around 2 hours - also helping to answer the issue of late nights for those facing school the next day. This has attracted half a dozen entries for the first season and we'll see how it develops.

Rest assured that I did bring to the attention of my local membership the threatened exclusion from grading and I'm pleased that was seen off. I believe exclusion from grading is a sledgehammer sanction that would effectively put an event out of business. As such, it should be limited to situations with substantive evidence that the grading system was being brought into disrepute. I don't believe adjudications do this. Indeed, playing devil's advocate, I'd suggest that turning the latter stages of a standardplay game into a blunder-prone rapidplay time scramble risks bringing a supposedly-standardplay grading system into disrepute at least as much as the occasional adjudication, and even more occasional adjudication that came up with a dodgy answer.

[Julie Denning]

Talking of which Julie, I hope you get re-elected as NED

Thank you!

[David Sedgwick]

The ECF this year set up the "Ask a Director" facility via its website. So far not a single question has come my way.

I can't see the point of that facility. If I want to ask a Director something, I email that Director.

[John Upham]

The ECF this year set up the "Ask a Director" facility via its website. So far not a single question has come my way.

I can't see the point of that facility. If I want to ask a Director something, I email that Director.

I suspect that the point of the facility is to:

1. Funnel it through one location logging the query and helping to prevent it being ignored
2. Allow persons who have not discovered the email address of a Director to contact a director
3. Suggest that Directors are ready to answer queries.

[JustinHorton]

The ECF this year set up the "Ask a Director" facility via its website. So far not a single question has come my way.

Via the facility, you mean?

[Angus French]

The ECF this year set up the "Ask a Director" facility via its website. So far not a single question has come my way.

I can't see the point of that facility. If I want to ask a Director something, I email that Director.

I thought part of the point was that selected questions and answers to the same would be published, encouraging dialog and demonstrating the Board's willingness to engage...

[Julie Denning]

The ECF this year set up the "Ask a Director" facility via its website. So far not a single question has come my way.

Via the facility, you mean?

Justin,

Correct.

[Mike Truran]

Angus

Partly correct. Part of the point (and the fourth reason to add to John's earlier three) was to identify common themes that could then be published if appropriate. I don't think the idea was necessarily to publish individual questions and answers.

[Bob Kane]

The CEO does seem to be guided by the adopted ECF communications document , and its policy of openness towards members .

http://www.englishchess.org.uk/wp-conte ... rategy.pdf

[Alex Holowczak]

The ECF this year set up the "Ask a Director" facility via its website. So far not a single question has come my way.

I can't see the point of that facility. If I want to ask a Director something, I email that Director.

Some people don't feel comfortable doing that though, perhaps.

I've received several questions via that mechanism, nearly always from people I hadn't previously heard of.