Ask the Directors

Debate directly related to English Chess Federation matters.
Roger de Coverly
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Re: Ask the Directors

Post by Roger de Coverly » Wed Mar 08, 2017 11:16 pm

Mike Truran wrote: Quoting examples from previous regimes, whether true or false, and which in any event have nothing to do with the current Board, doesn't wash.
It's the ECF, some of whose directors served in previous administrations. Where was the challenge by non-exec directors in 2005 to the notion that FIDE required white forms to be completed to enable participation in rated events?

To the extent that they are allowed to influence matters, the voting membership at the half yearly ECF meetings is also "the ECF". Many of those attendees go back ten, twenty years or even longer.
Last edited by Roger de Coverly on Wed Mar 08, 2017 11:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Mike Truran
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Re: Ask the Directors

Post by Mike Truran » Wed Mar 08, 2017 11:24 pm

I give up. There's really little point trying to have a sensible debate with someone who seems to be paranoid about the motivations of each and every ECF Board.

Roger de Coverly
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Re: Ask the Directors

Post by Roger de Coverly » Wed Mar 08, 2017 11:31 pm

Mike Truran wrote: There's really little point trying to have a sensible debate with someone who seems to be paranoid about the motivations of each and every ECF Board.
With good reason. No sooner had there been a generally agreed settlement that the BCF (as it then was) should be financed on a pay as you play basis, that the termites in favour of a one player one charge system started the attempt to undermine it.

Alex Holowczak
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Re: Ask the Directors

Post by Alex Holowczak » Wed Mar 08, 2017 11:52 pm

Jonathan Bryant wrote:
Alex Holowczak wrote:
David Sedgwick wrote:I suspect that very few questions have been asked.
The last one that went into my inbox, on 26/02, was #196.
Was it, "how many questions have been asked"?
Someone was asking for clarification on the rules of the County Championships. I answered by providing the relevant clarification, and providing him the Controller's e-mail address for future reference.
Ian Thompson wrote:
Alex Holowczak wrote:
David Sedgwick wrote:I suspect that very few questions have been asked.
The last one that went into my inbox, on 26/02, was #196.
194 questions (or were many more like my two "Tell the Directors"), and not one that was worth publishing on the ECF website?
I can't speak for other people's questions, but I wouldn't describe the ones I've had as being of massive wider interest. They're often very specific in nature. I've never been asked the same question twice - other than one person who asked me where the 2017 British Championships would be.

I tend to hear from lots of people who I wouldn't normally hear from either on here, or the old other Forum, or get regular e-mails from. Sometimes people just want to ask the person in charge a question and get an answer, without others sparking off a debate that would be common on a Forum. So I do think it serves a purpose in that sense.

Yes, as per David Sedgwick's suggestion, they can send an e-mail. However, David has an excellent knowledge of the inner workings of the ECF Director's responsibilities and is on first name terms with all of them. He is rare in that sense when you consider the membership as a whole, and if he wants to e-mail, then of course he could and should.

David Sedgwick
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Re: Ask the Directors

Post by David Sedgwick » Thu Mar 09, 2017 11:50 am

Alex Holowczak wrote:Yes, as per David Sedgwick's suggestion, they can send an e-mail. However, David has an excellent knowledge of the inner workings of the ECF Director's responsibilities and is on first name terms with all of them. He is rare in that sense when you consider the membership as a whole, and if he wants to e-mail, then of course he could and should.
What you say is not quite true. I have never met or had any contact with Stephen Woodhouse.

However, I was clearly wrong about the usefulness of the facility. I would have guessed that you would have had about 20 questions, not about 200.

That said, do you really need "an excellent knowledge of the inner workings of the ECF Director's responsibilities" in order to look up a Director's email address on the ECF website. Even with the Ask the Directors facility, you need some knowledge to submit your question to the right Director.

Alex Holowczak
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Re: Ask the Directors

Post by Alex Holowczak » Thu Mar 09, 2017 12:07 pm

David Sedgwick wrote:
Alex Holowczak wrote:Yes, as per David Sedgwick's suggestion, they can send an e-mail. However, David has an excellent knowledge of the inner workings of the ECF Director's responsibilities and is on first name terms with all of them. He is rare in that sense when you consider the membership as a whole, and if he wants to e-mail, then of course he could and should.
What you say is not quite true. I have never met or had any contact with Stephen Woodhouse.

However, I was clearly wrong about the usefulness of the facility. I would have guessed that you would have had about 20 questions, not about 200.

That said, do you really need "an excellent knowledge of the inner workings of the ECF Director's responsibilities" in order to look up a Director's email address on the ECF website. Even with the Ask the Directors facility, you need some knowledge to submit your question to the right Director.
I'd forgotten that you wouldn't know Stephen Woodhouse.

The Ask the Director questions don't, in fact, go directly to the Directors. The Office forwards the enquiry to the relevant person. This is helpful - a few people ask their questions and select all of the Directors. Additionally, it means that if someone sends a question about the County Championship and sends it to the Chief Executive, the Office will just send it to me instead. There are other areas where someone might reasonably confuse who is responsible for what. So it's an improvement in that sense.

A lot of people may not feel obliged to go through the list of officials to find the e-mail address. A lot of the time if you e-mail a company bigwig, not knowing who they are, it disappears down a black hole and you never hear back from them. This is certainly my experience of e-mailing some FIDE officers and the FIDE office on the occasion when I've had to. Ask the Directors does confer a responsibility to respond within 5 working days, so there is some form of guarantee for an enquirer that they will get a response within the required timeframe.

David Sedgwick
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Re: Ask the Directors

Post by David Sedgwick » Thu Mar 09, 2017 12:17 pm

Alex Holowczak wrote:A lot of people may not feel obliged to go through the list of officials to find the e-mail address. A lot of the time if you e-mail a company bigwig, not knowing who they are, it disappears down a black hole and you never hear back from them.
Perhaps I can't quite bring myself to think of ECF Directors as "company bigwigs".

In the time of the previous Board, there were some Directors whom I would have been delighted to hear from less frequently than I did. But that is another story.

Roger Lancaster
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Re: Ask the Directors

Post by Roger Lancaster » Thu Mar 09, 2017 1:51 pm

I can’t say I’m particularly convinced that the ECF directors should take undue account of views expressed in this forum. I don’t mean that the directors should disregard us – I believe that the forum serves a useful purpose - but they should bear in mind, as no doubt they already do, that we represent a very small (but, in some cases, very vociferous) minority of the ECF membership. Probably a well-informed minority – but that alone makes us unrepresentative.

Mick Norris
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Re: Ask the Directors

Post by Mick Norris » Thu Mar 09, 2017 3:02 pm

David Sedgwick wrote:
Alex Holowczak wrote:A lot of people may not feel obliged to go through the list of officials to find the e-mail address. A lot of the time if you e-mail a company bigwig, not knowing who they are, it disappears down a black hole and you never hear back from them.
Perhaps I can't quite bring myself to think of ECF Directors as "company bigwigs".

In the time of the previous Board, there were some Directors whom I would have been delighted to hear from less frequently than I did. But that is another story.
:lol:
Any postings on here represent my personal views

Andrew Zigmond
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Re: Ask the Directors

Post by Andrew Zigmond » Thu Mar 09, 2017 3:31 pm

Roger de Coverly wrote: Were I to ask under "Ask the Director" why is it that some of the prize categories awarded in the British Championship at Bournemouth 2016 will not be awarded in Llandudno 2017, would I get a public answer?
No. You would get a private answer but would be within your rights to make this public, as actually happened earlier in this thread.
Controller - Yorkshire League
Chairman - Harrogate Chess Club
All views expressed entirely my own

Michael Flatt
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Re: Ask the Directors

Post by Michael Flatt » Thu Mar 09, 2017 5:54 pm

I had thought that the 'Ask a Director' system was fully automated and that mail went directly to those named by the enquirer but it seems that all messages have to be read by the ECF Office staff and then forwarded to the appropriate Director.

It seems rather a waste of the Office staff's time and a distraction from their other duties.

Alex Holowczak
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Re: Ask the Directors

Post by Alex Holowczak » Thu Mar 09, 2017 6:40 pm

Michael Flatt wrote:It seems rather a waste of the Office staff's time and a distraction from their other duties.
Indeed, if we get on average 3 or 4 questions per week, it might take up at least 1 minute of their combined time forwarding them to the right person.

Michael Flatt
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Re: Ask the Directors

Post by Michael Flatt » Thu Mar 09, 2017 10:43 pm

It would seem that posting on Carl's forum is quicker and more efficient than the 'ECF Ask the Director' - almost instant response.

Roger Lancaster
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Re: Ask the Directors

Post by Roger Lancaster » Thu Mar 09, 2017 10:50 pm

Michael Flatt wrote:It would seem that posting on Carl's forum is quicker and more efficient than the 'ECF Ask the Director' - almost instant response.
LOL, but only from those directors who come to this forum!

Alex Holowczak
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Re: Ask the Directors

Post by Alex Holowczak » Thu Mar 09, 2017 10:53 pm

Michael Flatt wrote:It would seem that posting on Carl's forum is quicker and more efficient than the 'ECF Ask the Director' - almost instant response.
There are only so many things one can do to occupy one's mind when sat on a bus in the middle of a traffic jam in the Birmingham suburbs...