Manager of British Championship

[Mick Norris]

Carol

The AGM has a full agenda, we don't want to be dealing with managers too, that's what we elect the board to do

Having a new Junior Director, it seems sensible to give him time to find someone he wants to work with - obviously, Brazil trip was planned some while ago, so sensible that we wait until they get back

Mick

That is a very aggressive response which I don't feel is justified
"we don't want to be dealing with managers too, that's what we elect the board to do" - OK then sweep it under the carpet and say managers are beneath us
"Having a new Junior Director , it seems sensible to give him time to find someone he wants to work with - obviously, Brazil trip was planned some while ago, so sensible that we wait until they get back.
I'm sure Phil would have thought of all of this long before his election to the position so no I don't give him time -also Manager of Coaching is not I believe restricted to Junior Chess so your comment is not valid

I'm sorry you found it that way, I'm just sick of listening to the volunteers being criticised - unlike you, I gave up a lot of my time to go to the meeting, and there simply wouldn't have been enough time to cover items like Managers

Sweeping under the carpet - get a grip

You have a problem with things, fine, just try saying something positive

[Rob Thompson]

Never before in the history of this forum have I facepalmed so often at so many posts from so few.

[Gavin Strachan]

Manager of British Championship. I'll do it! Alhough I will be completely incompetent and out of my depth, and probably do something totally inappropriate.

[David Sedgwick]

Thank you both for your quick responses . Sorry to add to the confusion but is a reluctant Manager a good Manager (ie staying in the post until a successor is appointed?). Also what active steps are being taken to get a successor. Finally should this have not been covered in the AGM rather than the Board Meeting?

I don't really understand why this side issue should be causing a problem.

Andrew Martin has expressed a wish to step down and the post has therefore been announced as vacant. He has agreed to carry on temporarily until a suitable successor has been found and the Board has accepted that offer. In this instance I feel that things are as they should be.

"Is a reluctant Manager a good Manager (ie staying in the post until a successor is appointed?)"

It's not ideal, but in my opinion it's preferable to having no-one doing anything. As I said previously, there are a number of precedents.

[Alan Burke]

Mick Norris ... I totally agree with your comments in your answer to Carol Williams and most certainly don't think it was an aggressive response - it does seem that some people can't listen to an alternative point of view without getting angry at those who propose it, as well as looking through rose-coloured glasses when it comes to subjects regarding their own offspring and then seemingly have a personal vandetta against anyone who they perceive has not done everything in the way THEY want for their own child.

I wouldn't have thought that Andrew Martin is a reluctant manager because nobody is forcing him into doing the job - he has willingly volunteered to stay in post until a successor is appointed and could walk away from it at anytime he wishes to.

Regarding the main point of this thread - the British Championship Manager - I trust that the ECF will now handle the appointment as a totally seperate issue to the ongoing Keane saga and get Alex appointed as sooon as possible to prevent any disruption to the organisation of next year's event. Alternatively, do they have anyone who they think can do the job better ?

[Kevin Thurlow]

"Never before in the history of this forum have I facepalmed so often at so many posts from so few."

Good, I thought I was the only one!

[Paul Dargan]

Mick Norris ... I totally agree with your comments in your answer to Carol Williams and most certainly don't think it was an aggressive response...

Where's the like button?

Paul

[Roger de Coverly]

Returning to questions of the management of the British Chess Championships, some issues regarding the website which don't inspire confidence:-

The domain name www.britishchess2012.com, if it even exists, doesn't have any content.

The website www.britishchess2011.com displays for about thirty seconds and then redirects to the main ECF website. The lower level pages, such as the PGN games have ceased to be accessible. Without testing, this presumably means that the 2008 to 2010 events cannot be accessed.

Like the Major Open at Canterbury in 2010, games from the Major Open at Sheffield have not been made available in download form beyond round 4.

[Adam Raoof]

Returning to questions of the management of the British Chess Championships, some issues regarding the website which don't inspire confidence:-

The domain name http://www.britishchess2012.com, if it even exists, doesn't have any content.

The website http://www.britishchess2011.com displays for about thirty seconds and then redirects to the main ECF website. The lower level pages, such as the PGN games have ceased to be accessible. Without testing, this presumably means that the 2008 to 2010 events cannot be accessed.

Like the Major Open at Canterbury in 2010, games from the Major Open at Sheffield have not been made available in download form beyond round 4.

http://www.britishchesschampionships.co.uk/ will be the new website. I cannot explain the redirect from Steve's sites, but there is a way to stop it - http://www.ehow.com/how_6830314_stop-redirecting.html might be a solution.

Not having the complete pgn of any event is unforgiveable and I will find out what has happened to them and get back to this Forum with the answer.

[Ian Kingston]

Returning to questions of the management of the British Chess Championships, some issues regarding the website which don't inspire confidence:-

The domain name http://www.britishchess2012.com, if it even exists, doesn't have any content.

The website http://www.britishchess2011.com displays for about thirty seconds and then redirects to the main ECF website. The lower level pages, such as the PGN games have ceased to be accessible. Without testing, this presumably means that the 2008 to 2010 events cannot be accessed.

Like the Major Open at Canterbury in 2010, games from the Major Open at Sheffield have not been made available in download form beyond round 4.

I didn't even get the redirection for the 2011 site: just a plain '404 - Not Found'. All of the old sites from 2008 onwards seem to have vanished. At the very least, even if the domain names and hosting have not been renewed (a reasonable money-saving measure), the results and games should be archived on the main ECF site, but if they are I can't find them.

[Sean Hewitt]

The domain name http://www.britishchess2012.com, if it even exists, doesn't have any content..

It doesn't exist at the moment. The domain is unregistered.

The website http://www.britishchess2011.com displays for about thirty seconds and then redirects to the main ECF website. The lower level pages, such as the PGN games have ceased to be accessible. Without testing, this presumably means that the 2008 to 2010 events cannot be accessed.

The 2011 site returns page not found for me, suggesting that it has been deliberately removed. This has been done recently as the site is still visible in google's cache, last complied on 30th October.
The 2009 and 2010 sites appear to have dummy content. The 2010 is owned by a company is Japan and has been since August, whilst the 09 is owned by a Japanese individual. This suggests that both sites have been allowed to lapse and snapped up by sandbaggers.

All of which makes one wonder why the webmaster stepped down, and why this fact hasn't been advertised until now, to the best of my knowledge.

[Roger de Coverly]

All of which makes one wonder why the webmaster stepped down, and why this fact hasn't been advertised until now, to the best of my knowledge.

It appears I had managed to cache the 2011 site in some manner as it still "works" for me. The 2008 to 2010 sites disappeared as top level domains some time ago. They were pages of the 2011 site whilst that was active.
It leaves open the question as to what extent the ECF itself should take responsibility for archiving the events it nominally runs, or whether it should expect third parties such as John Saunders http://www.saund.co.uk/britbase/brit2000.htm to do the work.


If you read ChessMoves, the latest issue with a report on the AGM mentions a number of officers standing down.

the ECF expressed its grateful appreciation to the following departing officials:
• Steve Connor – Webmaster for the consistently excellent British Championship website, through which many of us will have enjoyed live coverage of the top games;
• Carl Hibbard – responsible for the ECF’s online grading database, the indispensable reference source for grading information;
• Andrew Martin – Manager of Coaching, well known to hundreds of players through his chess DVDs and unfailingly entertaining commentaries at the British Championships;
• John Paines – a former Board member (Non-Executive Chairman) and member of the ECF’s Governance Committee;
• Bob Veitch – for many years, the custodian of the ECF’s voting register, ensuring that each member’s voting rights were correctly reflected at Council meetings;
• David Welch – Alternate to the Director of Junior Chess & Education and joint Manager of the British Championships, David has made a long and notable contribution to English chess, and the Federation will greatly miss his services.

[Carl Hibbard]

All of which makes one wonder why the webmaster stepped down, and why this fact hasn't been advertised until now, to the best of my knowledge.

The reason for this is known to me but I am not sure if the ECF have or wish to pass comment on the reasons why?

It is a complete mess on the domain front I agree

[Carl Hibbard]

• Carl Hibbard – responsible for the ECF’s online grading database, the indispensable reference source for grading information;

As mentioned before I am no longer responsible for either the ECF online database or any live games broadcast from next year, in fact all hosted sites and the bcfservices domain will close at that time

[Roger de Coverly]

As mentioned before I am no longer responsible for either the ECF online database or any live games broadcast from next year, in fact all hosted sites and the bcfservices domain will close at that time

The ECF are supposed to be working on a replacement grading information site. When does the close down/handover take place?