My Story

[John Philpott]

David Sedgwick wrote

I think it would be fair to say that prior to 2005 the information would only have been available to members of the BCF Council.

The availability of the accounts as a public record document at Companies House did indeed only arise with the advent of the ECF in 2005, and the practice of having the accounts downloadable from the ECF website some time after that. I do, however, have an idea (without having the information to hand to prove it one way or the other) that prior to 2005 the BCF accounts used to be reproduced, at least in part, in the Yearbook.

[PeterFarr]

Trying to get back to something vaguely relevant to the original topic, it seems a pity that there is no longer a Director for Women's chess. Nor indeed are there any women on the ECF Board. Maybe some of the ECF-related issues wouldn't have arisen, or would have been resolved earlier, with some female Board representation?

As the lack of women in chess as a whole is so glaring, perhaps this should be given higher priority? We are now in the 2nd decade of the 21st century and the age of the gentlemen's club is a distant memory.

Actually, earlier in the thread, Andrew Camp suggested Sabrina would be welcome in Wales and he has some evidence to back him up; the WCU has four women on the Board as far as I can see.

[Louise Sinclair]

Too many isms - for my liking. Why does chess organisation inspire such oafish behaviour? There are many decent people organising at local levels and a few good people end up on the board of the ECF but rarely do they stay. Unless the usual status quo is adhered to - dissenters are inclined to either be driven out or resign through despair. A few questions need to be raised about the constant old boy network. English chess is falling by the wayside and the dysfunctional state of the ECF isn't helping to remedy things.
In an ideal chess playing world women wouldn't need a director but could just get on with the game.
Too much bickering and spite and not enough inspiration in my opinion.
Louise

[PeterFarr]

In an ideal chess playing world women wouldn't need a director but could just get on with the game.

Absolutely.

[Colin S Crouch]

Sabrina,

So sorry that you are having bad problems with your health - and at your age. All the best for your recovery.

It would be inappropriate for me to try to speculate as to what was happening for you recently All I can say is that quite a few years ago, I was having big problems with the Federation, which as far as I am concerned were at times malicious. I do not want to discuss this directly in this forum, but I am more than happy to compare notes, person to person.

You may well remember that some years back, a few players at the 4NCL, you and I included, went for a large evening meal, and that I was in a lot of pain when flash photos were taken. This gives some idea of the timing of the events. Not long after, I suffered a stroke, lost most of my eyesight, and could easily have died.

The persons involved at the time are in no way directly involved in current events.

All the best,
Colin

[Louise Sinclair]

Colin
Just a few words hoping that you have made good progress after suffering a stroke - I recall hearing about it shortly after it happened from someone.
Louise

[Peter D Williams]

As Chevannes has decided to include myself in this discussion (and yes, I only use her surname as she has done of me), I will just say that if she wants to go, then so be it !

I would have thought that after a private conversation I had alone with Chevannes at Sheffield in 2011 (instigated by myself in order to resolve the whole issue), the matter would have been laid to rest with goodwill on both sides, but obviously one of us still wishes to resurrect the matter whenever they feel it might be beneficial to promote their own agenda.

How we you going to resolve the issues at Sheffield your not on the board of the ECF?As far as i am aware you have no influence over the policy's of the ECF?

Well back to the greenhouse and the pepper plants are really enjoying this sun as am i

[Roger de Coverly]

How we you going to resolve the issues at Sheffield your not on the board of the ECF?As far as i am aware you have no influence over the policy's of the ECF?

I would expect they are referring to a resolution of the issues discussed in this rather lengthy thread.

http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=2722

Basically the Managers of Women's Chess came up with a scheme whereby a Congress organiser would offer free entry to women and they would offer in tournament coaching for about the normal cost of the entry fee. What might seem an innocuous training initiative sparked protests.

[PeterFarr]

How we you going to resolve the issues at Sheffield your not on the board of the ECF?As far as i am aware you have no influence over the policy's of the ECF?

I would expect they are referring to a resolution of the issues discussed in this rather lengthy thread.

http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=2722

Basically the Managers of Women's Chess came up with a scheme whereby a Congress organiser would offer free entry to women and they would offer in tournament coaching for about the normal cost of the entry fee. What might seem an innocuous training initiative sparked protests.

Actually this thread is relevant also, and I guess refers more directly to Sabrina's original post concerning Sheffield:

http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3229

There was also this one, which started even more innocuously than the one that Roger mentions:

http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=3206

Anyone that wades through all of these will gain greater understanding of Sabrina's post, but may become somewhat depressed.

[Roger de Coverly]

Actually this thread is relevant also, and I guess refers more directly to Sabrina's original post concerning Sheffield:

Looked at in context, the training in 2011 at the e2e4 Congresses and at the National Girls event were deemed to be a success by the participants if not by some of the commentators. The attempt to repeat the same structure at the British Championship Congress ran into a host of objections with many of them coming from Directors and Managers within the ECF. Whilst it's reasonable enough that coaches at events run by the ECF should be accredited, a simple enough solution would have been for the ECF to handle the paperwork and give the initiative its blessing, along with implicit permission to use ECF hired rooms at the event. But perhaps, in parallel to the rules on taking food into venues, the existing coaches had monopoly rights.

[Alan Burke]

What the hell is Peter Williams on about in his above post in some kind of reply to my earlier post ? (First of all I assume that in English he means ... "How WERE you going to resolve the issues at Sheffield YOU'RE not on the board of the ECF? As far as I am aware you have no influence over the POLICIES of the ECF?)

If so I suggest he should stay in his greenhouses and not start throwing stones. Also, he should get the facts right before he decides to interfere as the issue between Chevannes and myself had nothing to do with ECF policy, it was a private disagreement which I understood to be dead and buried after we spoke privately to each other - however, it now seems that she wants to again open up the issue as it suits her as part of a "poor little me" campaign.

I cannot comment about other parts of the complaints made in the original post of this thread, but for her to resurrect our disagreement for her own benefit shows more about her character than it does of mine.

[Dan O'Dowd]

Also, he should get the facts right before he decides to interfere as the issue between Chevannes and myself had nothing to do with ECF policy

Me*. You are not a myself unless you are doing something reflexive such as dressing yourself.

[Sean Hewitt]

Basically the Managers of Women's Chess came up with a scheme whereby a Congress organiser would offer free entry to women and they would offer in tournament coaching for about the normal cost of the entry fee. What might seem an innocuous training initiative sparked protests.

Do you ever get anything right? This is just more tosh.

[PeterTurland]

Had the education of children been properly addressed years and years ago, we might have had, a more logical culture.

[Roger de Coverly]

Do you ever get anything right? This is just more tosh.

From the opening post of one of the threads.

Since Sean Hewitt has kindly supported women's chess by offering free entry to his e2e4 events, myself and Jovanka will be working alongside his tournament by providing in-tournament training.

We will be preparing the women for their games and analysing them afterwards. Each weekend, each female player who signs up for coaching will be assigned to a coach who will be there to support them throughout the tournament.

We will be charging for this service, but we think that the price is extremely reasonable for a full weekend of chess. All money raised from this event will go towards future women's chess events.

I wrote

Basically the Managers of Women's Chess came up with a scheme whereby a Congress organiser would offer free entry to women and they would offer in tournament coaching for about the normal cost of the entry fee.

That seems to me a reasonable paraphrase of what Sabrina wrote to introduce the coaching initiative, although later in the thread, it needed to be made clear that the free entry wasn't conditional on signing up for the coaching. There are two illustrative points. The first is that this proved controversial, in the eyes of contributors to the thread at least. The second is that e2e4 were more benign hosts than the ECF, not being concerned about use of e2e4 hired rooms and whether the coaches were ECF accredited.