English Chess Forum

What does the ECF publicity officer acually do if i had not phoned up the BBC and local newspaper last week there would have been no publicity for the championship.Nobody from the ECF had contacted anybody.Obviously Lara was very busy why should she have been expected to have to do the publicity as well.

Perhaps he/she is the one who's made all the pairings and results disappear from the website right now.

William Metcalfe wrote:What does the ECF publicity officer acually do if i had not phoned up the BBC and local newspaper last week there would have been no publicity for the championship.Nobody from the ECF had contacted anybody.Obviously Lara was very busy why should she have been expected to have to do the publicity as well.

Ben Edgell is the ECF Publicity Officer.

Also, are any photographs going on the website this year?

Andrew Camp wrote:Perhaps he/she is the one who's made all the pairings and results disappear from the website right now.

No that is because someone was daft enough to use Wordpress in the first place

William Metcalfe wrote:What does the ECF publicity officer acually do if i had not phoned up the BBC and local newspaper last week there would have been no publicity for the championship.Nobody from the ECF had contacted anybody.Obviously Lara was very busy why should she have been expected to have to do the publicity as well.

Hi William. Thanks for making an effort to express your concerns directly to me before having a go through a public forum. Much appreciated. Wonder why the ECF has so many volunteers these days...?

Anyway, to answer your question: I haven't done any publicity work for the British. Is it acceptable? Short answer, no. Long answer, I work full- time and have several voluntary roles, all of which require my time etc etc. If someone asks for my help with publicity, I'll try and help. I can't make guarantees, but I'll try. I've already said this privately, but I may as well say this publicly now as well: if anyone wants to step up and volunteer to be Publicity Officer for the ECF, I'll happily step aside. If not I assume its better to have someone in the role whos willing to try and make a difference, even if its small, then no-one at all.

The Marketing Director was contacted for help in promoting the British.

Eventually he gave some ideas.

I would believe Ben that he was not approached by his boss to help out.

I apologise if some people think this is an attack on the ECF Board. It is simply a statement of fact.

Alex McFarlane wrote:The Marketing Director was contacted for help in promoting the British.

Eventually he gave some ideas.

I would believe Ben that he was not approached by his boss to help out.

I apologise if some people think this is an attack on the ECF Board. It is simply a statement of fact.

His ideas were?

Hi Alex,

In defence of Tim he did forward me the emails. Truthfully I should be doing more to help promote the British, and although in part the reasons from my previous post apply, I'm also not going to shy away from the fact that I should be doing more then I have done. I'll try and make more of an effort for the duration of the British, but longer- term my previous post is an honest appraisal of my role.

Carl Hibbard wrote:His ideas were?

I don't know, but they involved someone else doing more work.

There have been a few locals, not just Bill, chasing up the local media which has resulted in a couple of newspaper articles and an interview on Radio Newcastle.

The BBC informed Lara (twice just to rub salt in the wounds) that they wouldn't cover the event since they were concentrating on sports this summer. They stated that officially chess was not recognised as a sport.

Does Stonewall not have a newspaper? They might be interested.

I'll get my coat...

Can we just sack an ECF officer?

Carl Hibbard wrote:Can we just sack an ECF officer?

Directors are appointed by Council and Managers and Alternates by Directors albeit the board will approve the manager/alternate appointments etc

Alex McFarlane wrote: The BBC informed Lara (twice just to rub salt in the wounds) that they wouldn't cover the event since they were concentrating on sports this summer. They stated that officially chess was not recognised as a sport.

I'd be interested to hear more about this. Who said so? Somebody local or national?

Did they say who, if chess is not a sport, Lara should contact to try and get coverage?

Alex McFarlane wrote:The BBC informed Lara (twice just to rub salt in the wounds) that they wouldn't cover the event since they were concentrating on sports this summer. They stated that officially chess was not recognised as a sport.

And they are correct.