Stewart Reuben stepping down?

[Matthew Turner]

From the last minutes of the ECF in early November

International Chess Alternate Director Lawrence Cooper
Manager of British Championships To be advertised

It appears that Stewart Reuben is stepping down from the ECF, an Alternate International Director has been appointed and it goes on to say

SR indicated his wish to stand down as Manager of the British Championships.

Gosh!

[Matthew Turner]

This is all quite bizarre. Remeber Peter Wilson stood for the International Directorship, so where has Lawrence Cooper's name come from. It would appear that Stewart has stood for election to block Peter Wilson, because he is not up to it - Peter remains Marketing Director.

The British Championships remains under the jurisdiction of the International Director (which is presumably de facto Lawrence Cooper) presumably because the Director of Home Chess (Cyril Johnson) is not up to it. He remains in post.

Well good luck to Lawrence, who is a top bloke and real chess enthusiast, but it is really is a pretty sorry mess.

[Sean Hewitt]

I think you may be reading too much into this - although I could be wrong. No doubt Stewart will tell us all in due course what is happening, but here is an alternate scenario.

All directors are allowed, under ECF articles of association, to appoint an alternate director to act on their behalf when they are unavailable. This is sensible. Stewart is often away on FIDE business and will I think be away for 3/4 weeks in Jan / Feb on holiday and at the Gibraltar event. It is quite right that someone takes the day to day reigns during that period and the fact that Stewart has chosen Loz shows good judgment. This in no way implies that Stewart is stepping down. If that were the case, Loz would be acting director, not alternate director.

Stewart, if you recall, was not elected as Manager of the British Championships last year. Dave Welch was, but he stepped down due to ill health. Stewart stepped in to ensure the event ran successfully but said then that he did not want the job permanantly (not unreasonable as he had previously retired from the role). It seems by advertising the job now they are seeking to get the new guy in in plenty of time for Torquay and beyond. This too seems sensible to me.

Of course, it is possible that he might be jacking it all in. But I suspect not.

[Matthew Turner]

Well Sean, I don't think so, the British Championships used to be the responsibility of Director of Congress Chess, then this was subsumed into the Home Directorship. Now, it is the responsibility of the Manager of British Championships, who reports to the International Director. Interestingly the Director of Home Chess is advertising a new post, Manager of Congress Chess. Are you following this people?

As an aside, also note that Peter Wilson stood against Stewart for the International Directorship. He was proposed by the Director of Home Chess.

And they all adjourned for cakes and tea.

[IM Jack Rudd]

I believe there is a clause in the constitution of the ECF board which says that, while every manager has to report to a director, and there's usually a preferred director for each managership, the board can allow managers to report to different directors if they feel this will work better. Thus, while the manager of the British Championships would usually report to the Director Of Home Chess, on this occasion, the board decided that it would be better if he reported to the International Director instead.

[John Philpott]

The Directors' and Officers' Responsibilities Regulations do indeed make provision for the Board to direct that a particular Manager will report to a Director other than the Director specified by the Regulations. This is in effect what happened when Stewart stepped in as Manager of Congress Chess in May. However, the situation now is slightly different. In the revised version of the Regulations which the Board approved in September and which make provision for a Director of Chess For Schools, the Board decided to split the former post of Manager of Congress Chess into two separate positions - Manager of Congress Chess (British Chess Championships) and Manager of Congress Chess (Other). The latter clearly falls under Home Chess, but there were initially divided views as to whether the former should fall under Home or International. This has now been resolved in favour of International.

Stewart will doubtless make his own position clear in due course, but I would not be in the least surprised if the views of Sean proved to be considerably closer to the mark than some of the other speculation.

[David Sedgwick]

As John Philpott says, Stewart Reuben will no doubt make his own position clear in due course. However, I don't find anything surprising in the latest announcements, nor any cause for concern.

Stewart took on the positions of International Director and of Manager of Congress Chess earlier in the year, following the resignations of Peter Sowray and of David Welch respectively. If you look at the report on the ECF website of the first meeting of the then newly constituted Board (Meeting No 23 held on 7th June), there is a section where all Directors are asked to make clear their intentions and you will find the following:

"SR: Would continue beyond October but didn’t see himself as a long-term solution due to age. Finding a replacement for Congress Chess was likely to be more problematic than International."

I imagine that Lawrence Cooper is being lined up to stand for election as Stewart's successor in a year or two's time. In my opinion he's an excellent choice. Meanwhile he has been appointed Alternate Director for the reasons given by Sean Hewitt.

Regarding the Manager of the British Championships, any appointee would report to Stewart. To my mind it makes perfect sense for responsibility for the British Championships to have been transferred from the Home to the International Directorate, as the British Championships and International are the two areas of ECF activity which are not eligible for charitable status and which will accordingly need to be hived off into a separate company.

Stewart has always shown considerable awareness of the need for succession planning. To this end he's made a point of encouraging young organisers, Ben Purton for instance. The latest announcements are an example of this awareness, not some unexpected and worrying development.

Carl, shouldn't this thread be transferred to "ECF Matters"?

[Carl Hibbard]

Carl, shouldn't this thread be transferred to "ECF Matters"?

Yes, it's now be done

[Ben Purton]

Reuben Rocks!

[Stewart Reuben]

David Sedgwick drew my attention to this thread. What Sean, John P and he have all said is substantially correct.
I am the elected ECF Director of International Chess and would not have stood for election in October 2008 if I had not intended to remain in office until October 2009. I believe, anybody who stands down in the middle of their term, causes considerable problems in a voluntary organisation. I have made no decision beyond October 2009. Even should I wish to stand, the ECF Council have every democratic right to elect somebody else.
In addition, I stood for election in that post because I thought this was the best thing for English chess. Why else stand for any voluntary office? I did ask two other people about their taking on the job. The first I asked in February 2008 when I first learnt that Peter Sowray, a personal friend, might step down after the April Council Meeting. I have raised £18,000 outside the government grant, game fee or membership fees since appointment in May. This suggests to me I was quite right to think this was best.

I will be 70 in March and it is correct to think in terms of succession management. In fact I first started doing so in 1996. I believe that Peter Wilson at 65 would not be bringing fresh vital blood to the affairs of the ECF. After all, he has been a director of the ECF for some years, unlike myself. Thus, irrespective of the fact that he wanted the job in 2008, I came to the conclusion we should be looking for somebody younger. Thus my appointment of Lawrence Cooper as alternate director (approved by the Board) who has some of the necessary experience. He came to Dresden for a few days to widen his horizons.

Manager of the British Championships. I took on that role in May 2008, after I had been appointed ECF DIC. Whether I would have taken on both roles had I known that David Welch was stepping down, I don't know. But my health stood up fine, although I had to pace myself. But it pointed to the fact that there was absolutely nobody else in English chess who could take on the role of the organiser of the British at such short notice. This shows very poor managerial skills. If somebody comes forward who can take on the commitment to 6-8 weeks work spread through the year and runs the event successfully, then we will have another person with the necessary skills, apart from myself, to run large events in England. Neil Graham has them, but remains too busy in his work until he retires. There was also understandable concern about the manager of the largest single job in the ECF reporting to himself. It is hopeless to think of me reporting to Cyril Johnson. I am clearly a director and would be hopeless as an employee. I have avoided such a role for nearly 30 years.

Cyril believed the British Championships belonged under the Director of Home Chess. This I regarded as nothing other than unadulterated empire-building. Patently the British is not English. Indeed this century it has been held outside of England three times. It belongs under International, whoever the director may be and the Board agreed with me. This awkwardness is caused by the fact that there is no ECF Director of Congress Chess. There should be. Such a person would be responsible for all congress chess played in England and organised by or under the umbrella of the ECF and, of course, would include the British Championship and Gibraltar. This is a very serious lack in the ECF as there is no doubt that organisation can do much more for congresses than it ever can for leagues. When Gerry Walsh, myself, Neil Graham and David Welch were responsible that situation was what applied.

That purely English graded congresses come under Home Chess is obviously correct, given that lamentably we do not have such a directorship.
John P is wrong to suggest that I think all international congresses, other than the British now come under Home chess. I believe all internationally rated tournaments are ...err international. Thus Hastings, Gibraltar, Coulsdon, Blackpool, events run by Sean, Wellington International, all FIDE Rated events come under the umbrella of the ECF and thus the DIC. All when open are now qualifiers for the British Championship. Patently they also come under Home Chess, apart from Gibraltar. Cyril seemed to think the ECF has no responsibility towards Hastings because it is an independent event. This is quite wrong. It is the responsibility of the ECF to give support to all chess activity in England and to encourage new ventures.
If I succeed in raising funding for the Commonwealth Chess Championship to take place in England (we won't know until at the earliest in March and we are talking about 2010 or 2011), patently that too will come under the DIC.

Directors have to work together because of course there is extensive overlap. Marketing and Finance cut across all the directorships.

Stewart Reuben