English Chess Forum

A hard job!!

http://www.englishchess.org.uk/

ECF News...

Michael White has been appointed as the English Chess Federation Director of Finance.

This is good to hear. From what I know of Michael, I think he will do a good job in the role.

I presume that this is Michael J R White. Can anyone confirm that?

David Sedgwick wrote:I presume that this is Michael J R White. Can anyone confirm that?

The ECF web site may well catch up with a diluted report in the future, the SCCU report may give more details before that of course

Carl Hibbard wrote:The ECF web site may well catch up with a diluted report in the future, the SCCU report may give more details before that of course

The SCCU reporter only knows what Council knows. He's from Bristol so may well be Michael JR.

Richard Haddrell

or it might be E Michael White (MJR's father) also of Bristol!

It's MJR White.

So its Michael? the FM ? He is a cool guy, finally somebody young on ECF, Im in shock!!!

Ben

Richard Haddrell wrote:

Carl Hibbard wrote:The ECF web site may well catch up with a diluted report in the future, the SCCU report may give more details before that of course

The SCCU reporter only knows what Council knows. He's from Bristol so may well be Michael JR.

Richard Haddrell

The report is here now:- http://www.sccu.ndo.co.uk/bcf.htm

Sean Hewitt wrote:It's MJR White.

The ECF web site is now advertising the position as vacant, so what the status is now is unclear?

Carl Hibbard wrote:

Sean Hewitt wrote:It's MJR White.

The ECF web site is now advertising the position as vacant, so what the status is now is unclear?

Crikey. Another short lived directorship!

Sean Hewitt wrote:

Carl Hibbard wrote:

Sean Hewitt wrote:It's MJR White.

The ECF web site is now advertising the position as vacant, so what the status is now is unclear?

Crikey. Another short lived directorship!

If one considers Michael White's period of office to have lasted from the date of the recent Council Meeting to the date of the latest ECF announcement, then his tenure was 23 days.

This is shorter than the tenure of Andrew Martin, who resigned as Director of Chess for Schools 30 days after his appointment.

However, on the assumption that an unopposed candidate is most unlikely to be rejected by Council, the modern record is held by Sean Hewitt himself. In the autumn of 2006 he was Director of Home Chess for minus 12 days.

If someone were to be the only candidate for a directorship when nominations closed and were then to withdraw on the following day, I think that that person would set an unbeatable record of minus 37 days. No doubt John Philpott will correct me if I've got the details wrong.

Given the parlous state of the ECF's finances and the ridiculously (and unnecessarily) complicated nature of the ECF accounts, I am beginning to believe the job of Finance Director is simply 'undoable'. One wonders how long an organisation can continue without a Finance Director, because I'm sure this would look terribly bad to the DCMS if they ever bothered to investigate.

I sent Michael White a message on facebook yesterday. I'm not sure how much I can reveal given it was a private message, but suffice to say he has definetly stepped down as financial director. Which is a big shame, for many reasons.

I have to say that havind a non-renumerated post fo Finance Director which seems to have a lot of day-to-day responsibility is strange in an organisation that can afford an office and a paid staff team. I am not suggesting adding to the staff team, but a more conventional structure in a not-for-profit organisation would be a finance manager on the staff and an honorary treasurer on the board. This would be more likely to attract suitable candidates, and having a paid finance manager might lead to lower costs centrally.