ECF officers

[Alex Holowczak]

Well, the last club AGM was held while I was playing a match for the club in another room, which was a little useless. But I've e-mailed the relevant person to find out about the Birmingham League AGM.

[Laurie Roberts]

To be fair; it's reasonable to expect an organisation to consults its members (directly or indirectly) for whom they have contact details. It's slightly less reasonable to expect organisations to represent people who play the game but who they have no contact details for. In swimming, you cna't compete unles you're a member of the ASA. I think Chess should be similar (doesn't have to be a large membership fee). That way, you'd have contact details for everyone and it'd be easier for the reps to consult their members.

[benedgell]

Pleased to say I've got the required nomination from the Yeovil Congress, so I'll be standing for the post of Publicity Officer in the upcoming election. Anyone who wants to ask me any questions on this subject, feel free to leave a message on here, send me a private message, or email me at [email protected]

[Roger de Coverly]

Pleased to say I've got the required nomination from the Yeovil Congress, so I'll be standing for the post of Publicity Officer in the upcoming election.

I think strictly speaking it's an appointed post rather than elected. That said, the Board might ask the meeting for an indicative vote if there is more than one candidate.

Managers and other Officers are appointed by the Board and by individual Directors and are not subject to election by Council. However, this is an appropriate time for anyone interested in this type of essential work to indicate their interest
to the Board through the ECF Office.

[benedgell]

Ah, very true. Appears I didn't read the small print quite carefully enough. Nevertheless, nice to have some support.

[David Pardoe]

Some interesting points.......why the lack of apparent interest in taking up posts...points already raised probably quite valid.
Fact..its always difficult to get volunteers in todays busy world, where we have become slaves to the work place, money, wealth/greed, materialism...etc...driven by our political masters...and the power barrons at the top of faceless conglomorates/industry, etc... many of whom care little about the long term interests of the Planet, or its well being/sustainablity.
They seem only concerned about GROWTH......as they plunder the worlds valuable and scarce resources for personnal gain.
We have the problem of world population, spiralling out of control....to which our `wonderful` Politicians seem to think can be solved by...guess what.....More growth!??? ...increasing production, etc..... Current predictions are for world population to rise from 6bn to 9bn by 2040 (I think...). A truely horrific prospect......Britain should close its borders to all but the most critical needs for the forseeable. But surely the solution to this is obvious.....we should actually be trying to reduce world population over the next 50 years or so by about 30%, maybe more ....to make for a sustainable planet. Yet non of our beloved `leaders` seems to have grasped this simple concept. I guess the rather horrible solution might be either some grizzily world pandemic, which wipes out large numbers of people, another world war (God forbid that too), mass starvation caused by environmental or other factors....or maybe, just maybe, someone will come up with a practical/acceptable `managed solution`..... borne of the realisation that the alternatives are too horrible to contemplate. But lets hope that we dont just wait till grim reality strikes...like ostriches with `head in sand` mentality....hoping that something will come up, or `technology` will provide the answers??
Maybe our `media`, who did such a good job at chopping our `greedy` politicians down to size, can galvanise our masters into action.
A slight digression from the subject....but a reminder that maybe if you are going to solve problems, some reality checks are important....self delusion/trickery is fatal.....
So what of our ECF filling posts....
PR and advertizing are important....I agree that in the past we might have failed in this department..
I do wonder if the ECF suffers slightly from its disjointed nature...being an assortment of loosely coupled bodies, many of whom have diverse interests and objectives. To call such an organisation a company might not make obvious sense.
To restructure could be worth considering....and to line up a set of ojectives that people/bodies can sign up to and identify with would be helpful.... eg funding....what we use it for....and who can provide it....? Very tricky.
My general view on this is to have an effective Membership scheme, which includes ALL...including far more juniors, and the bulk of rank and file players....a flat rate of £10 adults, £5 for juniors...with grades for all. Id love to see at least 25% of those Mega Final juniors with grades. With about 80,000 entrants...to have say 20,000 graded (members) would be great.....Mike Baseman has done a great job in generating this interest. Maybe a system of `automatic grades` for players reaching different stages could be tried....and maybe some membership incentives...like block membership for Schools/colleges/universities, could be tried...perhaps at £2 or £3 per head for all such school kids/youngsters.
But what our juniors really need most is encouragement...particularly those teenagers, who currently drift off, because they dont feel good enough to join the `master class` of our `seniors` leagues/clubs, etc. Our clubs and local organisations need an outreach programme to welcome these players of all standards....and help many of our ailing clubs to find new life.
They have so much to offer, and it is sad to see so much talent potential drift off into the night...it happens with so many sports.....the kids (and many adults), think to themselves....I`m not good enough to join the local club. There are pockets within many clubs where a select group will band together, regarding themselves as `far too good for the rif raff`....hopefully others will be more welcoming.

My point here is that if we could pull these things together, the ECF would probably get the `buy in` it is looking for....at least heading that way. I`ve said before that I think our flagship should be the BCF...its got great PR potential, and provided we were seen by all as a welcoming partnership, this broader church could stand us in good stead...but I recognise equally that many may want to `go it alone`. The cry for Nationalism tempts some, but can we not gain more by the power of unity, particularly if we want to be recognised on the world stage...can we afford independance...and will it benefit the membership.
A greater sence of identity would certainly help the cause, whether its ECF or BCF.....

Good Chessiing

[Michele Clack]

Benedgell

Enthusiasm and determination can get you a long way and it is good to see someone prepared to have a go. The big question is are you a person who is hard to discourage? It is easy to start off with enthusiasm but it can be difficult to sustain it and the ECF does seem to test people in that respect.

What about publicity for League Chess? Any thoughts? Personally I would like to see all clubs with a topnotch website. Is there any way that the ECF could help with that since many clubs lack the technical knowhow? There are a lot of people playing chess on the internet who might be interested in over the board chess if we could reach them.

[Carl Hibbard]

What about publicity for League Chess? Any thoughts? Personally I would like to see all clubs with a topnotch website. Is there any way that the ECF could help with that since many clubs lack the technical knowhow? There are a lot of people playing chess on the internet who might be interested in over the board chess if we could reach them.

There are quite a few of us with the technical knowledge - but this one could take up a lot of time?

I did toy (at one point...) with allowing clubs/leagues to have a free sub-domain off the bcfservices domain (as per the grading site...) but bottled out when considering the amount of work that may be involved and my own serious lack of free time anyway

Anyone else have thoughts?

[E Michael White]

I did toy (at one point...) with allowing clubs/leagues to have a free sub-domain off the bcfservices domain (as per the grading site...) but bottled out when considering the amount of work that may be involved and my own serious lack of free time anyway

Anyone else have thoughts?

If you were to do this, I expect you would need to provide a standard package and isolate yourself from support calls by a good FAQ list and a small team of help call/email volunteers.

[David Pardoe]

There are a couple of other things that clubs can do......and leagues
1. Press publicity...a note to the local Sports Editor asking for a mention in the `Forthcoming Events` section of the local weekly news paper..with some details of club activity, (often for FREE...) inviting players of all standards.......can yield good results. Also, leagues should make the effort to publish local chess league tables from time to time...with some contact details, so that those interested will see that there is real chess going on in there locality, and they are welcoming Joe Public to come along.....a few new members can often be breath of fresh air to a club, regardless of player standard....and provide valuable revenue! Yes, its great when some stronger players also show there faces. Awareness is very important...
It is vital that such new members are made welcome and introduced to other members....ensuring they are not just sat watching others, waiting to be invited...or worse..just ignored.
Clubs need to look at financing...far too many clubs and leagues seem to live on shoe string budgets, that can easily be eroded in leaner times...so I`d urge club secretaries/committees to be more pro active...set membership fees, etc at realistic rates.....and look to improve club premises with better funding in some cases. A dull and dingey club can be a real turn-off....a brightly lite, more spacious setting can lift club spirits and create a brighter atmosphere. Providing some basic club competitions for the members can also help...but I know many clubs where they are swamped by league fixtures. A good balance is important.

[Alex Holowczak]

What about publicity for League Chess? Any thoughts? Personally I would like to see all clubs with a topnotch website. Is there any way that the ECF could help with that since many clubs lack the technical knowhow? There are a lot of people playing chess on the internet who might be interested in over the board chess if we could reach them.

There are quite a few of us with the technical knowledge - but this one could take up a lot of time?

I did toy (at one point...) with allowing clubs/leagues to have a free sub-domain off the bcfservices domain (as per the grading site...) but bottled out when considering the amount of work that may be involved and my own serious lack of free time anyway

Anyone else have thoughts?

Will people from the clubs be willing to maintain them?

To submit an event to the calendar, you presumably have to fill in a form that lists information about it, and it then appears as an event in the calendar, that you click on to get more info. Why not have a similar system, where clubs can submit themselves as a club, and a list of clubs where you click on the club and it links to a page with more information on it? This can link to a club's website - if it exists - or have contact information, e.g. a phone number, contact e-mail etc.

So this page would just look like a list of clubs which are hyperlinks (sorted alphabetically, maybe), and each linking to a page (that looks like this, but with tournament-specific information. Fields might be Club night & times, contact person, contact e-mail, website, age range, and maybe a link to the page you'd see if you searched for that club in the grading database.

[benedgell]

Michele, firstly, thanks for the encouragement I haven't heard anything back from the ECF Office as to whether my application was successful or not, but I will be doing some PR work at The Tournament in Trafalgar Square http://www.englishchess.org.uk/index.ph ... &Itemid=50 which I'd encourage everyone to attend. Whether or not I'll be discouraged, well, only time can tell for certain, but I was match captain of Somerset for 3 years, and as any county match captain will tell you, it can be a tough business. I'd love to see more publicity for leagues, and as far as individual clubs go, I think something as small as just sending brief advertisements to schools, and public libraries could have a dramatic effect on a club's membership. Likewise each club having a website with contact details for club secretary, the address of their home venue. The problem is, it does require someone prepared to put time and effort into promoting their club, and in a lot of clubs there aren't people prepared to do it. On a slightly different note,I think David Pardoe made an excellent point in that it's not just getting people to attend an evening at a chess club, but also making it a worthwhile experience to continue attending.

[Carl Hibbard]

Chris Majer is undecided whether to stand for re-election as CEO
Peter Wilson is undecided whether to stand for re-election as Director of Marketing

Are these two still undecided do you know John?

[David Sedgwick]

Chris Majer is undecided whether to stand for re-election as CEO
Peter Wilson is undecided whether to stand for re-election as Director of Marketing

Are these two still undecided do you know John?

John may not feel able to comment, so I'll take the liberty of doing so.

I have no up to date information regarding Peter Wilson's intentions. Stewart Reuben will be standing for the position of Director of Marketing, as reported on another thread.

I understand that several Constituent Units* have expressed a willingness to nominate Chris Majer for re-election nothwithstanding his (in retrospect) unwise remarks at the April Council Meeting. If Chris agrees to accept nomination, then I think that he'll need to make a personal statement in the near future.

(*The Constituent Units are the five Unions, the London Chess League and the Manchester Chess Federation.)

[Matthew Turner]

I hope that Chris will decide to stay on as CEO, but in my opinion before he is nominated by anyone he has some difficult questions to answers. Top two might be
1. What is the current state of the Chess for Schools Project?
2. How much have the ECF spent on Chess for Schools so far and where has this money come from?