ECF Director elections for 2012/13

[Mick Norris]

Tromso is 1 - 14 August 2014 (starts on a Friday and finishes on a Thursday, interestingly if have this correct)

Have the dates of the 2014 Scottish Championship been fixed?

[William Metcalfe]

I tried to open the map for directions to the venue for some reason it would not open what railway station do i get of at Birmingham and how far away from the station is the venue

[IM Jack Rudd]

I tried to open the map for directions to the venue for some reason it would not open what railway station do i get of at Birmingham and how far away from the station is the venue

If it's the same venue as the 2011 Finance Council meeting, Birmingham New Street and not very far. Easily walkable.

[Mike Gunn]

Birmingham New Street is near enough, although I remember cycling past another station twice while looking for the venue. I recommend printing a street map off the internet to take with you - the usually reliable Google Maps on my mobile failed to find the venue and resulted in an extended tour of central Birmingham by cycle for me.

[John Philpott]

William Metcalfe wrote

I tried to open the map for directions to the venue for some reason it would not open what railway station do i get of at Birmingham and how far away from the station is the venue

This seems to be a leftover Word document on the website - I will ask the webmaster to PDF it. The Ibis website indicates that it is 0.50 km/0.31 miles from Birmingham New Street Station: it is slightly further but walkable from Moor Street.

[John Philpott]

The webmaster has now replaced the Word version of the map with a PDF.

[Alex McFarlane]

Have the dates of the 2014 Scottish Championship been fixed?

No. For reasons which will shortly become obvious the dates have not been fixed. In an ideal world it should be possible to have the Scottish+, the British and then the Olympiad following each other. Possibly with the South Wales open at the beginning of this allowing people to enjoy a summer of chess in Britain before heading off to Norway.

[William Metcalfe]

Thanks all

[Alex Holowczak]

Birmingham New Street is near enough, although I remember cycling past another station twice while looking for the venue. I recommend printing a street map off the internet to take with you - the usually reliable Google Maps on my mobile failed to find the venue and resulted in an extended tour of central Birmingham by cycle for me.

You cycled past Birmingham Moor Street, but that was because you went the wrong way. If you go the correct way from Birmingham New Street, you should go nowhere near it.

(At least, I hope you cycled past Birmingham Moor Street. That's the station you hit if you come out of the station and turn left. If you turn right, you are heading in the right direction. It would take special effort to find any of Birmingham's other stations by coming out of New Street and heading vaguely for the Council meeting.)

[Mike Gunn]

You're right, Alex, it was Moor Street. In my defence I should cite a confusing one way system, a lack of street signs and the version of Google Maps I was using lacked an option for cyclists. Now I have had a bit more practice it is slightly easier to find.

[Lara Barnes]

The Ideal dates for The British 2014, in my opinion, would be at the start (early that year) of the English Summer holidays: Saturday 19th - Thursday 31st July, with an adjusted time scale (as in the days of the week) of the various events.
It is traditional to have the British starting on a Monday but there is no practical problem that I see in starting it on the Sunday for instance.
The Welsh, Scottish and Commonwealth being before this and at least 48 hours to get to Tromso after the event should please most people.

[Neil Graham]

I refer to a thread many months ago when John Philpott supplied useful statistics; elections will be uncontested as no-one wants the jobs in the first place. There are plenty of people who will indulge in mud-slinging and shouting "Clique" however I'm guessing now that the ECF will have great difficulty filling the posts let alone holding elections.

Of the actual Directorships (excluding Chairman and non-execs), to date three out of six are not standing for election to date. Add to that the disquiet expressed about the Marketing Director and President who have both come in for a deal of criticism on here and elsewhere. Looks to me like a meltdown. Of course the Board may have candidates in place; if so I'd like to hear who they might be.

I've looked the figures up now - in the last five years of the BCF there were two contested elections for 50 directorships; in the first four years of the ECF ten elections for 42 posts - but this interest rapidly died away; in the last two years just one contested election out of twenty possible. So roughly there is a 1 in 9 chance of having a contested election; in the other 8 cases the nominee is returned unopposed.

So now that the dust has settled what do we have? No elections at all for any of the main directorships of the ECF; indeed no-takers for two of the most important posts.

Alex McFarlane informed us "I believe there will be at least two or possibly three contested elections, assuming the current holders stand again........There is a strong possibility that one of the posts will have three candidates." All that came to nothing - no-one wanted the jobs at all. A few people have moved the deckchairs round on the Titanic moving from one seat to another.

What I've learned from all this is

1) There are plenty of people both on this forum and outside ever ready to criticise the ECF at the slightest opportunity. Many of them believe that the ECF is some sort of clique where jobs are doled out . The facts are no-one wants the jobs in the first place especially those who are the keenest to make derisory comments.

2) It has become even more apparent that the ECF is an amateur organisation run by amateurs. The sort of people that might turn chess round would cost £000s (or one week's salary of a Premier Division footballer). Unless something dramatic happens that's the way things will stay.

3) The role of President should be abolished. We have had a "name" president in Steve Davies who accomplished nothing, a "game" President in Gerry Walsh who spent his time holding onto the title long after he should have stepped down and was in constant conflict with the CEO and finally a "lame" President in CJ who to be fair raised badly needed money for the British Championships but courted controversy in everything he did or indeed didn't do. We now have just one candidate for the Presidency who already seems destined to want to change things put into place just a few months ago. What the ECF needs is a CEO, the President should be some titled individual who appears on the notepaper and that's it.

4) The ECF has one big event a year, the British Championships on which it is judged. This event is too important to be run by a "Manager".
Please get a Director back to organise this one event - too important to be subsumed into Home Chess.

5) The ECF/BCF have had several Marketing Directors - their performance have varied from abject to ineffective (the best). Until we can find someone with actual time and experience to make a proper job of this do we really need a Director?

6) This country is no place to play professional chess. How many professional chess players are there? When our number one player is advising others not to play in the national championship we know just how low morale is. Interesting to see therefore a call for money to be handed back to amateur players.

I look forward to the ECF General Meeting to see what solutions it can come up with.

[Roger de Coverly]

It is traditional to have the British starting on a Monday but there is no practical problem that I see in starting it on the Sunday for instance.

You could have the traditional 11 rounds and finish on the Wednesday by playing on the middle Sunday as well. The potential play off could be a problem if people were expecting to travel on the Thursday, so a morning or early start might be necessary for the last round to give room for a play off. But you might get another Pert v Jones battle as in Sheffield.

[Lara Barnes]

4) The ECF has one big event a year, the British Championships on which it is judged. This event is too important to be run by a "Manager".
Please get a Director back to organise this one event - too important to be subsumed into Home Chess.

5) The ECF/BCF have had several Marketing Directors - their performance have varied from abject to ineffective (the best). Until we can find someone with actual time and experience to make a proper job of this do we really need a Director?

I agree absolutely with Neil on these points. The Director can appoint an 'Organiser' and 'Chief Arbiter 'of The British Championships amongst other positions but should be someone who can act on the board for the good of the event.

[Sean Hewitt]

The Ideal dates for The British 2014, in my opinion, would be at the start (early that year) of the English Summer holidays: Saturday 19th - Thursday 31st July, with an adjusted time scale (as in the days of the week) of the various events.

I wonder how many of the circa 900 people likely to attend the 2014 British will be planning to rush off to Tromso straight afterwards, if the dates allow it?