Firstly, I have just suggested that the posts in the last two and a half pages should be moved to the Counties Championships thread.
Mike Truran wrote: ↑Wed Mar 07, 2018 10:10 am
I’m not really sure how a proposal to remove Alex from involvement in the Union stages can easily be construed as anything other than an attack on him.
I think you meant to refer to my proposal to remove Alex from involvement in the
National stages.
Let me try to explain my reasoning.
In an employment situation, you have to do things of which you don't approve, or give up the pay cheque at the end of the month.
In a voluntary organisation you don't. You can always walk away.
For this reason, voluntary organisations normally have provisions that enable them to step outside the strict terms of the job description in order to ensure that particular functions can be run by people who have an interest and a belief in, and a commitment to, the function in question. The ECF Directors and Officers Responsibilities Regulations contain provisions of this kind.
I make no secret - how could I? - that I am passionately committed to retaining the link between the Union Qualifying Stages and the National Stages of the Counties Championships. I don't think that it can be disputed that that view is widely held, albeit not universally held. As things stand, Council will decide next month.
Alex does not share my opinion and has long taken a different view. Back in 2010 he advocated a system very similar to that which he is proposing now. See
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1801&start=120 and the subsequent discussion (including ferocious criticism from me).
Alex seems to have a particular talent for devising and implementing new ideas. The British Blitz Championship looks tremendous and I also like his suggestion of an online National Club Championship.
On the Counties Championships, Council may agree with Alex. In that event I am sure that he will bring his energies to bear on seeking to make a success of the new arrangements.
On the other hand, Council may agree with me. In that scenario I think that it would be better for the ongoing responsibility for the Counties Championships to rest with people who approve of the decision. That would be almost certainly be true of a Committee of the five Unions. It would not necessarily be true of ECF Directors of Home Chess, now and in the future.
I don't accept that my proposal constitutes a personal attack.
However, there is one respect in which I owe Alex an apology.
The similarity between Alex's ideas in 2010 and his current proposals let me to suspect that at least some of the latter might have been predetermined ahead of the consultation. Both Alex, on this Forum, and you (Mike), in a private message which I hope that you won't mind my now disclosing, have categorically stated that that was not the case.
I entirely accept those assurances and I should like to take this opportunity to withdraw my earlier suspicion and to apologise to Alex.