| August 1999 | Newsletter of the British Chess Federation | Online Edition |
WHERE ARE WE GOING?We wish Sarah Hurst (pictured right) well in her new career in Azerbaijan. When Tony Suttill appointed her as editor, it was in the full expectation that the nature of ChessMoves would need to change. It is impossible to compete with the many other sources of information. We have always seen much of what is going to be in ChessMoves long before it appears in print. Thus Sarah was appointed to add her individualistic voice to the general clamour for attention.
It is time to think again. Many of you have access to the web or at least e-mail. Why not just post the information on the BCF web-site, when Howard Curtis makes it fully operational? Alternatively you could be sent e-mails. I prepared this note 4 July. Why wait for its appearance until August? There would be a considerable saving to the BCF. However, this might be illusory if you then made a paper copy.
The objectives of ChessMoves are: to communicate with the Direct Members and journalists; to provide a valuable product which induces people to take out membership and thus raises funds. According to Howard's initial appraisal, it costs as much to administer the Direct Membership Scheme as it brings in. We do not practise cross-charging so that it is difficult to establish this. Howard is new to national chess administration. We have high hopes he will be able to bring this type of lateral thinking to our long-established practices. When a survey was carried out, many members said one of their principal reasons for paying the fee was to support the BCF. When I initially suggested we adopt such a scheme in 1985, the fee postulated was £45. There was huge support for this level at Council, but the argument in the BCF always democratically ends up with minimising charges. One of the problems is that there have been few new ideas concerning benefits to members since the original conception.
Similar arguments can be expressed about the Yearbook. One of its most valuable functions is the address list. This could appear on the web and be updated regularly. People can be provided with it on disk when they purchased their January BCF Rating List. Historians would be deprived of a valuable document, unless both ChessMoves and the Yearbook were made available in paper form as well as electronically.
When it became clear we would have difficulty preparing a sensible budget this year, I offered to edit ChessMoves voluntarily from October for six months. This provided an important piece in a jigsaw of cuts. Then Sarah resigned (perfectly honourably) to pursue her career. Howard has prevailed on me to take on the editorship for six months from this issue. I did not favour this. My time is very limited while still chairman. Also, I believe the affairs of an organisation should not be so concentrated in the hands of one person. The advantage is that this does provide us with a breathing space to consider the whole matter.
Your views on the future of our publication, or other matters, would be most welcome, especially if you are happy solely to receive the magazine by e-mail.
Please communicate them to me direct:
E-mail:
Sreuben@compuserve.com
11 Bevan Court, Clevedon Road, Twickenham, TW1 2TS