English Chess Forum

I gather the results will be published later
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Yes - Candidates informed first.

I had expected it to be up by now - there does seem to be a bit of a hold up - most unusual from out very efficient webmaster. Might be a misunderstanding about when I wanted it. Anyway all candidates have written to me since they were informed so it seems reasonable to announce that the elected candidates were Tim Wall and John Reyes. Voting was relatively competitive but I'll leave the figures for the web announcement. Thanks to those who have posted here for respecting the (implied) request for confidentiality.

Congratulations to John Reyes and commiserations to Stephen Westmoreland.

Yes, well done John, commiserations to Stephen & Jonathan

Shame Tim Wall got in though.

Congratulations to John and Tim for getting through on the Silver Member’s vote. It was an interesting experience going for an election and fantastic to speak to all those who reached out, make new friends and contacts. Great to see two quality and passionate candidates in.

"Congratulations to John and Tim for getting through on the Silver Member’s vote. It was an interesting experience going for an election and fantastic to speak to all those who reached out, make new friends and contacts. Great to see two quality and passionate candidates in."

A very dignified response - nice to see.

I wonder how many of the Silver Members simply voted for the 'status quo' without considering the merits of the new candidates.

I am opposed to the current Council voting system but I am also opposed to one member one vote since so few members have any significant concerns about the way the ECF is run except for the annual cost of membership. The current Council system is flawed, in my mind, because many Council members, not unreasonably, are only concerned about their small area and not the bigger picture.

I don't know of a system which would give a vote to all 'active' members would be, or even how to define active. Certainly in the active category would be players with more than x games on the rating list, congress organisers, and members reps (despite my concerns above).

Alex, I think most of us with an awareness of how the ECF is put together share all of your doubts, though perhaps not quite so pessimistically. Most Council members, though they do have a duty to fight their own corners, are also ready to recognise other concerns and seek to resolve them. Unfortunately, it is easy to see the ways in which a system does not function ideally but exceedingly hard to devise solutions - or at any rate solutions that do not produce their own difficulties in turn. Added to all that, of course, is the difficulty of convincing 3/4 of Council that a better solution has been found, which effectively imposes a process of change by step-by-step toe dipping and which in itself is likely to produce subtle power shifts that send out their own alarm bells.

There were 168 votes cast; I assume that means that 84 silver members voted?

We've discussed before the difficulty of votes where there are 2 places and a few candidates; it would seem Tim's particular campaigning style is successful

Not all voters selected two candidates. There were actually 90 people voting.

Michael Farthing wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 27, 2021 11:20 am

Not all voters selected two candidates. There were actually 90 people voting.

Are the voting figures available anywhere yet?

Not yet. I have spoken to the office today and I understand that there is other urgent stuff on hand and I respect their judgement in this. I decided yesterday to announce the successful candidates on here because speculation was growing, but did so with misgiving as I feel formal announcements should come first on the ECF website. I feel that more clearly about the actual voting figures. ( I do not think it possible for me to make an announcement here that is only informal - or at any rate that would be seen as informal).

Edit: The website announcement is now in place. If you have been looking recently bear is mind that you may need to refresh (usually F5) for changes to be visible. This may need to be done twice: first on the main page to get the DMR announcement at the top of the history and secondly on the DMR page itself.

Results

Jonathan-Miller – 31 votes
John Reyes – 46 votes
Tim Wall – 57 Wall
Steve Westmoreland – 34 votes

Bear in mind most people voting will be completely unaware of any statements here (or anywhere else).

A few years ago, I produced a list of ECF officials and asked cub colleagues who these people were and what they did. A couple of them had some idea but most didn't and also didn't care, they just wanted to play chess. I don't think that club was especially dopy. Most of the members just wanted a grading, a few didn't even care about that. (I even proudly said I had played then England international Jon Speelman in a tournament and most members had never heard of him!)

Even at a Surrey AGM, the delegate to ECF meetings quite rightly asked for whom to vote. Most people just looked blank.