English Chess Forum

Does anyone know whether the ECF is running a 2016 Book of the Year competition?
(This would normally be for books published between 1 July 2015 and 30 June 2016.)

There is nothing about it on the website - I have looked several times.

On 28 February I therefore sent an email enquiry to the ECF office asking about this.

So far nobody has deigned to acknowledge my enquiry let alone reply.

Tim Harding wrote:Does anyone know whether the ECF is running a 2016 Book of the Year competition?
(This would normally be for books published between 1 July 2015 and 30 June 2016.)

There is nothing about it on the website - I have looked several times.

On 28 February I therefore sent an email enquiry to the ECF office asking about this.

So far nobody has deigned to acknowledge my enquiry let alone reply.

Who did you e-mail? I normally get a reply from the office within an hour unless it is out of working hours.

How about an Ecf forum book of the year poll in the interim Tim?

Tim ---
Gary Willson, the office manager, was taking the minutes for the Board meeting on Friday [4/3/16]. I was in the office from 8.40am to 5.00pm, but if your email was sent to office address [[email protected]] Gary will no doubt deal with it on Monday [tomorrow]. If it was sent before last Friday then it's either on his to do list, or has already been forwarded to the person concerned - Stewart Reuben, current Chair of the Awards Committee. If so, no doubt he will reply shortly?
In the meantime, language like 'nobody has deigned to acknowledge my enquiry let alone reply' is not terribly helpful or fair-minded - the 2.4 staff (one is part-time) in the office do nothing but work, work, work and work, every weekday, to try and keep things running.
If it helps, Stewart's contact details are, as ever, here - http://www.englishchess.org.uk/about/ecf-officials/ - and his email address is - [email protected] ...

Nick Burrows wrote:How about an Ecf forum book of the year poll in the interim Tim?

An EC Forum book of the year poll would get more interest


Why not, though? We did a Player of the Year, after all.

Jonathan Bryant wrote:

Nick Burrows wrote:How about an Ecf forum book of the year poll in the interim Tim?

An EC Forum book of the year poll would get more interest


Why not, though. We did a Player of the Year, after all.

Ok, how about suggestions for the shortlist?

Mick Norris wrote:Ok, how about suggestions for the shortlist?

Presumably 'Joseph Henry Blackburne: A Chess Biography' would have to be top of the list?

I would suggest some titles if I had read any...

Andrew Walker wrote:Tim ---
Gary Willson, the office manager, was taking the minutes for the Board meeting on Friday [4/3/16]. I was in the office from 8.40am to 5.00pm, but if your email was sent to office address [[email protected]] Gary will no doubt deal with it on Monday [tomorrow]. If it was sent before last Friday then it's either on his to do list, or has already been forwarded to the person concerned - Stewart Reuben, current Chair of the Awards Committee. If so, no doubt he will reply shortly?
In the meantime, language like 'nobody has deigned to acknowledge my enquiry let alone reply' is not terribly helpful or fair-minded - the 2.4 staff (one is part-time) in the office do nothing but work, work, work and work, every weekday, to try and keep things running.
If it helps, Stewart's contact details are, as ever, here - http://www.englishchess.org.uk/about/ecf-officials/ - and his email address is - [email protected] ...

Sorry, I don't know any of the people in the ECF office and did not intend to upset anyone.

In Ireland we don't have anyone at all working for pay even part-time on chess organisation.
If ECF is too short-staffed to respond promptly to queries such as this (and yes I did write to that address) I would have thought:

i) Having an auto-response set up (as many organisations do) would at least reassure enquirers that they would eventually get an answer;
ii) Putting information such as I asked for up on the website would avoid many such enquiries being sent in the first place.
iii) Is answering reasonable enquiries such as mine not part of the work?

ECF (formerly BCF) has been running this competition for many years and it's the absence of any information that made (makes) me wonder whether it had now come to an end.
It's my publisher (in America) that needs the information so that they can enter any eligible books (criteria could have changed) that they consider worth submitting (not necessarily just mine) in sufficient quantities, to the right address, and by the deadline, whatever it is.

I do have Stewart's contact details but I wouldn't have considered troubling him with this. I assumed it was an office/admin matter.

Tim

The 2015 award was made in October - isn't end February a bit early to be asking about 2016?

Tim Harding wrote: I do have Stewart's contact details but I wouldn't have considered troubling him with this. I assumed it was an office/admin matter.

A decision on whether or not to make a particular award is not an office/admin matter. It's a policy issue within the remit of the Awards Committee, the current Chairman of which is Stewart Reuben.

If I were dissatisfied with the service which I were receiving from the ECF Office, I would complain privately to the Chief Executive, not publicly on two Forums.

Mick Norris wrote:

Jonathan Bryant wrote:

Nick Burrows wrote:How about an Ecf forum book of the year poll in the interim Tim?

An EC Forum book of the year poll would get more interest


Why not, though. We did a Player of the Year, after all.

Ok, how about suggestions for the shortlist?

I’m not sure if I’ve bought any books in the last year that are recent publications. Bought a lot of good old stuff second-hand though.

Jonathan Bryant wrote: I’m not sure if I’ve bought any books in the last year that are recent publications.

The forum couldn't emulate the ECF without knowing the month of publication. (The ECF uses a July to June year). In terms of 2015 publications, "Bologan's Ruy Lopez" should be on any list as an encyclopedic guide to white's ideas in the position after 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 .

Tim Harding wrote:
Sorry, I don't know any of the people in the ECF office and did not intend to upset anyone.

In Ireland we don't have anyone at all working for pay even part-time on chess organisation.
If ECF is too short-staffed to respond promptly to queries such as this (and yes I did write to that address) I would have thought:

i) Having an auto-response set up (as many organisations do) would at least reassure enquirers that they would eventually get an answer;
ii) Putting information such as I asked for up on the website would avoid many such enquiries being sent in the first place.
iii) Is answering reasonable enquiries such as mine not part of the work?

ECF (formerly BCF) has been running this competition for many years and it's the absence of any information that made (makes) me wonder whether it had now come to an end.
It's my publisher (in America) that needs the information so that they can enter any eligible books (criteria could have changed) that they consider worth submitting (not necessarily just mine) in sufficient quantities, to the right address, and by the deadline, whatever it is.

I do have Stewart's contact details but I wouldn't have considered troubling him with this. I assumed it was an office/admin matter.

I raised a similar concern a short while ago regarding nominations for ECF Website of the Year. The reply I got from Stewart was that the awards committee accept nominations throughout the year. I can see that others will experience similar difficulty in making nominations in each of the different categories.

Like you I would have expected to find the nomination procedure and list of categories on the website but there seems no editor or review panel to supervise the layout and content of the ECF website. I think that is asking too much for the webmaster to be the editor in addition to his normal responsibilities.

The ECF Office seems continually to pick up work that had previously been the responsibility of other ECF Officers, such as maintaining the list of Qualifiers for the British Championship.

Incidentally, I have always found the Office Manager, Gary Willson, to be very helpful and responsive.

Michael Flatt wrote: I raised a similar concern a short while ago regarding nominations for ECF Website of the Year. The reply I got from Stewart was that the awards committee accept nominations throughout the year. I can see that others will experience similar difficulty in making nominations in each of the different categories.

Like you I would have expected to find the nomination procedure and list of categories on the website but there seems no editor or review panel to supervise the layout and content of the ECF website. I think that is asking too much for the webmaster to be the editor in addition to his normal responsibilities.

The ECF Office seems continually to pick up work that had previously been the responsibility of other ECF Officers, such as maintaining the list of Qualifiers for the British Championship.

Incidentally, I have always found the Office Manager, Gary Willson, to be very helpful and responsive.

I have now received a satisfactory reply from Gary Willson at the ECF office.

It seems the competition will probably be going ahead during the summer and the ECF will contact the main publishers of chess books.