The future - 2011 and beyond.

[Krishna Shiatis]

Yes it is a shame that Lawrence cannot take on the role fully as everyone is clearly behind him and he will obviously be a good choice. Unfortunately the current ECF policies do not allow him to take on both directorships.

However, if Lawrence was to find someone that he could work with and trust, I am sure that the new Junior Director could hand over the International responsibility over to Lawrence to overlap with his current directorship. This would take a big weight off the new director's hands. They would of course work together and plan the selections. I am sure the new director will want to consider various selection processes and not just one selection tournament and it might be a nice idea for the new director to hear the voices of the current active parents, as they are the ones who will be truly affected by the change and not the director.

Then the junior director can focus on introducing more junior tournaments. The chance to achieve more national titles would be a nice thing. Jovanka and I have started to run the National Girls' Chess Championships which consists of four qualifiers and a final and there could be another general junior tournament like this, and not just for girls.

I really hear what people are saying about no official England team. This is something I have been wondering about for ages - it is rather crazy that there isn't one! We are trying to resurrect the England Girls team at the moment and it would be nice if International events could be organised for the England team and England Girls' team. This is something that Loz could also help with.

I LOVE Krishna's ideas regarding teaching as it is well structured and motivated. It is also a social thing. Jovanka and I will be running similar events over the summer so watch this space
This is something the new Junior Director can work with Andrew Martin with as he is in charge of coaching. If the new Junior Director works closely with all his fellow colleagues and the workload is shared out, then it will be less of a burden and I think more successful.

I am confident we can find someone who can work with Loz and Andrew in order to get the best for our children. We have a lot of people working hard already to get more children playing chess, so if we all work together, I think English chess can be a success.

Hi Sabrina,

Thank you for your kind words. You have summarised my hopes for the future very neatly. I also LOVE your ideas on women's chess. I think that they are excellent and together with Jovanka, you are making good progress in the right direction. It is lovely and much appreciated that you have said to listen to the parents; this is an excellent step in the right direction.

I also agree very much with Carol Williams (difficulties with the system/problems at the moment) and Paul Sanders (Official England National Squad).

Thank you also to Sean, offering your delegate vote. It does help us to guage other opinions and feel supported.

If things do change, then I think it will help junior chess and ultimately all other areas of chess as well.

Best wishes to all,

Krishna

[David Sedgwick]

However, if Lawrence was to find someone that he could work with and trust, I am sure that the new Junior Director could hand over the International responsibility over to Lawrence to overlap with his current directorship. This would take a big weight off the new director's hands.

I've already suggested, or at least alluded to the possibility, that the Board might wish redefine the responsibilities of the International and Junior Directorships along these lines.

I think it is quite wrong to regard Council's rejection of Lawrence's motion as indicating a wish to preclude him from deploying his talents and time to the benefit the ECF even more than he does now. That can be achieved within the current framework without needing to change the Articles.

[David Sedgwick]

This is very interesting and perhaps one of the key issues that needs addressing, if as you say often the delegates don't care then how can any of us hope to change the ECF? Is it a good idea for the delegate contact details to be on the ECF website? At least that way players could contact their delegate easily

If you click here, you can download the information you require. Not all of the contact information there, but that'll be because either:
(a) They opted out of providing it
(b) They don't have computers, so didn't provide an e-mail address
(c) They never returned the letter asking for this information (it was in the same mail that had the letter to return to say whether or not you were attending Council).

This is a recent initiative by John Philpott (Chairman of the Governance Committee) in response to previous similar representations. The form enclosed with the Council mailing was a new one.

I suspect that there may be a fourth reason for the current incomplete nature of the information:
(d) The list on the ECF website has not yet been updated to reflect all the responses received.

I would hope that we’ll have far more complete coverage in the run-up to the October Council Meeting, which is when the information will really be needed.