Saturday, November 24, 2007

Off to England!

Apologies for the lack of updates over the last couple of days. Terribly busy at work! Plus, of course, there's this trip over to the UK that I just actually finished packing for right at this moment. After many late nights and running around over the last couple of days, I'm just about ready to hit that Qantas skybed on QF1. I fly out this afternoon.

Now, of course, today is the federal election in this country. But more than this election, those in the New South Wales chess community will also be thinking about another choice in leadership: who to vote for as their next association president in this afternoon's NSWCA annual general meeting in Rooty Hill. Sadly, I will not be there.

My bet is that most of the same guys will retain their positions. The truth is no matter how much we may complain about the association's performance, there's hardly anyone else who's willing to put their hands up! And those who do, perhaps out of some momentary surge of idealistic passion to make a difference, will quickly realise that the business of council is largely uninteresting and occupies plenty of time if it's at all to be taken seriously.

And here's another thing: running a chess association demands certain skill sets. How many in the pool of chess players actually know something about organising a tournament? How many understand the basic arithmetic of the ratings system? How many understand the politics of chess?

I leave you with those for now. Good luck to everybody, have a great time in whatever, as I am sure I will. After the UK, I'll be visiting Amsterdam for a few days too. I hope to get in some chess when I'm there. See you soon!

4 comments:

Ryan said...

Hope you enjoy your time in the UK. I have relatives in the Netherlands and have visited Amsterdam a few times, so I hope you enjoy it there to! :)

Anonymous said...

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Peter Long said...

Might I suggest you tell those who need it that there is a FIDE Chess Administrators Management Course being held in Singapore from 18-21 Decembe 2007? FIDE General Secretary Ignatius Leong hope it will address exactly what you say about needing skills to run a chess asociation!

ejh said...

How many in the pool of chess players actually know something about organising a tournament? How many understand the basic arithmetic of the ratings system?

I'd guess that nearly all of them understand the latter and very few the former.