Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Olympiad Appeal Now


The 2008 Olympiad in Dresden is slated to take place from 12 November to 25 November later this year. That's not too far off. Hence, I was wondering when the Australian Chess Federation will begin their Olympiad funding efforts as I'd not seen any references to it either on their website or in their latest email newsletter. But lo and behold, according to this, the problem seems to be that these guys don't currently have an Olympiad Appeal Coordinator.

I've no idea what the job specs are for that role, but it is a terribly critical position that will hopefully be filled fairly soon. So if you think you've got the goods, drop those ACF dudes a quick line.

On the other hand, time is quickly running out. We can only hope that the ACF will have already laid down some contingency plans in case the coordinator's role isn't filled. I read somewhere some advance suggestions on how to go about this year's appeal: raffle tickets, setting up Paypal, guess the team competitions, etc. But the simplest is probably to just call for donations now! Frankly, I don't see why not.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

And what is preventing you from putting up your hand?

Anonymous said...

AR puts in a fair whack of time with this blog - it serves a very useful purpose in publicising events and issues.

If every person took on just one thing, we would be flooded with volunteers......

Jenni

DeNovoMeme said...

"And what is preventing you from putting up your [AR] hand?"

Probably the fact that it is on a key board creating, an important part of the chess culture of this country, you dickhead.

Anonymous said...

What's stopping you from putting up your hand to "own" your comment?

Anonymous said...

Thank you all for your comments, what am I doing for this chess culture that you are talking about?
Let's see, I have conducted one tournament where 34 players took part, I have initiated an interclub series between 4 country chess clubs, plus regular matches between 2 of those clubs. I have organised for two GM's to conduct lecture/simuls in a small town of 3000 population.
Got a clue who you are talking to yet?
Yes it is me, Phil Bourke. Hello Matt and Jenny, good to see you are quick to jump to the defence of Amiel.
Now seeing as I am one volunteer who is doing more than one thing, I feel qualified to ask why others are not doing more.

Anonymous said...

Always good to put a name to your comment you will get a different reaction..... There are many anons who post here, who are quick to criticise and slow to do anything.

You are doing a lot and that is great to see.

The comments still remain true - this blog is a fantastic resource and would take up a lot of Amiel's time. I have from time to time asked him to publicise something for me and it has always happened.

I think Amiel did the right thing in drawing the chess playing population's attention to the fact that this is an Olympic year but no fund raising is being done due to a lack of a coordinator.

Hopefully one of the legion of people who do nothing (not you, me, Libby, Amiel or even Matt), will answer his call.

Jenni

Anonymous said...

Thanks Jenny,
A gentle jibe if I may, in life, as in chess, never ASSUME. :)
Granted that Amiel's work with this blog is tremendous, never even questioned that. But the gentlemen has displayed a passion and a talent to me that could be utilised even more :)
So, in the spirit of co-operation, how about Amiel and I joining together to run the fund-raising, Amiel to open the doors and create the contacts, me doing the backstage job of trying to keep all the contacts and such informed about what is taking place.
I know that this is in conflict with your statement about those already doing enough doing more, but as a good friend told me a while back, there are only two types of people when it comes to these sort of things, those that are willing to do the work, and those willing to let them!!!!!
Phil

DeNovoMeme said...

Phil, Phil, Phil. Very naughty of you to bait the hook and have us bite. LOL :-) Anyway, keep up he good work with the country teams.

Anonymous said...

Phil - a little background is a useful thing.

Those of us who have been around awhile, will remember a previous Amiel, who hated volunteering and continuously sniped at those who did. Bleeding hearts he called them I think.

Anyway he is proof of a long held theory of mine, that there is no such thing as a non-volunteer, only someone who hasn't found their voluntering niche.

However given his previous history, I suspect getting him to add to his community obligations might be a step too far.....

Jenni