What are the 5 biggest problems with the USCF which need to be improved ASAP in order for the USCF to become a viable organization?
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I was hoping you could tell us.
1. Market chess. Let’s see if we can get a chess icon like Hikaru on a Wheaties cereal box or Ray Robson on a commercial break on cartoon network.
2. Acquire sponsorships. Spread the wealth among professionals, adults and scholastics. I.e. bigger prize funds at the US Open. Also fund chess training for the elite youth and see if we can produce another American World champion. Financial aid for those who are in need of memberships or entry fees. Bigger scholarships to any choice of university.
3. Increase college chess programs. The more college players there are, the more likely high school students will want to continue playing. This is key to retain our youth into adult chess play.
4. End the politics and unite to work together for a better federation. Let’s see if we can have a million dollar surplus instead of losing money as in the past few years.
5. Promote chess all across the board. Let’s increase the number of females who play. Let’s get Blitz chess on ESPN. Let’s see if we can double the number of USCF membership we have today in the next 3 – 5 years.
Anything is possible with the right kind of leadership. Vote smart and vote your conscience.
The USCF is much too political. The OMOV process has over politicized almost every facet of the organization. The USCF needs to return to a corporate model where the Board of Directors set policy, the Policy Board ensures policy is practiced between Delegate (the Delegates are the Board of Directors) meetings, and the Executive Director operates the corporation free of political pressure.
In short, the first thing we do is get rid of ALL the politicians.
BTW, everyone seems to have forgotten that today is the birthday of America’s greatest ever player, and perhaps the greatest chess genius the world has ever seen, Paul Morphy.
Morphy would be 170 today…
Re “corporate model”: the USCF pretends to be a members’ organization when in reality it’s more like a trade association for TD’s, as shown in the makeup of the delegates and the pre-OMOV “voting members”. That’s fine, but if it wants to be that way, it should stop pretending to be something different. Its practices revolve around one kind of event–the big Swiss sandbagging contest. Again that’s fine, but only about 25% of USCF members actually play in those things and that doesn’t count the ones who quit over the years. Finally one of the USCF’s biggest cash sinks is publishing that magazine. Once again there’s nothing wrong with wanting to subscribe to a magazine, but a lot more of us get our chess news from Susan’s blog without depleting natural resources to make a printed magazine and ship it around the country.
All in all, the USCF has this entrenched inner identity and it’s dysfunctional because it’s trying to be something else to the outside world. It should go back to its roots and concentrate on that 25% of its members and abandon the rest. An organization for the vast majority of US chessplayers should operate completely differently from the USCF. The USCF is not the answer.
Remove crackpots.
Become progressive.
Increase sponsorship.
Bring prestige.
Return romanticism.
1. Promote top players to have an American World Champion and Team Champions.
2. Promote rank and file players.
3. Offer membership without magazine. I get all of me news from internet and do not need magazine.
4. Corporate Sponsorship! Must have this or none of above will work.
5. Internet Chess/Sales. ICC Club is where I love to play chess. I love Chess sites for online purchases.
Make the local tournament director test easier to pass(the questions are NOT in the rulebook!)…more directors=more members!!!!
Steve Owens is right. It’s not just about corporate governance. A better structure would free the Exec. Director to do his or her job and help mobilize the grass roots membership.
Of course, the biggest problem facing the USCF right now is generating revenue. That’s a problem that most membership organizations face, but not to the degreee that it plagues USCF. Sadly, there’s money out there that the current organization seems unable to tap into.
Forget about TV and cereal boxes. We have more immediate problems. For a start, let’s sign up all those people who are right now playing serious chess in local clubs and commercial leagues. You’d be amazed at how many don’t join USCF. Let’s figure out a way to make USCF attractive to them.
Let’s figure out a way to support our GMs. Let’s figure out a way to develop and retain new talent. Role models are important. Where are ours? We lost a whole generation of talented young players who walked away from chess.
On the amateur level, USCF and others, seem to be doing a better job at popularizing scholastic chess. Now let’s try to figure out a way to keep the teenagers from dropping chess in favor of other activities. Publicizing college chess is a good idea, but I am not sure the feeder school system that works so well for basketball and football, will work as well for chess. We need to do more if we’re going to keep more teens. (This, btw, is a common problem faced by youth organizations. It’s next to impossible to retain more than a small percentage of teen members.)
Anyway, just some thoughts.
The number one thing that will help chess gain popularity in the US is the participation of a US player in the World Championship. It is a crying shame that the USCF did not think to help Gata secure a second in his qualification matches; if he had been able to defeat Gelfand, it would have been the best thing for US chess since Fischer. So helping participants in the elimination matches find seconds should be a high priority.
Of course, we must take the long view, and do our best to help someone like Ray Robson or Ellen Xiang develop into world-class competitors. Providing such budding talents with training and opportunities for international competition should be a high priority for the USCF.
Chris, and you think your 4 choices for EB will be able to do that? Who will find sponsors? Who will negotiate with sponsors? Where would you find the money to fund these events?