Yea, I’ll try to keep this short, but that might be hard. Anyway:
For the first time ever in ACF (Alabama Chess Federation) history, the state scholastic individual championships will be held all day on Sunday, just because one person has decided that it will be so. He didn’t recieve any complaints from Jewish people that want it on a Sunday, and he is recieving complaints from Christian people who don’t want it on a Sunday, but he still won’t change the date
USCF said they were sorry, but they couldn’t do anything about it - state federations have their rights
Because of that, the highest rated highschooler (by at least 100 points) will not be able to compete in the tournament
So, what do you think should be done to prevent this from happening in the future? True, none of this would have happened had the elected ACF president not resigned (and with him, all the other elected officials 4), but should the USCF have the power to stop someone from organizing a state championship so that the highest rated can’t participate in it? Should any type of scholastic state championship be held on a Sunday unless many (at least 25%) of the participants request it to be so?
Thanks
EDIT: I made a statement that I had no right to make nor proof of it (before I was told it was wrong). Therefore I feel it fitting to remove it from the post.
No. This is a local matter. If you don’t like what your state officials are doing, run for office and vote them out. If you really think what they are doing constitutes malfeasance, you can ask the Delgates in August to decertify the chapter, but if you just don’t like the decisions they’ve made, you’ll have to live with it until the next election.
Tournaments happen on a Saturday and on a Sunday. It would be best having a one day tournament on a Saturday then a Sunday. If the President had to organize the event on a short notice, as state chapter tournaments needs to be organized month or even a whole year.
Having a scholastic tournament at the state level, are run between December and April on average. Even that Alabama is not a snow belt state, most major scholastic events will happen in the winter months. As a chess tournament is a indoor event, scholastic tournaments happen in the winter as activities are designed for indoor during the winter season. As the school year runs from September till June, there are little or no scholastic events during the Summer. As a scholastic chess coach will not be able to build a new team till September, it will take the coach till some time in December before having a team roster or players ready for their first major scholastic event. Even with a individual level, it will take some time to get the player ready for the tournament.
As it looks like the scholastic event was formated for date and site at the last few months or weeks before the event date. It could be very simple, all the Saturday dates were booked up for the whole season. The organizer could have two different choices out of many, accept a Sunday, or cancell the event.
The Alabama Chess Federation, should have the site and date set for the Scholastic Individual Championships before June 2005, for the 2006 Scholastic Individual Championships.
I agree, however, I’m sure they’ll find out that their participation will decrease quite a bit since the majority of Americans are Christians.
I was forced to run one of our State tournaments on a Sunday, but I got a decent showing. The organizer could have had a good reason, such as only one facility to run it at and conflicts throughout the month…
But I’m sure there will be enough outcry to push up a red flag.
True, he might have good reason, and he might drop attendence, but that still won’t change the matter after the fact. But, from what everyone has said, it is best to have quite a few months to plan a state championship, and because of chaos in the ACF (previous president resigned, and current president says he took all the papers and information with him) we only have about 2 months. It does stink, but from what I gather, not a whole lot can be done about it, other than sit tight and hope for better organization next year. Thanks for your imput everyone.
However, as to preventing it from happening in the future, maybe the USCF could require that there be a set date and place by January or something like that (since, idealy, the championships should be held in winter) and if there is no set date submitted, than the USCF can get on the state affiliate’s case, and maybe even take over (take this case, where we were left in a state of chaos - maybe the USCF should have organized the state championships?). Just some thoughts, but thanks again everyone!
It could have also been a situation that his only option was to run it on a Sunday, for example, if he had it planned out 6 months in advance and all of the sudden there was something else that was scheduled at that time… he may not have won the fight over the space (eg, a Basketball game vs a Chess tournament will win everytime), so his only resort was on a Sunday.
Being a Christian or a person without faith is not the main reason why Sunday tournaments are worse then Saturday. There are a number of chess players who are Christians that never go to any Sunday events. Its’ a factor for any organizer, but any day in the weekend is good for some players and worse for others.
Any major event will be on more then one day, the major events have three days. Talking with players at the 3 day events, have a harder time with a Friday then a Sunday. As a Friday the person has to take a personal day off, or finding personal reasons why the Friday is worse then a Saturday or a Sunday.
The SuperNationals III will be a scholastic event and will be a 3 day event. It starts on a Friday and ends on a Sunday. Have never found one parent make the statement, they will not go to the tournament because it ends on a Sunday. If Sundays do decrease 3 day events, they can start the event on a Thursday and end it on a Saturday.
There are players that can only make a Sunday event and players that can only make a Saturday event. For a organizer its’ just a wash having the event on a Saturday or a Sunday.
With having only 8 weeks from the time the site and date set, to the time it starts is a very short time to organize any event. With it only being a 8 week window, the event will be small and weak. Scholastic organizers want to have the dates set up a year or close to a year before the event. Scholastic coaches want to understand the dates before the official start of the school year. As the coach can tell the parents what are the dates of the events, and how many they will be going to in the school year. Asking the parents in September is much better then asking in January.
As the parents will drive to the event, they would need to plan to have that day open. As some parents will need to take a personal day off even if its’ a Saturday or a Sunday. Not everyone has the weekends as their day off from work.
High School Football is on a Friday, college is on a Saturday, the National Football League and American Football League on a Sunday.
There are other factors why Sundays are not good, it could be church or even football. The main reason is personal to each and every person. When players tell me why they could not come to a Saturday or Sunday event, it was because of work or for personal reasons. There is no majory reason why a person will not come to the event. There are personal reasons for not going to a event because of the time controls. There is no organizer or director able to make everyone happy with the site or the dates, or with the time controls.
You seem to have the answer to everything, don’t you?
Just wondering, why do you have to comment on every post that’s on here? Most of the time it’s just useless rambling that has absolutely nothing to do with the topic?
Unfortunately, not every state even has a state championship (I believe), much less a scholastic state championship. There are several where some people refuse to recognize the state chapter affiliate and participate in it’s state championships (regular, scholastic, whatever). Here in Oklahoma we are poised to have a state championship, a state scholastic championship, and quick, blitz, and I don’t know what all championships. There are many other championships that could be arranged, and it is not possible (or useful) for the USCF to monitor all of them.
Bottom line, I think, is that if you’re unhappy with the way that the Alabama Chess Federation is run you have two options (as I believe someone else has said), either run for election and organize the tournaments properly (in your view) yourself, or ask the USCF to decertify the Alabama Chess Federation. In any event, good luck in reforming Alabama chess.
True, true Relya. Unfortunately, I’m too young to run for election (even too young to vote) and I don’t think what they have done is outrageous enough to consist of the USCF decertifying them (and if I don’t think it is bad enough, the USCF certainly won’t think it is, lol). I’ll just have to arrange what boycott I can, and make do with next year. Also, for the states that don’t have a state scholastic championship, the Denker High School championship will organize their own system of picking whoever will represent each state.
Out of curiosity, how old do you have to be to vote in Alabama? Here in Oklahoma, the OCA has some pretty arcane voting requirements, but age isn’t among them. They did, however, recently amend their by-laws so that no one under eighteen could hold office, so you’d be out of luck there. Anyway, you could certainly go to the annual meeting and urge election of a slate that was friendly toward your issues.
I’m very happy someone at you’re age wants to take a pro active role in chess. Its’ best to work with a system that has problems then start a whole new organization. Work with the players, build friendships, build from within the system.
With anything that happens with life, with organization of any group of people, with any type of activity: will not give everyone the same level of happyness. If someone wants to go to a chess tournament or a chess club, they find happyness in being in a chess tournament or a chess club. If they come to a chess tournament or the chess club, you know they find enjoyment in being social with other people. The level of happyness will change from hour to hour, and one week to the next, and one year to the next.
Find out what are the players short term and long term goals. Find out what are the common goals, and the rewards they are looking for. With anyone, they have goals, types of rewards they want to perform on themselves, and a hosts of fantasys that could happen or just silly. Finding out what the local chess players goals, fantasys and rewards: will make you a better organizer in the end.
Its’ true that Chesswolf is a High School student, and he did make a statement of passion. For any organizer, at the local level or the state chapter were this case is about: it takes a great deal of work that most players never see or care to understand. For a number of organizers they can only have a Sunday event or a Saturday event; in the case that Chesswolf did bring up, feel they only had one choice and it was a Sunday. For an organizer that can have a Saturday or Sunday event, with equal equality to the site and the equal equality to parking – its a rational question why the dates were picked.