Isn’t the current policy to reactivate the TD certification for active Senior and higher TDs, when their certification expires? If so, then how does theory get put into practice?
Why does an active Senior TD have to ask the office to reactivate his certification if it has just “expired” the previous month? Why can’t the certification for an active Senior TD (hundreds of tournaments) just be “renewed” automatically before it “expires?”
It takes effort (and money) to stay on top of the rules and the latest TD software and, of course, run the tournament. People’s interests and situations change over time and everyone is susceptible to burnout. If someone asks the USCF for a list of TD’s in their area, it would be helpful if the list contained names of persons who were actively directing tournaments. The quadrennial groveling helps take care of that.
FWIW, the vast majority of my tournaments were done on pairing cards.
I’ve added a summary of the number of events a TD has worked at in the last 12 months to the tools on TD/A that list TDs by geographical area or TD certification level, along with a link to the TD Experience History tool, which will show more detail on the events a TD has worked at.
I was just caught by my certification expiring. I didn’t know it had expired and never was notified. I called the office and they said I needed to send an email to tdcert@uschess.org.
Why do we need to search for the method to renew our certification? I’m an active senior TD and in 30 seconds one can look up in the MSA and see that I’ve met the 5 tournaments requirement in just the last six months. I know this sounds easier that it is, but couldn’t the office just look up that I have met the activity requirement and automatically renew the certification. From reading the TD certification rules I had assumed I didn’t need to do anything.
If the office can’t do that, then could we have somewhere what the process is to renew our certification?
Mike Regan
At the very least, it would seem reasonable that an automated process would send e-mail to a TD whose certification will expire in (say) the next three months to let them know. That e-mail could contain instructions to send e-mail to the tdcert address for renewal.
We should have an e-mail address for most if not all active TDs, since those TDs are likely to have accounts on the TD/Affilliate support area that they use to submit rating reports.
I know several TDs whose first clue that their certification had expired came when they tried to submit a rating report.
Ken,
You can add one more to the list of surprised TDs.
Mike
Oops!
Even easier would be to have a script run a count at the first of the month for MSA events in the last 12 months for every TD. The script could easily determine whether the TD needs to be flagged for a automated renewal letter/email (if the activity requirement for that level hasn’t been met and the expdate field is < today + 3 months) or whether the TD should have his/her renewal date moved accordingly.
This way, the renewal information could stay up to date automatically. We already track (in the TD/A area, under TD list by certification level) how many events a TD runs/assists in each year. The next step doesn’t seem that challenging.
This is already moving down the track to resolution.
Great to hear that the active TDs are not going to have to continue to jump through hoops to justify themselves anymore. Note also that the first post in this thread was in May 2010.
Moderator Mode: Off
Well, as of yesterday, Dec. 3, this hasn’t been resolved.
I ran one of my get together tournaments with 8 players. As I attempted to log in to the TD/Affiliate area, I got the message that my certification had lapsed. This happened at 5:45 last night. Wanting to get this thing in the can and certified, I had my friend Wayne, who also played, submit it under his TD certification.
I do plan on calling the USCF office tomorrow morning as well as send the email. This is really annoying. They really do need to have some type of notification sent to the TD via email.
I’d be interested in knowing if you get a response from the party responsible for TD certification. I’ve had two people come up to me during recent events at my chess center stating they’ve sent email requests for their TD certification exams with no response from whomever is responsible for this now.
Look, I am as sympathetic as anyone to the wish list for programming being very long. But surely there must be something that can be done with a minimal amount of programming time involved to improve the situation.
Here is a suggestion: When a TD (or affiliate, for that matter) logs in to the TD/Affiliate support area, there must be code (I’m guessing PHP code) that processes the username and password submitted from the login form. What if that code were to look up the TD’s certification expiration date (or the affiliate’s expiration date)? If that date falls within, say,the next three months (or has already passed!), put a prominent notice at the top of the login landing page.
For that matter, I hate popup windows as much as the next guy, but for something this important (an approaching certification expiration), maybe it is appropriate to put up a Javascript alert window to let the TD/affiliate know.
I’m not asking for a perfect solution (which would be automated renewal of TDs who have met the experience requirement and who have been recently active TDs). It would just be an improvement to do something to give the TD advance notice. Perhaps the argument that TDs are important to the mission of the USCF isn’t enough to “make the cut” in terms of this item’s priority. If so, consider that TDs have a direct role in bringing in revenue (rating fees) to the USCF.
I asked for a Senior TD test back in August, it took five weeks for a response. Hopefully they’ll be quicker grading it, but I’m not too optimistic.
Hopefully the Chair of the TDCC and/or the EB liaison for the TDCC sees this and inquires with the office to find out why this long of delays are happening and solves the problem.
Moderator Mode: Off
Well, I did email the td cert address just after I posted in this thread earlier today.
An hour and a half ago, I received emails from Korey Kormick who is the fellow now in charge of the TDCC area. I gather from Mike Nolan that Korey is doing this part time and away from the USCF offices.
Now, I really like Korey and think he’s going to do a great job. Heck, he already responded to my one email and it’s Sunday evening.
I originally asked for my certification to be updated, the tournament I just ran and Wayne submitted, to be changed back to me as the TD, and I mentioned that they needed to improve the notifications and such.
Well, I am now re-certified and have access to the TD/Affiliate area as a TD. That’s pretty fast of Korey and probably Mike Nolan to have this changed so quickly.
Korey also emailed me instructions on how to get the TD information changed on the tournament I ran yesterday.
Of course, this shouldn’t need be. There really is no reason why we can’t have some kind of email notification 30 days before TD certification lapses. This needs to be instituted.
Of course another very good option would be for the USCF to have an automatic re-certification system when the TD has fulfilled the activity requirement.
Why are TD certifications allowed to expire? What purpose does that serve except to annoy and inconvenience TDs who may be forced by family, work, or personal reasons to take some time away from directing and then find they have to jump through hoops to start directing again? Especially when the USCF never informs you when it is about to occur.
National TD certification doesn’t expire. The same should be true for all levels of certification. We need more TDs and TD/organizers, not fewer. Putting roadblocks in the way serves no substantive purpose. It drives people away from the federation.
It is all well and good to make people take exams if they want to go up a level. But to set an expiration date and make people beg to be allowed to serve the chess community is demeaning, a waste of time and staff resources, and lousy way to run a volunteer based non-profit organization. Don’t you want people to sell USCF memberships, send in rating fees, and make money for the USCF?
I would like to TD again. I may have to since our club/USCF affiliate of almost 100 members has only a couple of people who might want to be a TD. My Senior TD status lapsed over a decade ago for family reasons. But if I have to go through an obstacle course to get my certification back, a process that will take several months, our affiliate will be not be able to run USCF events. We will be sending the USCF zero dollars and might have to reconsider whether or not to remain an affiliate. I will also be less likely to encourage and train TDs to do the thankless work of running tournaments.
Tom,
MSA says your certification expired in April 2009 and the last event you directed was Supernationals that month.
You just need to take the test for Senior (or whatever level you achieved as of your expiration date). Even that is not true if you meet the activity requirement, though it looks like you did not do so.
I had to re-take the Local test in 2009, when I renewed my TD certification after several years ‘off.’ That test is open book; I received it from USCF via email and completed and returned it the next day, since Mr. Smith seemed incredulous that such a thing was plausible.
Somehow I passed the test. The Senior test might be a different story. I doubt I will ever direct enough bigger tournaments to qualify for Senior, but someday I would like to see if I could pass the test.
I get the impression that after Mr. Smith left the office staff TD renewals sort of got shunted to the side. Now it seems there is a dedicated staffer to handle TD issues again…email him and see what it would take to get re-certified.
For extra fun and perspective, search the rgcp archives circa 1999 for this topic, Tom Dorsch and Mike Cavallo.
Have fun.
Just out of interest, who at the USCF does the TD contact to have corrections made to events that have already been submitted for rating? I don’t see such a person, or at least one not labeled in such a manner that I can easily find them, in the USCF contact list or in Chess Life.
I’ve always used Walter Brown for this.