I’m not sure what post you’re referring to.
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I have to complete SafeSport training as part of my annual soccer referee recertification. This training is done on the US Soccer website, but is provided by the US Center for SafeSport. Can I provide proof that I have done this training each year and that will suffice for meeting the US Chess requirement?
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Thank you, Dan.
–Brennan
I have spent a week thinking over how best to respond to this announcement. I don’t see any fully tactful way of doing so.
When this policy was announced during the US Open (either during a workshop or the Delegates Meeting, I don’t recall which exactly), The TDCC Chair expressed concern that this would likely result in the loss of many TDs. He asked if there would be time to discuss this. My recollection is that he meant (but did not explicitly state), “discuss before the policy is announced.” In any case, he was told that, yes, there would be time to discuss it. It seems that was not exactly true as, when I got back from the US Open, I had not even finished unpacking before the policy was announced in a front-page web posting and mass e-mail. I have no doubt that now, the EB will claim the policy can’t possibly be modified in any way, as it would make the federation look bad.
I was aware, of course, of the Ramirez situation and that it had maybe not been handled in the best possible way. I also heard that there was a big fuss on social media, by folks who did not want to let the topic drop – but since I don’t do social media, I hadn’t seen any of that. I did read the LiChess article at the link posted in this forum, so I sort of get what has likely been going on. My conclusion is that the EB has basically been in panic mode and has badly over-reacted.
It was a good idea to create the Safe Play guidelines and it also makes sense that individuals associated with events being run directly by US Chess should be required to take this training. However, expanding this mandate to all TDs is unreasonable. I don’t see how the guy running a little 15-player event for his chess club can be considered an agent of US Chess. He is more like a customer, whose member dues and affiliate fees have purchased the right to access the US Chess rating system. Even for affiliates and TDs running larger events, I think this training should be optional. Recommended perhaps but not required.
Of course, the EB has burned its bridges and can’t go back – but we will see what the Delegates have to say next year. (Make no mistake, the Delegates absolutely do have authority to modify this policy.) Naturally, it will be an uphill battle, as the Delegates are mostly reluctant to go against a unanimous EB. Still, the attempt must be made.
One thing I am certain of – under no circumstances will I comply with this mandate. I have been organizing and directing tournaments for over 40 years. I think it would be fair to say that I have spent most of my adult life promoting chess and supporting the federation with countless hours of volunteer work and some generous financial contributions. Yet now, they want to tell me I can’t be trusted any more unless I watch a video and take a quiz – under threat of revoking my TD license?
We will see how things develop. If nobody else shares my concerns, I guess I will end up not directing any more. If that happens, I will have to reconsider many of my volunteer activities for US Chess.
– Hal Terrie
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No one on this forum is losing sleep worrying about Hal Terrie’s integrity. We all trust you. But how does a TD deal with (for example) a player who is stalking another player? I have seen TDs deal with this issue at events that I organized. You reply (quite rightly) that you are old enough and have enough common sense to deal with the situation. I accept your word on that.
Can you honestly ascribe Hal Terrie’s common sense to all of your fellow TDs? There are people who are otherwise valuable US Chess volunteers who are relatively deficient in common sense. I could tell stories. (I say this respectfully—my wife does not allow me to dress myself, as at least one Forum member can confirm—and I have a certain online history…) We cannot very well say, “If you are socially clueless like Bill Brock, this training is required; otherwise, you’re good.”
And I don’t think it’s particularly fair for an otherwise mature & savvy 17-year-old TD to be put in the potential position of mediating between adults about adult matters without such training.
Going forward, I think it’s reasonable for US Chess to buy the training in bulk and make it available free of charge to TDs. That’s not going to happen this year. I would be happy to defray the cost of your training personally (PM with Venmo or Zelle).
The real investment is the time.
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The cost is irrelevant. I am not willing to invest the time, not even 60 seconds, to comply with this insulting mandate.
This policy will have little to no effect on the safety of tournament participants. If there are any undiscovered pedophiles or sexual abusers among our TDs, you can be sure they will be the very first in line to sign up for this training: all the better to lure potential victims into a greater sense of complacency. This is all about the holy words of the much-revered lawyers (They, Whose Infallibility May Not Be Questioned) – individuals with even less common sense than our problematic TDs, who think it is their job to suggest policies to their clients that avoid potential liability not only for adverse events with a 30-40% chance of occurring but even events with only a 1% chance of occurring, no matter how many individuals are inconvenienced or how impractical the policies. That way, at the end of the day they can high-five each other and bellow, “Yeah! Due diligence, baby!” The EB went along, of course, because they were terrified of the public commentary and desperate to show that they were doing something positive. Anything, to quiet the (apparently) relentless criticism to which they have been subjected. Sorry, but I am not buying it. The policy needs to be made optional for those not working directly for US Chess.
– Hal Terrie
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It doesn’t matter the size of the tournament - violating the safe play guidelines can happen in that 15 player event as well as a 1,500 player event. The Executive Board has approved a contract with the Center on Safe Sport to provide training for US Chess. This started with US Chess staff and will first be applied to National Tournament Directors. Eventually it WILL be a requirement for ALL tournament directors.
This is a necessary step to ensure that our TDs have some training for handling difficult situations that may arise. Congress created this Center for the purpose of increasing participant safety at all levels of Olympic sports. US Chess tournament directors will get the exact same training that the Center provides for coaches at various levels of activity in Olympic sports.
This training will be helpful to a lot of TDs, and there is simply no way to know who will be or will not be helped by it, so it is going to be mandatory. I recognize that some TDs will choose not to take it. That is their choice, but they will not be able to (eventually) direct US Chess tournaments without it. We’ll lose some TDs, but US Chess will go on - and I am certain that our organization and our players will benefit as a whole from this requirement.
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Not sure I understand “will first be applied to NTDs.” Is the training not the same for everyone? Why not provide a link to the online training course, so all TDs of any level can learn about safe play ASAP?
Will the training offered to TDs of other levels be changed or tweaked based on feedback from NTDs who take the training?
I said that some TDs would opt out of directing and I stand by that. I anticipate that most Local and higher TDs will take the training (there may be a loss among TDs that are no longer directing anyway) and I figure it is just a guess as to what will happen at the Club level.
I also told a number of people that even though many may see it as an annoying cost of money and time, or even as mildly insulting, it is necessary.
What some people overlook is the value of such training in giving guidelines that help avoid situations that a third party might see as unsafe (regardless of the facts). Think of it as relatively cheap insurance for your reputation.
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I would have thought the initial group would be TDs scheduled to work at upcoming national events, which is not the same thing as national TDs.
And as I understand it, sexual predation is just one aspect of the training, and possibly not the most crucial one; it also includes training on what constitutes harassment and bullying practices. (I know I’ve witnessed bullying at events, including a father-son situation at a national scholastic event.)
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There are two aspects of addressing safe play - preventing the violations from occurring and addressing them when they do. In that light, there are several things I’d like to understand:
- What aspects of the training will help the TDs prevent violations from occurring?
- Since implementation will not be instantaneous, are there key lessons that could be posted where TDs can see them and learn them in the period between now and when they are trained.
- If this training had been implemented already, how would it have helped prevent the two most prominent cases from occurring? I suspect part of the answer to this would be that if the first instances had been reported and followed up on properly the later ones would not have occurred.
- To the extent that there are failings on the part of people other than the TDs, how are we addressing that?
I’d add that Nolan’s point about harassment and bullying is extremely importantant.
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I am still not understanding this process. In this case, “process” is not trivial. It would be good to communicate exactly what will happen next and when it will happen in something this new and unexpected.
The US Chess communications team is superb most of the time and they did a good job with the information provided. But there is confusion about the significance of the mentioned date Oct. 1. Based on the wording of the news release and perhaps the group email—though I did not receive that, even though I am a TD—some took it that Oct. 1 is the deadline to complete the training.
Some who read it that way logged onto the Center for Safe Sport website to try to find the correct Safe Play training course to take. It’s not there. See discussion at the FB TD group and elsewhere.
The EB approved the contract in July, per the motions listed at the governance page linked from your member dashboard. The timing of the announcement was deliberate. As someone who works in the information business, the news release could have either had more details and info or clear mention of when more details and info would be available. I understand the email essentially said to “stay tuned.”
But what is being worked on now? Will the generic training course be tweaked or modified to be US Chess-specific? Has a method been established to verify identities and ID numbers and give credit to those who complete the training? I assume Center for Safe Sport has that process in place for other groups who access their training.
Will the training be limited to certain groups, such as TDs of a certain certification level, for given periods of time? Is that the reason NTDs will go first? (If I understood Randy correctly.) Are there limitations on the Center for Safe Sport side as to how many people can access the training at once? When I read about this, I assumed that once the link to the proper training course was issued, any certified TD could click on it and take the training.
Will the training differ based on the certification level of the TD taking the training course? If NTDs go first, will their input potentially change the training offered to others?
You could argue some of the above is inside baseball, but when announcing something new and unexpected—and controversial, to some—the more info and detail, the better.
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I think you’re getting NTD, the title, confused with national TD being used in the context of someone working a national event. I believe the plan is for anyone working a “national event” therefore a national TD, to do the training prior to them being eligible to work that national event. The rollout for all other TDs, including those at NTD level, will be with all the rest of the TDs.
However, the US Championships are scheduled to take place October 4-18, and given I’m set to be Chief TD of the US Women’s Championship, I assume this is a national event and therefore I need to have the training in place before this event begins. Given the article says “Any certified Tournament Director, contractor, vendor, or volunteer working a US Chess National Event beginning on or after October 1, 2023 is required to have their training completed one week before the event begins” then the rollout probably needs to happen prior to October 1 for me to meet this requirement.
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Chris, I thought it was established that your Safe Play training as a soccer referee was sufficient. That might also answer the question about whether the training will be tweaked to be US Chess-specific.
Yes, it could be, but there are also other TDs who are working these events, and the number of contractors and vendors that are relevant for these specific events is probably quite significant.
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Soccer? Don’t you mean football? 
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The mechanism for registering to take the Safe Play Training through US Chess, once it is available, may only work if you’re a TD, although personally I don’t see a good reason why someone who is not a certified TD but might work in some non-directing capacity at a chess event, where one might possibly be more likely to witness harassment or bullying than someone working in the TD room, couldn’t take the training as well.
Tracking who’s completed the training and the annual refresher course and enforcing the certification requirements sounds like a classic busywork project to me.
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My employer has a variety of trainings that are mandatory on an annual basis for its professional employees, and my understanding is that it is not all that much ‘busywork.’ Much of the process is handled by the Center for Safe Sport. Yes, the Office will have to track and notify/remind directors who are not current (which can be an automated email process), and directors will have their ability to direct US Chess rated events curtailed should they not get trained (or annually updated). This is no different than in other activities that require this training.
I think this is just another example of the USCF’s disconnect with the membership. They always seem to be focused on national and regional type events. The percentage of USCF members who travel great distances to play in such events with any regularity is tiny.
They seldom do anything for players at the club level. In truth tere is not much they could do EXCEPT stay out of the way, make things easier. I think the result of this will probably be less rated chess being played.
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It appears we currently have around 2700 certified TDs:
1634 Club TDs
717 Local TDs
229 Senior TDs
17 ANTDs
104 NTDs
I don’t know how many of them are currently actively directing.
The devil with any program is always in the details. How do we update the records to show that some TD has completed certification or the required annual refresher course? That’s potentially 50+ updates every week. Does this need to get added to the RFP for the tournament/ratings system rewrite before we award that contract?
At what point do we start rejecting tournaments from a TD because that TD’s Safe Play certification has lapsed?
We have had rules on the books for as long as I can remember that limit the size or prize fund of events that TDs below some level of certification are authorized to direct, but we’ve never enforced them, and I’m quite sure there are club TDs directing 100 player events by themselves nearly every weekend.
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