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Date: 05 Jun 2008 02:06:36
From: samsloan
Subject: Goichberg Plans to Eliminate Membership Cards
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Apparently few in the outside world realize that one of the features
in Bill Goichberg's "new plan" is that, in additional to making Chess
Life optional, the USCF will no longer mail membership cards to the
members.
This means that the members will receive absolutely nothing at all in
return of paying their dues.
Here is what Goicherg's new plan states:
"8) Membership cards.
"These cost us about 50 cents each to distribute, and many players
don't carry them. We should save this money by allowing members who
want a card to print one out online, and mail cards only on request
(probably few will ask for them)."
Sam Sloan
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Date: 07 Jun 2008 15:42:37
From: Jonathan Berry
Subject: Re: Goichberg Plans to Eliminate Membership Cards
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Some sort of card seems a good idea, but it might be a rating identity
card rather than a membership card. In other words, it would be sent
to the member only once, not annually. Retrieving the expiry date
could be done online. Today's membership cards, even if expired,
could serve as tomorrow's rating ID cards.
Very pre-Fischer-boom, but there you are.
I wonder if bar-coding would ever be worthwhile.
--
Jonathan Berry
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Date: 05 Jun 2008 08:24:41
From: samsloan
Subject: Re: Goichberg Plans to Eliminate Membership Cards
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On Thu, Jun 5, 2008 at 10:35 AM, Andy Ansel <[email protected] >
wrote:
Hi Mr Sloan,
You do not know me (nor I you) but I wish to be removed from your
mailing list,
While your e-mails make for interesting reading, enough is enough.
I truly believe you love chess and also believe in the USCF. Also,
many of your ideas are quite good. But your inability to consider
ideas by others just because you dislike the person makes a) your
good ideas not listened to and b) makes you seem like you have an
agenda other than what is best for chess.
Here is an example. We all agree that the financial condition of
the USCF is poor. You have argued to keep the printed copy of Chess
Life, which I whole heartedly agree. However your latest attacks on Mr
Goichberg (who I also do not know) because he wants to eliminate the
membership card defies any logic. The savings of roughly $40,000
(based on your USCF member numbers and the cost mentioned in your e-
mail) is a perfectly logical way to save costs and help keep the
printed copies of Chess Life. Who cares about a card especially when
you can print from a web site. Not only is this a smart cost savings
but also (a small) effort to conserve paper.
Even if you are against the idea , you fail to look at any
positive merits. In other letters, you mention the need to save money
(and cut expenses) which I agree with. Is a little piece of paper
which very few people look at (based on your e-mails few members play
in rated events) to perhaps save Chess Life a good trade off? Even if
you disagree you have to at least consider it instead of blasting Mr
Goichberg for trying to save funds.
Again not knowing you, it appears your hatred is getting in the
way of your normal thinking. Unless you are afraid of trying something
new. Managing member cards and information is a very simple database
issue. Even insurance and finance companies are allowing people to
print out statements on-line to save on postage.
I wish you success in your continues efforts in chess but
encourage to consider ideas with an open mind and not dislike them
based on who is making them. This is also probably why many of your
good ideas are also not considered.
Best Regards
Andy Ansel
Dear Mr. Ansel,
You apparently believe that my opposition to Bill Goichberg's plan to
eliminate membership cards is motivated solely by my hatred for Bill
Goichberg.
You are completely mistaken. Everybody who has been following this
knows that I have known Bill Goichberg since 1961 and, over the years,
I have been the strongest supporter he has had. I have consistently
sided with Goichberg in all the wars he had fought with other chess
personalities over the last 40 years, and he has fought wars with
almost everybody. Nobody campaigned harder than I did to get Bill
Goichberg elected to his current position of USCF President.
However, now that Bill Goichberg has fulfilled his long standing dream
of becoming USCF President, he has gone off the deep end. Examples,
while I was on the board, were Bill Goichberg invited two women to
play in the US Championship who were rated below 2200 when there were
several top rated men rated over 2600 who wanted to play and who could
not get to play, solely because Goichberg wanted four women in the
Overall US Championship, and he made the US Championship into an open
tournament where anybody could play upon payment of $20,000, thereby
diminishing the prestige of the tournament. Goichberg did those two
things without even telling the other board members about it much less
calling for a vote on it, and after the board had passed a resolution
at the meeting on February 3, 2007 in Monrovia California prohibiting
him from doing these things.
Now, Goichberg has come up with his "new plan" announced in BINFO
200802911 dated May 6, 2007 addressed to the board. This "new plan"
has not been announced to the general membership and it is no where
mentioned on the USCF website. Indeed, without my emails and postings
on this subject, almost nobody who is not on the board would even know
about it.
The elimination of membership cards and making Chess Life optional are
two of many features of the "New Plan". The USCF has been in existence
since December 27, 1939 and, as far as I know, has always had
membership cards. The plan to eliminate membership cards has wide
ranging ramifications. It might even be a good idea. However, it needs
to be disclosed and discussed. It appears that until my emails of
yesterday, hardly anybody even realized that Bill Goichberg has
already put it on the agenda for the USCF meetings in August in Dallas
and he will try to push it through in a quick vote before many of the
delegates or any but a few of the general members even realize what
has happened.
Sam Sloan
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Date: 05 Jun 2008 07:52:58
From: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Goichberg Plans to Eliminate Membership Cards
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MORE DOWNSIZING
Dear Sam,
Bill Goichberg is probably right that few customers
will bother to write in and ask for a membership card,
which does not necessarily mean that they don't want
or expect one.
The proposal to eliminate membership cards,
which probably will pass, may prove to have an
ironic validity. No members, no cards required.
It is almost as though there were a plan to
drive the USCF down, down, down -- and then make a
lowball bid for the corporate carcass. (Any auction
of the USCF library, if it has not already been quietly
marketed, would then take place only AFTER the purchase.)
One isn't saying that such is the plan, but the
thought inescapably intrudes. If the event were ever
to occur, then the new name would be the USCCF.
We may safely assume that the above possibility
has occurred to others. Is it possible that Bill Goichberg
has entertained the possibility -- if only as a remote
theoretical construct?
Or is it possible that the loci of theory and
practice are converging like two theater lights on
a stage? Given the simile, we shall see.
Yours, Larry Parr
samsloan wrote:
> Apparently few in the outside world realize that one of the features
> in Bill Goichberg's "new plan" is that, in additional to making Chess
> Life optional, the USCF will no longer mail membership cards to the
> members.
>
> This means that the members will receive absolutely nothing at all in
> return of paying their dues.
>
> Here is what Goicherg's new plan states:
>
> "8) Membership cards.
>
> "These cost us about 50 cents each to distribute, and many players
> don't carry them. We should save this money by allowing members who
> want a card to print one out online, and mail cards only on request
> (probably few will ask for them)."
>
> Sam Sloan
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Date: 05 Jun 2008 07:37:50
From: Larry Tapper
Subject: Re: Goichberg Plans to Eliminate Membership Cards
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On Jun 5, 10:12=A0am, samsloan <[email protected] > wrote:
> Abolishing membership cards, as Bill Goichberg advocates, would result
> in chaos.
>
> Sam Sloan
I don't think so. I've been carrying USCF membership cards in my
wallet for 45 years and they've never served any important purpose as
far as I can recall.
Besides, the proposal as described allows members to print out their
own cards if they like, a common practice these days for various
documents ranging from membership cards to airline tickets.
I can appreciate the counterargument about discrimination against the
non-wired, but in this case I think it's rather trivial in view of the
fact that TDs can easily use databases to check membership status.
LT
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Date: 05 Jun 2008 07:12:22
From: samsloan
Subject: Re: Goichberg Plans to Eliminate Membership Cards
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Steve Immitt, who is the biggest tournament organizer in the US, made
an interesting point over on the USCF Forums.
It happens surprisingly often that a player enters a tournament saying
that he has never been a USCF member before.
However, when Immitt looks him up, he finds that the person has been a
member in the past. The member merely forgot about it.
Also, there are players who want to forget about their old rating and
say that this is their first tournament.
Also, there are players who have the same names. For example, the USCF
has had several members named Robert J. Fischer.
Membership cards serve a variety of purposes, the most important of
which is verifying to the member that he has successfully joined and
that he really is a member of the USCF.
Abolishing membership cards, as Bill Goichberg advocates, would result
in chaos.
Sam Sloan
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Date: 05 Jun 2008 06:37:24
From: samsloan
Subject: Re: Goichberg Plans to Eliminate Membership Cards
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On Thu, Jun 5, 2008 at 7:36 AM, <[email protected] > wrote:
No ... it means that members can play in USCF rated tournaments
after paying the EF.
This is exactly the problem. According to statistics provided by Mike
Nolan, although the USCF has 86,000 members, only 7,500 of them play
in more than one adult tournament per year.
Thus, the Goichberg "new plan" to eliminate membership cards and to
make Chess Life optional, only benefits those 7,500. The other 78,500
dues playing members will be left out in the cold.
It is a surprising coincidence that the 7,500 who will benefit from
Goichberg's "new plan" are the very same group that play in Goichberg
tournaments. Is not that amazing??
Frankly, I think that the Goichberg so-called "New Plan" (which is
merely a minor revision of unsuccessful plans from the past) is so
egregiously wrong and self serving that there should be a unified call
for Goichberg to resign.
Sam Sloan
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Date: 05 Jun 2008 11:52:46
From: Chess One
Subject: Re: Goichberg Plans to Eliminate Membership Cards
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"samsloan" <[email protected] > wrote in message
news:5e27557d-2485-4680-907e-2ba2aced4fe1@r66g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...
> On Thu, Jun 5, 2008 at 7:36 AM, <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> No ... it means that members can play in USCF rated tournaments
> after paying the EF.
>
> This is exactly the problem. According to statistics provided by Mike
> Nolan, although the USCF has 86,000 members, only 7,500 of them play
> in more than one adult tournament per year.
No - that's not right.
Nolan said: In round numbers 15,000 of the 30,000 adult members play at
least one rated game per year, the other 15,000 don't play any rated games.
7,500 members play 10 or more rated games per year.
> Thus, the Goichberg "new plan" to eliminate membership cards and to
> make Chess Life optional, only benefits those 7,500. The other 78,500
> dues playing members will be left out in the cold.
>
> It is a surprising coincidence that the 7,500 who will benefit from
> Goichberg's "new plan" are the very same group that play in Goichberg
> tournaments. Is not that amazing??
>
> Frankly, I think that the Goichberg so-called "New Plan" (which is
> merely a minor revision of unsuccessful plans from the past) is so
> egregiously wrong and self serving that there should be a unified call
> for Goichberg to resign.
One reason to have some sort of card is to offset sand-bagging.
Another might be to put Chesscafe's toll-free number on it in case you want
to buy stuff - and maybe Chesscafe could ante-up 25cents for the privelege?
Phil Innes
> Sam Sloan
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Date: 05 Jun 2008 11:32:34
From: =?iso-8859-1?Q?J=FCrgen_R.?=
Subject: Re: Goichberg Plans to Eliminate Membership Cards
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"samsloan" <[email protected] > schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:9b86d923-6ebb-4cf6-b898-b1f614752808@m36g2000hse.googlegroups.com...
> Apparently few in the outside world realize that one of the features
> in Bill Goichberg's "new plan" is that, in additional to making Chess
> Life optional, the USCF will no longer mail membership cards to the
> members.
>
> This means that the members will receive absolutely nothing at all in
> return of paying their dues.
>
> Here is what Goicherg's new plan states:
>
> "8) Membership cards.
>
> "These cost us about 50 cents each to distribute, and many players
> don't carry them. We should save this money by allowing members who
> want a card to print one out online, and mail cards only on request
> (probably few will ask for them)."
>
> Sam Sloan
Makes a lot of sense, doesn't it?
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Date: 05 Jun 2008 13:42:51
From: Brian Lafferty
Subject: Re: Goichberg Plans to Eliminate Membership Cards
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J�rgen R. wrote:
>
> "samsloan" <[email protected]> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
> news:9b86d923-6ebb-4cf6-b898-b1f614752808@m36g2000hse.googlegroups.com...
>> Apparently few in the outside world realize that one of the features
>> in Bill Goichberg's "new plan" is that, in additional to making Chess
>> Life optional, the USCF will no longer mail membership cards to the
>> members.
>>
>> This means that the members will receive absolutely nothing at all in
>> return of paying their dues.
>>
>> Here is what Goicherg's new plan states:
>>
>> "8) Membership cards.
>>
>> "These cost us about 50 cents each to distribute, and many players
>> don't carry them. We should save this money by allowing members who
>> want a card to print one out online, and mail cards only on request
>> (probably few will ask for them)."
>>
>> Sam Sloan
>
> Makes a lot of sense, doesn't it?
I agree with Bill on this one. Of course the big problem will be that
the old members will not be able to remember their membership numbers
and will also forget to write them down making more work for the office
staff answering phone calls from them.:-)
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