Stephen Shutt
871 N Woodstock St
Philadelphia, PA 19130
Fellow Delegates:
In my last two letters I presented my background and viewpoints on some of the issues. In this letter I would like to share with you some ideas I have for the future of the USCF. One of the main concerns is the declining adult membership. In the last three months alone, the adult membership has dropped by 586. Can the Federation survive if this trend continues? Unless we rebuild our adult base, our pool of master level players will shrink thereby reducing the quality of chess played in this country. With fewer quality players to compete on the world stage and to challenge our stronger scholastic players there will be less incentive and opportunity for development among the younger players.
What are the reasons for this decline in adult membership? Is it a reduction in the quality of service provided by the USCF, or is it a change in the life style of people today. I think it may be a combination of both factors. We have definitely had some problems with service lately. The processing of tournament ratings has taken as much as 5 months on occasion causing particular concern in the scholastic community. TLA prices have gone up because of the expense of staff time, thus reducing the number and length of these insertions. One small tournament organizer recently wrote that when he inserted a TLA for the first time, his tournament attendance went up 50%. But, if organizers in general are placing fewer TLA’s then the opposite effect is probably happening elsewhere. Tournament attendance will drop resulting in a decline in the number of renewals and new memberships processed.
Time consuming office paper work slows the response time to customer requests for information about everything from memberships to the status of backorders on books and equipment. Tracking the results of correspondence chess has had a low priority. Abandoned games have been left open leaving tournaments unfinished. All of this will have a negative impact on membership numbers. The office staff is not to blame. They are overworked and many experienced employees have left the Federation. The rest have worked valiantly to identify and correct every problem presented to them. Unfortunately, some areas such as books and equipment and correspondence chess are scheduled to be reduced or eliminated. Costly hours of staff time are consumed with office work that could be done more efficiently with a new computer system. Overhauling our obsolete system would solve almost all of the problems and restore quality service.
We can probably blame only a small part of the reduction in membership on service difficulties. The life style of Americans has changed. We are living faster paced lives. Basketball has gained in popularity compared with the national pastime of baseball. Board games are losing popularity to computer games, especially among the young. The social aspects of team chess, however, provide an exception to this rule as evidenced by the growth of scholastic chess.
How do we address the problem? One idea is to respond to the natural affinity of our scholastic members for computers by encouraging them to play on-line chess. Everything from tournament play and game analysis to TLA’s can be provided on-line. Then as these kids grow older and become adult members, they will recognize that on-line play blends with their Internet driven lives better than OTB and remain USCF members. That appears to be the philosophy of the Board.
It is not a bad idea and may be the only way to reduce declining membership. But to accomplish this, the Board has signed an agreement with Games Parlor to provide US Chess Live as a benefit to all USCF members. Two years ago I supported the plan to align our selves with an Internet Chess Service. Internet companies were making money and it appeared there would be no cost to the Federation. I thought the Kasparov Chess deal was a good one for the USCF and it would have made us money. When we lost that I supported the decision to sign with Games Parlor.
But Internet companies are not making the income from advertising they did two years ago and there is no indication they will in the future. Kasparov Chess is no longer providing scholastic team events. The Games Parlor contract is a large expense, which the Federation cannot bear. Its cost is a big reason we have been unable to update our antiquated computer system and are experiencing our current service difficulties. A heavy investment in staff time has been required to transfer information from our system to Games Parlor’s. If we had updated before contracting with Games Parlor, the costs for everything would have been much less.
We have a contract with Games Parlor for the next two years. What happens after that? The philosophy of keeping today’s scholastic members as adult members in the future is certainly a long-range plan. Can we subsidize the cost of USCL for the next five to ten years in order to find out? Will we be able to upgrade our facilities and elevate service during this period? If we lose our new members before they become addicted to the net, what have we gained?
There is another plan. The USCF does not organize all of the OTB tournaments in which our members participate. We establish a set of rules and invite organizers to hold tournaments for our members. We then provide a rating, which is universally accepted as the standard. We could try the same approach with on-line chess. We establish specific guidelines for Internet competition. Any on-line chess service that wants to follow these procedures could hold tournaments, which we would rate. Our system would have to provide a rating that was equivalent to a player’s OTB rating for equivalent performances. Presently, on-line ratings fluctuate wildly, correlate very little to a player’s ability, and have little meaning to the players. If we established a dependable rating, the value of a USCF Internet membership would be the same as it is for OTB players, the provision of a rating. We would accept advertising from all Internet service providers, as we should be doing now and there would not be the drain on USCF resources.
We cannot accurately predict what the membership numbers will be in two years or whether we can survive the high cost of USCL. We cannot even be sure that play on the Internet will provide the answers. Perhaps old fashion OTB is the only thing on which all USCF members will agree.
If I am elected to the Executive Board, I will always listen to alternative viewpoints. I will judge an idea or suggestion based on its merits not on who submitted it and if I disagree with a proposal, I will not attack the person making it. I would hope to learn more about those areas in which I have less experience than others. As Co-Chair of the Scholastic Council, I can report our work was never hindered by personality clash. We stayed on task and focused on accomplishing our objectives with an open mind. I want to bring that same attitude of camaraderie to the Executive Board. You will not find me a dogmatic ideologue incapable of changing his mind when faced with changing conditions.
I hope I can count on your vote and thank you again for your time.
Yours truly,
Stephen Shutt