Not sure if this should go under Tournament Organization or here, but I have some questions dealing with where to draw the line.
Who has responsibility for determination of the on site registration setup, the tournament organizers/affilitate or the chief tournament director whom they hire to direct the event?
Rule 21B references the Duties and Powers of the TD. However, unclear are some tasks not clearly specified that have caused disagreements. For example: layout of playing area and registration tables. Is that part of 21B…“to provide suitable conditions of play”?
Does the TD have any input regarding successful tournament design of pre-registration information forms and handling of advance entries mailed to the organizer?
Is there a set of printed USCF guidelines delineating the separate duties and responsibilities of the organizer and the TD in greater detail than the rule book? Can anyone provide a reference to where this has been previously discussed on the Forums? In particular, how have experienced organizers/TDs of class B/C size tournaments (100 entrants) divided up these responsibilities?
Jeff, I truly consider these type events to be partnerships. As an Organizer and TD, I will go over tournament conditions and registration process and forms with the hired TD who will be working the tournament. We do our best to determine who is in charge of what up front, and in almost every case, the folks we work with get along very well and run successful tournaments.
As far as the specific question you ask, I’ve never seen much that the USCF says about tournament organization. As you say, some of it is imbedded in the rules if you look carefully enough.
Wow, I predict that this thread will get a lot of varying responses. As someone who does both and has been one or the other I feel that I can give you my limited insight.
First of all, I believe that the rule book may not be too specific on purpose. The easiest way solve the problems listed above is to open the channels of communication between the organizer and the chief TD well before the first announcement of the tournament.
As far as the responsibility for onsite registration, I would argue that ultimately the Chief TD is responsible because of 21D6. Fees. Collecting fees. But I have recently been chief over a tournament were the organizer insisted on being completely in charge of this. I think this is fine and I consider the organizer to be under 21C. Delegation of duties. The chief director may delegate any duties to assistants, but is not thereby relieved of responsibility for performance of these duties.
All other concerns you have listed can best be handled by clear communication.
I understand your concern. The challange that we have is that for each organizer, TD, and TD/organizer the answer(s) can vary. Each situation is different due to local tournament, economic, and personal conditions. I have worked for organizers that assume the TD coordinates everything. I have also worked for organizers that assume they are responsible for everthing except “on site” TD rulebook/pairing decisions. Both ways work just fine.
The best course of action for a TD, that is not the organizer of a particular tournament, is to ask the organizer what he expects the TD to do for his/her TD fee; i.e., assume nothing. Dan Burg, co-editor of the 5th edition of the rulebook, was known to send out a contract for organizers to sign when they wanted him to be a TD at their events. Of course, Dan is an attorney. The safest course, as Judge Wopner used to say, is to “get it in writing!”; however, for most smaller events simple communication between the TD and organizer about how the gray area duties, that you outlined in your post, are going to be split up works just fine. Both the TD and organizer would be wise to keep the other party informed and up-to-date regarding the plans/progress of the agreed upon work load.
Some of the biggest problems we’ve experienced have been with organizers who don’t understand what TDs do: before, during or after the tournament.
For example, we recently had a well-known TD who agreed to direct an event for an organization that was just getting started running some scholastic events.
During the event they wound up collecting several USCF memberships, including some for new members, all of which the organizer MAILED to the USCF office. This frustrated the TD because he could not even complete validating the event until those memberships arrived at the USCF office (about 2 weeks after the event ended) and the new USCF IDs were assigned.
I agree with the flow and the answer is really, “it depends”.
I’ve been an organizer and director of the same event, which makes communicating really easy. However, I’ve had dramatically different situations when I come in as a TD for someone else; everything from the expectation that I do everything to the expectation that I am only dealing with pairings and rulings on the floor.
Personally, I think that the reality is that with experience, you learn the right questions to ask when you start directing for someone else. For example, having had 30 advance entries handed to me an hour before the start with mis-spelled names and bad USCF ID #'s, I now know to get that information A LOT sooner!
In my opinion, the organizer is responsible for most of the issues, but the TD is the one who has his certification that he/she has to protect. The only penalty for a bad organizer is to not go to their next tournament. So the TD really has to be the one to not assume anything.
They all hit home: clear communication up front, possible contracts for managing expectations, and efficient handling of new memberships and renewals.
The membership/renewal area is an especially touchy one. In the past, we have required players to have their USCF ID before they show up. The affiliate is pushing for on-site memberships and renewals, yet the site does not have online connectivity. We are trying to work out a compromise where an affiliate agent submits the membership/renewals from an offsite location that does have online connectivity so that all USCF ID numbers are available before the first round ends. We’ll see how it works out. If anyone has any concerns (i.e. besides the possibility of returned checks – I’m already a bit concerned about that), please let me know.
Have membership checks made out to the organizer, not the USCF. Then the organizer can enter the memberships on-line against the credit card (and get temporary membership cards) and make the tournament rateable immediately. Whether or not to pass the affiliate commission back to the player is a decision to be made, but keeping the affiliate commission may ease the pain of the occasional bad check.
I found that if the checks are made to the USCF, then even though you can enter the check information on-line (and even get the USCF ID numbers), the tournament would not pass the validation process until the checks and forms reached the USCF and were processed by the office staff.
At one scholastic tournament recently we had the parents of the one or two dozen expired/non-member players go to a dedicated room and go on-line themselves to purchase memberships directly from the USCF (and then show their proof of purchase and the ID number).
I think at national scholastic events they should put out a sign at Chess Control the day before the main event starts telling people that if they don’t like the lines and just want to register they should go up to their rooms and use the hotel’s internet service. (It will even save them a few dollars.)
We’ve talked about setting up a couple of computers near Chess Control to do that, but that’s not always easy to arrange with the hotels and it might require more staff to set up and watch over the computers than it is worth.
Not to mention the total rip-off fees the hotel charges for internet access in conference rooms. Last year at the Girls Nationals in Chicago the hotel wanted something like $200 a day for internet access in the TD room. I had paid $9.95 a day for internet in my room, so after the first day’s rounds were completed I went up to my room to check expiration dates. I gave them to the computer chief the next morning.
Diane Reese says if you make net access a condition as part of the hotel negotiations, they’ll often throw it in for free, especially if you make it clear that not having high speed net access in the TD room is a dealbreaker.
But the key is get that in writing IN THE CONTRACT before you sign it. Afterwards, they’ve got you over a barrel and they know it.
I think that every executive board meeting should heed this advice.
Every EB meeting should make sure that the meeting room has excellent internet access or it is a deal breaker. You know, lead by example. HMB really could have used it a few weekends ago.
However, I’ve had dramatically different situations when I come in as a TD for someone else; everything from the expectation that I do everything to the expectation that I am only dealing with pairings and rulings on the floor.