Next week US Chess will move to a new membership system, which means shutting down the old one. Since membership information affects nearly everything else, this means shutting nearly everything down for the conversion.
We will stop processing memberships and tournaments Monday evening so that we can convert to the new software. Affiliate email blasts will not be accepted after 6PM ET Sunday. TLA Mail will be changing as well.
There will be no weekly rerate scheduled the week of July 7th.
Most of the website, including the Forums and MSA, will be shut down for several days and will be brought back up as soon as testing is complete.
Instructions to TDs and affiliates on how to process memberships under the new system will be sent out over the next few days with additional information available once the new systems are up. There will likely be some changes to the way tournaments are submitted as well.
I’m only peripherally involved, but as I understand it the Forums are part of Phase II. Some things are shutting down not because they’re being updated, but because other systems that they impact or that impact them are being updated, and the developers don’t want unexpected complications from systems that aren’t directly affected.
Additional information to TDs and affiliates should be coming out soon.
I’ve been taking a very hands-off approach to this process, for multiple reasons. One is that I’m not the one who has to use it, another is that I’m not the one who has to support it. While I’ve tried to help enlighten the development team on how the current programming implements our business rules and practices, they need to use the tools available to them to achieve those objectives efficiently and in the context of the new programming environment, which may mean changes from how things have functioned for the last 15 years.
Also, remember that one of the goals of the technology refresh is to give US Chess capabilities it doesn’t currently have. That might mean doing things a bit differently now so that there are fewer limits on how to do things in the future.
So many of the changes will be as new to me as they are to you.