…I guess when that happens I will have to get internet capability for my Laptop so I can check ID’s at the registration site… 
TD’s sending in memberships and getting back ID’s quickly solves half of the problem, but only indirectly addresses the issue of getting ID’s for members who joined at someone else’s tournament.
Of course if all TD’s sent their memberships in via the Internet within a day or two, a new player who joined at an event last Saturday would have an ID and show on the computers before this Saturday’s event.
If the wording on the website is right, the batch run on May 15, 2004 was the last run for the June rating list that will be official from June 1 till July 31, 2004. There was 4 events rated, the one that was looking for was the QT VII finnished on January 29, 2004 and still not rated, is on the received list, or the QT - IX that never came back or the check cashed.
Have given up to the idea that some of my events will ever be rated, my idea they were just tossed into the trash can and lost for all time. If for some reason can get past the voice mail, do not think they can find any of the paperwork. At this time have seven events out, now hope that 5 of the 7 would be rated at all.
From this time on will place on my tournaments, from paper flyers to the webpage, this tournament will be sent out certified letter, the director does not guarante the federation will rate the event.
Earnest,
Douglas M. Forsythe, Local TD
12313120
Does it look odd that tournaments that were sent the start of the year have been lost. Do not mind the problems the federation had when it changed over to the new software, only a extra few weeks to rate any event.
When a event that was finnished on January 29, 2004 and the USCF say they have, has not even been rated starts to beg the question were is this event.
The federation since June 2003 did rate 27 events, (as of 05/15/2004) with number of events still to be rated. When the score of rating the events is 27 events rated 4 looks to be in the trash. The run on May 15, 2004 was nice that 4 events were rated, as they were sent in certified mail just four weeks after the event. When the QT - VII, the QT - IX and the Forsythe - King IV match, and the QT - X that is much older then the 4 events that were just rated must ask were are they.
The federation are backed up in all the departments, my question to the federation, if you talked about re-rating a events because they are out of order, would it not be best that you rate the ones that come first. The federation has 4 events that are getting very old, they posted they have only 1 of the 4. If it is right that 4 events could be lost, begs the question is 27 out of 4 acceptable results. How can the federation make a claim they are backed up because for rating events when they know they are out of order.
Sent in events after the current batch was rated, one a single event and the other a duel rated event, do hope the federation can rated events without the need of certified mail. Is it strange that the federation say it is always the director for the long delay of having a event rated.
If a director is having a problem with the federation not rating a event, please go to the form certified mail.
Earnest,
Douglas M. Forsythe, Local TD
12313120
If you think certified mail means guaranteed delivery, you are mistaken.
Certified mail can get destroyed or lost in transit. I think one of the consumer ratings services tested USPS, UPS and Fedex and found that they all lost some items, even those that can be tracked by the consumer. (There was a fire at a Fedex warehouse last week, several hundred packages were destroyed.)
Have I sent in results to the USCF on occasion using some kind of certified or proof-of-delivery service? Yes, but not lately.
Can events get lost or misfiled at the USCF office after they have been received? Sure.
Also, for reasons that aren’t clear there have been at least two occasions this year when a group of events that had been entered into the computer disappeared before they could be validated or rated. Why? Nobody’s really sure.
It sounds like you do not believe that the USCF has a backlog of events waiting to be processed. I’ve seen it, right now it takes over TWO WEEKS for an event to make it to the top of the stack to be entered. (And they may not discover that the event has problems that make it unprocessable until then.)
Every day they re-sort the events waiting to be entered, so that those that have just come in are sorted into chronological order based on the ending date of the event. This procedure was implemented to speed up the turnaround for those tardy events, though IMHO it does a disservice to those TD’s who do get their events in promptly.
However, having an event at the top of the stack doesn’t guarantee it can be processed. Many events come in with missing ID’s, either because the players recently joined at another event or are joining at that event.
The membership department is also backed up, they just finished processing the memberships received in APRIL last Thursday. So an event waiting to be processed that includes memberships may wait even longer for those memberships to be processed. One that is waiting for ID’s from other events could also be delayed.
Why are both departments backed up? Mostly because of staffing issues, both departments have fewer employees working shorter work weeks than they did a couple of years ago, because of budgetary constraints.
(And the USCF laid off nearly half of its employees in the last year. As a result those employess still working at USCF have to do things that weren’t part of their job a year ago, because SOMEONE still has to run the mail through the postage machine, etc.)
Will better computerization improve things? Yes, but systems changes can also make things worse during the transition period. We lost roughly two weeks in March due to systems issues, including one ratings batch that had to be rerun in its entirety.
Within the next few days, memberships entered on the current website will be processed in near real-time, with an e-mail response back to the member that can be used as a proof of membership.
(That assumes the member gives us the right e-mail address, of course, so far it appears that 5-10% of web orders either don’t include an e-mail address or give one that bounces.)
Memberships entered via the website that can be processed (meaning no credit card or potential duplicate membership issues) will show up on MSA within a few hours.
Some time in the next few weeks, probably in early June, there will be a new interface for TD’s and affiliates to enter memberships from their events and get immediate feedback, including new ID numbers.
Even certified mail do get lost, the reason for sending the certified mail is if it is lost, who is to blame the postal service or the federation. When there is the returned certified postcard that was signed from a agent of the federation, if it gets lost then there is evidence the postal service did not lose the mail. With holding the certified returned postcard gives me evidence that the mail was sent to the federation.
When the director sends in the event and the federation does not even know they have the event, or that they even lose the event. The chess players would look at the director and start to ask when is the event going to be rated.
Do understand the federation does have a backlog of events, do understand that the federatiuon is at the point of going under. With the move the officer from New York to Tennessee, would make the office staff know that there days for working for the federation will be at a end, as they would have to move to Tennessee to keep their jobs, with selling a home and moving would make them be looking for a new job outside the federation.
Have little clue were the federation will be in five years, the federation could be in Tennessee or sold or even gone.
Earnest,
Douglas
Compared to where it was a few months ago, the USCF is in much better shape and IS NOT in imminent danger of going under. Payroll has been cut roughly in half, other belt-tightening measures have been taken, too.
However, the cutbacks HAVE impacted service, creating delays in both membership and ratings processing. Systems improvements should help some here, but the impact of those changes won’t be obvious for several weeks or months.
The USCF is in the process of selling its building, which should give it a fairly liquid cash position. Assuming that the cutbacks and systems efficiency improvements have put the USCF on a positive cash-flow basis, I would say that the USCF’s future looks better now than it has for several years.
I’m not sure what the situation is with regards to the move to Tennessee. It may never happen. The changes that have taken place in New Windsor in the last year are such that many of the reasons for moving to Tennessee are no longer significant.
Nolan , all i can say as a newer member is , Bravo ! I am satisfied with what everyone at USCF is doint under the present hard times there. Yes , i took a bit for someone to get tme the things that were supposed to come in the mail , and even a couple of weeks to get my member ID # , but , whats the big hurry hurry anyway ??? Its good enuff for me as a newbie , ESPECIALLY in light of all the trouble.
Dan Heisman ??!?!? Hey , a boneafidey true chess hero ! Well , sure is nice to see you type to us all ! Thnks !
If for some reason did win one of the 100 million dollar lotterys, as never have given a dollar to the state lottery system in my this would never happen. If that ever did happen after cut the money into 1/3 for me and my brother and sister, would give a huge amount of money to the federation. Do not care or want the use of money, only what the good works that capital can do for a society. If for a reason would give millions of dollars for the federation and the capital for special chess projects.
As the federation is in better health then it was the year before, only have asked that the federation take a better look into the rating department. Can see that the federation needs new computers, new software and a larger staff. Do understand that there is pains for the federation last January to April, and can see that in time the federation will be in a better shape then they have been in years.
When the federation says they rate events, do hope they can find all the events that have been lost over the year. Do not know if other directors have lost the events they thought the federation did get and then lose. Even in one of the events the federation says they have the events and they have not been able to take care of the problem.
Have no plans to be around for much longer and do wish that the events that were sent in could be found and rated.
Earnest,
Douglas M. Forsythe, Local TD
12313120
The June 3, 2004 MSA has been updated. The federation says they are backed up on rating events, if a event was finnished on January 29, 2004 and the federation says they have the event: when or if the federation will rate most of my events. Can understand why most directors burn out from chess, it is the weeks or months before they will rate a event. Did enjoy the idea of having a club tournament and play a number of games. The only problem the people that have been in the event are looking to have these games rated.
Even have one thinking of not even renewing his membership, as he can not see why the event can not be rated. It is just not just one event that is not rated, it is a number of the events that is not rated. The way it looks can not tell the people that this tournament will ever be rated. As the federation has done this to me why even have a tournament, it looks like my events are just pitched into the trash. Can see the reason why the federation is starting to lose membership left and right.
Earnest,
Douglas M. Forsythe, Local TD
12313120
Douglas, Nancy Evans and her staff have been looking for your January 29th event (Q VII) since last week. Although it was logged in, they cannot find the crosstable despite several searches for it.
I had been concerned that we might have lost more events when the computer crashed in February beyond the 23 they had identified, but your event doesn’t appear to have ever been entered, as they keep a separate log of events as they’re entering them.
Would you please send another copy to Nancy Evans’ attention?
The received log shows the original was not submitted on diskette, but if you have a computer file of the crosstable, you can e-mail that to Nancy, her e-mail address is ratingsmgr@uschess.org.
Still have the information of the match games, been a few days that I have checked the forms as others life matters got in the way. Will be sent out to Nancy Evens and should be in her mail box when she gets to work on Monday. Have you found the other tournaments or you want me to email a copy to her also?
Earnest,
Douglas M. Forsythe, Local TD
12313120
I’d send her any events you don’t think have been rated, she can check to see if they’re in the queue or not, but make sure they’re CLEARLY noted as re-submits, so we don’t make things worse by rating something more than once.
Have sent the email and gotten nothing back. Do you want me to send it back on paper or do you want me to send the information back as a email? Have given the information back about the one in January that you cannot find, the question becomes have you found the others. If you want send me a email one way or the other.
Earnest,
Douglas M. Forsythe, Local TD
12313120
email: localtdforsythe@yahoo.com
Assuming you sent her all of the ones you think are missing, it could take several days to research them. I think Nancy was doing a validation run today, that’s currently an ALL DAY job to review and correct any errors.
(We desperately need to change how tournaments are processed, to make the TD an integral part of the whole process.)
Is there only one person that is currently doing the rating reports?
I was wondering what was going on with an online way to submit crosstables. There has to be a process that can be implemented (or created) to take the stress off of the person(s) who takes care of this process since there is an obvious backlog of unrated tournaments in the queue.
This cost could be easily fixed by adding a few pennies to every game played.
I think with all the tools and technologies out there, I don’t see why USCF couldn’t process paperwork for effeciently.
Is there anything that IT volunteers could do to help out?
Mike nolan wrote: "We’re getting closer to making the TD/Affiliate Support Area available.
We could use a couple more beta testers to help with testing the membership interface, which we hope to make available next week.
If you’re interested and have a few hours to work on it in the next week or so, please drop a note to mnolan@uschess.org".
Mike Nolan
Did you get that email I sent to Nancy, as I never gotten a confirm of that event in January. Or do you just want me to write up the events again and mail it back to the federation?
Douglas M. Forsythe, local td
12313120
Wish to thank the federation for rating the events. Checked the MSA and see that the events were rated as of July 28, 2004.
Earnest,
Douglas M. Forsythe, local td