So, here I am a member of the USCF for at least another year.
I found myself caring, once again, about the direction and continued survival of the Federation. Still being peeved by the proposed neutering of Chess Life, a recent trend that has seen the elimination of Alex Dunne's The Check is in the Mail column last year and the elimination of content pages earlier this year, a question occurred to me: As USCF leadership is reducing the role of one of our few marketing tools, just what plan is in place to promote local clubs which recruit the membership dues that we are so sorely lacking?
So, I asked:
The recent controversy about eliminating Chess Life from some adult memberships to cut costs prompted some questions that I didn't ask as I thought my membership was going to expire.
In that membership growth is dependent upon member activity at the grass roots level;
1) What is the USCF doing to promote growth of existing clubs and the creation of new clubs in areas that lack them?
2) What is the USCF doing to promote USCF membership among internet players?
3) What is the USCF doing to promote USCF membership among non OTB groups such as correspondence chess, 960, etc?
That was on Tuesday. A couple days later... No response.
Perhaps the governance/management types in the USCF did not know to whom I addressed the question, so I clarified it:
[W]e agree about general things the USCF should be doing, but the questions remain about exactly what the USCF is doing. Perhaps the USCF has a detailed strategy. If it does it is unknown to me and others, it seems. It seems that some of us ... believe that the local club culture is essential to a healthy USCF. I really would appreciate an answer from USCF governance/management about the strategy currently in place regarding the questions in this thread's initial post.
If they continue to remain silent then I guess we have our answer.
Specifically, I would like to hear from Bill Hall, Bill Goichberg, Randy Bauer, and Susan Polgar about these things, with specifics. Bill Hall is the ED and is involved in the day to day operations, Bill Goichberg is the President and has proposed radical changes to the dues structure and magazine, Randy Bauer has been very outspoken about these proposed changes, and Susan Polgar has been very vocal about alleged incompetence and about rejected promotional offers in addition to opposition to the proposed changes.
If the above leadership members missed the questions, here they are again:
In that membership growth is dependent upon member activity at the grass roots level;
1) What is the USCF doing to promote growth of existing clubs and the creation of new clubs in areas that lack them?
2) What is the USCF doing to promote USCF membership among internet players?
3) What is the USCF doing to promote USCF membership among non OTB groups such as correspondence chess, 960, etc?
So, how about it USCF leadership? What is the strategy here?
Crossposted at ChessUSA.
