PDA

View Full Version : 6e. Officer + Committee Reports - CFC Newsletter Committee



Michael von Keitz
12-31-2012, 10:03 PM
Please find the report from the committee attached. The recommendations contained therein will be up for discussion and ratification at this meeting. A companion vote on the continuation of Edward Porper's contract versus putting out an RFP will be up for consideration as well. Ballots on the question of ratification will not remain sealed, but ballots cast in relation to the contract will remain sealed.

Christopher Mallon
01-01-2013, 09:53 PM
The main problem with this report is that the budget for the newsletter is considered in isolation. I would much rather see a report that shows what options exist for the newsletter at different budget ranges, all the way from a minimal amount ($3600) up to whatever a monthly magazine would cost, and a bunch of steps in between including the $18000 level.

I also liked the line about actively seeking out advertisers. Given the extremely limited distribution (are we even above 1000 yet? and how many of those even read it at all much less the ads?) and the medium (everyone is used to ignoring and not even seeing ads on the computer by now) the prices are simply ridiculous. $250 to buy a full page ad... whereas that same $250 would probably cover a direct mailing to around 250 CFC members. I note that in the November issue there was exactly one ad, although it's unclear if it's supposed to be a 1/4 page or 1/8 page (it's more like a 1/6 page ad) and it's buried on Page 21.

There is also no mention about timing. How many threads do we see here and on Chesstalk asking where the newsletter is? How often has it been on time? For someone wanting to advertise an upcoming event, the uncertainty is a big problem as well. There should be some kind of financial penalty from the salary of the editor if the newsletter is not ready on time.

Bob Gillanders
01-02-2013, 11:42 AM
Thank you to the committee, an excellent report. I am generally in favour of the committee recommendations, but I have the following concerns.

1. Consolidated publications, ie. the current issue for Dec/Jan instead of 2 distinct publications. I am sure I am not the only one who feels "cheated" when that happens. The report should state clearly that the 18k budget is for 12 issues/year, nothing less. Fewer issues, budget goes down!

2. Advertising rates. I have to agree with Chris, lower rates please!!

Thanks for listening.

Vladimir Drkulec
01-02-2013, 02:37 PM
I think a continuous schedule of publishing on a website with the ability to print out pdfs of particular articles like they do on ChessCafe.com would be the best way to go. I found this issue particularly interesting because of the WYCC reports and annotated games of kids that I see on a regular basis in Windsor chess tournaments and classes. I am also glad to see the end of the stupid password feature because it means you only get to look at the file more than once since you are not likely to have the password handy after you have downloaded the ezine once.

Lyle Craver
01-02-2013, 03:34 PM
Could this forum be used as a method of distributing the newsletter? If we want to keep it as a members only thing we would need a members only forum but we could send members an e-mail saying "Pick up your newsletter by hitting the following link... http:\\"

This is what the bank that does my company credit card does as well as several of my vendors. Now admittedly the newsletter doesn't get the immediate attention that a VISA bill would but...

Fred McKim
01-02-2013, 06:55 PM
Thank you to the committee, an excellent report. I am generally in favour of the committee recommendations, but I have the following concerns.

1. Consolidated publications, ie. the current issue for Dec/Jan instead of 2 distinct publications. I am sure I am not the only one who feels "cheated" when that happens. The report should state clearly that the 18k budget is for 12 issues/year, nothing less. Fewer issues, budget goes down!

2. Advertising rates. I have to agree with Chris, lower rates please!!

Thanks for listening.

The advertizing rates are most likely historical ones from the printed magazine days.

I think one of our main concerns was to try and use the magazine as a way to attract more interest of Chess in Canada. Instead of less than half of the members reading it, I'd like to see double the number of members reading it.

I think the double issue thing can thought about. In the past deadlines have appeared to have been missed, but these were negotiated with the editor because of tournament scheduling.

Vladimir Drkulec
01-02-2013, 10:59 PM
Budget of CFC Magazine/Newsletter
The committee recommends that the budget remain at current levels, or $18,000, with a monthly allotment as follows:
Editor - $650
Newsletter Contributors - $550
Website Newsfeed Contributors - $300
This distribution of resources should be rigidly adhered to, where the editor is ineligible to receive more than 5% of the combined contributors' budgets annually. This being in contrast to the current standard, by which the editor receives a full one-third of the contributors' budget, in addition to his own.
Exceptions to the above would include cases where the editor is a contributor to the newsfeed over-and-above hir editorial duties and cases in which the editor is paid for articles from hir personal on-site experiences, where neither would include payments for a regular column.

So the editor could still be paid for articles like the world youth championship article where he was one of the coaches for the team. I would hate to lose articles like that one as it seems to me to be exactly the type of content that we should be encouraging. Is the editor writing the additional articles because there aren't enough Canadian chess news content contributors and he is filling in the gaps?

I must confess that I have only really looked closely at the last couple of issues. I liked the one with the WYCC coverage quite a lot.

It seems to me that the requirement to sell more advertising and the decision to keep the current content hidden for a year seem to me to be at odds with one another. If you have to make distinctions I would define current as this month's issue. A free issue that has 10,000 or even 100,000 readers in some wilder dreams is far more valuable as an advertising vehicle than the current scenario where you have far less than 1000 adult readers. If you are going to make someone responsible for selling advertising, there should be a commission for advertising sold and control over the prices charged so that he can set realistic prices that might allow some advertising to actually be sold.

Michael von Keitz
01-02-2013, 11:35 PM
Budget of CFC Magazine/Newsletter
The committee recommends that the budget remain at current levels, or $18,000, with a monthly allotment as follows:
Editor - $650
Newsletter Contributors - $550
Website Newsfeed Contributors - $300
This distribution of resources should be rigidly adhered to, where the editor is ineligible to receive more than 5% of the combined contributors' budgets annually. This being in contrast to the current standard, by which the editor receives a full one-third of the contributors' budget, in addition to his own.
Exceptions to the above would include cases where the editor is a contributor to the newsfeed over-and-above hir editorial duties and cases in which the editor is paid for articles from hir personal on-site experiences, where neither would include payments for a regular column.

So the editor could still be paid for articles like the world youth championship article where he was one of the coaches for the team. I would hate to lose articles like that one as it seems to me to be exactly the type of content that we should be encouraging. Is the editor writing the additional articles because there aren't enough Canadian chess news content contributors and he is filling in the gaps?

I must confess that I have only really looked closely at the last couple of issues. I liked the one with the WYCC coverage quite a lot.

It seems to me that the requirement to sell more advertising and the decision to keep the current content hidden for a year seem to me to be at odds with one another. If you have to make distinctions I would define current as this month's issue. A free issue that has 10,000 or even 100,000 readers in some wilder dreams is far more valuable as an advertising vehicle than the current scenario where you have far less than 1000 adult readers. If you are going to make someone responsible for selling advertising, there should be a commission for advertising sold and control over the prices charged so that he can set realistic prices that might allow some advertising to actually be sold.

Just a reminder that if anyone has an amendment in mind, feel free to put it forward as such.

Christopher Mallon
01-03-2013, 09:07 AM
Just a reminder that if anyone has an amendment in mind, feel free to put it forward as such.

The problems are numerous here.



We have a very incomplete report from the committee meaning we don't have all the information we need.
We have a very limited time frame for discussion.
Only 19 Governors have even read this thread so far, and who knows how many are following the discussion?


Based on this I don't even personally have a clue what amendments should be proposed. I still think it's ridiculous for us to spend 100% of our discretionary budget on one item.

Therefore, I think the best option is to simply vote "No" and reject the committee's "Report" - which really is not even a proper report, just a big justification for the option they want to see happen. Alternatives are not even mentioned!

Félix Dumont
01-03-2013, 11:11 AM
Our goal was to discuss about the format and budget of the newsletter, not about the editor or the advertising rates.

That being said, I would support the advertising rates being lowered and some incentives for the newsletters being on time. Also, 12 issues a year would be better, in my opinion.

Regarding the budget, I see it as a great improvement. For the same amount of money (18 000$), we would now have both a newsletter and an online newsfeed, which could potentially reach much more people. Also, the idea was to try this for some time, then see what is popular. Nothing prevents us from trying this new format for one or two years, and then see if we should adjust the budget.

Vladimir Drkulec
01-03-2013, 02:28 PM
Just a reminder that if anyone has an amendment in mind, feel free to put it forward as such.

At the moment it is difficult to decide where to start as far as amendments are concerned. We have a proposed budget with changes to the way things are currently being done but there is not a full disclosure of what is being changed. Based on my reading of the report I would assume that the current cost structure is
$650 to editor
$850 to newsletter contributors with about $280 of this amount going to Edward Porper for his articles.

Is my reading of the report correct and does this correspond to the current situation?

Michael von Keitz
01-03-2013, 08:15 PM
At the moment it is difficult to decide where to start as far as amendments are concerned. We have a proposed budget with changes to the way things are currently being done but there is not a full disclosure of what is being changed. Based on my reading of the report I would assume that the current cost structure is
$650 to editor
$850 to newsletter contributors with about $280 of this amount going to Edward Porper for his articles.

Is my reading of the report correct and does this correspond to the current situation?

The status quo is:

$750 to editor
$750 to contributors with $250 of this amount going to Edward

Fred McKim
01-03-2013, 10:25 PM
I think the main work of the committee was

a) to decide if the amount of money spent on media was appropriate. We decided that we could support the current level.
b) to decide a rough framework for information distribution. We decided on the $1200 - $300 breakdown per month.

I think a simple motion would be to accept the general proposals, but specifically approve the budget of $1500 per month. Amendments could be made immediately on the amount per month and the committee would reword the budget available if a different amount was approved.

Paul Leblanc
01-05-2013, 02:21 AM
I share Chris Mallon's concern that we are spending virtually our entire discretionary budget on this one item. If given a choice, I would favour a monthly bulletin, but much shorter and less expensive than the current version with two objectives:
1. Report on Canadian events and Canadians in international events; and
2. Serve as a medium for the executive to communicate with its membership.
Some of the material in the bulletin such as rating lists and upcoming events is duplication of information easily accessible on the website.

Hal Bond
01-06-2013, 08:23 AM
I don't believe that our e-zine comes close to delivering value for the money. The quality of the photos is abysmal and the articles are hit and miss. Paul Leblanc's suggestion makes more sense. I would cap the budget at $800 per month.

Edward Porper
01-06-2013, 09:35 AM
I don't believe that our e-zine comes close to delivering value for the money. The quality of the photos is abysmal and the articles are hit and miss. Paul Leblanc's suggestion makes more sense. I would cap the budget at $800 per month.

Could you possibly specify which articles you consider a miss, Hal - and how you would divide the $800 between the editor and the contributors?
And just in case, do you mind to surmise, how many hours a month does it take, to produce an issue?

Egidijus Zeromskis
01-06-2013, 03:05 PM
imho, the biggest miss was with a Polgar's interview.

Edward Porper
01-06-2013, 07:25 PM
imho, the biggest miss was with a Polgar's interview.

Could you elaborate, why?

Egidijus Zeromskis
01-06-2013, 09:10 PM
not original material, too long, not much Canadian. How much did you charge for that issue?

Edward Porper
01-06-2013, 09:32 PM
not original material, too long, not much Canadian. How much did you charge for that issue?

She is one of the superelite players - and completely unique, at that. I thought that her life/chess outlook would be fascinating enough to justify the publication. The original publication was not at a popular English-speaking site, and it required a lot of formating. So I got all the necessary permissions, did the job and published. The article alone took me about as much time as the rest of the magazine - so I charged extra 35% or so. That said, I didn't have to pay anything - and any original article of that caliber would cost the budget at least that much.
Even if that was wrong, it was a misunderstanding - and a one timer.

Michael Barron
01-06-2013, 11:47 PM
And just in case, do you mind to surmise, how many hours a month does it take, to produce an issue?

One more interesting question:
How many hours a month Hal spent for his work as a FIDE Rep?

And how much he is paid for that work? :confused:

Edward Porper
01-07-2013, 12:38 AM
One more interesting question:
How many hours a month Hal spent for his work as a FIDE Rep?

And how much he is paid for that work? :confused:

Two problems with that:
1) I don't think I should discuss Hal with anybody but Hal himself.
I can talk in public about myself or my interlocutor but not a third party.
2) If your suggestion is to volunteer for the job, why to allocate $800, then? Let's go with a volunteer editor and volunteer contributors.
If you know where to find them, that is...

Michael Barron
01-07-2013, 09:40 PM
Let's go with a volunteer editor and volunteer contributors.


This is exactly my point!

Such small organization as CFC is now can't afford a paid newsletter editor.
The people, who believe the newsletter is necessary, will volunteer to do it.
If not...
Well, why we need newsletter, if nobody cares? :confused:

It's better to use available funds for some chess project - for example, Canadian Closed.
The year has started, but it's still unclear - where and when the Canadian Closed 2013 will take place?

Fred McKim
01-07-2013, 11:03 PM
I don't believe there have been any bids for this event, which would likely not be a World Cup Qualifier (2015), but could generate IM / FM titles.