Author: Bruce Moreland
Date: 11:55:59 05/29/00
Go up one level in this thread
On May 29, 2000 at 13:51:40, Don Beal wrote: >Some ICCA facts. > >The "ICCA" consists of the "Board": >1. David Levy - president and sponsorship finder >2. Monty Newborn - vice president >3. Don Beal - secretary/treasurer >4. Martin Zentner - programmers representative > >plus > >5. Jaap vd Herik - Journal editor > >plus > >Johanna Hellemons or deputy - a part-time paid assistant to typeset >the Journal, and do some administration. > > >None of the five main members is paid. We even pay our own individual >membership subscriptions. We volunteered to help mainly because we are >ex-chess programmers and enthusiasts who wanted to see continued >activity in Computer Chess and raise the profile so that major >sponsors would have an official organisation to deal with. The >academic involvement has often been an asset - sponsors generally >trust universities. > >Jaap vd Herik gets academic kudos from the scientific content of the >Journal - he gives his own time free for that benefit. David Levy >used to benefit commercially from being in contact with chess >programmers - he doesn't now (as far as I know). The occasional >ICCA Journal article brought me some academic benefit. > >The Journal also contains news and other information of general >interest, which is useful to a wider community than just academics. > >The ICCA has successfully organised major tournaments, attracting media >attention, over a period of 25 years. Programmers have been pleased to >have the opportunity to enter them - the tournaments would not have >happened without the ICCA. > >The Journal, like all traditional publications, costs significant >money to produce because it adds quality to the content. Papers >submitted are considered by referees, may be returned to authors >with requests for changes, and will be edited and typeset in a >consistent style to improve them. > >It is this selection and improvement process that costs the main money, >not the printing and postage. People frequently say something like >"you could publish on the web and it would be free". People buy and >read traditional publications expecting a certain level of quality. >If the filtering and improvement process is abandoned, the quality goes >down. You have only to look at some of the unmoderated newsgroups to >see the end result. Web publishing does not (yet) carry academic >kudos, so the ICCA might become disconnected from the academic >community if the printed Journal was abandoned. > >People also say "you should accept subscriptions by credit card". Well >we'd like to, and have been intermittently checking on this. Ten years >ago we were too small - the banks refused to allow us to operate credit >card transactions. Five years ago, they acknowledged that perhaps our >business would be acceptable, but their charges would have gobbled up >about 25% of the payments. Currently credit-card bank charges would >consume about 5% of payments. > >However there is some awkwardness, to do with internation transactions. >Although credit card transactions are easily combined with currency >conversion, the amount to be charged has to be specified in the currency >of the receiving bank account. The bank would be in the UK (because >that's where the treasurer is). The amount would be in pounds. So if >you pay in dollars or european currency, the amount charged to you would >be variable, depending on the exchange rate. So you might pay 45 dollars >(or 39 dollars) or 83 guilders or whatever, instead of knowing the exact >amount when you specified the transaction. It's not a big problem in >one sense, but some people might feel uncomfortable not knowing exactly >how much they were paying in their own currency. Despite that >awkwardness, we now think the time is right to pay the banks for a >credit card facility. (My most recent email to other board members >about this was in May 3, _prior_ to the recent public messages, in case >you think we only do things when people post public messages.) > >Please note that the obstacle has been bank charges, not problems with >hi-tech flashy websites or lack thereof (and not because we "hadn't >thought of it"). Ernst's post stated, essentially, the following: 1) The ICCA is contracting. 2) Members of CCC should join the ICCA. I think this issue of convenience of subscription is important. In the past people have complained about how difficult it is to subscribe ot the journal. This even came up at the last ICCA business triennial meeting, although I believe the person who brought it up was led to believe that it had gotten easier to subscribe, which is true. All an American needs to do is send an international letter. I would like to offer to make it even easier by handling credit card transactions in the US. People can pay me and I'll pay you. There are web sites that allow you to do credit card transactions for free, as long as both parties are located in the USA, and I'd like to volunteer to be the collection point for US credit card subscriptions. Personally I think it would be fine if you raised your rates by 5 or 10% if you could do credit card transactions from your site itself. I would vote for that immediately. I think there would be many fewer people who are turned off by the increase in the subscription rate than are attracted by the ease of payment, but I admit that this is an opinion from the outside. >Now some of my opinions. > >Like other readers of the CCC forum we choose whether to, when, and >when not, to read CCC messages. I personally think it is not >reasonable of CCC members to expect that any message about the ICCA >will receive an ICCA response the same day. So complaints about >"the ICCA should be here" I regard as mischief-making. I AM here. >What's your grudge? There's CCC and there's the ICCA, and there's little connection. I think it would help the ICCA if there is more connection. The ICCA doesn't solicit papers here, it doesn't announce events here, it doesn't call for subscribers here. Doing any or all of the above might help, and there is a good chance that this might help out of proportion to the effort involved. If the organization is in problematic financial straits, it couldn't help but be good for the ICCA to solicit the people who are here. If the ICCA is too busy or has no inclination, that is a shame. >In general it would be better if people with time to spare could do >something to help, rather than complain. The community could do with >a few more Ernst Heinz's and a few less <deleted to avoid flame wars>'s. I admit that my own contribution to the computer chess community has been less than it could have been, however I don't think I'm in last place. >Bruce, thanks for pointing out the ICCA board page didn't include >Martin Zentner. I put that in as soon as I read your public message. >You could have also used the email link that says "please send any >comments about these pages to icca@dcs.qmw.ac.uk". You are right, I should have sent you email. >I don't think any of the board members has such a strong motive to do >this voluntary work that we would continue against serious opposition. >The occasional attack by the ill-informed, or malicious, we ignore. >Marsland and Herik chose never to read rgcc or CCC. >It's not a question of nerves, Frederic, but whether the time spent >in writing messages is worth it from our point of view. The nutters >on r.g.c.c were relentless. Replying merely brought more innuendo, >misinformation and lies. I felt that continuing to reply would cost >me more time and effort than I wished to spend. I appreciate the effort expended by ICCA board members and other volunteers past and present. We've gotten rid of the "nutters" here, and if someone tries to engage you in a pointless conversation you can evade it without much fear of being permanently tormented. So I suggest that CCC is now a safe place for discussion. However, I am concerned by this implication that the boat should not be rocked or current board members will abandon ship. I don't want to be responsible for the timing of a board member's retirement, so if that's going to be a constant undercurrent of any discussion, I can't discuss anything. bruce >Teerapong, thanks for your suggestion that the ICCA Journal should >contain more "beginners start here" articles. I agree, and I'll >forward your message to Jaap. I believe he'd receive such articles >favourably if anyone offered them. I once had the good intention to >write some myself, but the task never reached the top of my do-list. >(Rather like Bob Hyatt's book :-). > > >Don Beal.
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