Subject: B&E Biz Outsourcing
From: (James B. Shearer)
Date: 07/30/2003 9:39 PM Eastern Daylight Time
Message-id:

"Tim Hanke" wrote in message
...

snip

It's not "obvious" to everyone that "the B&E Biz is too expensive to run
in-house." Other people in this country sell products; why can't USCF?

Obviously the USCF can sell products, it just can't sell them at a
profit in a competitive market. This is because the USCF is
inefficient and this is not likely change due to the way the USCF is
governed.

There is nothing inherent in USCF's governance structure that makes the office
inefficient. There is no reason why efficiency cannot be improved dramatically
after the move and after a software upgrade. While it is far from certain that
this will happen, it would be highly irresponsible for the Board and the ED to
just give up.

The idea (practiced by the Redman Board) that USCF can't do anything right so
it should start closing down or outsourcing everything is ridiculous. With
better management, past failures need not be repeated. I am still hopeful that
we have the management we need now, though my optimism has declined quite a bit
as a result of the Debi Sherry incident.

Other people publish chess books profitably but the USCF can't.
Other people run profitable chess servers but the USCF can't.
The USCF should stick to its monopoly markets and avoid losing
battles with more efficient organizations.

What's obvious is that USCF is inefficient in how it processes orders. To
address this problem, USCF needs better computer hardware and software.

This is the George John theory and it is wrong. The USCF is
inefficient because it is badly managed, the computer problems are a
symptom not a cause.
Also the USCF lacks the economies of scale of some competitors like
amazon.
James B. Shearer


USCF has major advantages for selling books and equipment over other vendors:

1. The prestige of being the national chess organization helps sales. Many
prefer to buy from USCF now, even though service is not nearly as good as it
could be with a software upgrade.

2. USCF can advertise in Chess Life and on uschess.org at cost. Other vendors
cannot.

3. USCF can award itself lucrative concessions at major tournaments such as
the National Scholastics, US Amateur Team East, National Open and US Open.
Other vendors cannot.

B & E is not a source of significant profit now, but neither does it lose
money. If USCF finally straightens out its computer mess, B & E sales will
become very profitable. It would be foolhardy to discard this possibility.

Bill Goichberg