As both Glenn Peterson and Kalev Pehme point out, we are
paying $24,000 a year for color separations, and we could save this entire
sum by spending a few hundred dollars for the Adobe Acrobat software

I'm sure that your observations on the pub dept are in general spirit correct.
However, Acrobat printing, rather than full-sep printing has been in use.

You can occasionally spot this on covers. (The appearance of Acrobat printing
is a bit less sharp than full seps. No one, however, would argue with the
cost-saving choice for CL.)

BTW, I think the office already has Acrobat (full program, not Reader), but it
has been outsourcing the production of pdf files because of system conflicts.

Bringing inhouse this pdf-ing process should save money.

All the best, al

What can't the computers do that you want them to do?
If you can get computers that can do this, how will it help
the bottom line?

Tim Hanke wrote:

As we uncover the numerous serious problems in New Windsor, I have to
restrain my anger: anger at past Boards, and especially at past Executive
Directors who earned six-figure salaries but failed to notice the problems
under their noses. There is no excuse for many of the things we are
discovering. Only a series of bad managers could have reduced our chess
federation to its current miserable condition.

Let's look for a minute at the USCF Publications Dept.

Kalev Pehme, the leading candidate to become Chess Life editor, visited New
Windsor with Frank Brady this past week to look at the Publications
operation and discuss with Glenn Petersen (who is now onsite consulting with
the Dept.) what needs to be done.

What Kalev saw was thoroughly dismaying to him, as I knew it would be, for I
have seen it myself.

The computers are old, the software is old, the offices are a mess, the
staff is deeply depressed, the networking and data storage arrangements are
far from ideal: in short, we need to turn around everything.

After two long conversations with Kalev, I feel Kalev is the man we need for
the job. He understands the computer needs, he has an editorial vision, and
I think he will be an effective advocate for the Publications Dept.

Kalev feels the Publications Dept. staff can do a good job if given proper
tools and some leadership. He has asked Art Director Kathleen Merz to
prepare a list of hardware and software that is needed.

Kalev has concerns about whether the Publications Dept. is getting enough
support from MIS (which in fairness, may be overworked). Kalev also points
out that all of USCF's data, and all of the Publications Dept.'s data, is
backed up on servers that do not belong to USCF--they belong to our head of
MIS. This is a basic security issue that should be addressed. Nor is it fair
to ask our head of MIS to store our data on his personal equipment. (USCF
has not even provided our head of MIS with a workstation.)

In Kalev's conversations with staff, it came out that the Art Dept. has
literally been receiving copy from contributors and inputting it directly
for publication, often without editorial input. This has also at times been
true for captions and other written material. Without an editor onsite, it
is almost as though Chess Life has been functioning blind.

As soon as possible, we need to start purchasing new hardware and software
for this key department that produces our national monthly magazine and our
B&E catalogs. As both Glenn Peterson and Kalev Pehme point out, we are
paying $24,000 a year for color separations, and we could save this entire
sum by spending a few hundred dollars for the Adobe Acrobat software
program. This is but one example of the horrible inefficiencies at USCF's
New Windsor operation, a.k.a. "The Office That Time Forgot."

By the way, the current plan is to continue publishing Chess Life, but we
may have to accept a much-reduced page count temporarily. Starting with the
November issue, I expect we will be publishing 36-page issues for a month or
two, and then gradually adding pages if and when our financial condition
improves. We will still have full-color covers.

Tim Hanke

In article rd54b.309757$uu5.65597@sccrnsc04, Tim Hanke says...

Thank you for the update. I'm not surprised by the bad news. It's good to have
some honesty and a clear plan coming out of the office.

Kevin L. Bachler

In article , GrantPerks says...

BTW, I think the office already has Acrobat (full program, not Reader),

Can't be a current edition, but I will check on Tuesday.

Grant

Acrobat 6 came out recently. If we have the old registration handy, there is an
upgrade program from prior versions.

Kevin L. Bachler

In article , Jerry says...

What can't the computers do that you want them to do?
If you can get computers that can do this, how will it help
the bottom line?

Hopefully Tim will get back with this, but I believe the machines are old Win 95
machines. It is very likely that they wouldn't even run most modern software.

Kevin L. Bachler

"Kevin L. Bachler" wrote in message
...
In article , Jerry says...

What can't the computers do that you want them to do?
If you can get computers that can do this, how will it help
the bottom line?

Hopefully Tim will get back with this, but I believe the machines are old
Win 95
machines. It is very likely that they wouldn't even run most modern
software.

Kevin L. Bachler

The computers have old operating systems, can't run modern software, and
crash repeatedly; the software is also old; and because of the lousy
computers and lousy software, the staff has lousy morale and we need more
people to do the work.

Tim Hanke

Tim Hanke wrote:

"Kevin L. Bachler" wrote in message
...
In article , Jerry says...

What can't the computers do that you want them to do?
If you can get computers that can do this, how will it help
the bottom line?

Hopefully Tim will get back with this, but I believe the machines are old
Win 95
machines. It is very likely that they wouldn't even run most modern
software.

Kevin L. Bachler

The computers have old operating systems, can't run modern software, and
crash repeatedly; the software is also old; and because of the lousy
computers and lousy software, the staff has lousy morale and we need more
people to do the work.

Tim Hanke

But other than these small things Tim, wouldn't you say things are
going pretty well at USCF right now?

Best Regards,

Bruce

(The Brian Killigrew covers were remarkable exceptions and
should be models for the future.)

Man, do I agree with this! al

It makes sense to use older software then.

AlforChess wrote:


BTW, I think the office already has Acrobat (full program, not Reader),

Can't be a current edition, but I will check on Tuesday.

Grant


Grant--The pub dept. sends pdfs to people for proofing. There is no question
that they have Acrobat.

Whether it's Acrobat 4, 5 or 6 doesn't really matter. They definitely have it
but can't use it on a complete mag because of system conflicts. Some of the
computers in the shop are running on 98, while others are 95 and 2000, etc.

Regards, al

Jerry wrote:

It makes sense to use older software then.



Break out the 5 1/4 " floppies and the Apple IIe's. Oh never mind,
they're already out.

Best Regards,

Bruce