Tromso Olympiad 2014

[WBuchanan]

Some pages back Hugh Brechin suggested forming a committee to select the captain. In general, I don't think this is necessary, but perhaps it would be appropriate to do this with Tromso. I suggest Andy Howie, Dougie Bryson and myself, assuming we all ruled ourselves out of the captaincy role. We'd take submissions from the players and from Andy Muir and possibly others (Jonathan Grant for example) and then make a decision. If we chose Andy Muir then the players would have had their say and they would have to accept it. If we chose someone else then Andy Muir could hopefully feel that the right person had been selected in the end and that his International Directorship was continuing to operate successfully.

I think that’s a very good suggestion Matthew. It raises some issues though; firstly that the problem is that in the absence of a major happening, the decision appears to be Andy M’s to take - so the fairness that you trying to build in may not be there if you pre-choose people whose views as officials are already known to Andy M (and indeed the players). The second issue is that membership representation is missing; not that the membership should actually select the captain, but that views on eligibility criteria have been expressed. Therefore I think it would be a good idea to precede any such process by a quick, ad hoc canvass of members on the eligibility criteria. I’ve no fixed views on those myself – I think the captain should be agreeable to the team (though the team might accept Andy M if chosen by a fair process) but on the other hand, I am also slightly uncomfortable with the idea of selecting a captain responsible for picking the team every day who is unable to make much of a judgement himself on the form of his GM players. People have also raised the issue of nationality and costs with regard to the captaincy and some members have expressed a view on effectively paying for travelling computer skills. As against that the players' endorsement should not be taken lightly. So quite a lot would emerge from this ad hoc exercise; the captain (by what is becoming your trademark compromise ) to resolve the immediate problem, and the feedback obtained could be firmed up to determine future eligibility criteria and selection processes at the AGM – processes that seem to be badly needed.