Team News!

Lately I have been giving a lot of thought about our team and the number of inactive players we have. While it is desirable by some to have a lot of members, it complicates things just a little for those of us who are trying to promote our group and keep us active in events on chess.com.

I suppose there are many reasons why members become inactive. I realize that people have lives outside of chess.com and respect everyone's right to participate at a level that fits into their schedule. Some people rarely play, while others are on the site everyday.

A few months back, we as a group, generally agreed to some basic minimum standards that we must enforce to keep our group relevant. Among them were standards to apply to team match games (Team Tennessee member must have a timeout ratio of 5% or less to participate in team matches). Since this rule has been in place, we have lost very few games to timeouts; a tremendous improvement.

Another standard that we discussed was what to do about inactive members. A preliminary definition of an "inactive member" is one who has not played a single game, either live or turn-based, in at least a year. Here again, life happens and not everyone can be on chess.com all the time. Understandable.

First of all, let me say that IF we were to remove "inactive members" from the group, it is not an indictment of their character, or of their chess playing ability or anything like that. It is merely a statement that we wish to maintain an active group with active members that enjoy the game, the team, and each other. Neither would the removal be permanent. If a member that was once a Team Tennessee member is removed for inactivity, they may re-apply for membership once they resume an active role on the site. This would allow admins that are trying manage our group to have a better understanding of our group, the number of active members, their relative strength and would allow active members to receive the accolades they deserve.

Beginning April 1, (don't read anything into that date :) ), Team Tennessee members that are inactive, having not played a single game in a year or more, will sadly be removed from the group. This will give everyone that knows someone that might be inactive a chance to contact them and attempt to get them to keep their group membership by participating in one or more games.

I apologize for the lengthy message, but I felt an explanation was warranted before we took any action.

GO Team Tennessee!