How to Update Your USCF E-mail Preferences

I am always grateful to the many wonderful people who have contributed to the USCF. Every interaction I have had with a representative of the USCF has been helpful and positive. Thanks to all who volunteer for or are employees of the USCF!

Despite my affection for the excellent people of the USCF, I am often frustrated by the USCF as an organization. One of my biggest frustrations is the USCF's online presence. The USCF's website has been lacking for a long, long time. For instance, to use all the different parts of the website, one must intermittently login via one's standard account, USCF ID and PIN, forum account, and affiliate account 

One of my favorite tools that the USCF provides is e-mail notifications for local tournaments and rating updates. As a TD and player, I highly recommend subscribing to tournament announcements via e-mail. Organizers can submit online/e-mail tournament announcements for free whereas print announcements in Chess Life cost money. If the system were more widely utilized, it would be much easier for organizers to advertise their events to interested players.

To edit your e-mail preferences the traditional way, you must login to the Member's Only section of the USCF website. To do that, you first have to login to your account on the USCF's homepage. Then you can view your account details under your login name. Now you can click the Member's Only like at the bottom of the page. Lastly, you can select your e-mail preferences to edit them. As far as I can tell, this is the easiest way to edit your e-mail preferences by navigating the USCF website.

INSANE!!!

Instead, just go to https://secure2.uschess.org/email/email-pref-update.php. Enter your USCF ID and PIN (found on Chess Life, another issue is how to find your PIN if you don't get Chess Life. I'm currently stymied.), and edit your preferences. Finally, don't forget to select "Update" at the bottom of the page when you are done. The two options I have found most useful are...

"Notify me when tournaments I play in are rated." 

"Notify me via TLA Mail when tournaments are being held in my area."

You can customize which tournaments you are interested in by the category of event and the location. For instance, I subscribe to all the events in my state.

The good news is that the USCF is seeking proposals for a website redesign (http://www.uschess.org/content/view/12806/189/). Perhaps if you are a web professional, you can contribute to a new and improved USCF website