Committees

Board and Officials Officials by Commitee Officials by Person Vacancies

The Board has created a number of Committees, with a Board member as chairman, and appoints members to each (known as Officials). Each Committee has Terms of Reference that can be seen by clicking on the Committee name. To see more about each person click their name.

The smooth running of the British Go Association depends on the freely given time of all those listed, and others. Council would like to thank them all. Volunteers are always welcome - please consult the list of vacancies and contact the President to discuss the opportunities.

Contact the BGA.

Committee: Clubs and Membership
Chair: Andrew Ambrose-Thurman
Role Job Descripton Person
Club Equipment loan

Responsible for managing the equipment, typically sets, that are available for loan to clubs.

Our current inventory, of which only some items are available for loan, can be seen here.

Neil Sandford
Membership Secretary

Responsible for maintaining our membership database, sending out renewal reminders, processing membership applications and issuing membership cards. Any enquiries about Go and the Association can be received and dealt with, especially those of the kind: "Is there a club or another player in my area?".

The Membership Secretary also looks for possibilities for formation of new clubs and provide contact information to those wishing to do so. Labels are provided for the despatch of mailings to the membership and currently arranges dispatch of the British Go Journal to members.

Chris Kirkham
Universities Liaison

Helps new university clubs get underway and offers help to existing clubs.

Vacant
Committee: Marketing and Publications
Chair: Peter Rootham-Smith
Role Job Descripton Person
British Go Journal Editor

The Journal Editor is responsible for the production of up to four editions of the Journal every year. Distribution is handled by the Membership Secretary.

The main tasks that need to be undertaken to produce it are the collation, selection and layout of the Journal contents in preparation for printing. This includes the production of game diagrams (also in a format for the website) and typesetting. Another task is liaising with the printers.

Maintaining and expanding the pool of contributors, and developing content through commissioning and discussions with contributors, is also of great importance.

Pat Ridley
British Go Journal Editorial Consultant

Advises and assists the editor of the Journal.

Barry Chandler
Marketing

The Marketing Manager is responsible for initiating, managing and monitoring of all marketing initiatives. These include

  • encouraging and helping with publicity for our own tournaments and other events
  • identifying and developing publicity for other target opportunities
  • participating in exhibitions and other kinds of external events
  • handling relations with other external UK organisations not directly covered by other officials, e.g. the Anglo-Japan Society
Vacant
Newsletter Editor

Responsible for producing electronic Newsletters per year and inserts into the BGJ. The Newsletter contains recent news and tournament results and also contact information for forthcoming tournaments.

Jil Segerman
Publicity Material

Responsible for producing new editions of publicity materials.

Vacant
Committee: Online
Chair: Colin Williams
Role Job Descripton Person
Facebook Administrator

Posts messages and administers the Association's page on Facebook.

Jon Diamond
Facebook Administrator

Responsible for monitoring and keeping up to date our Facebook page.

Martin Harvey
Gotalk Moderator

Administers the Gotalk email list, checking for bouncing addresses and incorrectly rejected messages.

Tim Hunt
Junior Web Site Editor

Edits the Junior Web Site section of our website (also part of Youth Committee)

Tony Atkins
Online League Co-ordinator

Organises the BGA's online leagues.

Dan Milne
Tweeter

Responsible for the monitoring and administration of our britgo Twitter account

Jonathan Green
Webmaster

Responsible for the overall maintenance of the website, especially looking at moving forward the version of Drupal used.

Our policy statement describes the policy followed and lists those who are responsible for sections of the site.

Jonathan Chin
Website Editor

Maintains the day-to-day contents of the website, including the news stories.

Tony Atkins
Committee: Player Development
Chair: Dylan Carter
Role Job Descripton Person
Game Review Service

One of the benefits of being a BGA member is that you can get your games analysed by a stronger player. If you would like to take advantage of this, please send me the game record as an SGF file. (If you don’t know how to do that, don’t worry. Just get in touch and we can sort out the practicalities.)

When playing Go, sometimes we can see our own mistakes. At other times, we can be playing bad moves without realising it. This is when getting someone else to review your games can really help you improve. As a BGA member, you have this service ready and waiting for you. You just need to ask.

If you send me a game, I am likely to comment on a few key points, so if you have particular questions about what happened, please ask them. When selecting a game to send, games where you were concentrating (for example tournament games) are likely to be more useful than casual games, and you normally learn more from games you lost than ones you won easily, but the choice of game is up to you.

Email the Game Review Service at: analyst@britgo.org

Tim Hunt
National Trainer

This is a job required as part of the European Go and Cultural Centre's training programme. He or she acts as an interface for teaching material produced between the EGCC and the BGA. He or she also should encourage training through a network of trainers and provide training courses and materials.

Andrew Simons
Rating and Grading

Monitors the rating and grading system, determines if any changes are needed and makes them.

Geoff Kaniuk
Student Development

Suggests ways of and encourages development of the level of play of Go amongst students.

Vacant
Training Consultant

Provides the BGA with training advice and material that can be used to run seminars or courses.

Matthew Macfadyen
Committee: Tournaments
Chair: Ai Guan
Role Job Descripton Person
British Go Congress Organiser

Ensures the British Go Congress is organised.

Colin Williams
Championships Organiser

Responsible for co-ordinating the organisation of the various UK titles: the British Go Championship and the Youth and Pair Go events. The duties are detailed in the Rules for the British Championships.

Ai Guan
Draw Program Maintainer

GoDraw is the program that provides the draw for our McMahon organised tournaments. It has a Windows interface and is constantly being improved. You can download GoDraw via the BGA software pages.

Geoff Kaniuk
Pandanet Go European Team Championship - Team Captain

Captains our team in the Pandanet Go European Team Championship.

Responsible for arranging and submitting the UK team list at the beginning of the season (starts in September), liaising with the PGETC organisers, arranging the dates of matches with the opposing team captains and the UK players (from the team list).

Bruno Poltronieri
Referee Training

Suggests and encourages referee training and provides material for referee courses.

Geoff Kaniuk
Stacey Points

Maintains the list of players' Stacey Points.

Jim Clare
Tournament Co-ordinator

Maintains our Tournament Calendar and provides support to tournament organisers. As there are less than 52 events in a year, there is an attempt to smooth out the calendar so some months are not too crowded with events. Certainly there should not normally be two events the same weekend, and especially not the same day.

To choose a date for your tournament, look at the calendar to see what is available, taking note of the geographic spread of events in a particular month as well as the date. Then check with the coordinator that your date is suitable and it will be added to the calendar, provisionally until you confirm the date and provide more information.

If your date is acceptable as fitting into our calendar, then the tournament will be listed and you will able to borrow our tournament equipment and even get assistance with running your event. In return you will be expected to pay the Tournament Levy and provide the results of your event electronically to us (primarily for rating purposes).

Ai Guan
Tournament Equipment

Responsible for organising the loan of our tournament equipment. This usually travels in multiples of 12 (often with 15 clocks).

You will need to arrange for sufficient sets to be brought to your event. This may mean your having to collect equipment from the last event or elsewhere.

Ai Guan
Tournament Results

Collects the results from all UK tournaments and ensures that they are sent to the Web Site Editor for the results section and to the European ratings system in the correct format.

Matt Marsh
Website Calendar Editor

Updates the tournament calendar and tournament records under direction of the Tournament Coodinator. Also maintains the Results pages and DDK Grand Prix points list .

Tony Atkins
Committee: Youth
Chair: Toby Manning
Role Job Descripton Person
Child Protection Adviser

As described in the policy on working with children and young people, the Child Protection Adviser provides advice to members involved in youth go activities.

Members should contact the CPA to discuss any situation of concern that may come to their notice.

Sue Paterson
Junior Web Site Editor

Edits the junior section of the web site, including the lists contained thereon.

Ex-officio (see Online Committee)

Tony Atkins
Parental Adviser

Advises the Youth Committee as parent of a young Go player.

Joe Monk
Schools Liaison

Forges links with school clubs.

John Shafer
Team Manager

Manager of the UK Youth Go Squad.

This squad provides coaching and competitions for keen juniors who are aiming to become strong enough to represent the UK in the European Youth Championships and European Youth Go Team Championship. The leader monitors youth players to look for new members.

Alison Bexfield
UK Go Challenge

Organises the annual UK Go Challenge competition for schools.

Tony Atkins
UK Youth Team

Organises international matches with other countries, normally via the Internet.

Chiu Wong
Youth Adviser

Advises on youth matters, especially those in North-West England.

Martin Harvey
Youth Championship

Organises the annual British Youth Go Championship.

Tony Atkins
Youth Grand Prix Organiser

Keeps track of the points scored in the annual Youth Grand Prix (see junior section).

Tony Atkins
Youth Publicity

Sends out information on junior Go via various methods, such as email and social media.

Paul Smith
Youth Teaching

Organises online teaching sessions for junior players

Toby Manning