Request for Bids for 2008 U.S. Chess Championships

Hola darlings! It's a gorgeous Saturday morning here and I've got a ton of yardwork to do; this afternoon I plan on doing some serious relaxing on the deck, catching up on some reading. I visited the recently revamped U.S. Chess Federation website this morning and discovered that Executive Director Bill Hall put out a request for bids for the 2008 U.S. Chess Championships on September 21, 2007. I will keep my fingers and toes crossed that generous sponsorship will come forward for the 2008 event(s). The bidding is wide open as far as format is concerned, evidently; when AF4C was sponsoring the championships, the women's and men's championships were combined into one huge event with the top finishing woman declared the women's champion. A separate prize structure was also in place in many of those years for the women who competed, leading to much grousing in the peanut gallery when a female player earned more in prize money for a lower overall score than men competing in the men's championship. This system had pluses, and several minuses. If I had unlimited funds and could sponsor such an event, I would prefer it to be structured along the lines of the 2007 U.S. Women's Chess Championship, where the top 10 rated female players in the country were invited and, where invitations were declined, the offer(s) went to the next women on the ratings list. The prize structure was also fixed and, if I understand it correctly, there was no prize "pooling" - that is - there were definitive tie-breaks so that, say, five players who finished with the same score did not pool and divide the five money prizes for their relative placements and so that each player would take home an equal amount of prize money from the "pool." I disapprove of this kind of arrangement; it seems to me it discourages fighting chess. Anyway, it will be interesting to see how much information (if any) we in the peanut gallery receive about the bids received - assuming bids are made, that is! This is supposed to be a new day and age for the USCF Executive Board - an age of transparency and free sharing of information of interest to the rank and file membership. My dues - and the dues of thousands of others - support the USCF and our votes put these people into office. So, it is to be hoped that those in office will let us know what's going on in due course - and earn their keep!