Alan Abramson's Big Vision

Interview by Joe Carl; edited by Chris Garlock

March 1, 2004

"My dream is a million-dollar budget for the American Go Association," says Alan Abramson, new Chair of the AGA's Board of Directors. In an exclusive interview with the E-Journal, Abramson outlined his vision for American go. "I envision we'll have 10,000 members in a few years. We'll have a larger group of volunteers doing great things to promote go. Once we reach 10,000 members, 20,000 isn't far away. Then, we'll have the critical mass to really get to the public's attention for activities like school curricula, scholastic tournaments, and generally inspiring kids to learn the game. We need to do so much more to promote go in the US. It's a long journey but the first steps start now.

"Increasing our membership is the major challenge for all of us," Abramson says. "For the clubs, over the next year we need to talk about more and more coordinated tournaments. In the long run, we need to find sponsors to provide money dedicated to getting pros around the circuits to various clubs, with associated local publicity efforts. We need to work better with the pros to help support and benefit them and the AGA. We have more pros in the USA now, which I think makes this a possible goal.

"I would like to see us focus on clubs, kids, and growth. An important tool for this is paying more attention to our internet presence. The AGA site should be a portal to the world of go, a one-stop shopping place for information about go. We should have an AGA server for all members, and use it to promote our pros, provide instant ratings information, conduct on-line tournaments, and much much more.

Commenting on the E-Journal's role in the go community, Abramson says "The E-Journal is fabulous, combining news of the international scene with advertising for tournaments all over, musings on the world of go, a trading post, game reviews and book reviews. As it expands, the interest in it expands to a "must read!" It has a bright future -- we need to keep adding to the E-Journal."

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