Tournament players may have noticed in recent weeks that the Ratings listings from the AGAGD database have sometimes been very slow or generating error messages. With support from incoming AGA President Gurujeet Khalsa and incoming AGA Board Member Brad Rose, a beta version of a new interface has just been added to the website. Additional features are still being added, but given the urgency of the problems, the new version is being rolled out now. The existing ratings interface is still live for the time being.
“Developing and maintaining software applications is a classic problem for small non-profits such as the AGA,” Khalsa told the E-Journal. “Hiring even one qualified software developer would cost more than the AGA’s entire annual budget.” The AGA has relied on volunteer support for IT projects “and have received a lot of support over the years from talented and selfless individuals, for which we are hugely appreciative.”
As Khalsa takes over the leadership reins at the AGA in the months ahead, he says that a top priority is “how we can maintain critical services and offer new services to our individual members and chapters.” To that end, he said, “We will still need volunteers of all stripes – developers, project managers, designers, AI experts, business people and more, but we have to use them smartly and assure that our critical services are supported.” One approach, he says, is to use more low code no/code tools such as was done with the beta. “Another is to procure commercially supported software for services that are readily available in the IT marketplace. This will be a priority and one that will be taken up with the new Board at our first meeting in September.”
“This is an exciting time for the AGA and I’m happily seeing some fresh faces stepping forward and volunteering,” said Khalsa. “We need more of you.” For example, “there are important projects on using AI as a learning tool, and for detecting AI cheating that are very challenging and for which there are limited commercial options. I welcome feedback from our members on our direction here.” You can find Khalsa on the AGA Discord channel (user name: gurujeet) or email gurujeet.khalsa@usgo.org.
