This past year has been relatively quiet for the
Ratings Committee.  The new rating system is now in its
second year, along with a separate adjustment to the bonus
point thresholding that is intended to have an inflationary
effect on ratings.  This adjustment to the bonus point
threshold, which was set to reinflate ratings after a two
year period roughly to rating levels in December 1995 before the
100-point rating floors became 200-point floors,
is in effect until January 2003.  After this time, the
threshold reverts back to its normal value.

The Committee is currently in discussions about monitoring
the rating system.  The goal of the monitoring system is to 
ensure that significant rating deflation or inflation can be
identified and corrected in a natural and transparent manner
as it occurs.  The specifics of the monitoring method are still under 
discussion.  One method under consideration involves monitoring the
rating pool on an annual basis, examining changes in average 
rating by age group and by region.  The basic principle of 
the monitoring system is that statistically significant changes 
in the average rating from one year to the next within an age group 
or large geographical region would lead to an adjustment to correct 
the discrepancy.  The averages would be computed based on active 
players only with established ratings.  For example, if such
a system were adopted, then if the average rating of active 
established players between, say, 25 and 35 years old in a current 
year were statistically significantly lower than in the previous 
year, this group would be targeted as needing an average rating 
increase.

The method currently being considered for making adjustments
within age group or geographical region is to change the
bonus point threshold parameter for these players.  For
example, if the monitoring system determines that an average 
increase for a particular region is required, then the bonus
point threshold will be lowered by an amount that would
correspond to an anticipated average increase of the amount
needed to correct the ratings.  Because the approach of
adjusting the bonus point threshold to inflate ratings
is already in use, and it appears to be a satisfactory
method to control the gain and loss of ratings into the
rating pool, its adoption as a potential approach to making 
corrective adjustments seems worthy of serious consideration.

Our goal is to have the specifics of the monitoring system 
developed in time for a Delegate motion in 2003.  Until
then, proposed systems will be tested based on differences
between recent rating lists and the upcoming annual rating list.  
The system will not be used to make corrections based 
on changes from 2001, as the current system is still calibrated 
to produce rating increases.  Instead, we intend to produce
a monitoring system that, with its adoption by the Delgates
next year, will likely be used to adjust ratings starting in 
calendar year 2004.