ECF Rolling Membership

[MSoszynski]

The table tennis world in England (!) has a very simple solution which works superbly and creates no confusion or angst:

In order to play in evening league matches every player in the team must be registered with Table Tennis England prior to the match starting.

If not they cannot play and someone else will play instead.

The leagues know this, the clubs know this, the teams knows this, the captains knows this and the players know this.

There is none of this whinging and whining about "What if someone walks into a club off the street (as you do) and wants to play in a league match?"

Well, they can play IF they register and they can do this online on the same evening as they stumbled into the club by accident.

I find this constant nonsense about not being unkind to league chess novices by requiring them to register quite laughable.

We get novices to league TT and they are told to register and then they can play: simple.

Agreed. You want to play in a match rated by the national sporting body? Surprise, surprise, there are conditions.

[John Townsend]

But some people may not care whether their game is graded. Perhaps they just want to play in a chess match, or discover whether they like it. You don't want them to get the feeling that chess is hard to break into, or that the money aspect is more important than the chess ...

[John Townsend]

I don't know about "real hard evidence". How many people in England play chess? How many ECF members are there?

[J T Melsom]

John

I deleted the post to which you responded as I thought you were referring to the existing membership scheme not a compulsory one. But i understand you don't like this current scheme either. What would you prefer? The reasons that people don't join chess clubs seem to me to be about the quality of the experience, not the cost. Why do you continue to see membership as a barrier?

For the record I personally preferred game fee but I have never been a fundamentalist when it comes to the funding issues.

[John Townsend]

I was thinking of some of the comments made above, which sounded rather uncompromising.

[Ian Thompson]

But some people may not care whether their game is graded. Perhaps they just want to play in a chess match, or discover whether they like it.

That may be true, but they need to understand that it will be very difficult to find many matches that aren't graded so they'll have to comply with the requirements of a graded league whether or not the grading interests them.

[John Townsend]

I expect that grading is often the only relevant benefit to a member of ECF. If subscription covered only the cost of grading, it would be much lower, but members are required to contribute towards all sorts of other costs, which can include the cost of international matches, appearance fees for top players, office premises and staff. If a member is not interested in grading, it makes you wonder what he/she gets for the sub.

[Paul Cooksey]

I think of ECF Membership as a levy payed to organisers. So what the individual member gets is events to play in.

[John Townsend]

The "events" which new members are most likely to play in are local league matches, to which the ECF contributes nothing (that I am aware of).

[John Upham]

The "events" which new members are most likely to play in are local league matches, to which the ECF contributes nothing (that I am aware of).

The ECF contributes the rating of local league matches by way of the infrastructure that captures results, calculates ratings and publishes ratings.

However, I would agree that you might not have been aware of that.

Those rated half-games will then contribute toward the weighting that each league receives to vote at ECF Council.

Again, you might not have been aware of that.

[Paul Cooksey]

For people north of Watford Gap, it might be useful context that Berkshire Chess Association had its AGM on Tuesday, John Upham is Secretary, Roger is League Controller, I am ECF Delegate, I hope John Townsend will be playing for one of the clubs and the county this season. But I suppose we are typical of many county associations.

Beyond the fact there are some things done by the ECF to help us run league matches, there is a more subtle link that we accept them as our governing body.

Clearly the ECF is making a substantial profit on the things it does for Berkshire CA. But if we followed Yorkshire's adventure and created our own grading, it would doubtless cost us more than we pay to the ECF. So you could argue our relationship is win-win, notwithstanding the very strong objections some of the Berks committee have to things the ECF does.

I made the point at the AGM I am bad ECF Delegate because I do nothing to ensure that the money flowing from Berkshire members to the ECF flows back to Berkshire events. Tim Wall is presumably a hero in the North East for his efforts in this regard. But regrettably it was insufficient to prevent me being re-elected.

[John Upham]

But regrettably it was insufficient to prevent me being re-elected.

There is a silver lining: I have been appointed as ECF Delegate for the Surrey Border League and we therefore could lift share to the same meetings. It's not all bad!

As I recall, JT has been a member of Bracknell Chess Club but chose not to play in the Berkshire League as Bracknell asked for ECF membership which was declined on ideological grounds. Apologies I have mis-remembered his position.

[Graham Borrowdale]

Well, its good to hear that Bracknell Chess Club is still going - it was dying when I was last there 40 years ago!
As for compulsory ECF membership, sometimes it feels like having to be a member of the Football League in order to play football on a Sunday morning at the local park, but I know that is not quite a fair analogy. I see it more as making a donation, rather than paying for services rendered, but I could do without the constant barrage of communications about 'benefits', such as partner discounts, etc, well intentioned though they are. By the way, did I miss the change to renewal by direct debit, or have I just been scammed?

[John Upham]

Well, its good to hear that Bracknell Chess Club is still going - it was dying when I was last there 40 years ago!
As for compulsory ECF membership, sometimes it feels like having to be a member of the Football League in order to play football on a Sunday morning at the local park, but I know that is not quite a fair analogy. I see it more as making a donation, rather than paying for services rendered, but I could do without the constant barrage of communications about 'benefits', such as partner discounts, etc, well intentioned though they are. By the way, did I miss the change to renewal by direct debit, or have I just been scammed?

Bracknell has kept going through thick and thin largely through the considerable efforts of a good few including Simon Sellick, Luke McMath, Ian Searle, Gareth Ward and others. Many members were of a meteorological bent having been associated with the Meteorological Office based in Bracknell until 2003 when it relocated to Exeter and sunnier climes. One of their stronger members was Dave Roberts who hopefully will be returning for the new season.

[Mike Gunn]

By the way, did I miss the change to renewal by direct debit, or have I just been scammed?

This became an option a few years ago.