ECF Membership Reform

[MSoszynski]

https://www.englishchess.org.uk/wp-cont ... Survey.pdf

Reading through that document...

"The majority Board view was that [...] given the range of membership benefits that the ECF now provides (see above), £33 represents very good value for membership and should not be an inhibitor to joining the ECF."

The "above benefits" are "e.g. ECF Office general membership support, rating services, event organisation, ChessMoves, JustGo Rewards, chess product discounts etc."

In my opinion £33 definitely will be an inhibitor to joining the ECF, and that the "benefits" apart from rating are largely unappreciated.

[Paul Cooksey]

I realise it is a side issue, but the handling of membership changes makes Council members irrelevant. Arguably no real change since the Board controlled most of the votes anyway. But still, a blow to my pride that we aren't even pretending anymore.

[Ian Thompson]

In my opinion £33 definitely will be an inhibitor to joining the ECF, and that the "benefits" apart from rating are largely unappreciated.

The JustGo Rewards benefit is potentially valuable. I haven't joined it because I already have membership of a similar scheme through my employer. That's saved me over £100 on supermarket spending alone in the last year before considering savings from other one-off purchases.

[SMoss]

Whoever devised these proposals has clearly never run a local chess club. One size most definitely does not fit all. Why should a player rated, say, 2250, who plays in countless congresses and lots of league chess, pay the same as the casual club member who plays three league games a year when we explain how desperate we are not to default a board and manage to get them to South Norwood on a wet Thursday in November? Merging the membership categories is a mad, blatantly money-making idea and would undermine the aim of growing competitive chess by creating a significant barrier to people joining chess clubs and playing league chess.

Imagine the situation. Person A comes along with a vague interest in chess. "Oh yes, we say, please join us – just £30 (the very low sub at Kingston) to join our merry band. But if you want to play occasional league chess, that's another £33 (no doubt growing over time). Why create these barriers? Just let people play. No wonder community meet-ups, where people just go to pubs and play with no rating, are growing. The ECF seems determined to do everything it can to make rated OTB chess prohibitively expensive (see venues for 4NCL passim). I now understand why some counties have opted out of ECF rating and ECF membership. Definitely one for Surrey players to consider if this nonsense goes through.

I am secretary of Kingston Chess Club, but write here in a personal capacity. Our committee has not yet considered these proposals, but I will certainly be bringing them forward for the next meeting.

[Roger de Coverly]

Why create these barriers? Just let people play.

That particular battle was lost over ten years ago when the ECF switched to a system of mostly requiring annual membership payments to participate. It was driven by Congress organisers not wanting to finance the ECF out of their Congress budgets, but abetted by county and league representatives who acquiesced.

[SMoss]

Could I make a counter-proposal that bronze membership be retained for players who only want to support their local clubs by playing occasional league chess and that the annual fee be immediately reduced to £10, with, as Paul Dupré suggests above, free membership or a token fee for the player's initial year. Let's grow chess clubs and get people playing rated OTB chess rather than make our number one priority funding the bureaucracy of the ECF and creating more and more barriers to competitive chess being played

[Roger de Coverly]

make our number one priority funding the bureaucracy of the ECF

Raising enough money to finance the salaried office and pay for international teams have long been the ECF's top expenditure priorities. Go back far enough in history and the original grant in support of chess when Mrs T was Education Secretary was designed to finance a permanent office and support international representation.

Incidently that grant to the ECF lasted until the Coalition austerity measures of 2010 and the loss of funding was in part what drove the ECF to adopt a compulsory (or universal as they termed it) membership scheme for individuals,

[Ian Thompson]

Imagine the situation. Person A comes along with a vague interest in chess. "Oh yes, we say, please join us – just £30 (the very low sub at Kingston) to join our merry band. But if you want to play occasional league chess, that's another £33 (no doubt growing over time).

Under the Board's recommended option it's actually £16.50 in the first year.

An omission from the paper is an explicit statement of what the charge to a league would be if the occasional player doesn't join the ECF and exceeds the 3 free games limit.

Could I make a counter-proposal that bronze membership be retained for players who only want to support their local clubs by playing occasional league chess and that the annual fee be immediately reduced to £10, with, as Paul Dupré suggests above, free membership or a token fee for the player's initial year.

You can make it, but it's unlikely to get very far unless you also say what else you would do to make up for the reduced income from Bronze members.

[Mike Gunn]

I agree with the above comments by MSoszynski and Stephen Moss. £33 for a new (not grandfathered) Bronze member is much too high which is why I am supporting option 2 in the ECF proposals (Bronze continues as at present) and I urge others to do so, too. The current arrangement replaced game fee and was based on an assessment of what the ordinary club member would pay and this needs to be kept below the £20 mark in my view.

[Roger de Coverly]

The current arrangement replaced game fee and was based on an assessment of what the ordinary club member would pay and this needs to be kept below the £20 mark in my view.

The radical solution would be to scrap Bronze membership and have a system of billing clubs and leagues by size. That at least would get rid of the nonsence that someone can simultaneously be a member for Congresses but not leagues.

[J T Melsom]

It can also be difficult for a bronze member to play more chess, so the costs of annual membership of a club and the national body in combination are more akin to a match fee, than other member categories.

[Roger de Coverly]

I noticed this under the "combined" membership plan.

We can confirm that this is not a problem from a technical point of view, and also note that grandfathered Bronze members moving onto the unified rate as they e.g. upgrade for congresses etc will also help with increasing the speed of transition.

In the context that existing Bronze members retain their lower membership fee, what a wonderful way of discouraging participation in Congresses, even rapidplay ones.

Surely the ECF Council should just reject the whole scheme, query the assertion that club players actually want a magazine and membership of "Just Go" as well as query the logic that a club player of four games a season incurs the same implicit costs to the ECF Office as one playing over a hundred.?

[NickFaulks]

£33 for a new (not grandfathered) Bronze member is much too high which is why I am supporting option 2 in the ECF proposals

Are you taking into account

"1.... We have sought to address this concern by introducing a ½ x single rate
membership fee for first year joiners (whether playing in leagues, congresses,
or both)"?

[Roger de Coverly]

Are you taking into account

"1.... We have sought to address this concern by introducing a ½ x single rate
membership fee for first year joiners (whether playing in leagues, congresses,
or both)"?

It doesn't address the concern so much as push it down the road. Does the ECF know the renewal rate for all the existing free memberships, or indeed how much potential revenue it gives away? If you believe in membership as much as the ECF now seems to, why introduce concessions?

[David Shepherd]

How about two types of membership - club player membership collected by the clubs as part of their membership fees and sent to the ECF by the clubs and compete membership paid by individuals allowing them to enter tournaments. Junior/online categories also.