Roger de Coverly wrote:Paul Cooksey wrote:
English chess players want the ECF to do almost nothing
That's correct certainly, starting with trying to have rules set as to who is, or isn't, allowed to play in a league team.
Paul Cooksey wrote:. Perhaps it could get 200 members willing to pay £50? I think I'm being generous.
I think it might be more than that. You would have to go back to 2001 and check how many members there were then. This was shortly before the BCF embarked on its project to force membership on Internationally rated players using FIDE rules as an excuse.
I thought the arrangement was I guessed and Roger looked up the history?
Looking at the SCCU minutes for 2002 membership was 1100 (described as a plateau) for a revenue of £27000. But that looks optimistic, as a projection for voluntary membership since:
1. It included a game fee exemption for congresses
2. It included freebies, like the yearbook.
Net income was £16000. I'll be generous, and assume similar revenue and adjust for inflation to £20000.
Even doubling my previous estimate, £20k is a completely amateur organisation. Assuming we found a finance director prepared to collect the revenue, its an ECF that would:
1 Run grading
2 Send a team to the Olympiad but no other events (Certainly missing the top GMs, maybe even relying on norm hunters)
and almost nothing else. It is lucky David wants to abolish the Board and Council structures, since we can no longer afford to run them. I'd guess direct election of 3 or 4 officials similar to a club committee. We'd have to hope:
1 The John Robinson fund could look after junior chess independently
2 The British could become completely self funding, maybe paying the ECF £1 for use of its titles.
It's fine for a completely selfish club player. If by good luck the ECF were approached by a commercial sponsor, I guess they'd just redirect them to Malcolm Pein.
I'll concede it is not cataclysmic, but equally we would be giving up on the ECF as a vehicle to advance chess in England.