Volunteers Required to work for the ECF

[John Upham]

Talking recently about things (but not trumpets) voluntary we have a request from the ECF for persons to work as follows:

Dear ECF Member,
The English Chess Federation is seeking volunteers for several important roles.
If you would like to support chess in England and get involved in our activities, please see the latest vacancies on our website:
https://www.englishchess.org.uk/vacancies-at-the-ecf/
Current roles include:
• Newsletter Editor for secondary school chess
• Section Controller for the British Team Chess Challenge
• School Administrator
• UK Open Blitz Qualifiers roles
• Volunteer Manager for the 2026 British Championships
To find out more about any of these positions, please visit the link above. If you are interested in volunteering or would like to discuss how you could help, please contact Alex Holowczak at [email protected]
Thank you for your support.
Best wishes,
English Chess Federation

If you are looking for highly skilled persons for the above roles then expecting them to do it for zero remuneration seems like the right way to go about it.

Volunteer Manager for the 2026 British Championships seems particularly attractive.

Yes, I did check the date of the email before I posted.

[Ian Thompson]

If you are looking for highly skilled persons for the above roles then expecting them to do it for zero remuneration seems like the right way to go about it.

Volunteer Manager for the 2026 British Championships seems particularly attractive.

Did you read the descriptions of the roles before posting? "Volunteer Manager for the 2026 British Championships" is asking for someone "To help recruit volunteers, and maintain a log of availability and contact information of each volunteer" and to create "A spreadsheet of volunteers and their availability"; estimated time needed to do the job - 10 hours. The role isn't to manage anything. It's for an administrator to liaise with volunteers and maintain a spreadsheet.

Most of the other roles are for administrative jobs that don't require highly skilled people to do them.

[Alex Holowczak]

If you are looking for highly skilled persons for the above roles then expecting them to do it for zero remuneration seems like the right way to go about it.

I refer you to Ray Clark's comments in item 4 of the March Finance Committee minutes: https://www.englishchess.org.uk/wp-cont ... h-2026.pdf

[John Upham]

Key trends in the financials were discussed, in particular the fact that the forecast
shows Admin & Membership expenses growing faster in percentage terms than the
ECF’s membership base. EK and AL attributed this predominantly to emerging
challenges in finding qualified unpaid volunteers for key roles and in the resulting
need to pay volunteers for their time. RC said this could be due to a lack of
awareness of volunteering opportunities among ECF members and suggested that
suitable job descriptions be created for all roles that have been done previously by
volunteers, with copies provided to the Finance Committee. He said such an
approach could support a greater effort by the ECF to advertise open volunteering
roles by emailing club and league secretaries, to tap into the potential of thousands
of adult ECF members holding various professional qualifications.

[Paul Cooksey]

With apologies for being a dull management consultant type, of course it isn't enough to list all the roles you also have to prioritise them or you end up with people doing "nice to have" things and essentials things get left undone.

[Alex Holowczak]

With apologies for being a dull management consultant type, of course it isn't enough to list all the roles you also have to prioritise them or you end up with people doing "nice to have" things and essentials things get left undone.

You have nothing to fear. Guess who ends up having to do the essential things for which people can't be found?

[Neill Cooper]

It has been nice for me to find that within half a day we have a choice of folk volunteering for roles which I have had problems finding the time (and energy) to do.

[Kevin Thurlow]

"RC said this could be due to a lack of awareness of volunteering opportunities among ECF members"

Having done too much volunteering in the past, and hating management BS, the phrase "volunteering opportunities" caused me some distress...

(Edited to protect any humourless readers.)

[Neill Cooper]

Having done too much volunteering in the past, and hating management BS, the phrase "volunteering opportunities" caused me some distress...

Fortunately we have some younger folk (school pupils, University students, parents with chess playing children) who have not been put off by the "volunteering opportunities" phrase.

[Kevin Thurlow]

"Fortunately we have some younger folk (school pupils, University students, parents with chess playing children) who have not been put off by the "volunteering opportunities" phrase."

That's great - volunteers are needed and valuable - I just rather resent the suggestion that you should be grateful that someone has asked you to do the work!