Finance Committee Meeting 2026

[John Upham]

Dear ECF Council Member
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that a meeting of the English Chess Federation Council will be held at the residence of the Chair and by video conferencing facilities (ZOOM) starting at 18.30 pm. The video access will be available from 18.00 pm.

The Procedural Bye Laws prescribe that the Chair shall seek to end the ECF General Council meeting by 22.30 pm. but it may be extended to 23.30 pm if Members wish.

This meeting is convened by the Chair of the ECF Council. This agenda is issued from the English Chess Federation Office (3, Bear Hill, Alvechurch, Birmingham, Worcestershire B48 7JX) on Thursday 14th May 2026.

An organisation wishing to change its Representative Member must do so by 18.30 pm on Sunday 7th June 2026. An authorised official of the organisation should email the Chair of Council at [email protected] stating his or her official position and the official name of the organisation, the name and contact details of the newly appointed representative (particularly an email address) and affirming that he or she has authority to notify a change of representation. Such change of detail is permanent and will be carried forward to future meetings unless and until a further change is notified.

Representatives who will not be able to attend meeting and wish to give their apologises for absence are asked to notify the Chair at [email protected] before the meeting.
Observers are only allowed with the permission of the Chair.

Proxies
If a Member or Representative Member is unable to attend this meeting but intends to remain a member then a proxy may be appointed, and this appointment will apply only to this meeting. To appoint a proxy the member representatives should read the “Appointment of Proxies and Voting Arrangements” accompanying this notice. The normal procedure is now to make proxy appointments through the online facilities and there is no deadline for such appointments.
Voting Arrangements
Members should also note that all card voting is now done electronically. Members should familiarise themselves with the voting procedure set out in the document referred to above and ensure that they have access to the private area of the website set out in that document and at the foot of this notice.

Queries
In order to expedite the business of the meeting, Members are invited to contact the ECF Office or the Chair of Council beforehand should they have any questions of detail on the papers for the meeting.

Members are reminded that details of how members have exercised their votes in a poll will be published as part of the minutes of the meeting except for elections of officials.

Members are reminded of the advice of the Pearce Commission that they should consult the organisations that they represent (and the members thereof) when deciding how to cast their votes.

Joining Instructions by Zoom
Details of joining instructions will be sent out closer to the date of the meeting. Members should note that they are responsible for ensuring they are able to access and operate the Zoom software including its facility for exercising hand votes, and use of the ECF electronic voting system for card votes. It will not be practical to delay proceedings for representatives who are having hardware or software difficulties.

Attachments
(i) The ECF Finance Council Meeting Agenda June 2026
(ii) Appointment of Proxies and Voting Arrangements

Documents referred to in the Agenda will be published on the ECF website (Go to: About US -> Documents -> Council papers).
David Eustace - Chair of Council

[John Reyes]

this is the main motion and what is people views?

10. Proposed Membership Fees for 2026-27

Current Proposed Rates for 2026/27

£ £

Junior Bronze 7.50 9.00
Junior Gold 14.00 16.00
Junior Platinum 80.00 82.00

Bronze 21.00 22.00
Gold 37.00 38.00
Platinum 80.00 82.00


Supporter 9.99 10.00

Congress Pay to Play 16.00 16.00
Congress Pay to Play (junior) 6.50 7.00
Congress Pay to Play (junior only
events) 3.00 3.00
FIDE Admin fee (non-England) 1.50 (waived) n/a
Non-Members Game fee 21.00 22.00
Non-Members Game Fee (Junior) 7.50 9.00

[Derrick Walker]

Hopefully as part of this they are also scrapping the Free Junior Bronze. With a Free Junior Gold also available it makes no sense for organisers when the Free Bronze has to be upgraded to Free Junior Gold so they can play in a Congrress. Yes, it is free to upgrade but why should organisers have to keep track and ECF Office do a pointless bit of paperwork.

[John Upham]

Hopefully as part of this they are also scrapping the Free Junior Bronze. With a Free Junior Gold also available it makes no sense for organisers when the Free Bronze has to be upgraded to Free Junior Gold so they can play in a Congrress. Yes, it is free to upgrade but why should organisers have to keep track and ECF Office do a pointless bit of paperwork.

Yes, the FJB has provided a continuous source of confusion for parents who are not familiar with the nuances of rating and what a congress is.

Quite agree Derrick.

[John Reyes]

Hopefully as part of this they are also scrapping the Free Junior Bronze. With a Free Junior Gold also available it makes no sense for organisers when the Free Bronze has to be upgraded to Free Junior Gold so they can play in a Congrress. Yes, it is free to upgrade but why should organisers have to keep track and ECF Office do a pointless bit of paperwork.

Yes, the FJB has provided a continuous source of confusion for parents who are not familiar with the nuances of rating and what a congress is.

Quite agree Derrick.

I respectfully disagree, as there are junior and new players who simply wish to participate in league chess. While it is your decision, it is important to consider all perspectives.

[Alex Holowczak]

Hopefully as part of this they are also scrapping the Free Junior Bronze. With a Free Junior Gold also available it makes no sense for organisers when the Free Bronze has to be upgraded to Free Junior Gold so they can play in a Congrress. Yes, it is free to upgrade but why should organisers have to keep track and ECF Office do a pointless bit of paperwork.

Yes, the FJB has provided a continuous source of confusion for parents who are not familiar with the nuances of rating and what a congress is.

Quite agree Derrick.

I respectfully disagree, as there are junior and new players who simply wish to participate in league chess. While it is your decision, it is important to consider all perspectives.

How many juniors only wish to participate in league chess, and no other chess?

[John Upham]

How many juniors only wish to participate in league chess, and no other chess?

You beat me to asking the very same question Alex

[John Upham]

One other minor query:

I am happy to recommend Junior Pt membership over and above Junior Au membership.

If only I knew what the benefits were to the player: can anyone help please?

[NickFaulks]

Could the title of this discussion be corrected?

[Mike Truran]

Free Junior Bronze is an entirely pointless category (as has been pointed out above, juniors only wanting to play local league chess are as rare as hens' teeth, and anyway Free Junior Gold allows them to do only that if that's what they want). The Board wanted to abolish it. A vociferous minority at a past Council meeting argued for its retention for some bizarre reason I can no longer recall (presumably something to do with juniors drifting into paid Gold after year 1 by mistake and having to pay an extra £7); Council in its wisdom agreed.

Just bonkers.

[Ian Thompson]

juniors only wanting to play local league chess are as rare as hens' teeth,

How many juniors play in leagues for their school and/or individual events run by their league/county/local area which are only open to local players, at least one of which is rated, and nothing else? How strictly is the "only open to local players" rule enforced when determining membership requirements?

[Alex Holowczak]

How many juniors play in leagues for their school

There are almost no leagues (as you would think of them) left, except for the Briant Poulter League. In any event, we are likely to adapt Schools Membership for 2026/27 to cover that off, to make it more convenient for schools chess.

Inter-school chess has evolved from school leagues with home/away matches across the winter into evening tournaments, where all the schools in the area meet up at one of the schools, and play a tournament. This tournament will inevitably be a team tournament with fewer than 8 rapid games, and thus it is automatically exempt from Game Fee under existing rules anyway.

and/or individual events run by their league/county/local area which are only open to local players, at least one of which is rated, and nothing else?

I'm not sure why "at least one of which is rated" is a relevant point, but

• I don't believe there are many children who play league chess and league chess only. I think even fewer of these people play individual events closed to the league, and not league chess/other chess
• You could have asked about inter-county junior chess and bronze membership. Junior 4NCL is FIDE-rated, so they need Gold membership anyway. The EPSCA Schools Event is on the jumbo-event flat rate arrangements regardless of membership takeup. The EPSCA Inter-Association (i.e. county) event is subject to Game Fee but on principle didn't require players to be members anyway. They briefly tried that this year under new management, before the team managers politely, and not so politely, pointed at the rules and past decisions, and so they didn't try to apply a membership rule at all.

How strictly is the "only open to local players" rule enforced when determining membership requirements?

In my experience - it is properly applied.

[Neill Cooper]

How many juniors play in leagues for their school

There are almost no leagues (as you would think of them) left, except for the Briant Poulter League. In any event, we are likely to adapt Schools Membership for 2026/27 to cover that off, to make it more convenient for schools chess.

Alex forgets to consider schools who play in evening leagues. For instance 2 of the 7 clubs in the Torbay Chess League are schools whilst Eton College plays in the Berkshire League. The 3 schools have a total 36 (junior) bronze members between them.

[Neill Cooper]

this is the main motion and what is people views?

10. Proposed Membership Fees for 2026-27

Current Proposed Rates for 2026/27

£ £

Junior Bronze 7.50 9.00
Junior Gold 14.00 16.00
Junior Platinum 80.00 82.00

Bronze 21.00 22.00
Gold 37.00 38.00
Platinum 80.00 82.00


Supporter 9.99 10.00

Congress Pay to Play 16.00 16.00
Congress Pay to Play (junior) 6.50 7.00
Congress Pay to Play (junior only
events) 3.00 3.00
FIDE Admin fee (non-England) 1.50 (waived) n/a
Non-Members Game fee 21.00 22.00
Non-Members Game Fee (Junior) 7.50 9.00

I note that Junior fees are going up much faster than adult fees. Previously they were kept low to encourage new juniors but this no longer seems to be the case, beyond the one year free Junior Gold membership.

[Ian Thompson]

I'm not sure why "at least one of which is rated" is a relevant point, but

Because we're talking about ECF membership requirements. There is only a requirement if the event is rated.

How strictly is the "only open to local players" rule enforced when determining membership requirements?

In my experience - it is properly applied.

Define "properly". I was thinking of events that are intended only for local players, but there is no explicit ban on non-local players entering, and, in practice, only local players do enter.