Thanks all for the discussion and thoughts... I will try and respond in order - though that may mean responding twice to one person!
Sean, I am not intending to compare the two as facilities, rather to pose the question that as an enthusiastic chess amateur with £xx to spend - where do I find value? I think that I was trying to suggest that perhaps by finding ways of offering more value (without it costing the ECF any money - by signing up deals such as chess.com) it is more likely that the ECF will pick up members...
so it is a comparison of places to spend money - not a comparison of the actual ventures per se.
as for the Standard member - I have been through most of the ECF website including constitutional documents - trying to work out what the classes of membership actually are / mean, only to remain confused... if Standard is exactly the same as Full, only you have to pay extra for some of the services, why would you become a Full individual member?
Standard is £20, all the extras would be £26.50 for a total of £46.50 or you can have them all as a Full Individual member for £52???!!!
doesn't make sense to me...
Andrew, sorry, didn't mean it to come over in that way, in fact I am sure I mentioned that I was 'quite keen to support ECF', but without limitless funds one has to choose where to spend money - in fact if it wasn't for the fact that I would like to support the ECF I wouldn't have bothered writing this post
However, perhaps where you are right is that I will not support any organisation where I might feel that there hasn't been an attempt to think through 'the customer' and perhaps there is a bit of a feeling there for me - my post is challenging this area - posing the question - is what is offered what 'the customer' wants...?
Alex - sounds as though we have a similar analysis...
Matthew, I am not entirely sure that there is a direct correlation there - that suggests that chess is mainly played in congresses / rated events, I have played with friends and family since I was a child, have played online, was involved with a chess club for a few years and am involved in setting up a local chess club at the moment... so I do believe that it is possible to play a lot of chess without congresses and rating...
I am not entirely sure though that the issue is just about marketing - though I think that you have nailed it with comments about supporting England teams... I am not sure that in chess there is as much inspiration for lower level players from the top players (unlike perhaps footballers etc.), therefore to have a model where the lower level players are in effect funding those teams without necessarily feeling that they are getting back for their funding... doesn't strike me as the best model...
Sean - maybe that is the issue? I am very open to supporting the ECF - and will prob. join at some point... but it does feel a bit to me at present that the reason for my membership money is about running the office, and at present I am not seeing a reason to hand over my hard-earned money for that purpose - yes, in one sense selfish, but I don't see that it is my role / duty to fund the British team and so perhaps if the ECF wants members like me (and I believe that there are a lot like me - chess.com has over 60,000 UK members - how many are ECF members?) then it needs to consider what will entice those members - the fact that in only a couple of years chess.com has over a million members suggests that there are lots of keen chess players - who is asking the question in the UK as to why they are not joining the ECF?
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so, what I am trying to think through is simply what is the ECF offering to me for my money (however much that would be!) I am keen to learn / to improve / to move onwards along the journey etc. but I don't see how the ECF will help me do that... I am sure that for some ECF will be a useful part of their chess life - but at the moment I am struggling to see how they relate to the 'normal' person - my feeling is that they are supported by the grass roots - by the local clubs / etc. not the establishment...
not trying to be controversial (though there are those who will object to any view contrary to the established view), just exploring...
regards
Alasdair
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