Membership Services

[Andrew Bak]

My biggest concern in English chess at this point in time is a lack of talented juniors coming through the ranks.

Admittedly I am not involved in junior chess in any way, but there seems to be a relatively healthy primary school system for playing chess, but I don't think there is a clear structure for taking promising young children and developing them through teenage years to enable them to become world class.

Aside from this there also seems to be fewer juniors playing the game in general, with a lot seemingly dropping out at secondary school level.

The UK Chess Challenge certainly gets kids playing chess, but I don't think is an adequate way of keeping kids playing chess or ensuring that the best get the coaching and tuition they require - the ECF needs to consider how to improve this.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Some of the topics here may benefit from further discussion. Would it be best to start those discussions as new threads and link them from here?

[Nick Burrows]

Great thread Sean!

I would like reports and results from every congress collated and available in one central place - The ECF website. I find it frustrating that many congress results are not available for weeks, months and sometimes not at all (*Cough* Leyland), meaning I cannot find out who won the tourny I was playing in.

Thanks, Nick.

[Roger de Coverly]

I would like reports and results from every congress collated and available in one central place - The ECF website.

Whilst an excellent idea, it would be somewhat pointless to restrict access to this to ECF members. In the context of the thread, Sean is looking for ideas that are benefits to ECF members, which implies that they are unavailable or closed to non-members.

[Angus French]

Discounts from anyone who'll give them

I have a specific suggestion to Paul's general idea. It is this. Chess players these days are avid consumers of computer technology and computers. We have a potential customer base of about 10,000 who will probably buy at least one new computer every 3 to 5 years if its Windows, and a new Mac every 5 to 10 years. Try and negotiate a deal with Apple (the iPads would be likely to be of interest across both OS camps), and a good quality manufacturer from the Wintel end of things, either HP or Sony, where members of the Federation could obtain a decent discount.

I'll talk to you separately about this when I get a moment Sean.

Bruce, what about Android (which is on more devices than iOS)?

[Nick Burrows]

As an ECF member, I would like to see innovations that benefit the whole of English Chess, not just it's members. Just as many of it's services are open to all via it's website, there is no reason why a modern results/reports service could not be added.
If a membership equals a vote on what the money is spent on, I vote we invest in as many open, inclusive ventures as possible to help popularise the game - rather than focusing on an exclusive, members only club that aims to keep the benefits in-house.

[Roger de Coverly]

If a membership equals a vote on what the money is spent on

At least one problem is that it doesn't. Voting power is concentrated in a relatively small number of individuals.

[Roger de Coverly]

Bruce, what about Android (which is on more devices than iOS)?

Android is also unix based as it's a Linux variant.

Comparing an Android phone to an ipad or iphone, there is no particular difficulty in downloading pgn files from a PC to the Android, once you have spotted the option to treat the USB cable as a disk drive, My club colleague with an Apple device had to do something devious to load pgn files. Loading, or pretending to load the files to a website and downloading from there is what I believe he had to do.

There are uses for an internet connected phone. One obvious one is to find out the next day's pairings. A less obvious one is to use it as a pocket chess set substitute to review the previous day's game.

[Sean Hewitt ECF DoMM]

I would like reports and results from every congress collated and available in one central place - The ECF website.

Whilst an excellent idea, it would be somewhat pointless to restrict access to this to ECF members. In the context of the thread, Sean is looking for ideas that are benefits to ECF members, which implies that they are unavailable or closed to non-members.

Not so. I'm looking for ideas from ECF members, irrespective of whom the beneficiaries may be. If members, who ultimately are the funders of the ECF, want the ECF to spend their membership fees on services that also benefit non-members that's something the Directors should be aware of.

[Richard James]

My biggest concern in English chess at this point in time is a lack of talented juniors coming through the ranks.

Admittedly I am not involved in junior chess in any way, but there seems to be a relatively healthy primary school system for playing chess, but I don't think there is a clear structure for taking promising young children and developing them through teenage years to enable them to become world class.

Aside from this there also seems to be fewer juniors playing the game in general, with a lot seemingly dropping out at secondary school level.

The UK Chess Challenge certainly gets kids playing chess, but I don't think is an adequate way of keeping kids playing chess or ensuring that the best get the coaching and tuition they require - the ECF needs to consider how to improve this.

Indeed (more or less). Listen to me. Talk to me.

[Andrew Zigmond]

One the benefits of being an ECF member is the access to ChessMoves. As far as I can see you access this by use of a password which you have to email the webmaster for. I suspect a lot of people may not bother.

I think the ECF should post or email the magazine directly to its members. Before somebody shouts me down about the cost, rates may need to be revised but a discount could easily be offered to electronic readers. The content shouldn't be too intense; reports of congresses and other events (which the organisers can write themselves), I'm sure a GM or IM somewhere could be persuaded to write a column and we shouldn't be short of volunteers to pen the odd factual or humorous article. Leave the master games to Chess and the politics to Kingpin.

More to the point; if you have a publication being sent to every ECF member (which is surely the majority of active players in the country) it's a marketing opportunity not just for the ECF but for chess retailers and publishers who I'm sure would pay for the advertising space.

I'd also like to see specialist publications for different membership demographics. There should be two seperate magazines for juniors; one for age 11 and under (full of hints, tips, puzzles and cool graphics) and another one for 12-18 year olds which is a bit more punchier and can build something of a network. As an aside I sometimes feel we tend to lump junior players together and wonder why teenagers aren't keen to do activities that are dominated by screaming nine year olds.

There could also be a fourth publication for Gold members which is a bit more in depth in terms of games and analysis. Bronze and silver can opt to receive this instead of their magazine - or receive both, for an extra charge.

Finally one of the benefits of ECF membership is a reduced subscription to British Chess Magazine. I couldn't find any reference to how this was obtained on the ECF or BCM websites (I was probably looking in the wrong place but I shouldn't have to look). BCM is the the lesser of the two main UK chess publications and I'm sure they'd welcome the boost.

[Andrew Zigmond]

Starting a different post because the last one was quite long.

I'd like to see the ECF do more to network clubs and organisations. I think a lot of chess organisation in the country is fragmented; there are any number of excellent individuals but they don't talk to each other - and I think junior organisers are the worst offenders. It would probably be a big piece of work but, if properly maintained, would only have to be done once.

[John Upham]

Finally one of the benefits of ECF membership is a reduced subscription to British Chess Magazine. I couldn't find any reference to how this was obtained on the ECF or BCM websites (I was probably looking in the wrong place but I shouldn't have to look). BCM is the the lesser of the two main UK chess publications and I'm sure they'd welcome the boost.

I too have asked about the details of this member benefit. I have mentioned this to the acting CEO and asked for a response. I can find no mention of this on the ECF web site but maybe I simply have not found it?

Maybe the DoMM could look into this please?

For the record, the benefit is a 10% reduction in the subscription charge and members need to provide their ECF membership code plus use the promo code of "BCM464"

Thanks for mentioning this Andrew and much appreciated!

J.

[Roger de Coverly]

I think the ECF should post or email the magazine directly to its members.

It already does, or at least it does if you used to receive a postal copy and gave the ECF your email address.

Scrapping of the paper and posted edition of ChessMoves was one of the money saving measures introduced after the loss of the DCMS Grant. It was never obvious why ChessMoves was retained in the first place, given that it mostly consists of material that had already appeared and was still available on the website.

[John Upham]

It was never obvious why ChessMoves was retained in the first place, given that it mostly consists of material that had already appeared and was still available on the website.

I can understand that but it was obvious to me.

There are many ECF members and (BCM subscribers for that matter) who do not and will not access the Interweb thingy and perhaps only receive email thingies. Reception of printed matter is their main means of attempting to keep in touch. I kid you not...