Outcome of membership scheme

[Neville Belinfante]

EPSCA only grade one event every year - the English Under 11 Championships held at Nottingham High School in mid-October. That is currently in my intray and will be sent off for grading shortly. I have not seen much evidence that there aremore ECF members amongst the competitors than previous years - even though most are from counties that have signed the Framework Agreement.

A few questions for Midlands organisors
What competitions are there in the Midlands for secondary aged children? Does the MCCU organise any inter-county junior competitions? Do MCCU Junior Champion titles exist?

[Alex Holowczak]

What competitions are there in the Midlands for secondary aged children? Does the MCCU organise any inter-county junior competitions? Do MCCU Junior Champion titles exist?

That I know of:

Various Megafinals
Warwickshire Junior Championship
Staffordshire Junior Championship
Birmingham & Junior District Chess League
Nottinghamshire run three (or more?) junior events per year in a GP

Most of the strongest juniors in Birmingham tend to find their way into my Birmingham League team. There was a Solihull junior team doing much the same until they all went to Uni a year or two ago.

The MCCU used to organise an inter-county junior competition, but it stopped doing so when the ECF made the U18/13 an event you didn't need to qualify for. It wanted to run an individual Championship that would have clashed with an NYCA event, so it didn't happen. The reason it doesn't happen is a function of a lack of volunteers willing to come forward and run them.

[David Gilbert]

The membership list crashed through the 5000 mark this morning thanks to 465 new enrolments - the biggest one-day intake so far - largely thanks to the Birmingham and District League?

That makes 5293 members on the new scheme against a target of 8870 - good progress!

The above was posted on Wednesday, 24 October 2012. For those with an interest, a quick check this morning reveals that the new scheme has smashed the 6000 mark. There are now 6115 entries - more than half of these, 3215, are Bronze members. Using the the London Civil Service League as my own litmus test, 129 players have taken part in League activities so far, of whom 96 (about 74%) are ECF members. Amen.

[Sean Hewitt]

A quick summary of the membership situation at Brighton

Open (36 Players)
2 x Platinum
25 x Gold
9 x Foreign

Major (56 Players)
5 x Platinum
35 x Gold
1 x Silver
15 x Foreign


Minor (48 Players)
4 x Platinum
17 x Gold
14 x Silver
4 x Bronze
6 x Non-Members

[Roger de Coverly]

129 players have taken part in League activities so far, of whom 96 (about 74%) are ECF members. Amen.

If they intend to play at least six games, is there really a choice?

[Sean Hewitt]

If they intend to play at least six games, is there really a choice?

Of course. Some of this parish thought that players would leave the game in droves, resulting in a massive downturn of games played and players playing. There appears to be no evidence yet that this has happened.

[David Gilbert]

Well, the new Membership Scheme reached the 7000 mark today. That’s some achievement for the ECF and a fantastic response from the rank and file of the Chess community in England. And, of course, there’s still 9 1/2 months to go!

Adults

Platinum 79
Gold 854
Silver 1339
Bronze 3820

Total Adults 6092

Juniors

Platinum 0
Gold 262
Silver 312
Bronze 357

Total Juniors 931

Overall Total 7023

In purely numerical terms this represents about 80% of the 8870 target the ECF set itself. Although, as others have pointed out in previous posts, that figure was devised before changes were made to Junior membership.

But the ECF still has a little way to go to fulfill it’s income ambitions. The spread of membership is way out of line with what the ECF forecast. Among adults, whilst Gold is more-or-less on track, take-up of Bronze membership has been spectacularly higher than expected, whilst the take-up of Silver is significantly lower.

Among the Juniors nearly four times as many have signed-up for Gold, I suspect the blame for this lies predominately at the e2e4 door! I don’t suppose too many people outside the e2e4 organization had foreseen the spectacular growth in FIDE-rated chess for players beneath the top level, or its popularity among Juniors and their parents.

On the ground there still appears to be a wide variation. We have read elsewhere about what’s happening in Yorkshire, but looking to the South, at the London League for example, quite a few Clubs appear to be running close to 100% ECF membership, whilst at the other end of the spectrum a handful seem to be competing with just a tiny number of members.

[Roger de Coverly]

Well, the new Membership Scheme reached the 7000 mark today. That’s some achievement for the ECF and a fantastic response from the rank and file of the Chess community in England.

Isn't that less than half the usual number of players playing at least one graded game?

But it comes down to what you mean by success or failure. If there were only 9000 players playing at least one game of graded chess, but 95% of them were members, is that a pass or a fail?

[Sean Hewitt]

Adults

Platinum 79
Gold 854
Silver 1339
Bronze 3820

Total Adults 6092

Juniors

Platinum 0
Gold 262
Silver 312
Bronze 357

Total Juniors 931

Overall Total 7023

I get different numbers from the membership list I downloaded yesterday evening

Adults

Platinum 304
Gold 1592
Silver 1333
Bronze 3790

Total Adults 7019

Juniors

Platinum 0
Gold 411
Silver 312
Bronze 349

Total Juniors 1072

Overall Total 8091

[Sean Hewitt]

Isn't that less than half the usual number of players playing at least one graded game?

Yes.

But it comes down to what you mean by success or failure. If there were only 9000 players playing at least one game of graded chess, but 95% of them were members, is that a pass or a fail?

I would have thought that in the first year, that will be measured by revenue raised, the number of players playing at least one game, and the number of graded games played.

For example, of 7284 members who have a grading code which appears in the grading list, 1162 played 5 games or fewer last year. I would expect to see most of these players play more games this year. We'll see.

[David Gilbert]

I get different numbers from the membership list I downloaded yesterday evening

Sean. Yes. I'm only counting people who have enrolled into the new Membership scheme, not those who remain ECF members as part of the old scheme.

[Roger de Coverly]

I would have thought that in the first year, that will be measured by revenue raised, the number of players playing at least one game, and the number of graded games played.

The culling of entire leagues and Congresses from the grading system, along with a possible reduction in junior events being graded, must surely result in both the number of players and the number of graded games being reduced. Where leagues have a certain number of teams playing a fixed number of matches, then barring defaults, you have the same number of games every season even if the number of players is reduced.

Expanding the point about leagues, if you have a five board league of ten matches, then you have to field fifty boards. The settled team approach would be five players playing ten matches. A squad approach would be ten players playing five matches. If only half the players became ECF members and the other five were barred, you get back to five players playing ten matches. So the number of games per player increases whilst the number of players reduces.

[Mick Norris]

But the ECF still has a little way to go to fulfill it’s income ambitions. The spread of membership is way out of line with what the ECF forecast. Among adults, whilst Gold is more-or-less on track, take-up of Bronze membership has been spectacularly higher than expected, whilst the take-up of Silver is significantly lower. .

Caution - there are people down from an MO with bronze membership who have paid for either silver or gold, so the list is not yet accurate

As there are more congresses played, there will be more upgrades from bronze to silver too

You will note Dave Pardoe has joined as a Gold member, hopefully before he played at Bolton rapidplay on Sunday

[Martyn Harris]

But it comes down to what you mean by success or failure.

In my book a successful membership scheme should

1) Raise at least the budgeted monies.

2) Not cause the office staff to look for other jobs for fear of having to repeat the associated tasks.

3) Be seen to be fair by the majority of players. Not perfectly fair. Not all players - there are always some who believe they are entitled to pay less for anything.

4) Any currently perceived complexity is realised to be the complexity of the new, rather than something that will continue to be a potential source of confusion.

5) Organisers do not have bad experiences in identifying members or the level of membership required for their competitions which might lead them to be reluctant to continue organising events. The fact that some organisers take everything in their stride is not a satisfactory indication that all should.

No doubt others will argue for other criteria, and against these.


As far as fulfilling these:

1) We will discover in the fullness of time.

2) Do we really really need hand written laminated membership cards?

3) Apart from in the usual hotbeds of discontent, this seems to be the case.

4) Second time round will tell.

5) Ditch Membership Organisations, which serve to create a time lag between when a player pays and so regards themselves as a member, and their addition to the membership list. Whilst MOs clearly had a place in the mixed membership/game fee set up, it is difficult to see what useful role they play in a Universal Scheme. Is the proportion of people from outside of these schemes who join via the Office so large as to cause problems?

[Roger de Coverly]

2) Do we really really need hand written laminated membership cards?

If you are one of the several hundred who play at Blackpool, the answer would appear to be yes.

In http://www.blackpoolchess.org.uk/images ... y-form.pdf, I note the following

ECF Silver Members or above may claim a £6.00 (£4.00 for juniors) refund on
production of their current membership card at the event from the treasurer

You have to hope they have plenty of five pound notes and one pound coins at their disposal.