ECF Game Fee - Club internal games

[Paul Buswell]

£13 to join a national federation for a year for anything is peanuts, really.

I agree with this. How many Hastings members are we talking about? Perhaps the Hastings club could absorb the cost?

That is an option we will look at if push comes to shove. But it would still be members paying more, albeit a greater number of them.

PB

[benedgell]

I am of the view that the present Game Fee of £2 (£1 rapid) is inappropriate to the casual player whose only competitive chess is within their own club's internal tournaments. I think it is a disincentive to their taking their first steps in competitive chess, and that one alternative - joining the ECF @ £13 - is also inappropriate as it heightens the cost barrier for such casual or social players.

In the case of my own club, Hastings, we have members who only play chess within the club, perhaps socially, perhaps within club competitions, but never ever in leagues or congresses. Do we require them to take on the cost of an ECF sub, which otherwise they don't need, or hit them for £2 per game when they play in a graded club event? We might start losing members at a time when money is tight.

So I wish to propose to the ECF Council a reduction in Game Fee for Club internal games; I accept that some payment is required to cover grading's costs, but not at the presenrt level. In terms of the financial implications, Richard Haddrell advises for 2012/13:
Club halfgames played 31,378 of which 28,658 by Members
Standard 24,242 : 22,659
Rapid 7,136 : 5,999

So if club internal was reduced to 50p (25p rapid) the implication is a maximum loss to ECF of:
Standard: (24,242 - 22,659) * (£1.50 reduction) * (100/120 net of VAT) = £1,979
Rapid: (7,136 - 5,999) * (£0.75 reduction) * (100/120 net of VAT) = £711

Unquantifiable are the following:
Whether any current Members might decide that on that basis they no longer needed to be members: (I suggest that number would be low although of course I can't be sure);
the number of additional games that might be played as a result of the relaxation of the tariff

I myself would regard the idea as a positive step by ECF to make it easy for beginners and novices to take their first steps in competitive chess, easing them in to competition.

An alternative approach might be for ECF to commute the Game Fee for Club internal games into one standard sum, say £50 per season, for Clubs to receive unlimited grading of their internal games.

I have put the observations above to the ECF Directors concerned - Membership, cc Finance - but the matter was not discussed at the Board meeting on 19 January as the Board ran out of time. But I am advised by the Director of Membership that based on e-mails with his Board colleagues he was "not hopeful of a majority of the Board giving it their approval".

So as an exercise of the democratic process I wish to put my proposal - reduced Game Fee or commuted sum for Club internal games - to the ECF Council at its budget setting meeting on 12 April. Are there any organisations out there who will add their name to this proposal to ensure it gets on to the Agenda in proper fashion?

I can be contacted by PM on this forum or at [email protected] or at [email protected]

Thank you

Paul Buswell

Hi Paul,

I haven't received any complaints/ comments about the cost of game fee for internal club games from any of the South- West groups I represent, and so I would recommend to them not to support this proposal.