Ecf Silver member letter

Debate directly related to English Chess Federation matters.
Angus French
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Re: Ecf Silver member letter

Post by Angus French » Tue Oct 09, 2018 1:34 pm

Roger de Coverly wrote:
Tue Oct 09, 2018 12:53 pm
...You also have to ask why three year membership has been scrapped. Subscriptions to magazines can cope with periods of longer than a year.
My understanding is that the old system didn't handle multi-year memberships well and that upgrades to single years within a multi-year group were problematic. There is now, at least, a direct debit facility.

Nick Grey
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Re: Ecf Silver member letter

Post by Nick Grey » Tue Oct 09, 2018 3:32 pm

Lets be realistic. If ECF have not got a 3 year contract with a payment provider it cannot offer a 3 year membership service.
Your local council cannot offer you a service to pay your council tax 3 years in advance either. Or other services.
Comparison to a magazine subscription is not the point. I still think you should pay 5 or 10 times what I pay.
That seems fair & equitable. I'm all for junior discounts as parents still have a lot more high level costs.
I can see no reason why pensioners ought not to be hit either - seeming to want a lot of items from the past at same prices which is completely bonkers in the current state of the real world in the UK.

The silver reps have offered nothing to suggest I ought to downgrade to silver.
Then again no e-mails to gold members. I'm not expecting our reps to do any more than they did this time last year.

Mick Norris
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Re: Ecf Silver member letter

Post by Mick Norris » Tue Oct 09, 2018 3:48 pm

received today

Dear Gold Member,

The Annual General Meeting of the English Chess Federation will be held on Saturday 13 October in Birmingham. There are two main items on the agenda:
1. election or re-election of Directors; and
2. proposed future strategy of the ECF and its implications for budgets from 2018/19 onwards.
We set out below our current joint view.
Apologies for the late sending out of this note. We'd be grateful for your feedback by Friday, hopefully in support but we'd like to hear if you have different views or if you'd like us to raise other points at the meeting.

We think it best to look first at the proposed strategy documents, links to which can be found under items C29.11-13 here: https://www.englishchess.org.uk/about/e ... and-board/.

Strategy

The Draft Strategy and Business Plan document (agenda item C29.11) contains more explicit objectives than the document tabled at the AGM in October 2016. Agenda item 29.12(a) sets out a revised budget for 2018/19 and plans for the following two years. In order to better understand these two documents and the changes they propose , you should first read the document tabled as C29.12(b) entitled “Challenges for English Chess and the ECF.” This highlights the problems of ageing demographics in the membership, a paucity of female players, the relative lack of volunteers to support the running of the ECF and the increasing difficulty in attracting sponsorship.

The Board's proposed response includes:
1. Simplifying the financial structure by effectively making the BCF dormant and amalgamating trust funds into the Chess Trust.
2. Grow membership through the activities of a newly appointed Development Officer, incentivised through meeting growth targets.
3. Increase the budget of Women's Chess from £5,000 to £15,000, to be used in developing the British and English Women's Championships and in support of organisations encouraging Women's participation in chess.
4. Increase staffing and pay of ECF Office staff by £6,000 p.a.
5. Increased international team support of £9,000 p.a.

In total, these proposals are estimated to increase budgeted costs by £44.5k over the next three years, with £18.5k from trust funds and £26k from the ECF itself. The Board proposes to fund this by increases in membership fees from 2019/20 onwards, as follows:



2018/19 2019/20 2020/21 Members
As Approved April
Platinum 70 75 (75) 80 100
Gold 34 38 (36) 41 2000
Silver 23.5 27 (25) 30 2150
Bronze 16 18 (17) 20 4000
Junior 5 6 (5) 6 1800

The highlighted numbers show the revised membership fees proposed by the Board, together with the estimates for 2019/20 shown to Council in April this year.

The Board is therefore seeking approval of a package:

1. The overall proposed strategy to meet the challenges.
2. The proposed increases in budgeted expenditure for 2018/19 and planned expenditure levels in subsequent years.
3. Increases in membership fees for 2019/20 and 2020/21 to cover the proposed increases in expenditure.

These documents are clear and well-written, and we would encourage you to read them, particularly because we believe they represent a possible watershed for the Federation. One can get bogged down in the detail, but each of the Board's specific expenditure proposals seem to us to be well thought out. In particular, we support maintaining a strong ECF presence in international tournaments as something which encourages young people to take up and continue playing chess. We think the essential question for members is whether they have confidence in the Board's overall vision and ability to deliver it. Our own view, based on the Board's overall performance over the last two years and on the clear targets of the proposed increases in expenditure, is that members should have that confidence. We therefore currently intend to vote in favour of the Board's proposals.

Election/Re-election of Directors and Officers

All bar two of the positions up for election/re-election have as their only nomination the current incumbent. Since all seem to have performed well in their roles, we proposed voting for their re-election. Alex Holowczak is standing for the position of Director of Junior Chess, nominated by Traci Whitfield (who is standing down). We propose to vote for election of Alex, who we hope will build on the excellent groundwork laid out by Traci during her tenure.
The only contested election is for the role of Director of Home Chess, between Tim Wall and Adrian Elwin. We think leadership in this role will be key to the Board's aim of developing chess in England, so we would like to see someone with leadership credentials, drive and enthusiasm as well as organisational skills, to spearhead Home Chess. Both candidates seem to have good management credentials from their careers outside chess. We have, though, been particularly impressed by Tim Wall's vision and drive, so we intend to vote for him. Whichever way the overall vote goes, we hope that the Board can find a role for the unsuccessful candidate.

- Ben Edgell, Roger Emerson
Any postings on here represent my personal views

Roger de Coverly
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Re: Ecf Silver member letter

Post by Roger de Coverly » Tue Oct 09, 2018 3:56 pm

(gold members email quoted by Mick Norris) wrote:
Tue Oct 09, 2018 3:48 pm
We have, though, been particularly impressed by Tim Wall's vision and drive, so we intend to vote for him.
I cannot say I'm impressed by the continued level of hatred directed towards the new FIDE President and his associates. I also think the ECF board should be independent of CSC.

Mick Norris
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Re: Ecf Silver member letter

Post by Mick Norris » Tue Oct 09, 2018 4:02 pm

Agree with that Roger

I'll be explaining to the Gold reps another reason to not vote for Tim
Any postings on here represent my personal views

J T Melsom
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Re: Ecf Silver member letter

Post by J T Melsom » Tue Oct 09, 2018 4:37 pm

Has the governance committee commented at all on the CSC factor? I fully understand the concern and would like some assurances about safeguards being in place. However, there are relatively few volunteers in chess, plenty of inter connections, and I'm not yet sure that any coincidence of interests are routinely to the detriment of English chess (FIDE issues apart). Are all CSC 'staff' to be barred or do people just want them to be in a clear minority on the board and their power on matters of potential conflict managed? I don't think it is sufficient to simply point out the links.

Nick Grey
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Re: Ecf Silver member letter

Post by Nick Grey » Tue Oct 09, 2018 5:03 pm

Thanks. I did not get a chance to ask Roger Emerson on 1st October as his game was one of the last to finish.
I'm impressed with Tim too but then again he has put his points across & I would not want to seem biased against the North.
I'm not sure where the anti-CSC is coming from.
Yes I play for their 4NCL team (BCM b4 that). Yes I work in getting as much money for schools in Kensington & Chelsea, & Westminster (& up to 31st March for Hammersmith & Fulham before our Trexit breakup). There are a lot of good chess people in CSC. They also do a lot for chess locally, in ECF & some internationally.
I think it is a shame that individuals are wrapped up in 'chess politics', 'conspiracy theories' & plots that come out of the best spy novels or political dramas. My work requires me to be politically independent.

Well done Ben & Roger - expert analysis as always. Especially not getting bogged down in detail - the economic climate is likely to be worse not better in 3 years time.

J T Melsom
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Re: Ecf Silver member letter

Post by J T Melsom » Tue Oct 09, 2018 5:07 pm

Nick

I don't think there is an anti CSC bias at all, although the requirements of your work to be politically independent and to avoid and declare conflicts of interest might give you clue as to what others are saying. There needs to be good governance and good policing of governance. It is in the interests of all concerned.

Bob Clark
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Re: Ecf Silver member letter

Post by Bob Clark » Tue Oct 09, 2018 5:11 pm

Roger de Coverly wrote:
Tue Oct 09, 2018 3:56 pm

I also think the ECF board should be independent of CSC.
No idea why you think it isn’t, but I’m guessing that you have very little idea of how CSC works!
Mick Norris wrote:
Tue Oct 09, 2018 4:02 pm
Agree with that Roger

I'll be explaining to the Gold reps another reason to not vote for Tim
That’s a shame Mick, I feel I should contact them to endorse Tim.

Mick Norris
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Re: Ecf Silver member letter

Post by Mick Norris » Tue Oct 09, 2018 5:14 pm

No problem Bob, it would be better if many gold members responded, whatever their views are, even if only to thank Ben & Roger for their efforts
Any postings on here represent my personal views

Roger de Coverly
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Re: Ecf Silver member letter

Post by Roger de Coverly » Tue Oct 09, 2018 5:17 pm

Bob Clark wrote:
Tue Oct 09, 2018 5:11 pm
No idea why you think it isn’t, but I’m guessing that you have very little idea of how CSC works!
It's the very simple observation that if you look at the list of ECF Directors and the list of CSC named people, there's an overlap. Even beyond that, some of the CSC tutors are also ECF Directors.

Blame John Foley for banging on about a nexus of common interests influencing the ECF.

I'm not overly concerned with how CSC works, rather more how the ECF works. As far as CSC is concerned, am I right in thinking that tutors and others receive a remuneration for their efforts? As such might they be hesitant in getting into conflicts involving ECF matters with the head of the charity?
Last edited by Roger de Coverly on Tue Oct 09, 2018 5:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Michael Farthing
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Re: Ecf Silver member letter

Post by Michael Farthing » Tue Oct 09, 2018 5:20 pm

J T Melsom wrote:
Tue Oct 09, 2018 4:37 pm
Has the governance committee commented at all on the CSC factor? I fully understand the concern and would like some assurances about safeguards being in place. However, there are relatively few volunteers in chess, plenty of inter connections, and I'm not yet sure that any coincidence of interests are routinely to the detriment of English chess (FIDE issues apart). Are all CSC 'staff' to be barred or do people just want them to be in a clear minority on the board and their power on matters of potential conflict managed? I don't think it is sufficient to simply point out the links.
The Governance Committee has commented neither on the CSC factor nor the 4NCL factor, nor the Warwick Kingmakers factor (The notorious Thomas-Holowczak nexus).

The view that I would put in Committee would be quite clear: it is not the job of Governance to make pronouncements on Board acceptability. That is the job of Council Members through their votes. I have a slight inkling that I would not be in a minority with this point of view.

Speaking as a member of, but not on behalf of, the Governance Committee

Nick Grey
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Re: Ecf Silver member letter

Post by Nick Grey » Tue Oct 09, 2018 5:55 pm

Nexus is old news & John Is not standing for election. The Nexus was the Star Trek movie with 2 captains of the Enterprise & great villain.
Too many dinosaurs making comments.

But then again I was not aware that Michael is a member of the Governance Committee. And I think I'm up to doing a bit of cooking a meal now.

J T Melsom
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Re: Ecf Silver member letter

Post by J T Melsom » Tue Oct 09, 2018 6:38 pm

I accept that there are overlapping interests and this need not amount to cronyism or result in corruption, but I must admit to some surprise that this isn't a matter for governance. Who has oversight of register of interests / conflict of interests within the ECF?

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Michael Farthing
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Re: Ecf Silver member letter

Post by Michael Farthing » Tue Oct 09, 2018 6:48 pm

J T Melsom wrote:
Tue Oct 09, 2018 6:38 pm
I accept that there are overlapping interests and this need not amount to cronyism or result in corruption, but I must admit to some surprise that this isn't a matter for governance. Who has oversight of register of interests / conflict of interests within the ECF?
A register of interests is there so that this information is known and can be taken into consideration by the electorate. The connection of those associated with CSC is well known and not secret. Having a conflicting interest does not mean that you are prevented from standing for a post.

Governance is about ensuring that the rules of an organisation are properly followed. The rules of this organisation are that the Board is freely elected by Council. By all means vote against CSC candidates if that's what you think is right. If it is the general belief that it is right to vote against them then they will not be elected. Otherwise it will show that you are in a minority. Are you suggesting that Governance should step in to ensure that a minority view prevails?