ECF Council Meeting 12 April 2014

[Neill Cooper]

... OK if you wanted to, you could give a free membership to every participant in the Basman Chess Challenge. As the idea of membership was to make more money for the ECF than the Game Fee system, giving away membership doesn't exactly achieve this.

Remember it is free membership for only 1 year.
Of the 20 from my school who have taken it up this year I expect the majority to pay next year.

[Sean Hewitt]

... OK if you wanted to, you could give a free membership to every participant in the Basman Chess Challenge. As the idea of membership was to make more money for the ECF than the Game Fee system, giving away membership doesn't exactly achieve this.

Remember it is free membership for only 1 year.
Of the 20 from my school who have taken it up this year I expect the majority to pay next year.

That was the whole idea!

[Andrew Zigmond]

The ECF had a junior magazine not so long ago. It was cancelled as a means of saving money. As membership is all about raising money for the ECF, the least you give back the better.

It does have an adult magazine available online, albeit one that could do with a higher profile. Two junior magazines could be an extension of this.

[Paul Buswell]

Changing tack, at the Council Meeting Nigel Short pointed out that in France and Germany they have (iirc) 70,000+ members of their national chess federations. The question is how, as a first step, do we raise our membership from 10,000 to 20,000. This is particularly difficult as this is more than than number of graded players.
Increasing the number of junior members, via the free one year membership, may be one way. Not only has it proved popular in some quarters but I think it will lead on to more junior members next year.

I've had a surprising number of new junior members join my club this year - and I'm determined to keep them. Equally surprising was that two joined as existing members of the ECF.

It would help if we could improve our `package`, particularly to junior members. Two punchy in house magazines (one for primary age, one for secondary) would be a big help - from a club secretary perspective it's a far better sell than having to explain the minutiae of the grading and game fee system.

I suggest some selling points for adult members would also help. Correct me if I am wrong, but I know of no concise literature - fliers, leaflets - that sets out what the ECF actually does and why it is worthy of support. I expect to see a modest reduction in chess activity within our club (Hastings & St Leonards) next season following our failure to obtain a reduced Game Fee for Club internal games, and if that expectation is to be confounded it would help to have some ECF propaganda to encourage recusants into membership.

PB

[Roger de Coverly]

I suggest some selling points for adult members would also help.

The ultimate objectives of a "Universal Membership Scheme" were set out by Andrew Farthing. You aren't allowed to play graded games of chess unless an ECF member. From that viewpoint it's a distress purchase, like buying a TV Licence.

[Sean Hewitt]

I suggest some selling points for adult members would also help. Correct me if I am wrong, but I know of no concise literature - fliers, leaflets - that sets out what the ECF actually does and why it is worthy of support. I expect to see a modest reduction in chess activity within our club (Hastings & St Leonards) next season following our failure to obtain a reduced Game Fee for Club internal games, and if that expectation is to be confounded it would help to have some ECF propaganda to encourage recusants into membership.

Isn't it fairly straightforwardly explained on the ECF website? You get the right to have an unlimited number of games graded within your category of membership - for the payment of a small annual fee. Nearly 10,000 players have already understood that and joined up. Fliers / materials etc cost money to produce and distribute. Such material would attract very few, if any, additional members in my opinion.

You aren't allowed to play graded games of chess unless an ECF member. From that viewpoint it's a distress purchase, like buying a TV Licence.

That seems like a very good analogy to me.

[Roger de Coverly]

You get the right to have an unlimited number of games graded within your category of membership - for the payment of a small annual fee.

That's not really the case though, since in a Bronze or Silver event, the games would be graded anyway and the organiser would pay the ECF. Equally if you played a series of casual games and ask the ECF to grade them, it would say "no", unless the games were submitted by a third party as organiser.

So by becoming a member, you save the organiser money which might be passed back as a rebate. In the case of a Gold event, you wouldn't be allowed to play, or if you were, you would look to the world like a cheater if the ECF asked FIDE to suspend your rating.

[Sean Hewitt]

You get the right to have an unlimited number of games graded within your category of membership - for the payment of a small annual fee.

That's not really the case though, since in a Bronze or Silver event, the games would be graded anyway and the organiser would pay the ECF.

It really is the case. I doubt you'd have too much success trying to play in an event as a non member; relying on the organiser to pay your dues for you!

[Roger de Coverly]

I doubt you'd have too much success trying to play in an event as a non member; relying on the organiser to pay your dues for you!

The invoice is sent to the organisation, not the player. The ECF is not (yet) demanding membership for Scottish players competing at Blackpool and Scarborough, so it's up to those organisations how they defray the extra expenses of allowing non-ECF members to take part. Their usual approach is to add £ 6 to the entry fee, or give a £ 6 rebate to ECF members.

[Paul Buswell]

I suggest some selling points for adult members would also help. Correct me if I am wrong, but I know of no concise literature - fliers, leaflets - that sets out what the ECF actually does and why it is worthy of support. I expect to see a modest reduction in chess activity within our club (Hastings & St Leonards) next season following our failure to obtain a reduced Game Fee for Club internal games, and if that expectation is to be confounded it would help to have some ECF propaganda to encourage recusants into membership.

Isn't it fairly straightforwardly explained on the ECF website? You get the right to have an unlimited number of games graded within your category of membership - for the payment of a small annual fee. Nearly 10,000 players have already understood that and joined up. Fliers / materials etc cost money to produce and distribute. Such material would attract very few, if any, additional members in my opinion.

You aren't allowed to play graded games of chess unless an ECF member. From that viewpoint it's a distress purchase, like buying a TV Licence.

That seems like a very good analogy to me.

You may or may not be right about fliers &c, but two observations:
first, to me it is not good business practice to tell a potential customer that they themself have to go and find out why they should buy the product, rather than your trying to sell it to them (and we still have 13% of the adult population without internet access);
second, if we do indeed follow the TV licence analogy, there is then going to be no attempt to evangelise with what the ECF does do for the good of chess, it becomes entirely a matter of taxation, and I don't think that will be healthy in the long run.

PB

[Mick Norris]

The SCCU website has a report of the meeting
http://www.sccu.ndo.co.uk/bcf.htm

Apart from Ben Edgell's report, are there any others available?

[MartinCarpenter]

Ihor has put one up on Yorkshire chess too - http://yorkshirechess.org/ecf-finance-meeting/ .

Sounds (unsurprisingly, despite the added 'fun') fairly dull overall

[Mick Norris]

ta