Compulsory Membership?

[LawrenceCooper]

Does anyone know when a revised budget - and also minutes for the Finance meeting - might appear?

No

[Sean Hewitt]

There doesn't, however, seem to be much demand for such competitions - at least in the MCCU - and there is no sign of the MCCU actually running one.

Indeed. In early 2010 I offered to restart the MCCU Open (entirely at my own risk). The offer was procrastinated over for so long that the opportunity came and went.

[Kevin Thurlow]

"On a historical note Leonard P Rees of Croydon (and later Redhill) first set up the Surrey CCA in 1883 and then went on to set up the SCCU, (1892) then the BCF (1904) and finally (I believe) he had a hand in establishing FIDE (1924) (just so you know who to blame)."

I have a handwritten draft (with crossings out) of a letter he wrote, proposing an international chess federation.

I think he would still be proud of Redhill Chess CLub.

[Roger de Coverly]

At my club's (Gambit) AGM, we agreed to increase club subs by £5, assuming that our league fees will reduce by the game fee amount (approx £8 per board), and adopt an opt-out policy where those who don't wish to be ECF members or who already are ECF members either directly or via another county have to inform our treasurer accordingly, and he'll subtract £12 or £13 from that person's subs.

Thus everyone already an ECF Direct Member gets a reduction of £ 8 per year. The ECF are curiously reluctant to mention this. Is this not a selling point in favour of the scheme?

[Mick Norris]

There doesn't, however, seem to be much demand for such competitions - at least in the MCCU - and there is no sign of the MCCU actually running one.

Indeed. In early 2010 I offered to restart the MCCU Open (entirely at my own risk). The offer was procrastinated over for so long that the opportunity came and went.

The MCCU only meets once a year (thankfully for those of us who have to give up a day and drive a 4 or 5 hour round trip), so it does have a problem making fast decisions

There is a Midlands Grand Prix with a British place for the winner, and I assume e2e4 Buxton could be a qualifying event

[David Pardoe]

Some observations about our Unions...
Not held in very high esteem in many quarters, it would appear.
Some see the Unions as `insider clubs`, where they huddle away in dark corners to plot & scheme their agendas...
There`s no doubt that some have held onto `power` for far too long, to the detriment of chess, and have gone unchallenged...due partly to built in apathy.
So, that `private club` has used this as a ticket to the top table of English chess, (the ECF....), by certain parties. And they`ve guarded those rights carefully.
Two reasons why these bodies `fail` in my view. One, is the very nature of things, whereby volunteers are required to give up there valuable time and energy to run the show. Its never going to be easy to find people willing to do this, and do it with due competance/diligence... That might explain why many good ideas and proposals never get to see the light of day. ie, they cant find the necessary resources/volunteers/support to make them happen.
Second issue is `complexity... `. You only have to glance through some of these threads to see that chess seems like a tangled web of intregue, with debates on various issues seemingly going on interminably. Many are put off by this jungle, and are reluctant to commit time to trying to unravel the mysteries.
Unions form a useful link in the chain... or should do.
As Adam said, it would be good to see more Union representation on the ECF board to help improve two way communications across the land.
The NCCU couldnt run northern chess...at least not if there past track record is anything to go by. There county competitions are a shambles (Yes, travel issues apply..). And no-one attends there meetings.
Not a good recipe for success. Thats not to say however, that good things dont happen up north. They certainly do...
Some background as to why the counties competitions fail...
Firstly, these events have great potential as competitions, and offer a unique type of w/e chess fayre that deserves our support, at all levels.
However, you need to grasp some historic points...
These events in some quarters are seen as prestige tokens, where certain parties can demonstrate there street cred...The NCCU is a classic case...the Wars of the Roses rage on (leaving the other counties as mere spectators..), as certain jokers strain every muscle to produce that awesome block busting team, that will be acclaimed as `masters of the universe`. So players become mere tokens of battle in a relentless battle to assemble the best team.... Players are thus pulled in from all quarters that the rules allow, and some that arent or shouldnt be allowed.
But the battle goes further in this phonny war.... after the local stages, we have the national stages, where the battle hots up...and the unnual North-South challenge begins, to see who are the true `kings of the road`. Some `big chiefs` love this, and play the game with gruesome determination...
It has to be noted that the `South` has a built-in advantage of `London population` (over 11 million people to choose from...!!).
PS ..I guess there will be those who see this as `adding to the razmataz`, giving an extra bite to proceedings....as the mighty titans from variuos quarters clash in the Finals....

With this background, its no surprise that Manchester (and other areas) are used as feasting grounds by the northern big guns (and others..) ...and the players are really just cannon fodder in the big game for supremacy. Much arm twisting, bullying, and pressure is applied to anyone who wont `tow the party line`.....it might appear.
I therefore favour the approach of `local players for local teams`.
After all, if you pay your council tax to Manchester Council, use Manchester services (transport, Police, etc), and work for Manchester firms...it is surely logical that you play for your local `administrative area`, I would have thought. They`re uniting Mancunia and Lancunia in harmonious collective sporting chess fayre...that all should benefit from....regardless of other allegances. Yes, there will always be some grey areas and borderline cases...but these can surely be resolved for the common good, and neighbourly friendships upheld.
Not too much to ask...surely.

[Roger de Coverly]

And no-one attends there meetings.

The Minutes at their website document the attendance of at least one person per Northern county. Always the same people of course, and never any attempt to involve players or player representatives. Not that the other Unions do that either.

I'm not sure the earlier NCCU Minutes were ever designed to be publicly released. There's stuff in them apparently said by BCF Directors that would have had them close to being thrown out of office had they been public at the time.

[Andrew Farthing]

A recent example of how a Union can still have an impact is the issue of Junior Membership / Game Fee. Neill Cooper initially raised his concerns at SCCU level and won over a number of sceptics (me, for instance).

We may need to wait a while [i.e. until the new budget is published] to see if that's a good example or not. That particular decision may yet have serious repurcussions.

Preliminary indications - in the process of being verified by the Finance Director - are that the impact of the changes made by Finance Council will be to reduce the ECF's income in 2012/13 by an amount in the range £8,750 to £19,750. The range reflects a range of assumptions about behaviours across the country in response to the post-Sept 1 changes, with the higher figure reflecting a worst case scenario.

The figure takes into account the negative effect on income of the changes to junior chess game fee rates, partially offset by the impact of the abolition of the discounted game fee rate for leagues, etc. with 85% membership.

If confirmed - and I stress that the figures have not been verified by the Finance Director - the effect would be to reduce the International Chess budget by 36% to 82% respectively. Any reduction has an impact on the Olympiad team (unless compensatory external financing can be found). At the higher end of the range, it would bring into question whether the ECF could afford to send a team at all, unless it consisted entirely of people willing to play for no fee and to pay their own expenses.

I sincerely hope that I am mistaken. However, the Junior Chess team have reviewed my assumptions and indicated that they appear to be realistic.

[Alex Holowczak]

There doesn't, however, seem to be much demand for such competitions - at least in the MCCU - and there is no sign of the MCCU actually running one.

Indeed. In early 2010 I offered to restart the MCCU Open (entirely at my own risk). The offer was procrastinated over for so long that the opportunity came and went.

The MCCU only meets once a year (thankfully for those of us who have to give up a day and drive a 4 or 5 hour round trip), so it does have a problem making fast decisions

There is a Midlands Grand Prix with a British place for the winner, and I assume e2e4 Buxton could be a qualifying event

Some of us are thankful that the MCCU meets once a year fullstop, regardless of the length of time it takes us to travel to said meeting.

The idea of the MCCU Championship was mentioned at last year's meeting, but the Chief Executive said that he "didn't see the MCCU as a body that organises events".

[David Sedgwick]

A recent example of how a Union can still have an impact is the issue of Junior Membership / Game Fee. Neill Cooper initially raised his concerns at SCCU level and won over a number of sceptics (me, for instance).

We may need to wait a while [i.e. until the new budget is published] to see if that's a good example or not. That particular decision may yet have serious repurcussions.

Preliminary indications - in the process of being verified by the Finance Director - are that the impact of the changes made by Finance Council will be to reduce the ECF's income in 2012/13 by an amount in the range £8,750 to £19,750. The range reflects a range of assumptions about behaviours across the country in response to the post-Sept 1 changes, with the higher figure reflecting a worst case scenario.

The figure takes into account the negative effect on income of the changes to junior chess game fee rates, partially offset by the impact of the abolition of the discounted game fee rate for leagues, etc. with 85% membership.

If confirmed - and I stress that the figures have not been verified by the Finance Director - the effect would be to reduce the International Chess budget by 36% to 82% respectively. Any reduction has an impact on the Olympiad team (unless compensatory external financing can be found). At the higher end of the range, it would bring into question whether the ECF could afford to send a team at all, unless it consisted entirely of people willing to play for no fee and to pay their own expenses.

I sincerely hope that I am mistaken. However, the Junior Chess team have reviewed my assumptions and indicated that they appear to be realistic.

Andrew, that raises the following query:

Which events (or at least how many) were you expecting to disaffiliate under:

a) the original proposals for junior chess Game Fee;
b) the revised proposals?

[Ian Kingston]

The idea of the MCCU Championship was mentioned at last year's meeting, but the Chief Executive said that he "didn't see the MCCU as a body that organises events".

Which (in topsy-turvy chess world logic) is no doubt why the MCCU has both an Events Director and a Junior Events Secretary.

[Alex Holowczak]

The idea of the MCCU Championship was mentioned at last year's meeting, but the Chief Executive said that he "didn't see the MCCU as a body that organises events".

Which (in topsy-turvy chess world logic) is no doubt why the MCCU has both an Events Director and a Junior Events Secretary.

I can't remember the last time the MCCU organised a junior event. It was on the brink of doing so last year, but it chose a date that clashed with another junior event, so it got cancelled.

The Events Director has, in fairness, organised an ECF Arbiters Course to be held in Syston in July. I think they've used the word "Events" to mean something other than "Tournament" or "Congress" in the context of the Events Director. What he presumably meant to say at the meeting was "... MCCU as a body that organises congresses".

[Mick Norris]

And I would agree that the MCCU should not organise events i.e. congresses, as it is full of people good at doing so

If you wanted an individual MCCU champion, you could simply award the title to the highest place Midlands finisher at a designated weekend congress, or continue with the Grand Prix if you think that is fairer

[Sean Hewitt]

A recent example of how a Union can still have an impact is the issue of Junior Membership / Game Fee. Neill Cooper initially raised his concerns at SCCU level and won over a number of sceptics (me, for instance).

We may need to wait a while [i.e. until the new budget is published] to see if that's a good example or not. That particular decision may yet have serious repurcussions.

Indication seem to suggest that this is not a good example after all.

Preliminary indications - in the process of being verified by the Finance Director - are that the impact of the changes made by Finance Council will be to reduce the ECF's income in 2012/13 by an amount in the range £8,750 to £19,750. The range reflects a range of assumptions about behaviours across the country in response to the post-Sept 1 changes, with the higher figure reflecting a worst case scenario.

This is no surprise to those of us who voted against this at council. I think it was wrong to allow the junior ammendment to be moved at the meeting at all as it gave no opportunity for the impact to be considered as there was no prior notice of the amendment.

I would urge the ECF to seek to reverse this decision at the earliest opportunity.

[Neville Belinfante]

Would someone on the board be able to answer the following questions please

What is the current estimate for when the CVENT Online Membership Payment System will go live?

What is the current estimate for when automatic invoices are sent to event treasurers based on what was submitted for grading? Is this going to be part of the CVENT system, or independent of that?

What is the current estimate for when information about how to become a MO is sent to any league/county/congress that may be considering becoming one?

Thanks in advance for your answers

Regards

Neville Belinfante