Compulsory Membership?

[Roger de Coverly]

But I do believe the Management Services budget includes some things I value less than the Olympiad team, so I might get lucky and see them cut.

There's not a lot of discretionary spending for the ECF Council to approve or otherwise. The Junior expenditure is almost all self financed or from the JRT. Apart from the international budget you've only really got the British Championships where on paper the Council could cut any subsidy or demand an increased profit. That's often deferred a year because of the constraints of publishing entry forms. The only place left is the amount the ECF spends on running itself.

[Roger de Coverly]

As I have repeatedly said, one of the objectives of the design of the scheme was to address the previous inequity in the effective per-game pricing, taking into account membership subscriptions and game fee, between direct members and non-members. Direct Members typically paid more than twice the amount per game that non-members did.

The primary reason for this would be the £ 27 per head per season charge for taking part in internationally rated events.

If it even matters to correct this, I wouldn't rank it above sending a team to the Olympiad in an order of ECF priorities.

Even with the £27, it depends how much you play. It's difficult to play more than 25 club or county games, so to make up 100 games a season, it's got to be 75 Congress or 4NCL ones. So that's 41.5p each reducing to 27p each following the changes.

[David Pardoe]

This Olympiad is a 2-week affair in Turkey...late Aug til 10th Sept.
Lets not be defeatist about this....
Can we raise the £5 - 10k or so needed to send a team of 5 out for 2 weeks.
I`d guess normally some of this comes from donations...
We`re looking for players graded 240 - 210 ish I guess..
Do we have suitable volunteers who fancy the trip...maybe even self funding (with possible reimbersements)?
What about our juniors...can we fund say 1 or 2 of these via John Robertson funds..... do juniors still run to age 25 under ECF rules...
Can we have a whip-around...donations of £500 plus....
Sponsorship...surely we can find someone to sponsor this world beating ECF team....
Can Malcolm Pein put a note in his Telegraph Chess column asking for sponsors and donations...
And of course, good old Ray Keene too...
Maybe CJ can offer some options/sponsorship..
What about Manchester putting up £1k+ towards a top local player.
Maybe the NCCU could put up £1k+ towards a northern star...
And the SCCU (they must be loaded)...could they stump up £2k+ for a London based GM...
The British Champs are coming up shortly..maybe that would be a good forum to raise some money
Lets get the entry in and get things moving...

[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

Thanks to Alex H for answer the first of these questions when I raised them two pages ago. Hopefully other board members can answer the other questions.

Who decided the order of items for the agenda for the Council meeting?

By putting the Junior Membership paper right at the end of an over-packed agenda, meant it had little chance for discussion. There would have been even less chance of its contents making the budget, even if they were discussed and approved unanimously by the meeting.

[Roger de Coverly]

Lets get the entry in and get things moving...

I think the problem the ECF faces is that both the entry and the players forming the teams are expected to be announced by 1st June.

Chess Scotland announced their team on 1st May.
http://www.chessscotland.com/news/?p=502

Keith Arkell is named as non-playing captain.

1st June may just be an internal ECF deadline as the official website at
http://istanbul2012.tsf.org.tr/en/info-regulation
implies you've got until 10th July

They also have England as registered for entry.

Online registration for Olympiad participants will start by 10th June 2012 and will continue till 10th July 2012.

[Roger de Coverly]

By putting the Junior Membership paper right at the end of an over-packed agenda, meant it had little chance for discussion. There would have been even less chance of its contents making the budget, even if they were discussed and approved unanimously by the meeting.

There was a discussion on the forum. Neil Cooper clarified that junior organisations didn't like the costs the ECF would impose on them and would not participate in grading were they to apply.

Here's the thread
http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=4093

So if Council members had been reading the thread, they would have known the issue being raised.

The discussion continued after the Finance meeting.

[Andrew Farthing]

Who decided the order of items for the agenda for the Council meeting?

By putting the Junior Membership paper right at the end of an over-packed agenda, meant it had little chance for discussion. There would have been even less chance of its contents making the budget, even if they were discussed and approved unanimously by the meeting.

The Chairman has the responsibility for the Agenda, although in practice John Philpott prepares it with input from Mike Gunn and me.

It's worth noting that the Junior Membership paper was for consultation only, seeking responses by 1 July for something which might then have been developed into formal proposals for 2013/14. It did not include any proposals for amendments to the budget or to the membership/game fee scheme being implemented on 1 Sept 2012. For this reason, it was in the final third of the agenda, along with all of the other consultation papers.

Regarding the online membership solution, I'm not in a position to make any firm announcements yet, although Alex H was correct that the start of July is the planned start date.

[Roger de Coverly]

The Chairman has the responsibility for the Agenda, although in practice John Philpott prepares it with input from Mike Gunn and me.

The ECF used the device of amending the Game Fee Regulations to implement a major change in ECF direction by a simple majority. The Game Fee Regulations left the Game Fee amounts to be voted on by Council, in particular separate tariffs for adults and juniors. Council took several votes and decided to change the Board's proposals. As a consequence, the meeting never got round to a discussion of whether it believed the Income forecasts in the Board's budget.

The Agenda even contains the traditional proposal to settle Game Fee by a card vote, presumably because it's still present in the Governance.

[Richard Bates]

And the SCCU (they must be loaded)...

Why? The last AGM reported they had £3,600 in cash reserves. I don't think the SCCU likes to horde excess cash just for the sake of it.

I heard a story that Manchester had 10s, even 100s of £thousands tied up in Stocks and Shares though...

[Mick Norris]

The MCF accounts to 30 April 2011 (the last currently available) show net assets of £36,094

This includes the Sinclair legacy, so although there is an investment portfolio, there are restrictions on what we can do with it

We have been investing in chess equipment over the last couple of years, our permanent stock of digital clocks and sets now number 80 each as a result

[Roger de Coverly]

The MCF accounts to 30 April 2011 (the last currently available) show net assets of £36,094

Now that's something I didn't know and a value about as much as the ECF (as distinct from the BCF PIF).

Cleveland argued endlessly about their antique chess set before eventually selling it, so I know they're rich by the normal standards of chess associations.

Is the portfolio something recent? What I'm thinking is that it gives a background reason for all that fighting over the formation of the GMCA if the Manchester & District Chess Association had assets worth fighting for.

[Paul Cooksey]

The MCF accounts to 30 April 2011 (the last currently available) show net assets of £36,094

This includes the Sinclair legacy, so although there is an investment portfolio, there are restrictions on what we can do with it

We have been investing in chess equipment over the last couple of years, our permanent stock of digital clocks and sets now number 80 each as a result

Plausible as investing in equipment sounds, I suspect Manchester of saving up to buy the NCCU. I'm now picturing Mick stroking a white cat in an underground lair.

[Mick Norris]

We might buy the ECF, why bother with the NCCU?

[Mick Norris]

The MCF accounts to 30 April 2011 (the last currently available) show net assets of £36,094

Now that's something I didn't know and a value about as much as the ECF (as distinct from the BCF PIF).

Cleveland argued endlessly about their antique chess set before eventually selling it, so I know they're rich by the normal standards of chess associations.

Is the portfolio something recent? What I'm thinking is that it gives a background reason for all that fighting over the formation of the GMCA if the Manchester & District Chess Association had assets worth fighting for.

Wrong again, Roger

The GMCCA and the MDCA were separate organisations until 2002

The GMCCA did have money on formation (c£10,000 I was told, not sure if that's right), and some guess it was for this reason that Lancs pursued the legal action to get the assets swallowed up in legal costs

Just think how much money we would have now if not - enough to afford a Kasparov simul against our juniors

[harrylamb]

The GMCCA did have money on formation (c£10,000 I was told, not sure if that's right),

Its wrong GMCCA did not have a penny when it was formed. I helped fund its first years activities by selling pens badges and teeshirts

Harry Lamb