April 2014


Sun 6th: Keith and the Volunteers to Pay Less

Sun 6th: Keith and the Volunteers to Pay Less
On Saturday 12th April there will be an ECF Financial Council meeting which may well be dominated by non-financial matters. However also on the agenda is a proposal to reduce game fee for internal club games to 50p, or a quarter of standard game fee if less, with similar reductions for rapidplay games.

Why?
My club, Hastings & St Leonards, is 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 the alternative - joining the ECF @ £13 - is also inappropriate as it heightens the cost barrier for such casual or social players.

We 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.

By the proposers own calculations this would result in a loss of revenue to the ECF of the order of £2500 on a no change in participation basis, which he suggests can be covered by the ECF's contingency fund.

Sorry. The proposal and alleged rationale do not match. If you are looking to ease people into competitive chess you propose a first year reduced membership fee (juniors already can have their first year free at silver level). Instead this proposal is about allowing those people who are members of a club sufficiently large to provide all their chess needs to pay less year in year out.

My views on the logic of "you've got a contingency fund, so it won't matter if we pay less" aren't printable.


But who is Keith, and what is it to do wih him? The connection is one of my own making, not his; and the Keith concerned is Keith Arkell. Last month Keith played in the European over 50s Championships in Portugal, but with no support forthcoming from the ECF he had to cover costs by a mixture of appeal and out of his own pockets. Keith is of well known as one of the good guys, so there would probably be a greater groundswell of opinion that he should be supported than would be the case for some random grumpy old man. Nevertheless if following English players abroad and taking pleasure in their successes (Keith is now the reigning European over 50s champion) is part of your make-up, then you will probably want supporting English players to be part of the ECF remit. The more people who are backed in their efforts to pay less, the less likely it is that there will be a significant ECF budget to support Englishmen abroad.
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