ECF Rolling Membership - Club Views Requested

[Andrew Craig]

Hello,

This is for attention of club secretaries/those involved in running clubs.

Can I ask how you are intending to deal with risk of ECF Rolling Membership?

Specific Example as below:

e.g. ‘Joe Bloggs’. Joe renewed his membership in Feb 2023. He will count as eligible as of 30-June-2023.
Joe then plays numerous games across Kent, Croydon, Central London & London leagues from Sept’23 up until January 2024 but then stops playing and lets his membership lapse. Perhaps he moves away, perhaps he loses interest, perhaps a medical issue etc etc.
As Joe played in the leagues during the season but would not be a member as at 30-June-2024, his club will be fined £16 (I think) by each league where he played over 3 games.
This obviously poses a moral hazard on the club. I would think that the club would pay £18 for the Bronze membership of that player rather than be fined £16x4 in penalties in the above example. In the most unscrupulous of cases, the player, with a fresh new ECF expiring a few days prior to the next deadline, could do the same thing to other clubs (yes I would be straight onto the 'other' club letting them know!)

I can think of three possible options available;

a) We add a charge of £18 (cost of bronze membership) to our membership fees - Con : quite a hefty % increase, penalises people who would renew.
b) We take a holding deposit of £18 that can be refunded at the point they leave the club - Con: probably unpopular + I can imagine this being quite a bit of admin for the club treasurer.
c) Ask players to buy their membership in July/August. Con : Not sure how this would work for someone on Gold membership expiring in Jan, who then wished to move down to Bronze membership at that point. Would they lose approx half a year of Gold?

My club, Lewisham, has 60 members. I would be keen to hear how other clubs are thinking of handling the issue above.

Thanks
Andrew

[MSoszynski]

e.g. ‘Joe Bloggs’. Joe renewed his membership in Feb 2023. He will count as eligible as of 30-June-2023.
Joe then plays numerous games across Kent, Croydon, Central London & London leagues from Sept’23 up until January 2024 but then stops playing and lets his membership lapse. Perhaps he moves away, perhaps he loses interest, perhaps a medical issue etc etc.
As Joe played in the leagues during the season but would not be a member as at 30-June-2024, his club will be fined £16 (I think) by each league where he played over 3 games.
This obviously poses a moral hazard on the club.

What has changed? As before, clubs should check the ECF membership status of their members. If necessary, team captains should be instructed not to pick certain players.

[Ian Thompson]

What has changed?

Before rolling membership was introduced the seasons of most leagues were contained within a single ECF membership year. You knew, with certainty, whether someone was an ECF member for that season or not and therefore you knew whether there was a risk of having to pay game fees for that player or not.

With rolling ECF membership, a player's membership can expire part way through a season. At the start of the season you don't know whether they'll renew their membership when it expires or not. If let them play at the start of the season, when they are a member, and then they don't renew, you're liable for game fees for that season.

[David Gilbert]

What’s changed? Well many Clubs, including those that I’m involved with, would not previously allowed their players to play more than three games without becoming ECF members. For the coming season - rolling membership will impact on Leagues in 2023/24 - if a player joined the ECF on, say, 10 June 2023 he will be covered for the season just past. He then goes on to play ten League games next season and it looks like he’s covered because his renewal date isn’t until 10 June 2024. If he fails to renew his membership by 30 June 2024 the Club is hit with a bill for £18. Leagues in London are adding a new rule to make it clear that Clubs will be liable for rating fees if their players are not members on 30 June each year. Clubs are now at risk and will need to develop mechanisms to protect themselves, like an £18 deposit from players playing four or more games whose ECF membership doesn’t extend beyond 30 June. Best though is to get your members to sign-up on 1 September.

This does not apply to congresses. If a player is a member at the time of a congress no rating fee is applied even if he’s not a member on 30 June.

Later: Apologies Ian, I was typing my reply while you were posting yours!

[Joey Stewart]

I would just say don't pay anything, it's not the club's problem as they registered the player for the league season with a valid membership and therefore all of his games should be treated this way.

Rather then any sort of complicated 'what if', scenarios which put undue amounts of extra work on already thinly stretched volunteers it seems to me that the most simple way to solve this is to put a ruling that players must have a valid membership at the commencement of any event they enter otherwise the above example can and most definitely will happen multiple times throughout each year. Not just leagues but tournaments as well , imagine someones membership expires half way through a congress and nobody picked it up until after the event ended, that would also create hassle as to what will would happen with the grading situation especially if it were fide rated !

[MSoszynski]

I would just say don't pay anything, it's not the club's problem...

As I understand it, the ECF invoices the League; it is the League that then invoices the Club. The League will take a view on non-paying clubs, as they must, for the ECF will take a view on non-paying leagues.

[MSoszynski]

What has changed?

Before rolling membership was introduced the seasons of most leagues were contained within a single ECF membership year. You knew, with certainty, whether someone was an ECF member for that season or not and therefore you knew whether there was a risk of having to pay game fees for that player or not.

With rolling ECF membership, a player's membership can expire part way through a season. At the start of the season you don't know whether they'll renew their membership when it expires or not. If let them play at the start of the season, when they are a member, and then they don't renew, you're liable for game fees for that season.

Okay. I can see the increased complexity for club administrations. There was always a problem with players not renewing memberships promptly. And there was the unfairness of paying for a full year's ECF Membership to cover, say, only one month of playing. Having said that, a new system of staggered renewals would be very burdensome for club treasurers even though renewal dates are available online.

[NickFaulks]

As Joe played in the leagues during the season but would not be a member as at 30-June-2024, his club will be fined £16 (I think) by each league where he played over 3 games.

I don't think that is right, but now can't find the rules.

[Roger de Coverly]

t the most simple way to solve this is to put a ruling that players must have a valid membership at the commencement of any event they enter

If we go back to the original question it was

Joe renewed his membership in Feb 2023. He will count as eligible as of 30-June-2023.
Joe then plays numerous games across Kent, Croydon, Central London & London leagues from Sept’23 up until January 2024 but then stops playing and lets his membership lapse.

The point is that all the leagues would be able to check that he was a member in September 2023. Depending on clarity on how the system is supposed to work, 30th June 2024 is the point at which leagues will be tested for participation of non members, As far as anyone is aware, the test will be against the whole of the League season namely 1st September 2023 to whenever in 2024 the last game is played.

The questuon of "now you see, now you don't" membership came up last year. I don't think there was ever complete clarity. The point being that the player can take part in Congresses until January 2024, even if not a member for league purposes over the same period.

What if our player, Joe, had taken out Gold membership and plays in the 4NCL? For how long does he remain elgible?

Last year's thread

viewtopic.php?f=25&t=12976

[NickFaulks]

The explanatory notes look helpful, but somewhere there must be the regulations which they explain. Yes, I realise that I can be criticised for not knowing where they are and I haven't spent a lot of time on the search, but can anyone help?

In my defence, I spoke and voted against this scheme on the basis that I didn't understand it. The great majority of ECF Delegates supported it, so presumably did understand it. Where are they now?

[Ian Thompson]

The explanatory notes look helpful, but somewhere there must be the regulations which they explain.

Possibly not - the proposal put to Council said "No changes are required to the wording of the ECF’s articles or bye-laws."

Perhaps that statement is based on the Game Fee Bye Law - "2.6 The Board shall have power to waive or reduce the membership requirements or payment of Game Fee in respect of specified categories of chess competition and/or specified categories of person".

I don't see how rolling membership is compatible with the current Direct Member Bye Law - "All Membership Fees shall cover the period from 1st September until 31st August in the following year, subject to the discretion of the Board to extend the period of membership for a new member who has joined during the months of July or August to 31st August in the following year."

[NickFaulks]

The explanatory notes look helpful, but somewhere there must be the regulations which they explain.

Possibly not - the proposal put to Council said "No changes are required to the wording of the ECF’s articles or bye-laws."

Yes, I remember now, that was one of the things I didn't understand.

I don't see how rolling membership is compatible with the current Direct Member Bye Law - "All Membership Fees shall cover the period from 1st September until 31st August in the following year, subject to the discretion of the Board to extend the period of membership for a new member who has joined during the months of July or August to 31st August in the following year."

Me neither. I can only say once again that Delegates gave their overwhelming support to this plan, so the organisations they represent are wearing it.

Meanwhile, if Joe Bloggs' membership expires on June 28th and he does so himself on June 29th, is someone on the hook for a game fee? I don't think so, but I don't know.

[Roger de Coverly]

Possibly not - the proposal put to Council said "No changes are required to the wording of the ECF’s articles or bye-laws."

From the link

Game Fee: Note
We understand that there are perfectly valid reasons why local league players may not be ECF members on the 30 June following a league season (e.g. giving up chess, emigration, illness, death). In such cases leagues/clubs may apply for the game fee liability to be waived if such players were ECF members for all the league games that they played in the season in question. Where waivers are granted the ECF Office will carry out retrospective checks on the playing status of the players concerned in the following season

That seems to cover the scenario outlned by the OP of a player giving up once membership expres. It does however put the onus on his leagues to make a case to the ECF Office. It doesn't consider explicitly the scenario where a player lets membership expire, but carries on playing. It's also possible that a player might selectively retire from particular leagues, so some could demand Game Fee liability waiver, whilst others couldn't.

[NickFaulks]

From the link

.... Where waivers are granted the ECF Office will carry out retrospective checks on the playing status of the players concerned in the following season

This sounds like a lot of work. Who will do it?

[Ian Thompson]

It's also possible that a player might selectively retire from particular leagues, so some could demand Game Fee liability waiver, whilst others couldn't.

They wouldn't qualify for it though. It's clear that the waiver only applies to someone who has stopped playing completely and can be retrospectively withdrawn if the player resumes any sort of play in the following season. For example, they play in the local league until February 2024 with a membership that expires in February 2024. They state that they have given up chess so the league applies for, and gets, a game fee waiver for the 2023/24 season. In June 2025 the player plays in a weekend congress. The ECF can then withdraw the waiver and ask the league to pay game fee for the player's 2023-24 league games.