Dear Silver Members,
Please find below a summary of the ECF Finance Meeting which Keith Jones and John Reyes attended as your representatives on July 18 via Zoom. We wanted to wait with this statement until after the elections, in order to give you an update on the meeting and also to share a farewell and thanks to our outgoing representative, Keith Jones, and a welcome to our newly elected representative, Tim Wall.
Finance Meeting – Main Points
• Membership fees for Silver members are the same as last season. These will be: £27 for Adults and £6 for Juniors (unless it is your first time as a junior member, when it is free for the first year).
• The ECF is encouraging members to renew their memberships. I hope that you can support the ECF going forward as, due to the global Covid-19 pandemic, with circumstances changing for so many, no one can predict that the membership fees will provide sufficient funds. As John Reyes put it in his election address: “Due to the pandemic, the finances of the ECF do need to be covered and unless people renew their subscriptions there is a real danger that when the pandemic finally ends, there will be no ECF.” We would feel disappointed to think that any staff from the ECF might become redundant if expenditures were to be further reduced.
• The ECF AGM will be held on Saturday, 17 October, and will again be on Zoom.
Elections for Direct Member Representatives
On July 16, the ECF invited members to stand in the elections for Direct Members Representatives (the deadline to stand was July 31). In the Silver & Junior Silver members section, 5 candidates stood -
Satish Gaekwad
Keith Jones (*)
John Reyes (*)
Joseph Stringer
Tim Wall
* denotes existing Silver Members representative, 2019-20
The elections saw a quick turnaround and the Silver members were sent an email with our elections addresses for members’ consideration. The two candidates chosen by members were John Reyes (elected for a 5th term) and Tim Wall.
Message from John Reyes
“I would like to say thank you to every one of you who voted for me and read my election address. I do not take for granted the role I have undertaken over the past few years – I am proud to have been your representative, but I have never rested on my laurels. I am proactive in this role and I feel that I have a good balance of skills and approaches - I canvass the opinions of the Silver members, and it is down to you to guide us and put forward any motions to the AGM & Finance Council.
I am looking forward to working with Tim Wall and wanted to say thanks to Keith Jones for standing and supporting the Silver members, but it is down to each and every one of you to carry on standing as you are fellow Silver members.”
Message from Tim Wall
“I am very happy to be working with John Reyes as his fellow Silver members rep. Together, we will consult Silver members and aim to put forward as accurately as possible their views at ECF Council meetings, so that rank-and-file members’ interests and opinions are respected and listened to at all levels.
We face a big challenge to get over-the-board chess going again, with clubs and congresses needing our support as never before. The pandemic has meant that many of our previous ways of playing the game may have to change and adapt, such as making our club and congress venues Covid-safe and making online matches and tournaments a key part of what we do in future. If we simply wait for everything to ‘get back to normal,’ the danger is that many clubs and congresses could disappear forever. So, I am a strong advocate for getting chess back on its feet as soon as possible – over-the-board and online, and a combination of the two. We need to actively welcome new people, particularly juniors, and young women and men, into the ECF, who have taken up internet chess during lockdown. These new members and supporters can help us to revive and strengthen English chess in future.”
Motions to the AGM
Finally, if members have any motions that they wish to be raised on their behalf at the AGM, they can submit these via the Direct Member reps. As motions need to be formally submitted to the ECF Office by 10th September at the latest, we would kindly request that any motions are sent to both reps’ emails below no later than 3rd September, for us to consider, discuss and collectively compose our points to be presented on your behalf.
You can write to us here ---
Tim Wall -
[email protected]
John Reyes -
[email protected]
Many thanks, your ECF Silver Member Reps