ECF Finance Council Meeting 22 April 2023

[Paul Cooksey]

Responding to Angus on various points:
- An existing but inactive bursarship came up earlier in the meeting, when we were discussing support for juniors who were good enough to play for England but needed financial support. It was raised again as a way to mitigate loss of members if fees were higher. I disagree as above.
- I don't know that playing fewer games is a reason to get a discount. Bronze membership is complex to run. But one of the main things to I need to think through.
- I used the 200k net from the 2022 actuals. I'm mindful of Adam's point the finance numbers on membership are a bit tricky, since he needs to accrue for people joining part way through the year. Some of the membership increase for next year is people who already paid for part of next year.
- I don't think any due diligence or consulting done yet. The Board asked Council to narrow down the options so they could do it properly.

[Roger Lancaster]

What follows is really a re-statement of one of Paul's points above but a near-certain reason that the Finance Director's figures differs from those provided (Saturday, 8.02 am, on p3 of this thread) by Angus is that Angus appears to be taking all cash paid during 2022-23 into the accounts for that financial year whereas the FD is allowing for accruals (I earlier referred to these as prepayments - I can never remember the difference!) for those payments made after 1 October 2022, covering membership until at least until 30 September 2023 so that part of the benefit falls into 2023-24. I'm not competent to discuss the accounting rights and wrongs of the respective approaches but the FD's is self-evidently more prudent.

[Kevin Thurlow]

"Also relevant I think is perceived value for money for players playing only a few league games a year (if I recall this came up in feedback from Bronze members when there was a previous proposal to merge the Bronze and Silver membership categories)."

When I played cricket, hockey and table-tennis (other sports are similar), there was a club subscription (bigger than bronze membership) to pay before you played a game, and you needed to buy kit and usually equipment as well...

[Paul Cooksey]

I will start another thread on the membership scheme itself, but a side note on politics.

Having 3 options makes the sequencing of voting important. I don't envy David Eustace.