ECF Game Fee

[Robin Williams]

So, when do the ECF plan on announcing the price hike to their customers? Or do they expect everyone to read the minutes of the finance council meeting.

[Roger de Coverly]

So, when do the ECF plan on announcing the price hike to their customers?

Not just Game Fee, membership cost as well. Membership for 2014-15 is supposedly now closed, although appears still open.
https://paysubsonline.com/thirdpartyreg ... 7a4fc08722

The theory was that new membership for 2015-16 would cover 14 months, notwithstanding the minor row amongst then ECF insiders this created a couple of years ago.

[Robin Williams]

Yes, and the pay-to-play fee is going up too. My point is that the ECF are not communicating with those of us who need to book venues, print entry forms etc.

[Robin Williams]

Not just Game Fee, membership cost as well. Membership for 2014-15 is supposedly now closed, although appears still open.
https://paysubsonline.com/thirdpartyreg ... 7a4fc08722

The theory was that new membership for 2015-16 would cover 14 months, notwithstanding the minor row amongst then ECF insiders this created a couple of years ago.

That is another point. The only warning we got of this was an website announcement on the 25th June, a mere five days before the closure date!

[Roger de Coverly]

My point is that the ECF are not communicating with those of us who need to book venues, print entry forms etc.

Did you really expect them to?

If they have a communication strategy, it's not to communicate for fear of saying the wrong thing. You could try rattling the cage at the official forum. It's unclear whether anyone reads it, least of all, ECF Directors.

[edit] Devon have stuck with the old £ 6 fee.
http://www.chessdevon.co.uk/Brochure2015Inner.doc
[/edit]

[Robin Williams]

I would have expected at least a website announcement or an update to the relevant sections.

Were Devon (and others) made aware of the rise or will they unexpectedly find themselves out of pocket when the bill arrives?

[Roger de Coverly]

Were Devon (and others) made aware of the rise or will they unexpectedly find themselves out of pocket when the bill arrives?

The organiser of the Witney tournament had numerous votes at his disposal. The ECF's price hike doesn't seem to be passed on.
http://www.witneychess.co.uk/downloads/ ... _entry.pdf because Silver members only get a £ 5 discount.

So if the tournament attracts numerous Bronze members looking for an upgrade to Silver as part of their entry, they are getting it at a discounted price.

[Robin Williams]

That seems to be most generous of him, but only highlights the fact that those 'in the loop' are able to make informed decisions while everyone else is at the mercy of the ECF's 'communication strategy'.

[Ian Thompson]

[edit] Devon have stuck with the old £ 6 fee.
http://www.chessdevon.co.uk/Brochure2015Inner.doc
[/edit]

Maybe that's because the fee remains at £6 next season, so most congress organisers are not affected by membership fee increases or game fee increases. (The exception being anyone organising a closed congress that is treated for game fee purposes like a league.)

[Carl Hibbard]

You could try rattling the cage at the official forum. It's unclear whether anyone reads it, least of all, ECF Directors.

Not sure what is happening at the other place but certainly a lack of moderation given all the fake registrations that David Fryer is commenting on

[Roger de Coverly]

Maybe that's because the fee remains at £6 next season

It was my understanding that the membership costs for Bronze and Silver membership both increase from 1st September 2015, but not by the same amount. Thus the Congress "pay to play" fee, being the difference between them also increases.

Finance Council draft minutes are at
http://www.englishchess.org.uk/wp-conte ... ersion.pdf

12 Direct Members’ Subscription.
Council was invited to consider the proposed membership rates for the period 1st September 2015 to 31 August 2016:
Platinum: £60 (unchanged)
Gold: £32 (from £28)
(Junior: £26 (from £22))
Silver: £22 (from £19) (Junior:£16 (from £13))
Bronze: £15 (from £13) (Junior: £11 (from £9)

To be fair, the actual minutes do not appear to make an explicit determination of the Congress "pay to play" other than to record that it was rejected for FIDE rated events, which continue to demand compulsory membership for ENG players in FIDE long play rated events.

The "unofficial" minutes as recorded at the SCCU site have this
http://www.sccu.ndo.co.uk/bcf.htm

• Congresses other than junior or FIDE rated: Game Fee (for the whole event) to be equal to the difference between Bronze and Silver Membership Fees, "as determined under item (10)". That's (10) as we have it above.
The Board's proposal was carried on a show of hands, by lots of votes to a few. To what extent was this vote determined by the (very close) earlier one? You decide. A couple of remarks (ours) about the congresses-other-than. The idea, of course, is that Game Fee is used to upgrade players' Membership from Bronze to Silver. It obviously doesn't work for people who weren't Members to start with, and it won't work for Bronze Members until the congress passes their money on to the ECF. You can't assume your update will be applied in time for your next congress, especially if it's next weekend, and Membership for congress purposes means Membership at the time of the event. The ECF have said that the safe option is to join (or upgrade) in advance of your first congress.
Was that one remark or two? We wouldn't shortchange you, so here's another. Council has not changed any rules. Game Fee for congresses-other-than is £7 (junior £5). It doesn't have to be calculated from the Bronze and Silver fees, though it was on this occasion.

It was the point made by the original poster that whilst the new rates are supposedly in place, given that new members can buy 14 months for the price of 12, you would look in vain for any announcement of this, other than in the Minutes and other summaries of the Finance Council meeting. At a guess, the first that those who do not follow ECF actions will know of the increases is when they receive a renewal invitation. Still that's often standard commercial practice not to be too explicit about price rises when inviting annual renewal.

[Roger de Coverly]

New membership tariffs have now appeared.

http://www.englishchess.org.uk/membersh ... hip-rates/

[Carl Hibbard]

You could try rattling the cage at the official forum. It's unclear whether anyone reads it, least of all, ECF Directors.

Not sure what is happening at the other place but certainly a lack of moderation given all the fake registrations that David Fryer is commenting on

In case anyone is wondering ponko over there is not me either.

[Michael Farthing]

I've had a spate of these recently on my site.
The difference is that I take the very elementary step of requiring administrator approval before any registration is accepted. Carl has always done that.

[David Sedgwick]

You could try rattling the cage at the official forum. It's unclear whether anyone reads it, least of all, ECF Directors.

New membership tariffs have now appeared.

http://www.englishchess.org.uk/membersh ... hip-rates/

I have no idea whether ECF Directors read the official forum. However, from your second post above it would appear that they read this one.

Thanks to Robin Williams for getting the issue sorted.