34th Surrey April 22nd to Monday 25th 2011

[David Sedgwick]

Thank you to Roger and everybody else for publicising our Congress. You can download entry forms at http://www.surreychesscongress.co.uk/

We tried to word the section on ECF membership carefully because there were some misinderstandings when we extended FIDE rating to the Major section a couple of years ago (the form was correct but some people ticked the ECF member box when they weren't) but of course we would be pleased to consider alternative wordings that Roger/ anyone else may suggest.

Mike, perhaps in your ECF capacity you could get the ECF Board to come up with a suggested wording.

For the approach being adopted by Surrey, I would suggest something like:

"All English players must be members of the ECF and must quote their membership number when entering. Anyone not currently a member must apply for membership before the start of the first round. Application forms will be available at the Congress."

[Roger de Coverly]

For the approach being adopted by Surrey, I would suggest something like:

"All English players must be members of the ECF and must quote their membership number when entering. Anyone not currently a member must apply for membership before the start of the first round. Application forms will be available at the Congress."

If a Congress is expecting to collect money and have people sign forms before they are paired for the first round, shouldn't you tell them how much it's likely to cost? If, for the sake of argument, you were more familiar with the membership structures of the English Bridge Union, might you not expect membership, whilst compulsory, to also be free?

I suppose the e2e4 approach is that players are expected to contact the ECF as a separate undertaking from entering the e2e4 event.

[David Sedgwick]

For the approach being adopted by Surrey, I would suggest something like:

"All English players must be members of the ECF and must quote their membership number when entering. Anyone not currently a member must apply for membership before the start of the first round. Application forms will be available at the Congress."

If a Congress is expecting to collect money and have people sign forms before they are paired for the first round, shouldn't you tell them how much it's likely to cost? If, for the sake of argument, you were more familiar with the membership structures of the English Bridge Union, might you not expect membership, whilst compulsory, to also be free?

Perhaps you could add something like "Please see [website link] for details of the susbcription rates."

I don't think your analogy with the EBU is a valid one. Membership is compulsory but it's also automatic. You pay a levy akin to Game Fee.

[Roger de Coverly]

I don't think your analogy with the EBU is a valid one. Membership is compulsory but it's also automatic. You pay a levy akin to Game Fee.

This is what the EBU say

http://www.ebu.co.uk/membership/

If you are a member of one of our affiliated duplicate bridge clubs you automatically become a member of the EBU.

and also

If you cannot join one of our clubs you can still receive the many benefits of membership by becoming a direct member.