SHROPSHIRE CHESS ASSOCIATION

2012Annual General Meeting

To all officers of the Shropshire Chess Association:

Notice is hereby given that the Annual General Meeting will be held at Telepost, Shrewsbury on Wednesday, 11th July 2012 at 7.30pm.

Please ensure that any trophies held by your club are engraved and brought to the AGM for presentation, where required.

AGENDA

1. Apologies for absence.
2. Minutes of the 2011AGM (approval and matters arising)
3. President’s Report
4. ECF Direct Membership
5. Officer’s reports.

6. Election of Officers

7    Any Other Business

ECF Direct Membership

Posted on May 4, 2012 by admin

As you may be aware, from this coming September, ECF funding will move from a largely Game Fee based system to Direct Membership (DMship) for all players.

At present every game you play within Shropshire Chess is graded, for which a fee is paid, currently 58p per player per game. This is collected from the Association by the ECF once a year, and is, in turn collected from clubs as part of the team fees payable at the start of each season.

From 1^st September, you will be expected to become a Direct Member (DM) of the ECF. If you are only going to play in club matches or the Individual Championship, Bronze membership, costing £13 a year will be sufficient, but if you want to play in congresses, Silver membership at £19 would be appropriate. You can save £1 according to the payment method.

There will be no Game Fee payable by DMs. If you do not become a DM, a Game Fee of £2 per player per game is payable. Since you can become a DM at any time during the season, this Game Fee will be levied in arrears at the end of the season.

With Game Fee being superseded by DMship, Team Fees payable by clubs will be very significantly reduced, leading to a likely reduction in your club subscription, partially offsetting the cost of DMship. The Treasurer estimates the likely Team Fee, based on previous years’ expenses, at around £15 or so. Entry fees for the Individual Championship are likely to be reduced, too, combined with increased prize money.

The big issue…..

Should Direct Membership be mandatory within the Shropshire Chess Association?

Yes. An active player participating fully in the League, Summer Knockout Cups and Individual Championship could easily play 25 games in a season, incurring Game Fees of £50. These would be invoiced by the ECF to the SCA after the end of the season, and be in turn recharged to the relevant club or clubs. This may be difficult, if not impossible to collect from the player concerned, and be financially disastrous to the club(s).

No. During the last season, 14 players have played 3 graded games or fewer. For them to be forced to spend £13 on DMship is more likely to drive them away from chess than encourage them to play more. The alternative of £2 game fee per game would be cheaper.

If mandatory, what penalties should be applied?

At the very least, any games played by a non-DM should be ruled a win by default to the opponent, or a double default if neither player is a DM. This would avoid the possibility of a Game Fee mountain.

Should the non-DM be treated as not being registered under Rule 4, incurring the penalties under Rule 23? We think he should.

Becoming a DM.

There will be two methods of joining:

1. Individually. This can be done by any player, by phone, or online which will attract a £1 discount. Provided you give your club secretary your membership no., and he quotes it when registering you for the league, this is the easiest and preferred option.
2. In bulk through the SCA. There could be a new player registration form, containing all the details required by the ECF, available on the website or as an Excel spreadsheet. Provided this were submitted by your club before the middle of October to the League Controller, with a copy to the Treasurer, with payment being made at the same time, the Treasurer could file all DMship applications with the ECF in time to earn the £1 discount available for applications made by 31^st October. This discount could be deducted from the club’s payment and passed back to the member at the club’s discretion. This seems more complicated, and is not the preferred option, but would have the merit of ensuring that a sizeable proportion of players are DMs.

Discussion paper produced by the SCA committee members
Please register to comment on this paper. – Webmaster

 See the blog for comments before the AGM.