The agenda can be seen here on the ECF website. The only item to interest most amateur players was probably item 12, the fixing of membership and related fees. An omitted item was added into the table of proposed fees, then, after a failed attempt to get the proposed £16 adult “pay to play” fee reduced to £10, the figures below where agreed. (The table has been tidied up to improve intelligibility.)

	2024/25 £	2025/26 £
Membership Fees
Adult Bronze	20.00	21.00
Adult Gold	35.00	37.00
Adult Platinum	77.00	80.00
Supporter	12.00	13.00
Junior Bronze	6.00	7.50
Junior Gold	12.00	14.00
Junior Platinum	77.00	80.00

League Game Fees for Non-Members
Adult (upgrades an existing Bronze	20.00	21.00
Junior	6.00	7.50

Congress Pay to Play Fees for Non-Members
Adult *	15.00	16.00
Junior in not juniors‑only congress	(?)	6.50
Juniors-only congress	3.00	3.00
* upgrades an existing Bronze membership to Gold

Congress FIDE Rating Admin Fees
None‑England FIDE‑registered player (waived due to collection overheads)	1.50	1.50

Of potential interest to organisers was item 11, which was an update from Hull’s Stephen Greep (who was on holiday in Turkey at the time!) on the Grass Roots Funding Scheme, for which a paper had been supplied. Back on 24/03/2025, the ECF website carried an invitation for applications under the 4th tranche, the closing date for applications being 01/06/2025, so there are about 5 weeks to go. Stephen explained how some applications failed because applicants hadn’t read the all-important prospectus, so missing the key point that the proposed scheme should support long-term chess development (a principle perhaps not explicitly and succinctly articulated in the prospectus) and that finance for a one-off flash in the pan would systematically fail.

The Accounts and Budget were supported by enough paperwork to keep you reading for a month in order to get to grips with them, as modern parlance expresses it. Nobody can hold and analyse all such information, yet it is right and proper in a democratically run organisation that accounts are available for detailed scrutiny. Certain individuals will ask the Finance Director searching questions on involved topics which are those individuals’ favourite hobbyhorses. As important are the findings of the Finance Committee which is charged with maintaining a critical third-party eye on financial matters. If you are interested, see the Committee’s Standing Orders here. Thus, Nick Faulks, as Finance Committee chairman spoke to his submitted paper, which you can see here. One point he made was that while he conceded that in present circumstance the appointment of a paid (£15, 000 p.a.) Financial Controller might be appropriate at this time, the committee felt this should not be taken as a long-term commitment to this paid post continuing. He was assured that this expenditure item in the 2025-26 budget was simply that, and the 2026-27 budget would be decided when the time came.

The submitted Finance Director’s report, accounts (audited in good time) and budget were all approved by the meeting.

Item 13 was an Update on the Selection and Appointment of new Directors. This is the board’s response to the intended mid-term resignation at the end of April 2025, for reasons not clearly articulated, of three Directors.

A summary might be that the ECF needs to undergo, and is beginning to undergo, some radical changes. The following attempts to give more detail.

It was announced a long time ago that Mike Truran would be stepping down as the ECF’s Chief Executive Officer at the next AGM, necessitating a replacement at that next AGM, which is to be held on 25th October 2025 in Birmingham.

However, on top of that, three Directors have chosen to announce their resignations mid-term, as from 30th April 2025, they being

1 - Alex Longson as Director of Finance,

2 - Nigel Towers as Director of Home Chess, and

3 - Alex Holowczak as Director of Junior Chess.

Whilst their reasons for discontinuing seem sound enough, choosing mid-season resignation seems somewhat odd.

The basic reason for wishing to discontinue is apparently the idea that these days there falls to the Directors far too much work which should be done by having more officers within the Directorates to share the load, rather implying a problem is a lack of volunteers, leading to the idea that some paid support looks like needing to be brought in especially in the areas of events, finance and IT. There was an allusion to overdependence on a small number of key individuals, and whilst not named at the meeting, Brian Valentine (whom the writer beat in Chess, Sutton Coldfield’s inter-school correspondence chess team competition) and Malcolm Peacock (a former Sheffield University chess-player) are two people who shoulder most of the burden of keeping running all the IT on which the ECF is wholly dependent for the depth and complexity of its operations.

Rating is of course crucial to the ECF, as most ECF members would not be members if there were no rating system. In yesteryear, local area graders (of which the writer was the one for Sheffield and District) compiled grading results (number of games graded and number of points scored therefrom), then a county grader merged/combined results from within their county, then a Union grader merged combined results from within their territory. The appropriate Union grading list was “the grading list” the average player would consult. Centrally, only higher-graded players (e.g.185 and above) were merged nationally to form the “Combined Grading Union List”. All this work was done by dozens if not hundreds of volunteers, wherein perhaps lies half the problem, namely that these volunteers are now a dying breed who cannot be replaced by the modern generation who reply too much on things being done for them,

The other half of the problem is that, in many areas, volunteers need greater IT-related skills.

Whether resigning mid-term was the best way to address the problem is debatable.

Under article 57 of the ECF Articles of Association, the Board has the power to appoint new Directors mid-term, to hold office until the next AGM when they may be re-elected or another person may be elected (or, as ever, the post be left vacant – the infamous voting option “None of These”).

Accordingly, Stephen Woodhouse as Non-Executive Chair (of the Board), announced applications are being invited for such mid-term directorship infills, those being (as advertised on the ECF website, alongside the CEO vacancy)

1 - Finance Director

2 - Events Director

3 - Operations and Administration Director

4 - Home Development Director

5 - Junior Development Director.

As regards the Finance Director, it was stated that on stepping down from the CEO role, Mike Truran would step into that finance role, though that would presumably be subject to election at the AGM. Some splitting of the Finance Directors job (which, incidentally, David Eustace fulfilled for years without demur) is envisaged, as the budget provided for paid “office” help which presumably means the Financial Controller mentioned above, a post which it seems Alex Longson is expected to fill.

It was stated that the Home Directorship was being split into three, and the above posts 2, 3 and 4 appear to constitute that splitting up of the Home Director roll.

A Director can appoint officers within their directorate. All Directors and their officers are of course unpaid, but the ECF is evidently moving towards more paid-for outside services, through force majeur.

The amendments to the Articles of Association (roughly equating to an ECF “Constitution”) proposed in items 15 and 16, and the amendments to the Financial Bye-Laws in item 17, were all passed nem. con.

Item 18 were proposals to appoint Nigel Towers (present at meeting) and Dave Thomas (not present) an Honorary Life President and an Honorary Life Member respectively. These were passed. A humorous point was that this was a surprise to Nigel Towers as hitherto he hadn’t read through the Agenda that far!

The meeting was closed at 17.15 p.m.

Report submitted by Steve Mann attending as Doncaster Congress delegate.