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27/04/2024
ECF Finance Council
Meeting 2024
The
annual finance meeting was held by Zoom on Saturday 27/04/2024. The
writer attended as Doncaster Congress delegate, holding 2 votes on the
basis of the number of rating results submitted in the qualifying 12-month
period. The only other participant from Yorkshire seemed to be Hull’s
Stephen Greep who attended as an ECF Non-Executive Director. No
delegate from the YCA which also holds 2 votes was evident, and the voting
register did not record the appointment of a YCA proxy nor of voting
directions being sent for the chair, which is another option.
After
the initial usually routine items including approval of minutes had passed,
it came to the Finance Director’s report which was approved. That
brought us on the agenda to the budget for 2024-25. Bad ordering of
the agenda required putting that on hold and fast-forward to items 10 and
12.
Item
10
consisted of amendments to the Articles and Bye-Laws
providing for “rolling” membership which were passed nem
con, meaning membership is no longer from September to August
irrespective of when you take out membership, but now runs for 12
months from when membership is taken out.
Item
12
was the Board proposal on what individual (“Direct”) membership fees would
be for 2024-25. There was still resistance to the idea of merging Silver and Gold categories. Amendments to the
Board’s proposals were taken but only one was passed. To vote down
the Board proposals, even as amended, was possible, but according to the
Chair of the Governance Committee would precipitate a “constitutional crisis”,
though in reality further proposals from the floor (like “same as last
season but with £2 added to each fee”) would resolve the erroneously
perceived potential problem.
A
proposed amendment to reinstate Junior Bronze membership as free for the
first year and thereafter £6 per annum was passed. The reasoning was
based on the idea that many juniors remain content with club and league
chess and don’t want to branch out into congresses, and that parents
funding three such offspring could find it a problem. Others seemed
to believe most juniors are straining at the leash to dive headlong into
congress chess (which requires Silver/Gold membership). Experiences
and contexts vary. The writer supported this amendment.
A
proposed amendment (supported by the writer) was to hold adult Bronze membership at £18, though that was massively
defeated.
The
fees for 2024-25, which due to above mentioned changes may kick in
from 1st of July 2024 if the Board so wishes, are thus as below:
|
2023-24
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2024-25
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Category
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Price
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Category
|
Price
|
|
Bronze
|
£18
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Bronze
|
£20
|
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Silver
*
|
£27
|
abolished
*
|
|
|
Gold
|
£39
|
Gold
|
£35
|
|
Platinum
|
£75
|
Platinum
|
£77
|
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Supporter
|
£10
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Supporter
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£12
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Junior
Bronze
|
suspended
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Junior Bronze
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£6 **
|
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Junior
Silver
|
£6
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abolished
*
|
|
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Junior
Gold
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£19.50
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Junior
Gold
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£12
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Junior Platinum
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£75
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Junior Platinum
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£77
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* The ECF Board describes
the process as merger of Silver and Gold
categories.
** Free in the
first year
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Rating-Related
Fees
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2023‑24
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2023‑25
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FIDE-rated
pay-to-play
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£12
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N/A
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Congress
pay-to-play fee
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£9
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£15
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Congress
pay-to-play, junior
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£2.50
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£3.00
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FIDE admin
fee – players who are of
non-ENG
federation and not gold members
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£1.50
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£1.50
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Non-members
game fee
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£18
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£20
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Non-members
game fee, junior
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£6
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£12
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The budget for
2024-25,
was then approved.
A report from the
Chair of the Finance Committee (independent of the Board) was
received. Nothing not predictable.
A report on the
Use of the Government Grant was then given by Malcolm Pein who was
behind the whole project. This was an excellent presentation on some
excellent work behind the scenes. The presentation was “shared” over Zoom, but seems not to have been made generally
available (yet). The writer was able to capture some screen shots
which were as follows.
It will be noted
that Barnsley, Bradford, Doncaster, Hull, “Rother” (does he mean
Rotherham?), Calderdale and Sheffield are among the places listed. It
is not clear whether these are past grants which have been offered in the
past (but possibly not taken up – see
here on government website – or whether this refers to a new trench of
grants.
(“Dominic”
refers to ECF President Dominic Lawson.)
The recent “norm
tournament” organised by Jonathan Arnott in Sheffield was apparently a
beneficiary under that heading.
It should be
understood the above money for 2024-25 is timebound. If it is not
spent in time, then it will be lost.
There was a
government press release dated 28/08/2023 which
may be read here.
A paper on Grassroot
Initiatives was then then presented by Nigel Towers. This
represents proposed utilisation of £140,000 which the ECF already
possesses, and so is not timebound as regards its spending. This
arises from the fact that due to considerations of timing, some of one
government grant was allowed to be backdated into 2023-24, and £140,000 of
the international budget for 2023-24 was thus not used up due to the
Government funding coming along. To simply use the “saved” money on
keeping membership fees artificially lower than they would otherwise be
would not be in the spirit of the government funding, hence this
“Grassroots” initiative. A method for applying for such funds,
probably web-based, has yet to be addressed fully, and that is something
the ECF will be working on. The
paper can be read here.
All the above
opportunities to “grow” chess do of course require people on the ground
with the necessary enthusiasm and ability to push them forward. It
makes one quite tired just thinking about it!
A proposal to abolish
Organisation Membership fees and admit (initially large) clubs as
members by amending the Articles appropriately was passed. The
relevant paper
may be seen here.
Unusually, it was
not necessary to consider a motion to extend the meeting beyond the
prescribed 17.30. The meeting was closed at 17.25.
Steve Mann
27/04/2024
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