The ECF AGM on Sat 15th Oct voted to introduce a membership scheme based on level of activity, starting in Sep 2012. ’Bronze’ for those who just play in the league and/or for the county, ‘silver’ for players who play in congresses, ‘gold’ for players who entry FIDE rated events. Anyone entering a congress who isn’t an ECF member will be charged a £6 game fee on top of the entry fee (currently, players pay £2.90 in game fee as part of their entry fee for a 5 round congress). ’Bronze’ members will be charged £6 for just the first time they enter a congress in any season and will be upgraded to ‘silver’ as a result. Non ECF members will incur a game fee charge for each league game they play, see below.
The exact membership fee for each level won’t be known until the ECF Council meeting next April but the expectation is £12 for ‘bronze’, £18 for ‘silver’ & £27 for ‘gold’.
The impact on NCA clubs and players? League fees should drop from £50 to about £10 per team as £40.60 of the £50 entry fee is game fee. Most clubs will opt to collect ECF membership fees from their players, passing on the money to the NCA who will pay the ECF. Some clubs may chose not to, so their players might have to join directly via the ECF, or possibly the NCA (tbc). Clubs will have to review their membership subs as a result.
Most players will become members but those who play very few games in a season may choose to pay game fee instead. If at least 85% of NCA league players are ECF members the game fee for non members will be £1, otherwise it will be £2. This is a deliberate policy by the ECF to ‘encourage’ players to become members.
