Sheffield & District Chess Association

Established 1883

 

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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.

 

The fees for 2024-25, which due to changes may kick in from 1st of July 2024 if the Board so wishes, are as follows.

 

2023-24

2024-25

Category

Price

Category

Price

Bronze

£18

Bronze

£20

Silver *

£27

abolished *

Gold

£39

Gold

£35

Platinum

£75

Platinum

£77

Supporter

£10

Supporter

£12

Junior Bronze

suspended

Junior Bronze

£6 ** 

Junior Silver

£6

abolished *

Junior Gold

£19.50

Junior Gold

£12

Junior Platinum

£75

Junior Platinum

£77

* The ECF Board describes the process as merger of Silver and Gold categories.

** Free in the first year

 

The most unpalatable aspect of the “merger of Silver and Gold”, whereby congress-goers who are not interested in FIDE rating will now pay extra for “benefits” they don’t want, is that former Silver adult members see their membership fee increased from £27 to £35.

 

Rating-Related Fees

2023‑24

2023‑25

FIDE-rated pay-to-play

£12

N/A

Congress pay-to-play fee

£9

£15

Congress pay-to-play, junior

£2.50

£3.00

FIDE admin fee – players who are of

non-ENG federation and not gold members

£1.50

£1.50

Non-members game fee

£18

£20

Non-members game fee, junior

£6

£12

 

Congress organisers need to note the increase in pay-to-play fees: from £9 to £16 for adults which will probably kick in for events run from 1st July or after.  This is the knock-on effect of the abolition of the Silver category.

 

Little other business of the meeting is likely to be of interest to anybody reading this, but the following items need to be heeded by all local chess organisations and clubs.

 

A report on the Use of the Government Grant was delivered by Malcolm Pein who is behind the whole project.  This was an excellent presentation on some excellent work done behind the scenes.  The presentation was “shared” over Zoom, but seems not to have been made generally available (yet).  The writer was nevertheless able to capture some screen shots which were as follows.

A close-up of a document

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It will be noted that Barnsley, Doncaster, “Rother” (does he mean Rotherham?), 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.

 

A paper with text on it

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A collage of people in formal attire

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(“Dominic” refers to ECF President Dominic Lawson.)

 

A close-up of a document

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The recent “norm tournament” organised by Jonathan Arnott in Sheffield was apparently a beneficiary under that heading.

 

It should be understood the above money is timebound.  If it is not spent by 31/03/2025 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 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!

 

Steve Mann

27/04/2024