Visitors might be interested in knowing something about what the team in the ECF Office does, so we’ve done an analysis of where their time goes. The numbers are reasonably high level, but we’re happy that they’re broadly accurate.
- JustGo membership system: maintenance, dealing with new and renewing member matters: 22%
- International rating support: 14%
- Producing ChessMoves and the annual Yearbook: 13%
- Website maintenance and development (e.g. events calendar, registered coaches scheme, club finder facility, news updates, community pages etc): 13%
- Supporting ECF tournaments and congresses: 8%
- Supporting international team trips: 7%
- Game fee/junior event payments: 5%
- Bookkeeping, payroll: 4%
- Supporting Board and Council meetings: 3%
- Other (e.g. general ad hoc enquiries, rating enquiries, registered coaches scheme, certificate of excellence, national title/master points support, press and media enquiries, IT support and maintenance): 11%
A few take-aways
- Pretty much all of the Office team’s time is spent on membership-related support.
- 22% of the team’s time to support the JustGo membership system and handling membership matters effectively represents only around half a full time equivalent person for around 17,000 members, which we think compares pretty favourably with, for example, the United States Chess Federation’s four membership staff for around 90,000 members.
- A number of Office services cost pretty much the same per member regardless of membership category: 1., 3., 4., 7., 8., 9. and 10. = 71%.
- A number of Office activities are incurred in support of non-local league activities, supporting the thesis that members who play in both local leagues and congresses make somewhat more use of ECF services in some areas than members who only play in local leagues: 2., 5. and 6. = 29%.
- The changes that were approved at the ECF’s Annual General Meeting on Saturday 14th October have simplified the membership scheme by combining the Silver and Gold membership categories (removing a barrier to participation in FIDE-rated events), while maintaining the Bronze membership category for those who only participate in club or league chess. The simplified two-tier system means that those who play in congress as well as league chess, and so are likely to make more use of ECF services and office time, will continue to contribute rather more in membership fees to support the ECF’s work compared with players who play only in local league chess – see points 3 and 4 above.
- None of the above analysis takes account of the work done by the ECF’s wonderful army of volunteers without whom the ECF could not function. We pay tribute both to them and to our Office staff, who provide the critical services that support both our volunteers and our members.
For the full list of personnel and their contact details visit this page – https://www.englishchess.org.uk/about/ecf-officials/
Debra Atkinson – Office Manager
debra@englishchess.org.uk
Andrew Walker – Webmaster / Membership Admin
webmaster@englishchess.org.uk
Christine Adams – Membership Admin (part-time)
christine@englishchess.org.uk
Gary Willson – Game Fee/Pay to Play Fee (part time)
gary.willson@englishchess.org.uk