Wrong! – That was the case before ECF introduced ‘rolling membership’ – Now it isn’t.
Arguably it should be. Now it’s counter-intuitive and has caused much confusion.
How so? – Traditionally when a player joined ECF (or renewed) membership applied to the whole of the current playing season regardless of the date on which they apply. Membership included free grading of all games played during that season.
|<=================== playing season =======================>|
|<================= membership period ======================>|
|<================ free grading period =======================>|
If you were not a member, your club could encourage you to join (or rejoin if a previous membership expired) and not select you to play after reaching your quota of 3 graded league games. This helped avoid the league being invoiced for potential grading fees.
If you confirmed a membership application was in process and about to be published, this would be taken on trust. Clubs knew they would be expected to cover any invoiced game fees for their players and had leverage on players to join. Any occasional delay on this only tended to be a SHORT period of uncertainty before everyone knew where they stood.
This was the situation for many years so it was only natural to continue to expect no grading fee for games played while you’re a member.
‘Rolling Membership’ – Introduced in 2023, applied to the 12 months from when you join/renew (actually 12 months from from the beginning of the month in which you join/renew) so now generally spans more than one playing season. ECF regarded this as an improvement, claiming it allowed members to now get a full year membership regardless of when they apply – though that was already the case for grading purposes, just not for other ‘benefits’ such as discounts on goods from partnering sites. On the matter of free grading however, ECF considered it inconvenient to shift that in line with the same new period of membership – so they stayed with the traditional system of free grading of all games played in the season of joining/renew and created a bit of a problem!
|<======= playing season 1 ======>||<======= playing season 2 =======>|
………………|<===== membership period 1 =====>|
|<====== free grading 1 =========>||<== ?? grading 2 ?? …..
Although membership period 1 still covers the free grading period 1 – it does NOT cover ANY of the graded games played in playing season 2 (marked ??). This is where the impact begins and has caused much confusion!
Liability for potential game fees starts from the beginning of playing season 2, until the start of membership period 2 (cushioned only by the 3 game quota) – but not easy to accept for some liable members? I use the term ‘liable members’ for players in playing season 2 still in membership period 1. Their memberships expire on or before 30th June of season 2. For game fee purposes, we have to treat them the same as non-members during playing season 2 so their game counts are also shown on the website to help clubs track this, until they rejoin.
Impact? – There is now a LONGER period of uncertainty on future renewals. Most players do renew but who should pay the invoice for grading period 2 if they don’t?
ECF clearly hold the league responsible for this, as they state here
“Important – Liability to pay any game fee lies strictly with the league which has made
the rating submission, and cannot be derogated to the club(s) or individual players.”
This ‘liability’ is questionable as it needs be to be accepted, not created by others. Neither league, club nor player can absolutely guarantee a future renewal when expiry of a current membership may be many months away. One way to to be sure that all games we submit are by players who are members on 30th June, is to withhold submission of all the seasons results for rating until after that date, when we have verified this!
Otherwise, treasurers try to avoid liability, with the league treasurer now managing a grading fee reserve, funded from transfers in from club treasurers. Clubs no longer have the previous leverage, as players would not expect to be asked to pay for membership period 2 in advance (to cover fees for the period 2 games they are now playing). Hence NECL rule 22b rule had to be amended by stating:-
…. “Any players incurring a pending fee to ECF via NECL will be ineligible whilst
their club has insufficient credit to cover all of such players’ fees.”
The longest periods of uncertainty therefore arise due players who may have joined late in the playing season 1. ECF do not help here, as they will not allow renewals until near to expiry, and do not provide a means to pay a part/extended renewals that would allow players to synchronise to an early-season cycle. If this does not change, it is destined to perpetuate. I feel that all this has not had a positive influence on league chess.