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Dark Knight / Le Chevalier Noir
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---- Nous avons besoin d'un traduction français!
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Re: How can we increase the number of CFC members?
I spent some time organizing chess at the club level and ran a few CFC tournaments. I stopped renewing my membership in the early 90's because I believed that the CFC was actively discouraging the growth of chess in Canada. I still believe this to be the case.
I was invited to play for my club in the PUCC a few years ago, and discovered on arrival that the PUCC organizers had allowed the CFC to levy a tithe (in the guise of membership) on every player. I asked what the benefits of membership now were (this being almost 2 decades since my last being a CFC member), and discovered there were none. Therefore I call it a tithe. Under duress -- not wanting to disqualify our team after travel -- I paid it.
In the late 80's I walked into the R.A. Club in Ottawa and asked the club president if he could find someone with whom I could play a casual game. I was told that casual games were rare there; generally it was a rated-games-only club. So an interested person, showing up for the first time, would be levied with: (1) a club fee, (2) a CFC membership fee, and (3) a rating fee before playing a game. I note my local city club currently operates this way as well, if I understand what is written on their web pages.
Many years ago I had a conversation with the (then) CFC president about my concerns over waning membership, especially waning youth interest. After 2 or 3 minutes, I realized I was speaking to a deaf man. He could not consider, even for a moment, any notion of chess being played in this country without a CFC tithe involved at every turn. No compromise. He was not alone in his views.
Some thoughts from a heretic, in no particular order and with no promise of coherence ...
- I want the CFC to be a service provider, not a tax collector.
- The CFC should serve beginners, club players, and elite players. It should not exist only to fund elite players via taxation of non-elite players.
- Run your basic operations from membership fees. Fund elite teams in other ways. There ARE other ways, and I promise you they will pay more handsomely.
- If the CFC wants a membership fee, then it should offer tangible benefits to everyone paying that fee.
- The CFC should be trying to promote chess at all levels. Taxation does not promote chess at any level; it does precisely the opposite.
- I was shocked to learn that the Queen's University Chess Club was under some pressure to demand CFC membership of its individual members. Can you imagine the harm this would do to efforts to recruit new members? Why think it would be different in any club, anywhere?
- If you have a robust membership, there will be opportunities to fundraise without it being pure taxation. Work on that first -- robust membership -- before anything else. A "robust" membership renews, and it renews not because it feels some obligation to pay for elite players, but because it collectively sees personal benefit.
- Chess in Canada, more so than in any other nation on the planet (including Russia), is obstructed by geography. But lo! The internet! It overcomes distance! But the CFC is not using it. Why not, I wonder? The current web site offers players nearly nothing, not even an adequate news service.
- The absence of internet tournaments in Canada is astonishing. Our tournament population is tiny because of travel expense, the internet arrives with the potential to change that ... and the CFC ignores it. [Engine use is not the problem some of you might think it is -- I can think of ways to keep it from becoming ruinous.]
A last note - at times the level of interpersonal enmity displayed on Chess Talk is extremely disturbing. The presence of such material speaks volumes about the people organizing and promoting chess in Canada. Do something about it.
Re: How can we increase the number of CFC members?
At one time, I used to sell a lot of memberships by us making CFC membership with the annual fees mandatory. At least 100 memberships a year. Of course, it probably wasn't as expensive for the times as it is now as our rent was very low and free for awhile. But we wanted our tournaments rated. No, we didn't charge a rating fee or tournament entry fee which came out of the membership money.
Regarding the internet which I've mention many time before, I think they missed the boat by maybe close to 10 years. Like one person explained to me quite recently, and he's probably right, is the CFC doesn't now have nor will they ever have enough members to justify them getting a server. He's actually correct because it's a chicken and egg sort of argument. Without a server I agree he's right and with the server they are close to a decade behind. It costs money to recruit members.
There's nothing wrong with the current model. Lot of juniors. Many regular members seem to be teaching, or that's the impression I get. The old timers serve as cannon fodder to improve the juniors skills. And the good players seem to pick their rated events carefully, either in Canada or elsewhere.
But Tithes, really? I almost stopped reading when I saw that howler. ;)
Re: How can we increase the number of CFC members?
Mr. Ruben, perhaps you are correct and there is "nothing wrong with the current model" (what is the model?), and thus no membership concern whatsoever. I hope that is true, and then I will happily howl along with you.
Could you point me to the CFC's most recent annual membership report? I was unable to find one on the CFC web pages. A basic report will track annual membership levels and retention rates through the years, categorized by (for example) sex/membership-type/age-group. It must be there somewhere and I've simply overlooked it. Details such as "How many new members are still members 5 years later" would be a staple for any Membership Director, but it isn't clear to me who fills that role in the CFC. Or a Membership Committee, but I was unable to identify such a committee in the CFC.
Mr. Ruben, perhaps you are correct and there is "nothing wrong with the current model" (what is the model?), and thus no membership concern whatsoever. I hope that is true, and then I will happily howl along with you.
Could you point me to the CFC's most recent annual membership report? I was unable to find one on the CFC web pages. A basic report will track annual membership levels and retention rates through the years, categorized by (for example) sex/membership-type/age-group. It must be there somewhere and I've simply overlooked it.
Re: How can we increase the number of CFC members?
Why would the CFC want to set up a server for internet chess when there are other service providers that do that much more efficiently than the CFC ever could?
In fact the CFC is a pretty lean organization (one employee in a home office), yet manages to do the provide the essentials for its members. If I wasn't a life member I would not begrudge the $38 "tithe" I'd have to part with every year to keep my membership alive.
Is the club in Ajax still going? I haven't played a game in a very long time.
Hi Gary:
Ajax CC is one of the number of chess clubs that reports regularly in the Toronto Chess News (TCN):
DURHAM
Ajax Chess Club News
- meet every 1st, 3rd and 5th Fridays of the month
- 7:00-8:30 pm for juniors and adults play up to 11:00 pm.
- location: 115 Ritchie Ave, Ajax
- currently, tournaments are not CFC-rated: no club members have CFC membership
- For further information, contact David Ho at ajaxchessclub@gmail.com
Why would the CFC want to set up a server for internet chess when there are other service providers that do that much more efficiently than the CFC ever could?
In fact the CFC is a pretty lean organization (one employee in a home office), yet manages to do the provide the essentials for its members. If I wasn't a life member I would not begrudge the $38 "tithe" I'd have to part with every year to keep my membership alive.
Personally, I don't think the CFC would know what to do with an internet server if they had one. Nothing wrong with that. Not how the CFC works.
The way I remember it, the reason the organization got so lean was because of the loss of members. Do you remember it different?
Being a life member shouldn't be an impediment to you sending the CFC donations. I've been a life member of the CCCA for decades and I send a donation every so often. Every time I get an urge to renew my CFC membership I send the CCCA a donation as penance. :D
Mr. Ruben, perhaps you are correct and there is "nothing wrong with the current model" (what is the model?), and thus no membership concern whatsoever. I hope that is true, and then I will happily howl along with you.
Could you point me to the CFC's most recent annual membership report? I was unable to find one on the CFC web pages. A basic report will track annual membership levels and retention rates through the years, categorized by (for example) sex/membership-type/age-group. It must be there somewhere and I've simply overlooked it. Details such as "How many new members are still members 5 years later" would be a staple for any Membership Director, but it isn't clear to me who fills that role in the CFC. Or a Membership Committee, but I was unable to identify such a committee in the CFC.
You might also be interested in the information presented here http://victoriachess.com/cfc/retention2.php which is stuff I put up a few years ago based on analysis of the CFC ratings database. (I haven't maintained the site so some of the stuff which dynamically queries my copy of the CFC database may not be working properly).
Why would the CFC want to set up a server for internet chess when there are other service providers that do that much more efficiently than the CFC ever could?
In fact the CFC is a pretty lean organization (one employee in a home office), yet manages to do the provide the essentials for its members. If I wasn't a life member I would not begrudge the $38 "tithe" I'd have to part with every year to keep my membership alive.
On the server question: you didn't listen to Jeff Boyd's argument. It's about Canadian geography. The CFC is stuck with that and should make adjustments accordingly. It's also about something the CFC should care about: image. A CFC chess playing site helps the CFC image (if it's run properly). As far as efficiency goes, you take what others are doing for efficiency and you do the same or even better, and if you can't achieve their level of efficiency, you eat the cost for the sake of image and membership. Ever heard the term 'loss leader'?
On your next paragraph: again you ignore the great points from Jeff Boyd. Let's see, 'providing the essentials'... that would be ratings, and one could do that even leaner with an automated system. Don't even have a human face at all for the CFC. Think what that would do for membership!
You seem to have no sense of running a business and listening to customers. Just on this forum alone, the anti-CFC volume is very high, and Jeff Boyd represents a whole new category of 'former' customers who have left the CFC due to dissatisfaction. One can only guess at how many Jeff Boyds may be out there.
Your own willingness to pay membership fee for what the CFC currently offers is a non-starter. You are likely the exception to the rule. If only half of the current membership was an exception to the rule, just imagine how many members the CFC could get if it cared about the rule!
The CFC's mandate is to promote chess in Canada. Not just the major cities of Canada: ALL of Canada. Everything it does should be based on that.
Only the rushing is heard...
Onward flies the bird.
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