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Happy New Year to all. We have good news to start the year.
The CFC membership numbers for January 1, 2016 are showing increases in all membership categories since May 1, 2015. In fact, the largest total membership since 2006.
This is still a far cry from the glory days (1994-1999) when membership exceeded 3000, but it is progress. We face greater challenges these days: competition from the internet, membership demographics.
Many thanks to our many chess organizers, club executives, tournament directors, instructors, the cfc executive and voting members, CMA, FQE, provincial affiliates, and all of our membership for a successful year.
Is there a way to check who Honorary members are?
Do you check if Life members are still alive?
All Life and Honorary members have a membership expiry year of 2099. Other than that, you need to look at the CFC membership database. If we are aware of the passing of a Life member, they are deleted from the count, but will still appear on the website.
We should probably develop some rules to exclude these members from the membership count if they are inactive for an extended period of time, say 10 or 20 years?
We all share your concerns. New year and time for a new start. Perhaps a perfect time for Neil Frarey to renew his membership in the CFC [which expired in 2010]. The CFC is a very exclusive group looking for more members.
With your renewed CFC membership you can consider playing in the U1600 of RA Winter Open on Friday.
We all share your concerns. New year and time for a new start. Perhaps a perfect time for Neil Frarey to renew his membership in the CFC [which expired in 2010]. The CFC is a very exclusive group looking for more members.
With your renewed CFC membership you can consider playing in the U1600 of RA Winter Open on Friday.
Is that membership list for all of Canada, or just Ontario?
Please don't tell me those numbers are for the entire country...
Neil, I realize your question is mostly rhetorical, but to clarify:
The membership list is for Canada, but does not include:
1. FQE members who access CFC member services via the CFC/FQE agreement.
2. Juniors who participate in CFC rated junior only events that do not require a membership. I don’t have an accurate count, but I can tell you we added 1,604 names (not including those that did become members) in 2015 who may someday buy a membership.
Last edited by Bob Gillanders; Sunday, 3rd January, 2016, 01:29 AM.
2. Juniors who participate in CFC rated junior only events that do not require a membership. I don’t have an accurate count, but I can tell you we added 1,604 names (not including those that did become members) in 2015 who may someday buy a membership.
Has it occurred to the CFC that the precipitous drop in membership since the 90s coincides with the massive emphasis placed by the CFC on junior programs? When I started playing in the early 90s, there was the junior (U20) and cadet (U16), with one winner, and that's it. By the late 90s, there was the CYCC, and every U# you could think of.
The idea was "we give the junior lots of opportunities, and they develop into adult members"; a more skeptical viewpoint was "we give the juniors massive opportunities, they travel the world and have great experiences, and then when they become adults and the CFC offers nothing more than weekend swisses, they quit playing".
It seems pretty clear to me which side was correct. The CFC has placed far too much emphasis on junior chess (and I say this as a former Cdn Junior coordinator) that has done nothing to bolster the full membership lists. The past (and current) focus of the CFC is actually discouraging juniors from becoming adult members, because from the time you're 10, there are regular national and provincial championships that you feel you have a chance at, with exceptional opportunities available to the winners. Once you hit 21, you are suddenly "just another player" and that steep drop off is always going to cause players to churn out.
Halldor, stop going along to get along. Instead of coping with an incestuous CFC ...make a change! To cope and to change are completely different.
And the next time I renew my CFC membership will be to:
A) Run for President (again).
&
B) Crush your pathetic French Defense in a CFC rated game.
Good luck with your RA Winter Open. I hope it provides some measure of excitement. Keep a close eye on the Amateur Section, especially on those who nibbling at the bait of the new CFC Trail Membership.
Oh wait... there is no CFC Trail Membership. Sorry my bad, that would require leadership with a vision and the means to 'er done...
.
Last edited by Neil Frarey; Thursday, 7th January, 2016, 02:53 AM.
Hi David, that's an interesting point of view. I understand your point of view too, but I think the CFC could be a lot more than simply having a 'rating' ...contrary to some CFCers I know.
The CFC could be a chess rich social structure, with a rating system as one central element of it. Instead the CFC today, is chess poor social structure ...impoverished.
Adults leave because there's simply nothing left to involve themselves in/with ...if all you are to the CFC is a 'rating value' and that value is in decline, then what's the point of sticking around???
The Chess Federation of Canada's membership numbers are ridiculously low because they don't understand what the role of 'organized chess' is within the greater scheme of the Canadian social fabric.
It's really quite that simple ...to me anyways.
...
Last edited by Neil Frarey; Thursday, 7th January, 2016, 02:58 AM.
Sorry, I shouldn't have really posted that without asking if it was true; are there any more recent CFC financial statements than the 2013 ones posted on the web site?
Sorry, I shouldn't have really posted that without asking if it was true; are there any more recent CFC financial statements than the 2013 ones posted on the web site?
You should find them in the CFC forum site in meetings subforums.
Sorry, I shouldn't have really posted that without asking if it was true; are there any more recent CFC financial statements than the 2013 ones posted on the web site?
Me bad. Posting financials on the website is on my list of "stuff to do". I haven't ventured into that area of the website yet, but hopefully soon. In the meantime, you can find them in the quarterly meetings (as Egis points out).
Has it occurred to the CFC that the precipitous drop in membership since the 90s coincides with the massive emphasis placed by the CFC on junior programs? When I started playing in the early 90s, there was the junior (U20) and cadet (U16), with one winner, and that's it. By the late 90s, there was the CYCC, and every U# you could think of.
The idea was "we give the junior lots of opportunities, and they develop into adult members"; a more skeptical viewpoint was "we give the juniors massive opportunities, they travel the world and have great experiences, and then when they become adults and the CFC offers nothing more than weekend swisses, they quit playing".
It seems pretty clear to me which side was correct. The CFC has placed far too much emphasis on junior chess (and I say this as a former Cdn Junior coordinator) that has done nothing to bolster the full membership lists. The past (and current) focus of the CFC is actually discouraging juniors from becoming adult members, because from the time you're 10, there are regular national and provincial championships that you feel you have a chance at, with exceptional opportunities available to the winners. Once you hit 21, you are suddenly "just another player" and that steep drop off is always going to cause players to churn out.
Interesting post David, but I don't reach the same conclusions. There are numerous reasons for the drop in adult memberships.
I am still optimistic than a stronger junior membership will translate into more adults, eventually.
Now that we have successfully grown the junior membership, are there other steps to take to attract adult members.
Last edited by Bob Gillanders; Thursday, 7th January, 2016, 10:44 AM.
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