Membership requirements for CFC rated events

[Bob Gillanders]

The CFC office would like to remind all members that it is their responsibility to keep their memberships current. Memberships need to be valid during the entire period of any CFC rated event. Junior members playing in Junior only events are exempted from paying membership dues except for National Junior Events (CYCC, Canadian Junior Championship). Juniors playing in CYCC, Canadian Junior or any Adult tournament need to pay membership dues.

The CFC office would like to remind all event organizers, TD’s, and club officials that it is their responsibility to ensure all participants are current members. They can either collect dues onsite and remit to the CFC office or instruct players to renew directly with the CFC office.

The CFC office policy has been to go ahead and rate events without verifying that all memberships are current thus relying on the players, event organizers, TD’s and club officials to do their part. Why hold up rating an event because of one or two expired memberships? Do we need to review this policy periodically? Most certainly Yes.

The CFC office will be conducting a comprehensive review of the membership list as of May 1, 2019.
We will begin with a list of those who appear to have played recently under an expired membership.
Tournaments rated for 3 months (May – July) will be audited 100% for memberships.
The membership list will be reviewed again for compliance as of August 1, 2019.
If it is deemed necessary, we will circulate a list of suspended memberships pending payment.

[Gary Hua]

I think this is a good initiative by CFC.

Oftentimes, players would tell the organizers that they have paid online to CFC prior to the tournament. It is very hard for the organizers to check.

I have even try to verify with Bob on some of the players membership and some of the players just ignore our emails.

If I have my way, I will definitely not let these players play in my tournaments because if it is for only $ 32 or $ 48 a year, this deprive CFC the necessary funds to operate.

Gary

[Larry Bevand]

For an organizer, collecting CFC memberships is hell on earth! We hear all kinds of stories...yes I paid to so and so...I paid yesterday...and at the end of the day...the organizer gets stuck with the bill! It is usually the same people scamming the system..because...we assume folks are honest...and 99% of them are.

I rarely organize CFC and FQE rated events anymore (not because of this but simply when no one wants to do the event and I don't want to see it die.). I must confess that the last time I did...I had washed this sad part of human behaviour out of my memory bank...result...we paid over $200 to the CFC and FQE for fees we never collected.

Hey it is my fault.

If I announce the event is rated by an organization and people have to be members...then the onus is on me.

I understand , at the last CYCC CFC memberships were not checked...the organizer did not pay for what he did not receive and the CFC let it slide (that came from the rumour mill :)

Larry

[Fred McKim]

I understand , at the last CYCC CFC memberships were not checked...the organizer did not pay for what he did not receive and the CFC let it slide (that came from the rumour mill :)

The CFC Office made a concerted effort to contact all of the players who did not pay their CFC memberships at the 2018 CYCC (and it essentially would have only non Quebec players - as there is a different policy for them).

Fred

[Larry Bevand]

/So Fred ,for the 2019 NAYCC this summer, if we simply ask folks to be honest...but they do not remit...will the CFC go after these players and not bill us?

I think the FQE received a pass on this...will the CMA get the same pass this summer?

Larry

[Erik Malmsten]

In the good ole days a club used to get a small kickback from the CFC for all the work in collecting CFC memberships. The kickback would be used to buy for the club books and equipment from the CFC. This also encouraged clubs to pursue new CFC memberships.

[Roger Patterson]

In the good ole days a club used to get a small kickback from the CFC for all the work in collecting CFC memberships. The kickback would be used to buy for the club books and equipment from the CFC. This also encouraged clubs to pursue new CFC memberships.

Probably you are thinking of the cfc affiliate program. It still exists. Pay $25/year and get 15% discount on memberships.

[Roger Patterson]

For an organizer, collecting CFC memberships is hell on earth! We hear all kinds of stories...yes I paid to so and so...I paid yesterday...and at the end of the day...the organizer gets stuck with the bill! It is usually the same people scamming the system..because...we assume folks are honest...and 99% of them are.

I rarely organize CFC and FQE rated events anymore (not because of this but simply when no one wants to do the event and I don't want to see it die.). I must confess that the last time I did...I had washed this sad part of human behaviour out of my memory bank...result...we paid over $200 to the CFC and FQE for fees we never collected

Larry

There is also the category of misunderstanding that no, having paid your entry fee does not mean you paid your cfc. Usually junior parents who think free junior cfc applies to all tournaments, not just junior tournaments.

[Larry Bevand]

Probably you are thinking of the cfc affiliate program. It still exists. Pay $25/year and get 15% discount on memberships.

Thanks Roger! Good to know :)

[Fred McKim]

/So Fred ,for the 2019 NAYCC this summer, if we simply ask folks to be honest...but they do not remit...will the CFC go after these players and not bill us?

I think the FQE received a pass on this...will the CMA get the same pass this summer?

Larry

I think it's safe to say that organizers who pull "tricks" like this are not forgotten in a hurry. I can't imagine the CMA wants to get into a strained relationship with us, but I realize you have your tongue planted firmly in your cheek here. Things have come a long way between the CFC and the CMA from 20 years ago.

Fred.

[Larry Bevand]

Fred...you are correct! I would rather we be on the same page....This is simply not a fun thing for us.

However, I believe the FQE is getting many passes...and the CFC is simply turning a blind eye...as they want to keep the peace between the two organizations...at the expense of the CFC.

That is your choice.

Please be advised that we will do all we can to collect CFC memberships at the NAYCC but we will NOT pay for CFC memberships that we do not collect.


I trust you understand that we are working in good faith but we want to be treated fairly here.

Larry

[Fred McKim]

Fred...you are correct! I would rather we be on the same page....This is simply not a fun thing for us.

However, I believe the FQE is getting many passes...and the CFC is simply turning a blind eye...as they want to keep the peace between the two organizations...at the expense of the CFC.

That is your choice.

Please be advised that we will do all we can to collect CFC memberships at the NAYCC but we will NOT pay for CFC memberships that we do not collect.


I trust you understand that we are working in good faith but we want to be treated fairly here.

Larry

Collecting CFC Memberships is something that all organizers are expected to do (see Bob's opening statement). We will also be looking at organizers who fail to fulfill their obligation to collect memberships.

You're bringing up the perceived pass of us toward the FQE up is welcome at least by me, as it may force the CFC Executive to finally make some movement on this file (let's just say, we're not all on the same page, yet).

Fred

[Vlad Drkulec]

Fred...you are correct! I would rather we be on the same page....This is simply not a fun thing for us.

However, I believe the FQE is getting many passes...and the CFC is simply turning a blind eye...as they want to keep the peace between the two organizations...at the expense of the CFC.

That is your choice.
IPlease be advised that we will do all we can to collect CFC memberships at the NAYCC but we will NOT pay for CFC memberships that we do not collct.


I trust you understand that we are working in good faith but we want to be treated fairly here.

Larry

When we ran the CYCC/CO and NAYCC in Windsor we did not have a problem collecting memberships. We really checked memberships. If someone claimed that they had paid their membership elsewhere they had to provide some sort of proof such as a receipt and where there was doubt we did check with Bob Gillanders. We did reserve the right to not pair people in the second round if their membership was not up to date. SwissSys prompts you for every expired membership.

My understanding is that the FQE did make arrangements to pay tournament memberships for the people who did not pay for memberships. If an organizer falls down, it will certainly impact their ability to organize future events and particularly those events that are increasingly sought after by many communities. We spoke with 30 communities very interested in hosting events like the CYCC/CO/NAYCC. We cannot talk to them about the Canadian Closed because this is spoken for through 2022. Most of our flagship events are now expected to receive bids two and three years out (in contrast to the situation from 2015 and 2016 when we still did not have bidders for the Canadian Open by early December of the previous years (2014 and 2015). In 2015, there was no Canadian Open.

In any situation, you have to weigh the costs and the benefits of the action that you are proposing to take. We went to the CSTA conference in Ottawa despite the fact that our cupboard of events is relatively bare. It cost both Hal and I to attend at least in the form of lost earnings but the contacts and relationships should bear dividends for many years to come. The CFC will pay for our out of pocket expenses for this conference as soon as we submit the bills (in my case probably in the next few days). Without membership income, the CFC would not be able to attend such events which did benefit your NAYCC event as you have mentioned.

[Paul Leblanc]

At Victoria Chess we have mitigated this nagging issue somewhat.
Our pre-registered lists display glaring red warnings beside the names of players with expired CFC memberships.
Two weeks before the event we e-mail individuals affected. We send PayPal invoices to those that have difficulty with the CFC site (we get this complaint a lot).
At onsite registration, the pre-registered list is posted with red letters "see registration" beside the expired members.
Pairing sheets for every round also display this.
It hasn't come to this but we're quite prepared to stop pairing expired members after a couple of rounds.
We pay the $25 affiliation fee annually and get reimbursed 15% for annual memberships sold.
Agree, a recurrent issue is juniors' parents who are not used to CFC membership dues. It helps a bit that we (Victoria Chess) offer a free tournament membership to new players and point out to them that next time they will have to join the CFC.
And yes, the whole thing is a royal pain.

[Kerry Liles]

In this thread there have been a number of references to "checking membership status with Bob Gillanders" - it seems obvious to me that *IF* the CFC membership rating list was maintained and was up to date on the website there would be no need to check directly with Bob... Of course, this means the membership list has to be updated in real time as much as possible - people who snail mail a cheque for example cannot expect their info to be up to date all that quickly, but someone who renews via the website should reasonably expect the info to be up to the day at least!

Elsewhere, I hear (again) about the need to update the entire website - wasn't the last update $18K (perhaps I am not remembering correctly). Many people at the time said that was a ridiculous amount and I guess they were right. Hopefully the next iteration will be more cost effective and will actually work out of the box and for many years to come?