Reasons to join the CFC

[John Coleman]

The CFC website has information on the benefits of joining... a bit overwritten, I think. http://chess.ca/membership-rates

I wonder if we, as chess players, could help with making that information more concise, and more relevant.

I'm wondering... what ARE the reasons to join? If you had a neighbour who plays a little chess, or a work collegue, what would you tell him are the benefits... in both senses of the word, to gain something, and to do good?

What follows is MY opinion:

In my opinion, about 90% of the reason for anyone to join is to play rated chess. In addition, some people might like to support our top players, and the CFC is one conduit for support. The CFC also is the ... something... for national championships. Something?? Organiser? no; supporter? no; fundraiser? no. Hmmm... maybe the "sanctioner", if that is a word.

The CFC provides information on players' ratings and their tournament histories... however, if I wasn't interested in rated chess, that wouldn't be of much of a benefit.

Also, there is something, maybe 2%, in the psychological feeling that I am a member of the national federation for my main hobby.

So,
90% rated chess
5% support for top players
2% sanctioning national events
1% archiving chess information
2% warm fuzzies

How about everyone else? What would you tell a workmate are the benefits of joing the CFC.

[Roger Patterson]

Re: Reasons to join the CFC

Apart from a percent or two one way or the other, that's pretty much it. Some people (how many?) presumably count the email magazine as a significant percentage (otherwise, why spend so much on it).

Better not get into detail about how much of your dollar goes to those things though.

[Bob Gillanders]

Re: Reasons to join the CFC

John - I fail to see your argument. I wrote the following several years ago. It is just as true now as it was then.

What benefits do I get as a member of the C.F.C.?
When you become a member of the CFC, you join a fraternity of chess players, enthusiasts, teachers, and organizers from across Canada devoted to promoting chess. The CFC represents Canada to the world as a member of FIDE, the international chess body. The CFC sends teams to the Chess Olympiad, World Youth Chess Championship, and other major international events. The CFC holds national championships (including the Canadian Open, Canadian Youth Chess Championship, Canadian Closed, Canadian Women’s Championship) to showcase Canadian talent. The CFC website keeps players informed on is what happening including tournament listings, tournament reports and news items, listings of local chess clubs, and so much more. Your membership dues support all these activities to help ensure chess prospers in Canada. As a member, you are welcomed at CFC events across Canada, including national tournaments, weekend swisses, and local club tournaments.

Sure everyone has their own beef with the CFC. At the Canadian Open awards ceremony on sunday, I had to listen to somebody complaining about something from the 1970's. Let it go people! :(

[Kerry Liles]

Re: Reasons to join the CFC

...
Sure everyone has their own beef with the CFC. At the Canadian Open awards ceremony on sunday, I had to listen to somebody complaining about something from the 1970's. Let it go people! :(

How I wish you were joking or exaggerating, but I know full well that you are not...

[Kevin Pacey]

Re: Reasons to join the CFC

John - I fail to see your argument. I wrote the following several years ago. It is just as true now as it was then.

What benefits do I get as a member of the C.F.C.?
When you become a member of the CFC, you join a fraternity of chess players, enthusiasts, teachers, and organizers from across Canada devoted to promoting chess. The CFC represents Canada to the world as a member of FIDE, the international chess body. The CFC sends teams to the Chess Olympiad, World Youth Chess Championship, and other major international events. The CFC holds national championships (including the Canadian Open, Canadian Youth Chess Championship, Canadian Closed, Canadian Women’s Championship) to showcase Canadian talent. The CFC website keeps players informed on is what happening including tournament listings, tournament reports and news items, listings of local chess clubs, and so much more. Your membership dues support all these activities to help ensure chess prospers in Canada. As a member, you are welcomed at CFC events across Canada, including national tournaments, weekend swisses, and local club tournaments.

Hi Bob

It seems to me that John Coleman is perhaps unknowingly trying to quantify in percentage terms, in his own terminology, more or less what you wrote in prose terms years ago. So you and he might be in some small agreement, in a strange kind of way. I am far from certain that the percentages he gave are close to accurate, or so easy to estimate, or that they are even approximately the same every year.

The idea of breaking down approximately in percentage terms what a typical CFC member's membership annual fee goes towards, and then disclosing it publicly, was suggested by John Brown on chesstalk a while back. Perhaps he was interested especially in the obvious (or sometimes not-so-obvious) percentages spent on concrete personal benefits for an average member, as opposed to what John Coleman would call merely 'the warm fuzzies'. These would include perhaps the funding of elite teams, which most CFC members can hardly hope to be on (though you or I might argue elite team member's games provide average members with entertainment value, and maybe a reason to cheer).

Releasing such percentage figures, in spite of Roger's aversion to recommending this, might not actually often cause too great a stir, at least if the results were spun in the right way. For example, the ED does ratings, and hence paying the ED's salary (or a given estimated percentage of it) clearly benefits the average member.

[John Coleman]

Re: Reasons to join the CFC

John - I fail to see your argument.

Bob, I'm not arguing

I think that the benefits as described are overwritten, and I'd like to know what people see as the benefits of CFC membership, to suggest a new description for the CFC website. I thought of making a poll, but I wanted people to give their most important reasons... as far as I can see, the most significant benefit is access to rated chess tournaments.

So, to a potential new member, I would talk of ratings and competitive chess. Maybe 10% other stuff. I certainly wouldn't talk about "a fraternity". Do I tell the girls they would be joining a sorority?

[Bob Gillanders]

Re: Reasons to join the CFC

I think that the benefits as described are overwritten,...

That's just good PR John! :D

[Vlad Drkulec]

Re: Reasons to join the CFC

I don't think that John was implying any criticism of the CFC in his original post. These are valid questions that need to be answered if the CFC is to evolve and grow. If you don't know why people are joining now, how can you expect to grow membership?

I feel pretty good about the future of chess in Windsor though we are going to have some challenges in the years ahead. Among active players we have six who are or have been rated over 2000 CFC, three of whom have been over 2200 in the last six months. Five of the six are actively involved in helping the kids improve through classes or special tournaments where the children play a game and then have their games analysed by one or more strong players who offers suggestions for improvements, tips and advice.

One thing that I have noticed is that our classes are fairly evenly split between boys and girls and I think that if the CFC could find a way to encourage more female participation, they could quickly double in size without doing much of anything differently. Girls often start out lacking in confidence and underestimating their abilities but with a bit of encouragement they can soon become ferocious and successful competitors. As a result we need to create language in our value proposition that is inclusive and doesn't imply that one gender is less integral to the chess experience.

[Jonathan Berry]

Re: Reasons to join the CFC

So,
90% rated chess
5% support for top players
2% sanctioning national events
1% archiving chess information
2% warm fuzzies.

Just to amuse Bob Gillanders, I will note that in the bad old days, a considerable number of CFC members renewed year after year but never played a rated game. In 1975 that manifested itself as a blank rating record card. From 1980 (and even in 2011), it could be counted with a query of the membership database. Back in the day, we might have flattered ourselves that non-playing members wanted to read the magazine. The proportion of Life Members who had never played a rated game was even higher, and the same flattery does not necessarily apply to them.

Fast forwarding to 2011, the CFC has an e-zine, which is not much spoken about, here at ChessTalk. I've read it, and I like it. Were I not so jaded, I might read it more often. It is possible that some members belong for the magazine, and even that some members belonged for the magazine even when CFC didn't have one. For the virtual magazine.

If the CFC ever gets 300,000 members, it won't be charging the same amount (indexed) as it does today, and they won't 90% have joined to play rated chess.

[Alex Ferreira]

Re: Reasons to join the CFC

You guys all type too much...
Go play chess.

[Bob Armstrong]

Re: Reasons to join the CFC

:DHi Alex:

I hope you've noted that I don't type nearly as much as I used to!:)

Bob A

P.S. Not counting my Blog of course.

[Paul Beckwith]

Re: Reasons to join the CFC

Reasons to join CFC:

To pick up chicks.
To deplete the ozone layer.
To learn about movies.
To be part of the community.
To learn about firearms.
To find God with your spouse.
To get money for your old car.

I just googled CFC and the above meanings came up...

[Erik Malmsten]

Re: Reasons to join the CFC

I thnk "rated chess" needs to be explained better. It is to receive a ranking to compare yourself with other players in your community and nationally. It gives you a past history and a numerical target to aim for improvement. It is also to get your name published.

Before the Internet era, I thought of the CFC as a source of rules of chess and how to run a tournament. The newsletter was a way of learning what was happening with chess across the country, a source of ideas of event to try in one's one area, of learning what time controls, round times and entry fees to charge. So the CFC has value for those who are interested in organizing a chess club or tournament, such as at a school.

[Peter McKillop]

Re: Reasons to join the CFC

John - I fail to see your argument. ...

If John thinks it's overwritten then, in my opinion, it's worth a discussion, not a dismissal. I say this because I think John has credibility and has earned the right to some up-front respect.

For example (I'm going from memory here), John has organized the Windsor qualifying tournament for the CYCC for several years and regularly draws 1,000+ children to this event. On a per capita basis, how are other cities faring with their CYCC qualifiers relative to Windsor (Windsor with a population of 250,000 +/-)? If children's chess should be a prime consideration when discussing the future of the CFC, then this is a question a president of the CFC (current or past) should be able to answer. If the GTA was matching John's CYCC results then they should be drawing 25,000+ children out to CYCC qualifiers. Do they?

In another post in this thread, Vlad has pointed out that 5 of Windsor's top 6 players are involved in aspects of coaching/teaching chess. It sounds like Windsor has a good thing going because of people like John, Vlad and others. No doubt the CFC is working closely with the people in Windsor to find out how they can promote similar success stories in other communities - or is the CFC doing anything at all in this regard?

Bottom line, people like John have earned some respect.

p.s. If the GTA was drawing 25,000 kids to CYCC qualifiers, and if the rest of the country was turning in similar results, then the CFC could charge each entrant $1 for a 'development fee' and have enough money to fund all travel and accommodation expenses for all children and adults (e.g. Olympiad teams; world championship events; etc.) representing Canada outside the country, not to mention travel/accommodation/prize money for national championships, not to mention programs galore. No more national championships where the entrants have to pay all of their own expenses plus a huge entry fee.

[Roger Patterson]

Re: Reasons to join the CFC

That's just good PR John! :D

It's not effective PR if people just roll their eyes when they hear it.