TD's - notice of fee changes

[Bob Gillanders]

I have sent out the following notice by email to our tournament directors to advise them of rate changes effective May 1, 2009. I just started this new email group for TD's, and I'm certain I have caught everyone at first try. If you are a TD or organizers and you didn't receive this email, please advise the office at info@chess.ca so that we can add you for future emails. Thanks.

Dear CFC Tournament Directors,

As many of you are already aware, some recent changes in dues become effective on May 1, 2009.

Tournament Memberships - Effective May 1, 2009, single tournament fees are increased from $ 10 to $ 20 for adults, and from $ 5 to $ 10 for juniors.

Rating fees - We are encouraging all our TD's to take advantage of our licencing agreement with SwissSys. This popular rating software is now available to all CFC tournament directors free of charge. Visit our website to download a copy. Vince will supply you with an access password.

The SwissSys software (version 8.04 or later) will create reports to submit the the CFC office for rating. These reports will save time and help improve efficiency at the CFC office. Effective May 1, 2009 rating fees will increase to $ 5 per player ( $ 2.50 for junior tournaments) for tournaments not submitted using the CFC SwissSys or Swiss Assistant software. Send us an email if you are having difficulties, we will be pleased to help.


Further details and discussion on these 2 changes can be found in governors letter # 5 which will be released to the website shortly.

Sincerely,



Robert Gillanders
Executive Director
Chess Federation of Canada
Fédération canadienne des échecs
info@chess.ca

[Wolfgang(Wilf) FERNER]

Bob: What are the tournament membership fees for the affiliates?(Ontario,
Alberta,etc)

Wilf Ferner

[roger patterson]

and to clarify, for BC, that is the CFC portion of Tournament memberships is $16 adult, and $8 junior plus applicable BCCF dues.

See http://www.chess.bc.ca/membership.shtml for BCCF dues.

Roger Patterson
President, BCCF

[Bob Gillanders]

The single tournament fee for non members of $ 20 adult / $ 10 juniors includes the provincial portion of dues ($4/$2).

Provincial dues are equal across the board except BC.

BC dues are $ 4 per player for multi day events, $ 2 per player for single day events. BC tournament directors should consult with BCCF on this for clarification.

Tournament fees are $ 16 /$ 8 where there is no provincial affiliate. (ie. Quebec), whereas foreigners pay the full fare.

Everybody clear? :)

[Wolfgang(Wilf) FERNER]

Bob: permit me to ask another question since you mentioned "foreigners".

Do you mean that the section 3 item 327 of the Handbook no longer applies?



327. Honorary membership for foreign titled players

IMs, IGMs, WGMs and WIMs from foreign countries who come to Canada to play are accorded a one month honorary CFC membership". [see Motion 85-8; GL, September 1984, p.2-3A; as amended by Motion 91-6, GL, March 1991, p.4-3]

Wilf Ferner

[Bob Gillanders]

Foreign titled players who are eligible as honorary members are considered members, so they would not be subject to tournament membership fee. I think that is self evident.

But not all foreigners have titles! These guests would be subject to tournament fee in the unlikely event they choose not to purchase a full CFC membership. ;)

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Bob, once you posted an information about fees for a FIDE rated tournaments. May you put that info on http://www.chess.ca/membership.htm and it might be required an update in Handbook 790 http://www.chess.ca/section_7.htm
(I even can not find where that info is hidden now :)

[Alex Ferreira]

Tournament Memberships - Effective May 1, 2009, single tournament fees are increased from $ 10 to $ 20 for adults, and from $ 5 to $ 10 for juniors.


That is an absolutely brutal hike. It makes tournament memberships completely not worth it.

From a player's perspective, and this is what I always felt up until 9 months ago, tournament memberships should be scrapped altogether and have only annual ones. Of course it was always easy for me to say as I have been an active player.

However, when I helped organize a couple of events at Hart House, I did notice that a very substantial number of players choose to go only with $10 tournament membership. Some of these players may well even play more than 4 tournaments in a year. From a practical point of view though, if a membership is expired, participating in a tournament after the entry fee could cost only as little as an additional $10. Making it $20 or forcing people to pay annual membership, in my opinion, could see a decline in participation from those who are not super active already. Some of the players who have not been very active, or are new to the scene, don't even know about CFC memberships or where their status stands.

a bit concerned,


Alex Ferreira

[Tyler Longo]

It seems to me that the long term goal should be increasing the amount of renewing members. If you would like chess to be more exclusive to these newer members, this is definitely the way to go about it. I guarantee several of the dozen chess club members at Queen's (and probably other universities) will no longer participate in rated chess following this change. I respect the need for some financial changes, but I don't feel this is the way to go about it.

Tyler Longo

[Jason Lohner]

That is an absolutely brutal hike. It makes tournament memberships completely not worth it.

From a player's perspective, and this is what I always felt up until 9 months ago, tournament memberships should be scrapped altogether and have only annual ones. Of course it was always easy for me to say as I have been an active player.

However, when I helped organize a couple of events at Hart House, I did notice that a very substantial number of players choose to go only with $10 tournament membership. Some of these players may well even play more than 4 tournaments in a year. From a practical point of view though, if a membership is expired, participating in a tournament after the entry fee could cost only as little as an additional $10. Making it $20 or forcing people to pay annual membership, in my opinion, could see a decline in participation from those who are not super active already. Some of the players who have not been very active, or are new to the scene, don't even know about CFC memberships or where their status stands.

a bit concerned,


Alex Ferreira

Ive been saying this from Day 1 since this was proposed. They won't listen and it is going to take a decline in participation (as if the canadian chess scene needs more of a decline) for them to figure this one out. Played in a non-cfc event this past weekend and several people stated that they weren't going to play in CFC events... why bother when they can play non-cfc events for far less.

[Ken Craft]

Participation was pretty god before tournament memberships were invented. There may be a hiccup in the short term but probably eliminating tournament memberships in the long run is the way to go.