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The Northern Membership Scheme (NMS)     

Dear NCCU colleague,

The NCCU (NMS) working Party (the last 3 NCCU presidents) would like to inform you of the following:

• After nearly 12 months, the ECF have given notice of termination of the agreement relating to the NMS scheme. This means that the scheme ‘agreement’ comes to an end on the 31^st August 2006.

Why have the ECF done this?

• They do not wish to supply us with a letter saying what they will use our personal information for.
• They wanted completed ECF Forms - which the NCCU did not and do not have.
• They do not wish to honour financial understandings reached on April 29^th.
• They do not wish the NCCU to organise chess in the north of England.

The NCCU consider these reasons to be spurious and are answered in an enclosed letter from the NCCU working party.

What is the NCCU Position?

• The NCCU asked the question – what were Northern chess players getting from the ECF via the NMS scheme, which is providing the ECF with £5k extra, that they were not getting under game fee? Northern players are raising this extra funding, and will raise even more in the next few years.

• Apart from Chessmoves, we could see nothing at all.  (All Northern congress discounts were organised by the NCCU with Northern event organisers) 
• Consequently the NCCU who runs the scheme on behalf of the ECF were looking for leadership from the ECF on giving something back to the northern chess players for the excess revenue generated by the NMS scheme. This constituted planned chess development in the North.
• After 8 months of asking the ECF for a NMS review, the working parties met on April 29^th and we came away from the meeting with an understanding on the strategy going forward for NMS.
• We were wrong!  - The acting Chief Executive of the ECF Cyril Johnson has told us that they will not meet what was understood at the April 29^th meeting and subsequently given the NCCU notice that they have terminated the agreement. (The ECF finance director Rob Richmond disagreed with these decisions and has resigned.)

The Way Forward?

• The ECF have called an EGM on 24^th June 2006 to agree a Basic membership scheme run by the ECF on the lines of NMS, but by ignoring the NCCU, going direct to the Counties, leagues and players.

What are the ECF offering?

• They are offering membership of a company limited by guarantee (the ECF) with a grade that is produced voluntarily by Northern graders!

What are the ECF not offering?

• Congress discounts (currently £6 per entry)
• Chessmoves
• Any representation for the North at ECF meetings
• No future chess development for the north for the money you provide.

What are the NCCU going to do?

• We intend to continue with the NMS and re-direct all the money generated (over £15k) into chess development in the North and run an NCCU grading scheme. This scheme would not be needed for 16 months since we have already paid for our 2006-2007 grades due out in August.
• Meantime hopefully somebody in the ECF will see sense and will ask us to once again supply them with a revenue stream, but this time supporting Northern chess players for their cash!

 What do you want?

• Contact NCCU representatives or Bill O’Rourke at: worchessnu1@ntlworld.com with your views.

Your views are important. This is a crucial decision.

What relevance does the ECF have for you?

The NCCU are offering leadership on the way forward for chess in the North

The NCCU (NMS) Working Party Opinion

We are quite clear that the ECF stance is to try and divide and conquer, by ignoring the NCCU organisation. (their first target was the Merseyside AGM this week.)

It is all revealing that the ECF Finance director has resigned. He firmly believes a fair deal was there to be had that fairly rewarded the NCCU and its players for all the efforts they had put into making the NMS scheme the success it is. He obviously believed we made a deal on April 29th that has been reneged upon!

What we all have to question is - do we believe the NCCU is a body we want for organising and developing chess in our region? If yes, then we must stand up for ourselves now as a united body. If not, then we should disband the NCCU (because it would just be a talking shop) and just work under the dictat of the ECF directors, where we now have no representation. We believe this is a crunch point that will decide how chess is to be managed over the next decade.

The ECF has decided to say they no longer will support the NMS from August 31^st. We believe this is just an exercise in ‘power broking’. The scheme could easily have continued as is and we would have provided NMS details on an understanding for future developments.

To answer the reasons given for terminating the agreement, the NCCU respond as follows:

1. We asked for ‘specific’ reasons why the ECF needed these? Only general reasons were given. This was because of NCCU data protection act concerns and looking after NMS members details. The deadline set was self imposed for no other reason than trying to bully the NCCU.
2. The NCCU does not have any ECF forms to send to the ECF Office. Most NMS members refused to sign them! – The ECF confirmed that the vast majority of NMS members were NOT ECF members!
3. The financial proposals put forward following the NMS review meeting were on the back of our ‘agreements’ at the meeting, putting forward a ‘balanced and workable’ proposal.  We now know the current leadership of the ECF do not keep their promises.

The ECF are blind to the following facts:  

-         the NCCU is bringing 1700 members to the ECF and nearly £16k a year.

-         the NCCU is bringing more finance proportionally than all other players in the country.

-         The 1700 members should greatly increase the grants the ECF can achieve

-         The NCCU will use its share of the excess that it raises to develop chess through the voluntary organisers throughout our region.

It is time for us voluntary organisers, representatives and northern players to stand up and be counted, and to stick together. We shouldn’t allow ourselves to be bullied by anybody, especially by people who take our money and give us nothing in return!

NMS members perhaps do not know that we have been asking for meetings since last summer that were continuously ignored (despite being part of the agreement). We told the ECF that our efforts would smash all targets set, and that we must look at rewarding players, Northern counties and the Northern events for the excess monies raised. We will raise £20k more by 2008 compared to the rest of the country – but the ECF are planning to spend it on Internationals, marketing and office salaries. This wasn’t the reason we have put so much work into the NMS scheme!

Is that why you joined?

If you share our views (or not) – please let your county representatives know!

NMS Working Party

Bill O’Rourke, NCCU President 2004-2006, Lancashire President

Bryan Bainbridge, Durham Vice-President, Ex-NCCU President 2002-2004

Dave Cole, Cumbria President, Ex-NCCU President 2000-2002