The school I coach at is planning to host its 1st rated event (the county scholastic team championship) in a month. I’d like to get some sense of whether most organizers now require all players to hold current USCF membership at the time of event registration. My thinking is that, especially for a team event, this wouldn’t be an unreasonable requirement. Please let me know what your experience is with this matter.
Thanks.
I am making the assumption that you will, of course, require USCF membership, and your question really relates to whether or not you require the membership to be current before the players start the first round.
The scholastic K-8 events in this area often have advance registration (only) with some coaches promising to pay for any USCF memberships necessary once they arrive. Sometimes they arrive moments before the start of the first round, in which case requiring the membership to be paid before pairing them would require either delaying the first round while memberships get resolved, leaving non-current players out of the first round pairings, pairing teammates against each other once their membership is paid, or letting the team’s members play while the coach resolves the membership issues.
The option organizers here chose (and which is also done at the Nationals) is to let the kids play and track down the membership problems. There have been players that were unpaired for later rounds because the coach was either unavailable or was ignoring the attempts to get the membership issues resolved, and that usually gets the coach to take care of the memberships.
It is obviously cleanest if the memberships are taken care of during registration.
If you opt to track down memberships after play has started, then you may need to dedicate a person to doing that job. If the membership issues are not resolved you may need to use a some options people have used in the past.
One option is to initially generate problem lists of players that need their membership resolved, and in later rounds create reminder cards and have TDs place them at the boards of the problem players (works best when actually handed to the player or preferably coach/parent). This method is used at Nationals.
A second option is to simply not pair players. This definitely gets a coach’s attention and will be remembered for future tournaments. One very significant drawback is that a player does not have a game for at least that round.
If you are using a pairing program to do your pairings then a third option that is more work for the back room is to modify the players’ records to have a character in front of their name. That way they can be paired, but are unlikely to actually find their name on an alphabetical pairing listing. This results in the player or coach coming to the TD so that the organizer can get the membership resolved, and then the actual pairing can be pointed to.
A variation on the third option is to actually change the players’ names. Then when the player/coach comes up the organizer can get the membership for Ernest Hemingway and look at a cross-reference so that Ernest can be directed to use the pairing listed for Clark Kent. Then the back room can change Clark Kent back to Ernest Hemingway.
Another similar variation on the third option is to simply use a black marker to render unreadable the pairings of players who haven’t resolved the membership issues.
The first variation requires more work but can be done at the back room’s convenience while the second variation can only be done in the period between printing and posting the pairings. The second variation of option three is also used at Nationals if players/coaches have repeatedly ignored the option one.
I’m an advocate for resolving membership issues as early as possible, and we are changing how things will work at nationals.
The USCF’s new online webstore requires that a player be a current member as of the ending date of the event, or it will not process the tournament registration.
The same thing applies for phone registrations to the USCF office and for registrations received onsite (assuming we have net access at Chess Control.)
The only cases where we will have to deal with making sure players are current members is for registrations received in the mail and roster changes.
Of the nearly 550 entries received to date for the two upcoming national scholastic events, the Youth Action in November and the K-12 Championships in December, we have just 3 players who have membership issues to resolve.
(By comparison, after round 1 we still had over 300 players with membership issues to resolve among the 5300 players at SuperNationals III.)
Am I correct in assuming that a person joining online is immediately given their ID #? And is this also true when joining by phone?
Yep.
The USCF office has been giving new members their ID for phoned in memberships for well over a year.
The old webstore sent out the ID by e-mail a few hours after the membership was processed, assuming the member gave us a valid e-mail address.
The new webstore assigns the membership ID as soon as the charge card is processed. The receipt even includes a temporary membership card that the member can print out and bring to his or her next event.
We still send out the e-mail a few hours later, if only because that gives us a check that we have a valid e-mail address. If that e-mail bounces, the office removes the bad address from the member’s record.
I’ve been wondering if any TDs have had someone present a temporary membership card yet.
While no one has presented one to me yet, several players have requested the cards because they are going to a tournament out of state and want to be able to prove their memberships.
Given the extent to which many organizers and TDs are relying on the rating supplement files or USCF website to check memberships, sometimes I wonder if it is worth the time and effort to sent out membership cards at all.
However, in the last 18 months the USCF office has sent out over 2500 replacment membership cards, so it seems they’re serving some kind of purpose.
I’m surprised that you are saying that it is OK to start without USCF memberships being paid. I would never allow someone to start a tournament until they paid; if they miss round 1, then they miss round 1. I guess that I would be worried that they wouldn’t pay later.
I would insist on USCF ID’s with pre-registration. Then, if they show up “moments before the first round”, they are either registered and good to go, or they have missed the registration period.
I didn’t say it was OK, I just said that’s what happened.
Based on what I see in the events submitted to the USCF, some TDs do a rather poor job checking memberships at their events. Sometimes this is just sloppiness, sometimes it’s procrastination, and sometimes it’s just a case of getting the event started and (hopefully) clearing up the membership issues during the event. I’ve been guilty of all of the above.
My goal for the new online registration system was to try to deal with the membership issues as early as possible, preferably BEFORE accepting the registration. In part, this is because I don’t believe the TDs at national events should be the ones running around collecting memberships.
Are you saying that if a busload of players shows up 5 minutes before registration ends that you wouldn’t let them play in the first round?
In Nashville we had one coach show up on Friday morning with around 100 players (from several schools), and I don’t think any of them were preregistered.
Nolan,
I’m personally of the mindset that it is unfair to players who are following the registration guidelines to have their games delayed while you are “late registering” a large group of people.
Having said that, I’ve never been in the situation where a large group has come in late, and from the organizer point of view, I would be strongly tempted to try to get them in.
Maybe this is the type of thing where in theory it sounds good to stick to your guns but in practice it doesn’t work.
It has always been the best idea, to have pre-registration for scholastic events. With that in mind, you can have pre-registration players not show up for the first round. Just because you pre-registration days or even weeks before the event, it does not prove the pre-registration player will come.
The reason for the pre-registration, is to get all the player’s registration with the USCF memberships or for the state chapter as well. With phone calls and Emails with the coach or the parents, they would understand what amount of hard money they would need to bring to the tournament. With phone calls and Emails, the players (coach or parents) can give all the information need to submit the USCF membership. All that would be needed, is the amount of money to pay for the memberships, that can be taken care of when the players (coach or parents) do come to the event.
Even if you do have pre-registration with no on site registration, some coaches do not understand or care what the organizers wanted in the first place. If you do get a bunch of players that come at the last minute, it can take some time for the director to take care of all the USCF memberships. If the director gets a number of new players, right at the last minute. The director can be in an ethical problem, hold off with the players being paired till the next round or pair the players in the hope the memberships are accepted.
Some parents or the coach does not understand they have to join the USCF to play in the tournament. If the players come at the last minute, the poor information or poor understanding could have a problem with the USCF memberships. This is the reason for the pre-registration, as it will take care of the misunderstanding. The parents would be upset, the coach would be upset, as the director disappointed if they come to the event without the amount of money to play.
Past practices were based on limitations that Nolan has been removing.
One problem in the past was that memberships sent in with a tournament report might take weeks to get processed. We had cases where a player would purchase a new membership to play in a November tournament, and we wouldn’t find out the ID until after the player had also played in another November tournament, a December tournament and a pair of January tournaments. That is either when the tournament report for the first November tournament would arrive with the ID# on it or when the membership card was mailed.
On-line signups used to take up to a week to get processed, so a player may have an e-mail response from the USCF but no ID#.
With the work Nolan has done with on-line membership purchases and the printing of temporary membership cards, one big reason ID-less players were allowed to play has gone away.
There is still a second problem with some scholastic coaches not knowing the IDs/expirations of their kids and whether or not memberships need to be purchased. Some of those coaches will send a check for the entry fees and promise to pay for any necessary memberships once they know how many need to be paid for. Either the players miss the first round while the membership issues are being taken care of, or the organizer trusts that the coach will follow through on the promise.
In the past coaches could legitimately say that they weren’t sure whether or not a pending payment had been processed, and they would take care of anything that was still a problem. Making players miss the first round when their membership payments might simply be stuck in the USCF office was considered to be too harsh an action to take against players who may have already been doing what was supposed to be done.
Areas with a long tradition of taking care of memberships during the tournament may have a re-education process to go through.
In Zug’s case, it sounds like their are no past practice problems involved, and Zug can start training the parents and coaches to expect that a player requires a valid ID# during registration or must include the USCF membership fee with the registration.
Even with the on-line memberships, it still takes time for the director to do all the paper-work. Having the director dealing with on-line memberships during the tournament, would take away from the other duties the director has to perform. If the director does the memberships after the tournament, it would not be clear all the parents and coaches have paid the right amount for the USCF memberships.
If the director lets a player play in the tournament, than performs the USCF membership after the tournament. Human errors can happen, the name of the player, the age of the player, the address of the player, the collection of the players’ membership can all be in error. Only the USCF sells memberships were the director can place down the gender of the player as UNKNOWN. It can happen, that the director or the organizer is in a rush to get the tournament rated, just make up a name and age, than send it in. That is the reason why pre-registration is preferred than on site registration. If you have a son name John, and the parent and director forgotten to take care of the USCF memberships. If you check the MSA after the tournament, you can find your son having the name of Joy, with the sir name all mixed up.
If those things are happening in your tournaments, you are doing a sloppy job on your paperwork.
We’re about two weeks away from the first national event for which the new online regstration system is being used for all registrations. As of today, there are only six players with membership issues, and all but one of those are from the same school.
I don’t know how many entries we’ll get onsite or if that will become a bottleneck, that’s one of the reasons I’ll be there.
Oh come on Mike, if you are the only director of a small scholastic tournament. If the first round starts at 10, and it is now 9:50 with thirty scholastic players that just poped into the door. Are you going to pair the first round with the sixteen players you do have, than have the thirty players get full point byes for the first round? Or are you going to get all the players paired up for the first round, than take care of the memberships during the tournament?
What you pick, is going to have some problems because you are working alone and dealing with membership paperwork. Having the players sit out the first round, is going to have strange pairing with so many first round byes. If you let the players play, you can find out the coach does not have the money to pay for all the USCF memberships. If you accept a check from the coach, than send in the memberships after the check clears, some times checks do bounce. If that check from the coach with thirty USCF membership does bounce, you as the director still have to get the tournament rated.
PRE-REGISTRATION is the only sane way to handle scholastic tournaments.
If you are not well-enough organized to be able to handle a last minute rush at late registration without capturing the information you need in a useable form, you need to have more people working at your event, you need to have better forms, you need SOMETHING–ANYTHING that will help you be better organized.
Believe me, I have BEEN THERE.
In your case, perhaps you should not have any onsite registration. (I don’t at the only event I still direct these days, it makes my job SO much easier.)
There are more problems with scholastic tournaments than adult tournaments. If you are the only director at the event, the duties to control the event are higher.
Tournament aides are fine, they can over-step their authority with the enforcement of the rules. Having floor directors are better, it is just the problem to find other directors in a area without many in the first place.
The only fair idea for all the players, is not have onsite registration. Emails and phone calls will take care of the minor problems, before they can become major problems.
The case I have pointed out has not happen at any of my events. They can happen and for a number of directors it has happened.
At the request of local chess club officials, we’re going to allow onsite signup (though the flier makes clear that advance membership is preferred). Their concern is insufficient attendance more than late start/TD workload. This tradeoff seems to be a common theme in this thread, and I thank you for the discussion.
Zug
Hopefully there’s enough of a premium in the onsite rate to encourage people to sign up in advance and to make sure you can afford to have sufficient staff to handle the workload.
Having net access at the site helps, that way you can look players up online.
I have run events with over 100 players where I was the only director and without any aides, but I won’t do that anymore.