Hi Mike (et.al.) I looked at the batch membership processand there are two no cost membership types. JTP (which is for primary age children in a primary age only tournament … but what’s the cutoff for ‘primary’?) and non-member.
Why in the world would we register a non-member? Why are we allowed to?
Thanks!
Bob Wilder
Possibly for foreign GMs and IMs, who aren’t required to join the USCF to play in a tournament but would need to get an id number for it to be rated.
Actually, there are two types of JTP events:
All affiliates may hold primary JTP events, in which all players must be in grade 3 or lower. (These events cannot be for state or national championships, though. In order for someone to be recognized as a state or national champion, he or she must be a current USCF member.)
Scholastic affiliates (ones that begin with the letter ‘H’) may also hold in-school JTP events for students through grade 12 as long as all of the participants are students at that school.
Here are several reasons why TDs might need to use the adult ‘non-member’ category to get a USCF ID for someone:
Foreign IMs and GMs
House players who do not have a USCF ID
Participants in an adult membership-exempt event, such as a chess tournament that is part of a larger event sanctioned by the National Congress of State Games. (See cornhuskerstategames.com for an example.)
I’m interested in knowing more about this one. We have some club members who are not USCF members and do not play rated games, just casual games. Maybe it would be a way to give them a taste of rated play without them having to commit (when we have odd players in a round). Maybe it would encourage them to join the USCF.
Would this type of non-member player in a rated tournament prevent the tournament from being submitted online? Would a membership exception request go with it?
Thanks,
Luis
And, what is the maximum number of rounds a house player can play, and still be considered a house player?
Bill Smythe
House players are SUPPOSED to be used only to even out the number of players in a round for the convenience of the USCF members in your tournaments, not to give non-members a ‘taste of tournament chess’. There are other ways to do that.
Membership exception requests are required for house players that aren’t current USCF members, but for a variety of reasons I am reluctant to discuss the criteria that are used when evaluating those requests for automatic approval.
Last year there were over 4000 non-members permitted to play in rated events without being USCF members. Most of those were JTPs, but probably a third of them were adults.
That represents a substantial loss of membership revenue. Let’s keep in mind that the USCF is a membership service organization, and as such it needs dues-paying members or non-members paying a reasonable premium fee in lieu of dues.
Personally, I would be willing to see the USCF bring back the ‘length of tournament’ membership, but at a rate that is in line with current dues rates, perhaps $5 per game. However, if we bring back that option, it might mean eliminating the ‘house player’ exception and being far less tolerant of non-members in rated events in general.
I didn’t mean to imply having a non-member playing more than one game in a tournament. I meant, having an odd number of players anyway, it gets a game for a USCF member AND it may drive someone to actually become a member themselves as well.
I have about ten casual players who are hard to convince to become USCF members. I thought letting them play in the rated tourney every once in a while when there is need anyway could perhaps get them excited about it.
I think your comment about a ‘length of tournament’ membership makes sense to some degree, but wouldn’t help with the odd player or with people who play casual games mostly.
When I have someone serve as a house player, I’m not at all concerned with his or her USCF membership status, I’m much more interested in having someone who fits the needs of the event for that round.
But if it came down to two equally-qualified players, I might give a non-member an opportunity to play.
I read Goichberg’s newsletter, and his thoughts about lowering USCF dues. Are there current efforts by others at USCF to reduce those dues? I agree that they seem to be getting too high.
Terry
Thanks Mike !
And Terry - I received Bill’s plea as well. I’m just not all that qualified to speak to whether dues are too high … but in relation to what? I first joined over 35 years ago, and I would be surprised if they’d more than doubled in that time. I actually have some CLs from 1968 or so but I’m too scared to dig through my wife’s stuff to get to them! Life membership has almost always been a pretty good deal, and the rating fees are outrageously low.
Not that I’m rich … or even solvent. But I think people get a lot for their membership dollar … and their rating fee dollar. Is everyone satisfied with every article in Chess Life? Of course not …
I looked at the ACBL (contract bridge) membership dues and they’re $35 for an adult; 64 for a household, 14 for a junior under 26. And no life membership.
I understand mistakes have been made in the past, and we could be more financially solvent, and so forth. And I wouldn’t ever say that Bill is wrong - he was the first tournament director I ever had taking the train down to NYC from Poughkeepsie and I have a lot of respect for what he’s done for me and for chess. But I would like to understand better what sort of dues/fee structure is best and why it would be better for US CHess.
Respectfully …
Do not see any problem with the membership dues. Members are willing to pay that much for a one day event, entry fee, the food bill and the high gas price.
The USCF does have members that join the federation not to play tournament chess. They joined the federation for the correspondence chess, and the discount with books and equipment. Internet chess has killed the correspondence department. As internet chess can give you real time chess, or a internet chess game that can last for weeks or days.
If the OTB tournament membership are going down, you would then see a decline in tournaments and the tournament level of entries. It would be nice to check how many tournaments as a whole during the years from the 1990’s with the decline in adult memberships. If the non-scholastic tournaments are the same or equal numbers for the past 15 years. Then it would be fair to say the OTB tournament memberships are not a major problem.
If we have lost memberships because of internet chess and internet chess vendors. Do not see how a cut in the membership fee is going to bring these members back. As internet chess venders and some internet chess clubs are free. The USCF can not bring back these members if we are working to under cut free.
Good points, Doug. Did we really have a lot of members who just played correspondence chess?
I think the reason to join the USCF was always to support the organization and what they did (at least for the folks who weren’t tournament players). The 10% discount was a nice perk … but with shipping it didn’t save you that much (in other words you did it because it didn’t throw money away and it supported your chess organization).
The old fogey in me worries that we just don’t care about supporting the larger organization because of all it does to support chess - for us, our kids, and our kids to come. Or don’t we market that as much? I worked for a long time for an organization that tried to cut costs as a way to prosper and I don’t want to see the same thing happen to us.
Thanks for your thoughts -
I think there are between 800 and 1200 adult members who are correspondence players that never play in over-the-board tournaments.
Is that a ‘large’ number? I guess it depends on how you measure things.
That’s 5% of the adult membership.
At $45 per member, that’s between $36,000 and $54,000 in membership revenue each year.
If there was just a USCF membership for the discount in the USCF book and supplies. The USCF can gain a few new members. The member would not get ‘Chess Life’ or the right to play in tournament or correspondence chess. Even with the discount, the member would have to spend a great deal of money just to get the membership fee back.
With so many vendors out there. Even with the membership discount, other venders are equal or cheaper then the USCF membership discount.