This wasn’t my tournament, but I played in it. Apparently a new player, a teen in the reserve section, told the TD that he had recently purchased a membership online, but he didn’t have the number with him. The TD let him in. When they went to rate the tournament, they found out that no such membership existed. Attempts to contact the player (through the person he came with) have failed. The whole tournament is being held up being rated because of this.
I think the TD/organizer is now aware of some strategies to keep this from happening in the future (calling someone with internet access to check, taking a deposit and information for a TM to be refunded if the membership is found, etc.). My question is – what should they do now? My suggestion was to just do a TM. However one of the organizers thought we couldn’t do this because we don’t have a DOB or address info.
If you feel uncomfortable about entering a fake address and DOB for a tournament membership (which is a perfectly valid feeling) then have the TD or Organizer contact the USCF office and see what they suggest.
If it was me, I wouldn’t want to do a TM because that way the player could use that to convert to a one-year USCF membership on MY dime.
My suggestion is to contact the office and explain the situation, asking them to create an ID for this player, using as much information as you can give them, then put in a membership exception request, and lastly, when the event is rated contact the office again and have them INACTIVATE that ID so it can’t be used in another tournament without the office reactivating it.
If you know the address of the person he came with (or can provide the office with his ID), that would give them a reasonable guess on city/state.
If you let someone play, and they are not a member, they YOU are responsible for the membership.
If you don’t want to take that responsibility, then require everyone to show evidence they are a member, or pay for a membership BEFORE you let them play.