Questions about 3-month memberships

Running Chess Tournaments
1

I have a couple of questions about the 3-month memberships that are going to be available at tournaments starting on January 1st:

  1. Are these memberships really going to be 3-month memberships? Currently, if someone attends a tournament, say, on December 3, 2011 and joins the USCF for a year, their membership will really expire on December 31, 2012, so that they really end up getting a 12 month and 28 day membership. So if someone attends a tournament on January 7, 2012 and purchases a 3-month membership, will the membership really expire on April 7, 2012, or will it expire on April 30, 2012 (or March 31, 2012)?

  2. The 3-month memberships are really (using current terminology) 3-month premium memberships (i.e., with a subscription to the appropriate version of Chess Life). If someone purchases, say, a 3-month scholastic membership and later decides to apply that membership fee toward a full year scholastic membership, will they be required to purchase a membership with a subscription (i.e., for an additional $16), or will they be allowed to purchase a membership without a subscription (i.e., for an additional $9), effectively having gotten 2 issues of Chess Life for Kids for free?

Bob

2

Current policy is that all USCF memberships expire at the end of a month. Someone who purchases a 3 month membership in early January will be a USCF member until April 30th.

Although there have been staff discussions about what it would take to change USCF policy to have some or all memberships expire 1 year after they are issued, that would be a major programming undertaking and possibly an even bigger change for TDs and organizers.

As to upgrades, so far there have not been any policy announcements on this from either the ED or the Executive Board, but it may be possible for someone with a 3 month premium adult membership to purchase an additional 9 months as a regular adult member, etc. (The biggest challenge is to figure out how much to charge for it.)

However, at this time all upgrades have to be processed through the USCF office staff (eg, by phone, and not through either TD/A or the membership webstore) due to both programming limitations and privacy issues.

3

Thanks! :slight_smile: