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updated 4.5.15
ECF NEWS
ECF FINANCE COUNCIL MEETING
18.4.15 in Birmingham (nominally 1.30 pm and in reality about 5 minutes late). Back to the old familiar venue, still a short walk from New Street Station. John Foley, one of the Non-Executive Directors, was recommended by the Board to chair the meeting and was duly elected. Attendance was thin at the start: about 35, including the odd non-voter. "It will fill out later", we thought, but it didn't. Our count never rose above 36.
     "We're going to use slides," the top table said. Our heart sank. We reach for our Browning when you say PowerPoint. But perhaps we've never seen it done properly before. The innovation, when deployed later, proved nothing but beneficial.
(1) Matters Arising from the Minutes was the regular thing again: a slot for items that people other than the Board wanted to follow up or enquire about. There was only one such item, and brief at that. The new Chess Trust is set up, and no action is required at the moment. There might be proposals for adjustment later.
(2) Accounts to 31.8.14 were approved nem con subject to audit. Surplus was nearly £24,000 after tax (of £6000). The surplus was mostly due to the free services as Office Manager, for 17 months which was more than it was going to be, of John Philpott who has lately relinquished the post to the remunerated Gary Willson.
(3) Chairman of the Finance Committee. We won't summarise Mike Truran's report any more than he did, but it's recommended reading (see the ECF's Council Papers page).
(4) Strategy Statement. The CEO spoke briefly to his paper, and Council spoke about it for well over half an hour. It was not well received by those who spoke. "Painfully thin", "Sketchiness and lack of depth", "Not much strategy on not much paper", "I wanted to keep it brief for Council." (Only two of those quotes are from the meeting itself.) Reservations notwithstanding, the Statement was approved on a show of hands with a few votes against. We were now an hour into the meeting.
(5) ECF Junior Academy. We couldn't find this on the agenda. It seemed to arise, we're not sure how, out of the preceding. Traci Whitfield outlined her programme. Much of it was new to us and we were surprised more hadn't been published before, if only with the papers of the meeting. Presentation, helpfully, was supported by slides. We won't go into detail. Ben Edgell of WECU has a pretty full account in the EC Forum (it's part of his report beginning here).
(6) Independent Constitutional and Governance Review Commission. Well, that's what the agenda called it. Gareth Pearce thought "commission" rather pompous and preferred "working party". He spoke briefly and well but did not go far beyond the outline programme we have already summarised under SCCU News in another place (10.4.15). The working party has had two meetings so far to get all its members up to speed. (All four have chess connections, but in two cases not very current. You may have come across Lara Barnes of Up North and Roger Emerson of Guildford, but maybe not Suzzane Wood and the Chairman himself, both of whom moved into business/financial circles a long time ago.) Our impression was that the party is looking at 2016 (Gareth said "Council 2016") before anything really gets implemented, though we have no doubt the subject will come up again before that.
     We think Gareth mentioned the "Voluntary Code of Good Governance for the Sport and Recreation Sector", of which the ECF sent us two copies in, it might have been, the run-up to the 2012 Olympics. As we recall, the ECF had just "bought into" this Code (whatever that meant). We may recall erroneously.
(7) ECF Library and what do do with it. Some large institutions had been approached, and none so far was willing and able to host the Library. There are others not tried. A primary school had expressed an interest, but we don't think that's coming to anything. Some questions asked, if not answered: Is it all catalogued? Is it worth saving anyway? How about putting it online?
     Council voted on two options:
• A. Library stays in Office. This involves moving upstairs to larger and more expensive premises, and reinforcing the joists to stop the Library falling through. Approximate cost: a one-off £2K or £3K for the move, then £8K pa in rent.
• B. Library goes into storage. Cost: £whatever for the move, then maybe £2.5K pa.
     We forgot the complicating factor. Some parts of the Library are on loan, and no one seems to know which parts. Or from whom, presumably. Anyway, B secured many votes against A's 1, and nobody called for a card vote.
(8) Budget 2015-16. PowerPoint came into its own in the Director's idiot guide. Why hasn't this been done before? We won't go into detail, even with that assistance, but the Director proposes another handsome surplus (about £11.5K, we think), and aims to build up reserves of £100K. Approving the budget came later.
__________

16.06 pm and the tea break, followed at 16.23 by the traditional BCF Finance meeting. It lasted just over 10 minutes, and approved some accounts (subject to audit).
__________

Now 4.23 pm and back to the ECF meeting. There was one proposal to get out of the way before we addressed the Board's proposals on Membership fees and Game Fee.
(9) Bronze and Silver Membership. It was proposed by two MCCU people - strictly, an MCCU person and a Direct Members' rep - that we should narrow the gap between the Bronze and Silver fees with a view to eventually amalgamating the two categories. They deplored the multiplicity of categories, as others have, but their main plank seemed to be that Silver Members get no additional benefit from the ECF. We didn't understand this, considering they get free grading in congresses as well as leagues. The proposal's 2 votes came from its proposers.
(10) Membership Fees from 1.9.15. The Board proposed:
   • Bronze: £15, Junior £11 (currently £13, £9)
   • Silver: £22, Junior £16 (currently £19, £13)
   • Gold: £32, Junior £26 (currently £28, £22)
   • Platinum: £60 (no change)
We'll say it here, but the question was distributed through much of the meeting and may have first come up under "Budget". WHY do we need such big (or any) increases, and why do we need to build reserves up to £100K? There were as many answers as speakers; consider them reported.
     Someone suggested reduced fees for senior citizens, and first-time Members we think. Stony ground, and the first vote was on an amendment reducing all the Board's increases (Platinum excepted) to £1. It wasn't obvious who won the show of hands, and the card vote went 107 to 78 against the amendment. So back to the Board's proposal. Show of hands inconclusive again, and the Board won the card vote by 104 votes to 103. Teller: "Yes, we did do a recount."
(11) Minimum Membership Fee for Other Organisations. This was taken in the course of item (10), while telling proceeded. The Board's proposal (increase from £58 to £60) was carried on a show of hands, with 4 dissenters.
(12) Game Fee. The Board proposed -
   • Leagues, club internal (etc): £2.50 per halfgame Standardplay, £1.25 Rapidplay. Currently £2 and £1.
   • Exclusively junior events (congresses included): 60p Standard, 30p Rapid per halfgame. Currently 50p, 25p.
   • Congresses other than junior or FIDE rated: Game Fee (for the whole event) to be equal to the difference between Bronze and Silver Membership Fees, "as determined under item (10)". That's (10) as we have it above.
     The Board's proposal was carried on a show of hands, by lots of votes to a few. To what extent was this vote determined by the (very close) earlier one? You decide. A couple of remarks (ours) about the congresses-other-than. The idea, of course, is that Game Fee is used to upgrade players' Membership from Bronze to Silver. It obviously doesn't work for people who weren't Members to start with, and it won't work for Bronze Members until the congress passes their money on to the ECF. You can't assume your update will be applied in time for your next congress, especially if it's next weekend, and Membership for congress purposes means Membership at the time of the event. The ECF have said that the safe option is to join (or upgrade) in advance of your first congress.
     Was that one remark or two? We wouldn't shortchange you, so here's another. Council has not changed any rules. Game Fee for congresses-other-than is £7 (junior £5). It doesn't have to be calculated from the Bronze and Silver fees, though it was on this occasion.
(13) Game Fee in FIDE-rated events. Game Fee is not currently charged in FIDE-rated events. Instead, for Standardplay at least, all English players are required to be Gold or Platinum Members. The sanction for not being is that the ECF asks FIDE to remove you from its list (and it does). The sanction has attracted much criticism over the years. On one recent occasion a confusion in identity led to a false delisting which took time and trouble to reverse. So the Board now proposed: (1) introduction of Game Fee along the lines of Congresses-other-than, but with a fee equal to the difference between Silver and Gold; and (2) abolition of delisting.
     Now things went wrong. An unthinking amendment (guilty, but Council agreed it) caused part (1) to be dropped altogether, though (2) was specifically retained. It was recognised at the time that the new version made no sense, for one reason at least, and the Membership Director (or Board?) was invited to take it home and fix it.
(14) Adoption of Budget 2015-16 occurred at this point. It was now 6 pm and the attendance was down to 29.
(15) Olympic Budget 2016-17. The Director thought the budget should be established early. It was, with 3 opposing votes and net expenditure of £33.5K. 6.06 pm, attendance 28.
(16) Amendments to Procedural Bye Laws were agreed nem con. The principal change requires publication of Council minutes within 6 weeks rather than 13 as now. We also now have regulations (not before time) for the publication of election addresses. All at once, when the deadline comes; and if you miss the deadline, tough.
(17) Standards of Conduct and Complaints Procedure. Council was asked to note the new regulations. We confess we'd wondered what was new about them, and it emerged at the meeting that nothing was. Council noted them.
(18) ECF Yearbook and Diary. The Board proposed to abolish both with effect from 2017 (so one more of each). The website would be reinforced (we think) by "establishing an electronic archive of historical information". We didn't really understand what this meant, and were similarly thrown by "archival standards".
     "I want my Diary!", someone said, and the SCCU rep was strongly opposed to scrapping the Yearbook. The Diary lost out on a show of hands (15 - 7) and will go. Opinion was more evenly split on the Yearbook, and it was agreed to leave the decision till a later meeting. We'll try to have our questions prepared.
(19) The One we didn't Understand (see item 8 in the next meeting down) was at the bottom of the agenda again, with the same result as before.

In the short time remaining Council stood in silence for Colin Crouch, who had lately died, and paid tribute to David Anderton, who is standing down after many years of work providing legal (not to say other) services to the ECF. The meeting then closed at 18.29 pm
rjh 4.5.15

ECF AGM
11.10.14 in Birmingham. A new venue, and an easy walk from New Street Station though instructions would have helped (you know what New Street Station is). We asked some policemen.
     Julie Denning took the Chair. Attendance, at our highest count, was 56 including the odd non-voter. Was this a record?
(1) "Matters Arising". Three menu items, ECF-style. They only took about 20 minutes.
(a) Terms of Reference of the [new] Independent Constitutional and Governance Review. Not to be confused with the Voluntary Code of Good Governance for the Sport and Recreation Sector, which the ECF signed up to the other week. We're not sure what, if anything, the Terms of Reference arose from. There's a paper about them in the ECF's Council Papers page, if you want to refresh your memory. The CEO spoke, for maybe five minutes, and no one else bothered.
(b) Relations with FIDE. Have ECF statements been provocative/antagonistic toward FIDE? ("You should have seen them before we toned them down.") This did get contributions from the floor, curtailed by the Chair after a while.
(c) Charitable Status. Just an update, and it really did look like a Matter Arising. Things are moving along.
(2) Officers' Reports. We'll start with a point that came up near the end. Is it acceptable to publish reports as they arrive, even when they're late? Or should they all be held back till everything is in? (There's an obvious objection to that one!) Or should they be published as they arrive, but with date of receipt stated? It was agreed we needed a policy, and someone thought the Governance Committee (we think they said "Governance Committee") should take it on board. Now the Reports, selectively.
(a) CEO. Things were said, and not denied, about delays with Board minutes. (They got up to date with them three weeks later, but the impression was that people would have liked them before the AGM.)
     The ECF Library also came up. It's got to move, as you know. Even mothballed there was something like 5m³ of it, and storage would not be cheap. No one was sure how many visitors it was getting at the moment, but probably down to half a dozen a year.
(b) Membership Director. Renewals were reported to be coming in at about the same rate as last year. (They're about 200 ahead as we write.) There had been glitches with renewal notices, which had been issued sometimes in error and sometimes not at all. There had also been pleas for the resurrection of Membership cards.
     There was some confusion about the new plan to sell up to 14 months' worth of Membership for the price of 12 in July/August. Working forwards, of course. Not backdated to the previous 1st September for league purposes. If you want that, you have to take out membership by 30th June. "Please can we have all this on the website in words of one syllable?"
     There's another side to the Membership coin. Non-Membership! It didn't come up at the meeting, but your Webmaster has doubts about the current accuracy of Game Fee invoicing (which is inevitably linked to the membership records). It's more complicated than you might think, when a competition straddles two Membership periods. There's also the question of identifying Members, but that's another story.
(d) Commercial Director. To quote selectively: Following a long Board meeting on strategy it was decided to implement a new public communications policy with which to engage the membership. Establishing this forum was one of my first duties... We went live on 23 June... Exclusive announcements have been posted on the forum. This is, of course, the ECF Forum (not to be confused with the long-established EC Forum). An immediate response from the floor was: Please announce things on the website, not just a Forum! Criticism then turned to the ECF website, where new items spend two or three days (if any) on the front page, then go out of sight and are subsequently hard to find even if you knew they were there in the first place. The reply: "But that's what searching's for!" got a few laughs.
     We hasten to add that this was only a small part of the Director's report. He also mentioned increased advertising rates (which have not deterred new advertisers) and "several ongoing sponsorship discussions".
(e) FIDE Delegate. The Delegate was absent. We mention his (predictably outspoken) report because it was the only one to attract much opposition in terms of votes. One or two people spoke at some length, and we got bored but were wide awake for the vote. Report accepted by 17 votes to 12.
(3) Elections. Each candidate, opposed or not, was afforded the opportunity to speak for (we think) 6 minutes. The limit was not always adhered to.
(a) President. Dominic Lawson's circulated address mentioned his financial, media and political contacts and his involvement with junior training, not to mention league chess at club level. At the meeting he fielded questions about his relationship with Raymond Keene. "Can we have your assurance that you won't seek to involve him in ECF affairs?" (laughter). DL: Yes.
     Candidate elected very comfortably (and nem con) on a show of hands.
(b) CEO. Phil Ehr faced questions about his (allegedly unaccountable) management style. He replied at some length, then, for whatever reason, invited the meeting to invite him to leave the room. It did, and he did, then someone questioned his explicit advocacy of two particular candidates in his circulated address. Others expressed unhappiness about this, and he was invited in again. He defended his action, while recognising that one of his unfavoured candidates had called it unethical. The meeting went straight to a card vote on election of CEO. It was now 4.05 pm and the tellers told in the coffee break, but we won't keep you in suspense. PE re-elected by 176 votes to 59.
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BCF AGM
The coffee ran out and we're not sure we noticed any food, which was a pity because the new venue was an improvement in other ways. But it was a good meeting. It ran from 4.18 to 4.22 pm and approved some minutes and two Reports.
__________

Now 4.27 pm and back to the ECF meeting.
(3) Elections (continued)
(c) Finance Director re-elected without discussion, nem con on a show of hands.
(d) Home Director re-elected without discussion, nem con on a show of hands.
(e) International Director re-elected without discussion, nem con on a show of hands.
(f) Membership Director re-elected without discussion, nem con on a show of hands.
(g) Commercial Director. "What is your position on the use of internet forums by ECF officers?" Director: "They should post on our own (ECF) Forum first." We don't know if all officers have signed up to this. We do, come to think of it. Director elected nem con on a show of hands.
(h) Junior Director. On a card vote:
     Traci Whitfield 197 (elected)
     David Levens 53
     Neither of the Above 2
(i) Non-Executive Directors. On a card vote:
     Julian Clissold 191 (elected)
     John Foley 156 (elected)
     Laurence Ball 93
(j) FIDE Delegate. On a card vote:
     Malcolm Pein 154 (elected)
     Stewart Reuben 86
(k) Finance Committee. Re-elected en bloc: Chairman (Mike Truran) and the committee (Ray Clark, Ian Reynolds).
(l) Governance Committee. Re-elected en bloc: Chairman (Chris Majer) and committee members (Mike Gunn, Richard Haddrell, Andrew Leadbetter). Elected en bloc: David Robertson, the new member, who spoke.
(m) Auditor. Re-elected (yes, we know) on a show of hands.
(4) Next year's meetings. Moved up from its traditional slot at the bottom of the agenda, perhaps to make sure it got done. Finance 18th April 2015 in Birmingham. One person objected because of a clash, and a different person voted against. AGM 17th October 2015 in London.
(5) Awards. Various awards were confirmed and presentations made. We won't detail them. They're in the Council papers. When Website of the Year came up someone said no one had told its webmaster.
(6) Adjudications. The Home Director proposed (the Board took no position) that events permitting adjudication be no longer accepted for grading with effect from 1st July 2015. You know the arguments, they've been well enough rehearsed. The proposal was lost on a show of hands by 12 votes to 23, then on a card vote by 85 votes to 138. Question. When was a show of hands last reversed by a card vote? Come on, it must have happened.*
(7) Code of Conduct and Complaints Procedure. Council was asked to note, and provide feedback on, these two new regulations. It did the former, nem con. Your Webmaster can never work up much interest in Codes of Conduct and Complaints Procedures, and he's not sure Council displayed any on this occasion. It was getting late.
(8) The One we didn't Understand. This was a discussion item from a swathe of the West of England, inviting members of Council to "discuss how their groups use Game Fee to help the ECF identity any problems that might need to be resolved before Game Fee can be phased out in favour of a pure membership scheme". There's a largeish unspoken assumption there, not to mention the ambiguity in the syntax, but what we couldn't see is how anyone, ECF and taxman excepted, "uses" Game Fee at all. It didn't matter, because this was the item there wasn't time for.

The meeting closed at 6.20 pm.
rjh 28.11.14, with apologies for lateness
* (Item 6) Our answer: 13th October 2012. It's not as rare as we thought. We make it 4 successful attempts, out of 15 tries, in the last ten years.

ECF FINANCE COUNCIL MEETING
12.4.14 in London (1.30 pm)
We only counted once, but we made the attendance 53 including a handful of non-voters. Other accounts have it slightly lower, but only slightly. It's big. Another 42, we think, attended by proxy. Votes theoretically available, on a card vote: 314 plus some announced late and not counted. Not by us, anyway. We say "theoretically" because many had no one present to cast them.
     Mike Gunn took the chair, in what capacity we're not sure. Very possibly on the strength of having done a good job last time.
(1) ECF President. (We're in Matters Arising, presumably from the AGM elections.) Someone proposed that the Board be asked to appoint a new President within a month to replace the departed Andrew Paulson; and that Roger Edwards, his runner-up in October, be considered. Some thought a pause might be a better idea. The proposal failed by 11 votes to 20. But the Board will look to make good the shortfall in Non-Executive Directors as soon as may be.
(2) Sussex Archive. Arising again, from item 14 at the AGM (see below). The Sussex rep said that Phil Ehr (more helpful, we gather, than earlier contacts) had visited the Office and secured access to the overflow storage area, which turned out to be on the premises of Hastings Borough Council. But the Archive was not to be found. The rep accepted that that seemed to be that, and expressed Sussex's disappointment. We didn't notice that anyone responded from the top table.
(3) Online Registration of Events. Another Matter Arising, but his time doubly so. It first came up at the April 2013 meeting - see item 12 - which approved the Home Director's plan to introduce it. There had already been wide discussion and consultation. It next appeared under Matters Arising at the 2013 AGM (item 4) when someone asked why the scheme had gone off the radar. Answer: "We're working on it, and it will be ready during the season." Still no sign of it six months later, and the same someone (you've guessed who) asked again. Answer this time: "There are only 24 hours in a day, and we've dropped it." Those who were consulted more than a year ago will be interested to know.
(4) Delegate to European Chess Union. The Board proposed Andrew Paulson (instead of FIDE Delegate Nigel Short, whose job it would normally be) to represent the ECF at the ECU General Assembly in August. It was part of the Paulson-resignation thing you'll have heard more than enough of (though plenty more was said at the meeting). Council skipped the show of hands and went straight to a card vote, defeating the motion by 153 votes to 79 with 30 abstentions.
(5) Accounts 2012-13. The Accounts, showing a surplus of £11,000, were approved subject to "any fine tuning arising from the audit", as John Philpott has it. The Accounts occasioned a rather aggressive and, perhaps fortunately, one-sided dialogue between someone demanding explanations and someone else, present but not identified, who remained silent.
(6) Projected Accounts 2013-14. There was a projected surplus of £21,000, due (entirely and a bit more, we fancy) to the fact that the Office Manager's post has been vacant since the end of September and John Philpott has been filling in, for this year, on a voluntary basis. John received a vote of thanks.
(7) Funding for Olympiad 2014. The International Director asked Council to allow him up to £5500 from the projected surplus to make good his budgeted deficit for the Olympiad. Council did so by 28 votes to 8.
(8) Budget 2014-15 and beyond. The Finance Director has budgeted for a 2014-15 surplus of £21,000 again. (We're rounding. This is a slightly smaller £21,000 than the other one.) The budget assumed a paid Office Manager again, but International events, and hence expenses, would be much reduced. The budget was approved when we came back to it after item 11.
     We said "and beyond", and the Director's papers included figures up to 2016-17. In alternative versions, if we got it right. But if Council discussed the longer-term parts it passed us by.
(9) Membership Fees 2014-15. The Board's proposal for no change was upheld heavily.
(10) Minimum Membership Fee for Member Organisations. Ditto (so £58).
(11) Game Fee
     (a) Proposed by Hastings CC and other organisations: that Game Fee for club internal games be reduced to 50p Standardplay, 25p Rapidplay (or ¼ of the regular rate if less). This would be an important concession for people who play the odd club internal game and nothing else. It was observed, and Hastings CC did not deny, that most people who play the odd club internal game and nothing else are from Hastings CC. The motion was defeated by 29 votes to 9.
     (b) Proposed by the Board: that Game Fee (other than the £6/£4 congress variety) be increased by 12½ per cent. The Finance Director, speaking to the proposal, acknowledged straight away that it was politically directed. (Let's work towards an all-Membership system.) Its effect on the budget would not be large. Another supporter, less honest perhaps, presented it as a safeguard against rising costs. Other people saw it as not only unnecessary but bad public relations. It was noteworthy that one rep, generally seen as sympathetic to moving towards all-Membership, reported overwhelming opposition to the Board's proposal among his own constituents. The proposal was defeated, on a show of hands, by 27 votes to 15. The Chairman seemed inclined to leave it at that, but someone wanted and was accorded a card vote. It was held in the old median-vote way, and the result was:

£1
£2
£2.25
£2.40
£2.50

9
167
74
6
1

It's not hard to find the median. Game Fee remains unchanged.
(12) Charitable Organisation. We had not read all through the Finance Director's paper, but felt less bad about it when substantial amendments to it emerged. Proposed: that the ECF set up a charitable trust, but transfer no funds to it pending further consultation. The ECF itself to remain unchanged. Put it like that, it seemed hard to vote against it. One person did, but he said: "Well, half a vote really."
     It was now 4.47 and the tea break, which traditionally rubs shoulders with the BCF meeting, was 50 minutes gone. But, better late than never:
__________

BCF EGM
We will be as comprehensive as our understanding allows. There were three years' worth of BCF Accounts to approve in a catch-up exercise, and Council approved them. They were avowedly, or the first two years were, a reverse-engineering job by John Philpott. It is expected that Accounts will be done properly from here on.
     Now 5.02 pm and back to the ECF meeting.
__________

But it was nearly over. The CEO had prepared a
(13) "Transformation White Paper" which was pretty well passed over in silence, together with a
(14) Business Plan which didn't even seem to be on the agenda.
There were also some changes to Regulations and Articles to note and approve, and some brief Other Business we'll pass over, and one other item which deserves more than a line or two:
(15) Report of Membership Director. We report his paper: it was the last thing on the agenda, and Council spent no time on it. We make no apology for covering the Director's points, even if we do expand on them a bit.
     Numbers. Membership reached about 9500 at the end of last season, and is currently slightly ahead of last April's levels. (Yesterday's figure as we write is 9434. The Membership spreadsheet on the ECF website says 9499, but that includes some lapsed Members and 18 duplicates.)
     A thing we didn't know. Well, we used to. We had always supposed that Game Fee invoices for early-season congresses were held back till 1st November to allow for MOs' Membership returns still in the pipeline. Then, fairly recently, another Director told us it wasn't true: you have to be a Member at the start of the event, and invoices may be issued any time. So we unlearnt it, and we've now got to relearn it because the Council paper says we were right all along. We have decided to believe the Director of Membership.
     The Membership and Grading databases are now talking to each other as much as you could reasonably expect. New and renewing Members, and upgrading ones, will have their updated Membership details in the online grading database within 48 hours. 24 if they've told the Membership database their grading code. It works (in 48 hours) with players who have no games, no grading record, no grading code at all. A grading code will have been created for them.
     The paper includes various breakdowns (mostly as at end August 2013) by grade, activity and location. Did you know that Gold Members are strongest (mean Standard grade 159), followed by Platinum (150)? No surprise, really. Did you know that the counties with most Members (January 2014) are Surrey (619), Middx (599), Essex (466) and Warwickshire (423)? No, we don't know how multi-county Members have been treated; and yes, you'd want to compare the figures with chess activity. We've an idea that Members/Games varies a fair bit from one county to another.
     Membership is a success. The Director's paper says it, the Finance Director said it in item (5), and no one could sensibly deny it in terms of outcome. The ECF is on a sounder footing now, and people don't even argue about Membership rates in Council. They don't argue about their invoices either, beyond quibbles over the detail. As the Finance Director also said, Membership is so much simpler than Game Fee.
     Well. As he rightly added, Game Fee was never administered efficiently. It is your Webmaster's firm and heretical opinion that Game Fee is the simpler of the two if done properly, and he has some acquaintance with Membership admin. He does not presume to say which method is right.

The meeting - excluding the undiscussed item (15), obviously - closed at 5.38 pm, with a vote of thanks to the Chairman for another meeting tightly and expeditiously handled.
rjh 19.4.14, revised 20.4.14

Earlier material is in the Archive.