10-02-2013, 09:55 AM
Alex McFarlane Wrote:I have no problem with membership of a national association being insisted on. It is the specification of which one that causes the problem.
Hi Alex,
Yes, that is what I was meaning, but perhaps didn't make clear.
Also Andy,
I had assumed it was an ECF event too, so even more weird to find out that it isn't.
I was fairly tempted to post on the ecf thread on this, but thinking about it again, I don't really want to get into an argument with some of the people on there, so I will clarify some things here instead.
The idea of compulsory membership to the ECF was given by Alex H, on the basis that the game fee works out as £10 per player, and membership £12, so they might as well insist on the membership for the sake of £2. The cost of this was explained by Alex H. What I failed to consider, and failed to be raised, is when you take along a reserve the game fee stays the same, but the membership fee increases. I was also unhappy at the time about essentially forcing our team to pay up membership to the ecf, despite being members of our own federations. Immediately it felt like our team was subsidising the other teams to get it ecf rated. Perhaps I could have been more active with my views, but on a Sunday morning with no time to really think through the proposal, and with other issues that I had to bring up points on, I cast my vote against and nothing more.
Looking again at this, I am disappointed that I didn't raise more of an objection at the time. However, Alex H has done a good job in getting BUCA back up and running, and getting the competitions organised, and I really believe the motion was put forward without any money grabbing intentions for the ecf. I am sure that this will be raised at the BUCA AGM this year, and I don't see any potential reason why dropping this membership condition would be rejected, assuming we pay the game fee (which I guess is another argument all together!) In the mean time, there seems to be no other option but to sign up 5 new ecf members if as a club we want to defend our title.
Finally, I would like to join Jonny in thanking the person who donated the entry fee to us. As a club, and not just the members going, we are really grateful for it.