Rules Changes to Rules 5 and 12 of the SCCU General Rules.

Rules Changes to Rules 5 and 12 of the SCCU General Rules.

 

A commentary explaining the proposed changes appears below followed by the proposed rule changes.

 

Rule 5  –  Fees

 

It was reported at the AGM that the Rules & Appeals Sub-Committee, following their review of the County Match Rules in the light of the 3 appeals of last season, were recommending that going forward an appeal should be accompanied by an appeal fee.  A fee of £30 is envisaged.  Providing a mechanism in the General Rules for levying the fee was also recommended.

 

This requires an amendment of the General Rules in order to raise the fee.  The fee itself would appear in the relevant competition rules and be set by the Executive.  Rule 5 appears to be the appropriate place to provide for this as well as (for consistency) the fee for determination of quick play finish draw claims (currently set at zero by the Executive and noted as such in the County Match Rules).  The appeal fee is analogous to the QPF determination fee (the latter not appearing in the General Rules, but should).

 

Rule 5 currently only covers the non-payment of affiliation fees.   It would seem prudent to extend this to cover unpaid Game Fee given the penal rate at which it has been set by the ECF.  The recoupment of Game Fee is currently limited to just county matches (see commentary on Rule 12 below).

 

The proposed amendment to Rule 5 is for this to become a Fees Rule to provide for non-payment of affiliation fees and Game Fees fees and to introduce the new right to raise an appeal fee.

 

Rule 12  Grading and Game Fee

 

This Rule has become outdated by the creation of the ECF direct memberships (giving members the right to have their games graded free of charge) leaving Game Fee to be levied in respect of graded games of non-ECF members (who do not benefit from the concession for very occasional players) currently set at a rate equivalent to the cost of a Bronze membership (but not conferring membership).   The original rule reflected the SCCU policy of  submitting results from all of its competitions for ECF grading.

 

As game fee does not apply to the submitted results of ECF direct members this is now an ineffective way of providing for the grading of SCCU competitions.  Rule 12 (and Rule 5) of the General Rules and the County Match rules are silent as to the current practice of recouping Game Fee charged by the ECF from the organisations of participating teams that incurred the charge by playing a non-ECF member (who is not exempt).

 

The current practice for our Junior only competitions is not to pass on Game Fee but this is under review as the Union wished to see what effect the new penal Game Fee charges for non-members  has had on the cost to the Union of these competitions.  The Treasurer should be able to report on this in respect of invoices levied by the ECF for the 2017-18 season, noting however that there were no U18 or U14 Jamborees.  Given that an organisation’s events will be cumulated for the purposes of the exemption (which is organisation rather than event specific) the true effect may not be known for another year.

 

The proposed amendment to Rule 12 provides for games played in all SCCU competitions to be submitted for ECF grading (as currently is the case) and provides a basis in the Rules for recouping any ECF Game Fee levied in respect of ECF non-members, leaving it to the rules of particular competitions and/or the Executive to determine whether Game Fee should be passed on to the participating organisations.  This would give flexibility for this and next season in particular.

 

For the avoidance of doubt this amendment does not mean that it will apply to Junior Competitions for next season but simply provides the mechanism for recoupment enabling decisions to be made on a competition by competition basis either in their Rules or by a decision of the Executive.  The rules for the Junior competitions are currently under review by the Junior Organiser.  There will be an item on the agenda for the Executive Meeting immediately following the SGM to address Game Fee in our junior competitions for 2018/19.

 

The text of the proposed amendments appears below with changes shown in red/underlined.  Deleted words from the existing rules have been struck though.

 

 

  1. Fees

Member Counties and Non-County Members shall pay an annual fee decided upon from time to time by the Council and payable on the 31st October of each year. The fee for a Non-County Member shall be half that for a Member County. A Member more than 3 months in arrears with all or part of this payment and/or any charge under Rule 12 below shall have no voting rights; and a Member 6 months in arrears with all or part shall be deemed to have resigned.

Fees for appeals and determination of  Quick Play Finish Claims in any SCCU competition shall be set out in the applicable competition rules at such rates as may be determined by the Executive.

 

  1. All events organised by, or under the auspices of, the Union shall, if appropriate register with the game fee scheme of the ECF be submitted to the ECF for grading. Any Game Fee levied by the ECF in respect of a player who was not an ECF member shall be charged to and paid by the organisation(s) whose team the player appeared in unless stated otherwise in the rules of the competition or the Executive decides otherwise.

 

26th August 2018

Mark Murrell, SCCU President