Workgroup membership – a status update & feedback request

Earlier this year, the RBCF launched a call for participation to help evaluate and rethink our current membership model. In response, a group of volunteers stepped forward to form a dedicated working group, tasked with analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of the current system and exploring possible improvements. With this post we give you a status update of this workgroup, and ask for feedback on several ideas.

Active members of the membership workgroup are Annelies Cuvelier, Damien André, Yves Moreels, Ruben Decrop and Steven Bellens.

Workgroup status

A small analysis reveals that our current membership pool is rather small in comparison to our neighbouring countries:

Compared to neighbouring countries, Belgium has a relatively low proportion of registered chess federation members. With only 0.52 members per 1 000 inhabitants, we trail significantly behind the Netherlands (1.07) and Germany (1.08). Matching those benchmarks would imply a growth of approximately 75%, totalling over 10 000 members.

This observation triggered the working group to explore ways to lower the entry barrier, better reflect the needs of various player profiles, and modernize our membership system.

As such, the workgroup is evaluating a proposal to move from a single type of membership to a two-tier structure:

• Basic(?) membership – € ?? per year
  • Insurance coverage (potentially arranged at national KBSB level)
  • Access to centralized member administration
  • Suited for beginners, casual players, and school participants
  • … other?
• Full competition membership – € 15 per year (as-is)
  • All benefits of basic membership
  • Participation in KBSB-rated tournaments
  • National and international ELO processing

Brainstorming ideas

Amongst the above current status, various ideas are brought up that can enhance the basic membership proposal:

• Options for non-competitive players to join online or casual events
• Access to training materials or discounts for beginner chess lessons
• Modernized tools (e.g. via Odoo) for clubs to manage member data more efficiently and uniformly among different clubs
• A restructured insurance model that removes the current dependency on regional federations

Feedback request

This process is ongoing, and we’re reaching out to you for additional ideas and or feedback on the above.

We invite all members, clubs, tournament organizers, and interested stakeholders to share their ideas, suggestions, or concerns. What could make membership more appealing in your context? What support or tools would make club administration easier? What initiatives would strengthen our chess community?

Your feedback will help guide the final proposal, which will afterwards be evaluated by the Board of Administrators and presented to the General Assembly.

📩 Leave your thoughts in the comments, or reach out through steven.bellens@frbe-kbsb-ksb.be.