Belgian Go Federation

Club president role

As Club President, your responsibility is to take care of the life of your club: welcome beginners, organize Go activities, recruit new members, etc.
It could be a rather heavy task to do it properly, especially in the beginning, but the enjoyment of your club players is rewarding...and you would get the satisfaction to contribute greatly to the development of Go in Belgium.

For advice about how to handle successfully your club activities, please read the following guide for Go Club animation:

• Animation de club en Français
• Club animatie in Nederlands
• Club animation in English

Your contribution is also crucial for the organization of Go related activities. This is what we (ideally) expect by you:

• Register regular players of your club and collect membership fees (see how to proceed hereunder): allowing them to benefit from the services of the Federation (lessons, tournaments, rating...)
• Ensure data of your club on the gofed site is up-to-date (club address/opening hours ? members contact info ?)
• Communicate with the Federation board about your projects, your members needs and how the Federation might help you (as well as how you may help the Federation).
• Inform or participate in Belgian Go related activities (interclubs,tournaments, encourage volunteering, Federation meetings, go lessons...)
• Send club games results to the ratings team (rating@gofed.be)

How to perform the registration activity.

1) Collect and register yearly membership fees

A. Collect membership contact info and fees

Each regular player of a Go club should pay a yearly federal membership fee and possibly a yearly Club membership fee.

a) The federal membership fee is mandatory for regular players. Players who are not registered are not allowed to benefit from activities organized by the Federation (tournaments, ranking, Go camps...). The amount of the Federation membership fee is decided each year at the General Assembly, so pay attention to check every year if it did not change (you can also check membership info on this site).

b) we advice each club president to also collect at the same time a yearly club membership fee of a moderate amount (5 or 10 EUR per year). Although optional, this club membership fee is strongly recommended ! This amount is managed by the club president for club expenses such as material renewal and to give yourselves the freedom to provide extra services to the members of your club (books for the club, printing of pedagogic documents, etc.).

B.Validate membership fee of existing players

For each player who has paid the membership fee, log in and click in the left column "BGF-admin" --> "members" --> "edit", then search the member you want to update, press "edit" right to the name, then press "membership" at the top of the page, select your club name in the list and add membership for the current year by clicking the button "make member" for the year (keep voting "normal").
Then please send membership fees to the BGF account (BE-24-775-5962122-38). As soon as the treasurer receives the money, he'll validate the membership.

remark: in case of a large number of members to register, you can also transfer the whole money in one unique transfer, clearly indicating club name AND, in parallel, send to treasurer@gofed.be a list of the members for whom you made the transfer, clearly mentioning the club name.

C. Register new players - update personal information

If you need to add a new member or update the personal information of an existing player, log in on the website (left column) and click on BGF-admin --> Members --> add (new member) or --> edit (update of existing member); then enter the required information:

• Family name and first name
• Email (important!!! We communicate through this !!!)
• Other contact fields (optional): phone number,...

After pressing the "add contact" button, click also on "accounts".
Create an account name and enter the member's email address again (an email will be sent to the player to confirm the account).
Attention: when you create account for the BGF website, please prefer something as "last name + first letter of first name" rather than "hikaru007", thank you!

2) Send rating estimation of new players (or for players who need adjustment)

For new players without rank, please send an email to rating@gofed.be with the name of the player(s) and estimated rank(s).
Ideally, all members should have a rank or at least an estimated rank.

3) Answer mails sent to your club and ensure club information is up-to-date

Every club has a club email address which is redirected to the personal mail address of the club president. Please ensure that this email always work because it is not only used by the Federation to communicate with your club but also by external individuals who would like to enter in contact with you !
Also should your club address or opening hours have changed, ensure that the club page below is also updated:
https://www.gofed.be/clubs
If you need to update club info, please send the new address or new opening hours or new president mail to secretary@gofed.be.

4) Manage material, buy at reduced prices via the Federation

Regularly the Federation buys Go boards and stones in large quantities for reduced prize, and clubs are invited to join in to benefit from these reduced prices. This material, bought using club money coming from club membership fee, can be used for use by your club or be sold for the same price to club members.
In case of specific needs, contact for material is: materiel@gofed.be

For a purchase, pay the amount to the BGF BEFORE getting the material (we check you have paid before giving it to you)
775-5962122-38; IBAN : BE24-7755-9621-2238.