If I am fortunate enough to be elected to the USCF Executive Board this coming week, I will push for the idea of a USCF Credit Card.
I am not a favorite to be elected by any means, but I do think that I have a much better chance to be elected this year than I had in previous years.
My idea is that every USCF member gets a USCF Credit Card, which might be backed by a major credit card agency like Master Charge or Visa.
The credit card could be used to enter USCF rated chess tournaments. A swipe of the card would show the player's current rating. This would also prevent or discourage sandbagging or players entering under false names at the World Open.
Scholastic and youth players would not be allowed to make credit card purchases, but still they would get a card.
Big Question: Who would provide the credit? We have something that big credit card agencies might want: A big database of chess players. I believe that there are more than 300,000 players in the USCF Ratings database, of which 90,000 are current members. The credit card company would get access to all of these people. They would tell us which are dead and which are alive. This could help us keep track of our life members and solve other problems.
I realize that this is a very rough idea, but nevertheless I believe that on some basis it could be made to work.
Sam Sloan