Advice on how to promote and build your chess club

Chess Clubs
1

I received the following email from a community chess club member via email:

"Dear Gregory,

Hi. I would like to tell you about what I have done so far in starting a chess club at college in Detroit Lakes, MN. I know you wrote a lot about this already, but every situation is unique. I am about to give up in the next few days. I put the attached advertisement on the bulletin boards at school with no response. You have to download the attachment to see the picture.

I gave a speech to the student senate and they approved a $250 budget for each semester. I want to buy materials at wholesalechess but I want to know interest first. Besides putting the ad on the bulletin boards, I gave a copy to everyone at the senate meeting. I gave out about 20 of my ads. I stressed that if someone does not know how to play, I will teach them. Still no response.

So far I talked to 3 teachers and 2 students that said they were interested. I emailed them to send me a 2 or 3 hour time frame sometime on Monday or Tuesday between 2:00 and 9:00 pm that would work for our first meeting. One person said only Fridays work, another said up til 6:00 on either day will work, another said anytime after 6:00 on Tuesday, and the other two did not respond.

I am in the process of getting my ad sent to everyone through their school email. I have doubts on response through that also. People don’t check their school email much, I assume.

We do not need 20 or 30 people to be successful. I think 5 or 6 others that would actually show up would be enough.

I am about to just give or I might do my last resort idea. I was thinking of just giving students $5, from the budget, just for showing up and playing a few games. If I could get 4 people that stay through that, that would be good, but that may not work either.

Detroit Lakes is a small community college, so there is not much interaction at all. What should I do? Should I just focus on the 1 or 2 people that I can meet with and just play on the board with them, and hope it spreads by word of mouth?

Thanks,

Neil"

2

Neil,

I would not worry too much about failure right now. In the case of getting financial help from the university; you have already managed to do what other solidly established clubs have not yet been able to do at all! At the UW, we have to all get together and hold fund raising events in order to purchase anything. When we offer food at an event, one of us pays for the food out of pocket, and we had to wait 6 months just to raise enough money to purchase 20 chess sets. Your approach and success at getting financial assistance proves that you are a dedicated person with good leadership abilities.

Don’t worry if it does not all come together at once. During my first year organizing the club, we only had 4 regular members. With the help of my Co-President, we were able to grow the club and attract 15 or so regular members, and had a couple of dozen non-regular members who only came to the club occasionally. It will take time, stay the course, and your club will grow.

One thing that I would focus on is getting a staff member to help you, and then to find another student who can share the burden. If you have a dedicated staff person, your club will have a much greater chance of succeeding when you graduate. This is especially important in a community college where potential Presidents will leave every two years. You can also turn to someone in the chess community around your area.

I would not give the students any money to show up, but you could offer free pizza once a month to gain a following. Giving away free money is counterproductive. It will appear that you are desperate, and as soon as the money runs out, the students that you attract will not show up again. You need to spend your money elsewhere, such as getting chess sets and a clock. Another thing that you can do is to attend some local tournaments, or spend the money gathering your team to a college chess event, such as the Pan-Am’s, or just going to the mid-west Amateur team event. This will give you better exposure.

Here are a few proven marketing ideas. Get one or two other good chess player that you can play speed chess with, find a popular hangout spot on campus, and play during lunch. You should get a crowd of people around your table that is interested in the game. Here are other ideas: make flyers, and post them around campus. Advertise and hold a chess tournament in the cafeteria. Even if only 3 or 4 people show up to play, it is OK. You can also host a rated tournament, and try to draw in members from your community. Also, set up a web page on the college servers if you can. It does not need to be pretty, but just indicate the meeting dates and times on it if you can. Half of our members found the club via the webpage.

Talk to the student paper on campus. Ask them if they can write an article about the club. One way to get sure exposure from your student paper is to try to hold a tournament, or even an online game with another small college. You can even do it online. Let the paper know prior to the event, and let them know the results after the tournament has been played. If you can’t set up a match, I can try to set up an online match for you.

Thank you for writing, and I hope that some of my advice proves useful. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Take care,

Gregory

3

The person from Minnesota should also try to get those from the outside community to participate in the Club. If the higher-ups at the University should complain, it is easy to explain that without the outsiders there may not be enough varied competition, and maybe enough competition at a higher level.

4

Perhaps my experience might be useful. I have a middle school chess club. At my school we have a club time, and every kid has to be in some sort of club. For several years, I schlepped along with 20 kids or so during our school club time. We had cheap sets, and it was OK.

A couple of years ago I decided get motivated and try and build the club. I told my principal my vision for the chess club, which included competing in scholastic tournaments. He went along with it, and we bought 8 tournament sets and 4 digital clocks.

I took a set and clock to the cafeteria, and let kids challenge me. The interest level picked up. Then I brought more sets to the cafeteria, and let the kids play each other, and pitched chess club. I was amazed how the interest level perked up once the kids got to play with real tournament sets, and they started punching that clock. I have about 50 in my club now, and we take around five kids to scholastic tournaments. This year my club hosted a scholastic tournament, and 165 kids came!

If you could get four people to start playing with proper equipment in an area of high traffic flow, maybe you could build up interest. It worked with middle schoolers, maybe it would also work with older people.

Good luck!

5

The number one thing you must do is get exposure. People will not come or show interest in a chess club if they do not know about it. Set up a table with a board and set in a high student traffic area. Put up a big sign stating that a Chess Club will be meeting [you must pick & set a time] at the college. Offer to take on any ‘comers’ in a game of chess. Maybe even give pointers during the game.

Exposure it definitely the key.

A case in point is from back in the 70s. A senior college [Jr/Sr & grade school only] formed a chess club. The college had a high level of commuter students. This meant that there would be a large number of students at any time in and around the vending machines. The club set up a table with a sign up sheet, a small hand out on the club, and FREE COFFEE for anyone signing the sheet. As a result the chess club that year was the second largest [the sign-up sheet was a list of members] club on the campus. This resulted in increased funding for the club through the college student senate, as funding was partially based on club size.

Hope this helps.

Best “Chess” Regards,
Larry Cohen

6

Here in Lake County Illinois Kevin Bachler used to do simuls on the local Community College campus (where his club was located) and at local malls. That exposure alone, along with some contact and club meeting info, did much towards building club membership.

Tim

7

Wow, this is not really an exciteing post. My name is Neil and I am trying to start a new chess club at my University. I hope your luck turns for the better and mine starts that way. Either way, don’t give up hope. Stick in there and examine your position. Find the right move and make it.

8

I’m not sure how much this applies to your situation, but I figure it can’t hurt.

During my junior year of high school (my God…has it been 11 years already?), the chess club setup a double-elimination chess tournament to rebuild the chess team from scratch. It was done at the beginning of the school year, and it generated a buzz about chess that was definitly unpecedented at my high school.

The tournament’s only requirement was that players join the chess club. If they never showed up after the tournament, so be it! There were some kids who didn’t even know all of the rules, but all that did was give other weak players a chance to teach and feel important. All in all, everyone had a blast…some kids who lost shrugged it off and moved on to other things…but many buckled down and tried to get better that year.

Attendance tripled that year and then doubled again the following year, and I can’t help but think that it all started with that tournament.

Granted this was at an all-boys high school, where competition and bragging rights are paramount, but that said, I believe that the tournament conecpt hit upon some hard-wired, universal truths of human nature:

  1. There was something big at stake, and it cost the school nothing to offer!

For those who made the top six slots, they were immediately gauranteed a spot on the chess team, which competed every week for the rest of the year against other high schools. This was a chance for the “lowly nerd” to represent his school in a competitive manner. Money or trophies are great prizes, but pride and self-esteem can prove to be even better to people still trying to find themselves.

  1. There was a chance to stand out from the crowd and be great at something.

You didn’t have to make the top six spots (or even the top ten for the auxilliary team) to gain a reputation as a “great” chess player in school that year. The tournament created so many unique pairings that mini-rivalries were born each week, and by the end of the month or so of play, so many people were hooked.

Of course, there are some environmental factors to take into account here:

  1. The mentality of someone in college is often very different than someone in high school (less about competition and bragging rights and more about personal betterment and following an already-defined pasion).

  2. Extracurricular credit was awarded to those that joined the chess club, and there is nothing easier than playing some board games for an hour once a week to make headway toward the National Honor Society, which required two distinct activities per trimester.

Anyway, there it is…take it or leave it! I personally believe that there is a lot to be learned from what my high school accomplished that year with something as simple as a double-elimination tournament. There were no ratings…no USCF…no expectations setup before each game. You just played as well as you could. No writing down moves…nothing.

Then those who cared enough to WANT to be good at chess eventually learned those other things. So, in closing…keep it fun, keep it competitive, and if possible, make the prize a chance to represent the school!