Since others have trusted the wisdom of others when it comes to running first tournaments I will do the same. I coach the chess team and club at the high school where I am employed. For the upcoming school year, I have decided to hold tournaments that would be rated. I believe, at my last records check, only two of my returning chess kids are members.
I have already decided to have a rated and unrated sections for my tournaments to encourage more participation. My question is: Does anyone have any suggestions for encouraging USCF membership? I know the tournament memership is available, but my understanding is that this option is only good for one tournament. So, a tournament membership would have to be purchased each time.
I think what I’m really asking is: How do I answer the age old question “What’s in it for me”?
Will the tournaments just be for students of your school? If so then you may opt for the second of the two JTP (junior tournament participant) options.
The first option is for a scholastic tournament that is limited to players in third grade or lower. The players can be from any number of schools as long as they all fall within the grade limit Any type of affiliate can run that type of tournament.
The second JTP option is for players all from the same school and can go up to 12th grade. Only a school affiliate can run this type. I’ve never done one myself but it may be that the affiliate must be the school that the students go to.
For a JTP tournament (or a JTP section of a larger tournament) current USCF membership is not required but, before the tournament can be rated, every player will need a USCF ID. Such a tournament’s players can be any type of mix between actual members and/or JTP participants. If you are a TD then you can get an ID set up in the TD/affiliate area of the website and enter a player as a non-member (thus getting an ID). Name, address and birth date are required, with more information being useful.
If the JTP option works for your school then remember to emphasize that if a player wants to play in any rated tournament other than one in your school then the player will need to purchase an actual membership (using the same USCF ID that they use for the JTP tournaments).
I think that you are not at the point where you need a rated and unrated section. If it is only for your school, and you only have 2 USCF members, then you are not running a rated section. Plus, since you can’t mix the rated and unrated players, then you are going to have problems with kids not being able to see who ‘won’ the tournament.
I would recommend that you start off with unrated tournaments to get your kids used to playing in school tournaments, and then encourage them to get USCF memberships so they can play in other local scholastic events, and then once you get some more of your kids to join, you can try to hold rated events at your school and invite other schools to your place.
I was going to try to hold a tournament at my local Navy base with a rated and unrated section, but the logistics of it got so tricky that we just decided to only go with an unrated section to see the local interest level, and to then try to convert it to a rated event in the future. (Plus since MWR is giving me the space and providing trophies, I’m doing this now as more of a favor to them then my initial hope of starting a regular rated event in the area.)
You can hold rated events with most of the players being unrated or even with all of the players being unrated, so that does not need to be the determining factor as to whether the event is rated or unrated, the needs of your players should be the key.
You may want to start with an unrated event or two and then after you and your students have some familiarity with them you can hold events rated under the JTP program. (As your students are above the 3rd grade you will need to have a USCF scholastic affiliate to do that, as K-12 in-school JTP events can only be submitted through a scholastic affiliate.)
Thanks for all the great information, gentlemen! It really helps. So, everyone is aware the school is a USCF affiliate. Could someone direct me to whom to contact or where to go on the website for the JTP program?
You could first hold a non-rated tournament to give the students a taste. The first rated tournament can be run even if none of the players has a rating.
going about a third of the way down the page you see:
One thing I’ve found is that the phrase “who has never been a USCF member” is not really looked at for primary JTP players. Thus players with expired memberships have still been covered. That way players do not have a reason to delay joining the USCF (thinking that was the only way they could then maintain JTP eligibity in later years).
Wow, that page is really out of date (as are most of the pages on the ‘old’ website), it still refers to those green pre-numbered forms that we stopped sending out years ago and STRONGLY DISCOURAGE anyone from using.
One problem with those forms is that in order to get a specific ID assigned to a new member, the office has to do it, since we really don’t want hundreds of TDs out there assigning any USCF ID they want. Thus using them will almost certainly prevent your tournament from being submittable online for several days after it ends.
There have been several good threads on the JTP program here in the Forums.
I’ll see if I can get someone to create an up-to-date page on the JTP program.
Here is the web page that we direct people to in Bloomington and Normal IL. bnasc.org/JTP.html
I think we may have some updating to do with respect to prices on the membership form that we have kids print out and fill in before they give the completed form to their coaches.
This is the format we use for K-3 tournaments - not the one school only type of tournaments.
My event will be open to anyone who can get on the base (military, DOD civilians, contractors, dependents, guests)
I think that I mis-stated my initial comment. When I said that you were not ready for rated / unrated sections, what I meant to be saying is that you should start with an unrated NON-USCF tournament first just to get your kids used to playing chess. Then, once they get used to playing tournaments, they can start playing USCF rated events. I think that you have a better chance of ending up with kids buying USCF memberships if they first get used to playing in a tournament format, and then realize that they have many, many more options for playing in scholastic tournaments if they join the USCF.
Our chess club was formed in the fall of 2006. Although we were formed as a USCF affiliate, almost none of our members actually joined the USCF. But when we held our first tournament in June of 2007, we ran it as a USCF tournament and said that because of that, they had to join the USCF in order to participate. We explained that joining gave them the right to participate in all USCF-sanctioned tournaments (not just ours), that they would get an official chess rating, and that they would also get a subscription to Chess Life or Chess Life for Kids (depending on their age). What happened was that they joined the USCF so that they could participate. We now have more than 20 USCF members.
I had a non-USCF rated tournament last year to decide the 10 players who would make the varsity and reserve chess teams that play against other schools in our area. It worked out OK, had a total of 14. I think I held a 4-round SS once a week for 4 weeks.