Clubs that regularly hold rated events should be given preference in searches for clubs on USChess.org, perhaps by sorting all active clubs to the top of the list or by adding an easily-visible flag to identify them. To view the current club search functionality (starting from the USChess.org main page) click “Clubs & Tourneys”, then “Chess Clubs”, and then click the link for a state.
Many of the clubs listed have not held a rated event in years. There is a link to MSA after each club’s description. About a year ago when I was interested in returning to rated play this link was useful. However, MSA may not mean anything to new or prospective members who are looking for a club. Making it easier for these players to find an active club promotes membership growth for the USCF.
Clubs with no rating activity are often a dead-end lead, and it would not take many bad leads for a prospective member to conclude that OTB clubs have been replaced by internet play. On the other hand if a prospective member finds a club and enjoys playing over the board, they are more likely to be exposed to other USCF benefits such as Chess Life, bigger tournaments and official ratings, and are more likely to become a new member.
It’s hard enough figuring out which affiliates are really ‘clubs’ and which are just entities that run chess tournaments or let others run chess tournaments that they agree to have rated under their affiliate ID.
(BTW, affiliates can enter a wealth of information about themselves for use in the club directory listing using the interface available in the TD/Affiliate Support Area. However, it appears that only around 40% of regular affiliates have done so,)
This is debatable. I’ll start with a suggestion of at least one rated event in the last six months. Clubs that have not rated anything for years will be filtered out whether a line is drawn at three months or fifteen months, which makes finding a club easier.
I tried to make the suggestion something that could be automated, and I don’t expect that the above could be easily included. An entity that regularly rates events and has a contact number listed is likely to point a potential member in the right direction.
A portion of that 40% is clubs that no longer meet, even though their information states “Saturdays at 6:30” or has an email address that is no longer valid. Many list themselves as type club instead of school even though they only run scholastic events. I don’t see a way to bring any of that current, but filtering out the inactive clubs seems feasible.
Please don’t view this as a request to interrupt your long to-do list. I understand that forums are for discussion, and that there are likely official methods in place for members to submit a suggestion/request.
Rated play in the last six months might not catch everything. Some clubs have non-rated ladder player and an annual rated club championship. Some clubs have non-rated league play.
This thread did prompt me to go into the directory (for A6002200) and update the officers (secretary changed). Also I put in a note as to when the last update was done. That means that I’ll have to periodically go in and change it now, but it does help alert people that it is not an abandoned listing.
BTW, I would anticipate that clubs that don’t renew their affiliation might be flaggable, in which case that is a big indicator that they might not be active.
The club directory only shows current affiliates, Jeff, so if their affiliate lapses, they don’t show on the club directory list any more. (They still show on MSA, but so does their expiration date.)
The classification choices we offer regular affiliates are:
Club
Organizer
Chess Program (camps, etc.)
League
Other
Please feel free to suggest other options.
The only affiliates allowed to list themselves in the club directory as ‘school’ are scholastic affiliates. There may be some regular affiliates that run only scholastic events, but that doesn’t make them a scholastic affiliate.
These choices are pre-selected for these affiliate types:
School (Available only to scholastic affiliates.)
College (Available only to college affiliates)
State Chapter (Available only to state chapter affiliates)
Prison (available only to prison affiliates)
Is there a way to link the club and tournament databases? It would be cool if you could do a club search and have all the upcoming tournaments for which each club has submitted TLAs listed underneath their profiles. That would give users an excellent picture of how active each club is – and also would encourage more clubs to submit TLAs.
TLAs are still kept pretty much independent from other records, in large part because of editorial technology, publication timing and payment issues. This is one of those areas where the USCF is behind the times, but changing it may have significant budgetary implications.