Club TD running a small schoolastic event?

Running Chess Tournaments
1

As always, as I am a new club TD, when I have questions, I am hitting the book, and when I am still not sure of the answer I am asking the question here, thanks for your patience and responses.

A local home school group is having a chess class for this spring semester. They have 20 students, and only 20, because they imposed that limit on the class size.

They are thinking of a way to have a rated tournament at the end of the semester.

As a club TD for my local club, can I run a USCF rated tournament for the school class?

I understand that they would all need to sign up with the USCF, of course.

My main question is, would they need to join my chess club, so I can run a tournament for them, or would they need to make themselves an affiliate with the USCF so I can run a tournament for their affiliate/club?

I do not know if they will continue this every year, so in my mind, the simple solution would be to have them join my local chess club, and do a tournament for just them, as members of my chess club, but not mix in other members of the club for this tournament.

However, I also see in my TD reports and software there are checkboxes for schoolastic events. So I wanted to ask here before I commit to something and possibly do it incorrectly.

On the plus side, last years tournament in Fairbanks seems to be sparking some great chess interest!

2

A scholastic tournament can be run by any affiliate and an affiliate can run tournaments with any percentage of club members (from 0% to 100% being members of the club). My club regularly directs scholastic tournaments organized by various schools. As an NTD I don’t have any concerns about the size of the event, while a Club TD is limited to being the chief of tournaments expected to be no larger than 50 players (60 if using a pairing program and having a certified assistant).

Any affiliate can use JTP (Junior Tournament Participant - US Chess ID exists even though there is no current membership) for K-3 sections. Only scholastic affiliates can use JTP up through 12th grade, and even then only if every player goes to the same school that the affiliate is for.

An important thing to remember is the affiliate the tournament is submitted under is the one that will be deemed responsible if there are any complaints about the tournament. So an alternative solution (if you want them to have that responsibility) would be to have them create and pay for their own affiliate while making you a valid chief TD that tournaments can be submitted under that affiliate. If the class has some players from 4th to 12th grades, but none older, then they can check with the federation to see if they can qualify as a scholastic affiliate (the affiliate ID would start with an H). If so then the $40 affiliate fee is cheap compared to needing US Chess membership for all of the players. Remember that if they use JTP (IDs exist but not currently members) for those older players then the section those players are in would be limited to only 12th grade or younger members of that school (nobody older, nobody not in the school).

3 Likes
3

Calling something a ‘scholastic event’ in the checkbox for that section in the Tournament form is mainly for statistical purposes.

We often get asked how many scholastic events we rate, and just looking at a crosstable isn’t always helpful, because we weren’t there to know what the organizer’s intent was. If I hold quads and one section had 4 kids while others had a mix of kids and adults, is that section a ‘scholastic event’? There weren’t any adults in it. But if I hold a tournament for the players at a school and include a section for their parents, clearly having the adult one doesn’t mean the other sections, which may have had many more players in them, weren’t scholastic events.

There are two types of special scholastic-only events, a K-3 JTP event and a K-12 JTP event. Both of them are exempt from the usual membership requirements. (All players still need 8 digit IDs, though.)

A K-3 JTP event can be run by any affiliate, a K-12 JTP event can only be run by a scholastic affiliate and is only for players in the school that holds that scholastic affiliate. (A scholastic affiliate ID begins with the letter H.)

In both types, all players must meet the grade limitations (K-3 or K-12), no adults are permitted, even as house players.

1 Like
4

Thank you gentlemen for taking the time to help me understand how this works.

Currently , according to te USCF TD search, there are only two TDs in Alaska, myself and one other, who is also a club TD, and who also has no events under their belt.

So I do not have any mentors to help me, which is why I am greatful for your knowledge.

That said, a few more questions:

Option 1:
It sounds like the cheapest option for the school is to apply for the affiliate as a school for the JTP program. Then it is one fee of $40 for all their students?

How do those students get ID numbers? By batch uploads for the affiliate dashboard?

These students, once they have an ID number, can they play in non-schoolastic tournaments, or would they need to pay for regular membership?

Option 2:
More costly for the individual student, but if all 20 purchased a USCF membership, then I can simply run a tournament for them under the flag of my club. Is there a downside to this responsability?

Option 3:
They each purchase a membership and I submit the event under the JTP for K-12. Do I have permission to do that? It sounds like only certain groups can do that.

Thanks again for your time.

5

The K-12 JTP event was intended for in-school events, so all the players have to be students at the school that holds the scholastic affiliate.

If those students play in non JTP events, then they have to have valid memberships like everyone else.

I have not used the new membership system as a TD, so I can’t describe how it works, but I’m sure others will do so here.

1 Like
6

There is also a group membership plan, where a block of memberships is purchased at a slightly lower price.

1 Like
7

I’m not sure, and I suspect no one here is, how a homeschool group would be treated for affiliate purposes.

I think this has become too difficult. You can direct a tournament for K-3 players without them being members for any affiliate. You can direct a tournament for K-12 players without them being members only when they are all at the same school and only for an affiliate owned by that school.

These players will have to get ID numbers, but will not be members of any type. If they want to play in sections that are not structured as in the above paragraph they will have to “renew” their memberships. Yes, renew, even though they have never been members before.

Your club can license, if you will, you or any TD to direct tournaments for it, regardless if the tournaments have any organic connection to the club or not. But take Mr. Nolan’s caution very seriously. For example, the Affiliate is responsible to pay all prizes, so if I were to come to Anchorage and borrow your affiliate to run a tournament with a $25,000 prize fund, and then abscond with all the entry fees, your club is still responsible to pay all prizes.

Does this clear things up?

1 Like
8

Thanks, yes, we certainly would want to be careful, esspecially with prizes involved! In this case, there does not appear to be any prizes at all.

Also, this homeschool group is an extension of a brick and morter school, which is common in Alaska, for real physical schools to have a state run homeschool program. My children are part of it, hense how it came to my attention originally.

I found this link:

and section 3 covers homeschool groups, which helps clear things up a bit.

9

The logic behind limiting K-12 JTP events to one school (or home-schooled group) is to prevent a large school district from buying a scholastic affiliate and using it for every school in the district or for competitions between schools.

1 Like