I sort of disagree with you. I think you can call yourself whatever you want, and eventually if you get enough players to sustain a club, parents are going to get mad that the school isn’t doing anything. Right now it sounds like your principal is just blowing you off. It would just prove you don’t need his blessing to do something constructive. No different than real life, people are going to blow you off so you have to go around them to accomplish your goals.
No scholastic tournament is going to reject you just because your principal is close minded. You win a few tournaments… eventually you’ll get your club.
I agree, that no student controlled club aught to represent a school in any tournament (In my case, we should, for now, compete under the name of “Scottsboro Chess Club” rather than “Scottsboro High School Chess Club”) unless you have the official support of a school official. However, to get your club approved as the school team, I think it would be nice to have some weight behind your application (in other words, get a good group before you ask them to commit time and resources). I plan to go to the highschool sometime within the next week or two, present my case (with either a photo of everyone who came, or with them actually present), and once they give us the official go-ahead to compete for the school, I’ll look for someone to sponsor that $200-$300 to attend the team championship. But if you don’t want to compete for the school, you are free to do what you want
Of course another thing that you should do is to get yourself certified as a club TD. That way you can run tournaments at your club and be better prepared to organize tournaments outside of it.
There was a topic listing the youngest TDs. I don’t remember what they were. I know that there are TDs here in Oklahoma under the age of ten. The ONLY requirement for applying to be a club TD is to sign a form saying you’ve read the rule book and are willing to abide by it.
wow, you are right! The app form is found at http://www.uschess.org/about/forms/CERTIFIEDTDFORM.pdf and it doesn’t say anything about age. I guess I should really look into helping out at some local tournaments, so in a couple of months (when the club gets enough money to pay the affiliate fees and host a tournament) I can run our first event!
Are you ready to have USCF-rated tournaments? That is, will you have enough interest for students to pay for USCF memberships? If you do, great! But in my experience has been that most students would rather spend their money on other things than USCF membership, especially if there are any non-USCF scholastic tournaments being held. They are cheaper for everyone and anyone can play in them.
Our local organizer, running a tournament a month, last year held only USCF-rated scholastic tournaments. Other non-USCF tournaments in the area were attracting almost a hundred students, while his ran to fifty or less. This year he started running non-USCF tournaments and had to buy more tables to accomodate the crowds!
If you can do it, fine. Just anted to pass along my experience in this.
BTW, went to your website and saw why your principal is afraidd of losing his job. Good luck to your school in getting back on track!