Help US Chess

All Things Chess
1

This is a strange time. Your management team and the EB is doing all it can to preserve the US Chess team and operations. We need your help.

Our membership revenue in March and April was off around 11%. We need every single member to renew. Membership revenue is around $2,000,000. We spend about half that on our team. We spend a good chunk more on publications content, printing, and mailing.

We have cut out or deferred all of the easy things. We obtained a PPP loan to cover about 2.5 months worth of payroll costs. that will run out as we head into the typically slow summer months.

How can you help?
Renew, renew, renew, renew.
Urge your friends to renew.
Urge friends who are not members to join.
Adopt a school program and facilitate renewing or registering their kids.
Adopt a prison and facilitate prison memberships for those who are there.
Make a targeted or general donation.
If you are a life member - make a donation or pay for a buddy’s renewal.

If we can keep our membership revenues up we can ride this out without cutting into muscle. We want to keep providing the programming that you have come to appreciate.

2

I sent the message below to an email list of chess friends. Perhaps others might do something similar.

It was the strangest of times…please support US Chess while over-the-board chess is on hold. Rated OTB play is the biggest reason for many of us to maintain our memberships. But it’s not the only reason.

Please do not let your membership lapse while we wait for tournament life to resume. For one thing, rated chess of a sort is available online, and has been expanded thanks to the pandemic-inspired lockdown. new.uschess.org/news/us-chess-a … chess-com/

Also, info about online seminars for TDs and other Web-based fun stuff for US Chess members can be found at the US Chess website. The longer the lockdown continues the more we will see that. It might continue after we reach the new normal that includes OTB play.

And there is the hard-working staff. Membership dues is by far the biggest revenue source for US Chess, and the biggest expense is payroll/benefits for the staff. (You can look it up, as Yogi woulda said.)

The PPP funds will help cover payroll costs till June 30. After that, things could get dicey. Summer is a slow time for dues payments in general, and even if rated chess starts up again this summer it will be in reduced and altered form.

We do not want to see any staffers laid off or furloughed. It’s still a long way off till US Chess will be in danger of shutting its doors—but that day will come, if the pandemic drags on and on…and members do not renew.

No one wants to spend money they do not have to spend right now. The least-senior reporter at the newspaper for which I toil was laid off recently, since advertising revenue is all but kaput. At some point furloughs are coming for me and my colleagues. Other folks have it worse.

But US Chess is a worthy cause worth supporting. From the self-interest POV: When rated play starts up again, we need to have a credible organization in place to rate the games.

In this case “support” does not mean a donation, though those would be welcome, too. It’s a two-way street.

Renew for more than one year if you can afford it. I renewed through the end of 2025. It would be great to see someone beat that.

You can renew here: secure2.uschess.org/webstore/member.php

3

I upgraded my Life Membership to Benefactor Life Member. This is basically a donation to US Chess. If you can afford this I urge you to do the same.

4

Although ‘You could look it up’ is often attributed to Yogi Berra, it may have originated in a 1941 James Thurber short story (about baseball, of course) by that title. Casey Stengel reportedly said it a lot, whether he started saying it before the Thurber story came out or not is unclear. And Yogi has disclaimed saying about half of the things attributed to him.

I remember Stengel giving a radio interview at Wrigley Field years ago, talking about his team, saying, “Now, we’ve got a young pitcher, he’s 19, and next year he stands a pretty good chance of being 20.”

5

When the legend becomes fact, blame it on Yogi.

6

Wasn’t he smarter than the average Berra?

1 Like
7

Thanks to everyone who ha expressed support.

There was a special “Giving Day” program this last Tuesday. US Chess participated without any idea of a result - we collected around $7,000.

8

new.uschess.org/membership/us-c … ll-action/

9

We still need your help.

How?

Renew your membership
Encourage a friend to renew
Make sure a school chess club starts in the fall and the kids all get memberships
Play in a US Chess rated online event
Plan OTB events in your area when your local authorities approve and your player base can be safe
Teach a family member to play while y’all are home
Sign up that family member for US Chess

And

Renew your membership!!

10

I recently renewed. If i add additional renewals, will that just push my next renew date further into the future? I could just do a donation as well. I also made a pretty big order through the USCF Sales site, if that helps.

11

The new system may have limits as to how far into the future you can renew your membership (the old one did not have any limits for adult categories), but, yes, a renewal will extend your membership by pushing the expiration date forward by the number of years you purchase.