I just heard about a method to find new players for a club, that has a good track record:
Go to the libraries in the area, and put a flyer in each chess book in the library! Notices on a bulletin board can be missed.
All the best, Joe
A most intriguing idea!
BTW, in Michigan, we send complimentary copies of our magazine to selected libraries around the state.
Just don’t let the library catch you doing it!
We tried actually donating chess books to the library with “Donated by” in them with info about the club but it took so long for the donated books to show up on the shelves that we gave up.
Some libraries might let you.
I know someone who tried that as well. The library accepted the books, but when they made it onto the shelves there was a big bookplate completely covering up the ‘donated by’ information.
Libraries might be reluctant to let groups of patrons leaflet their books, because if they let the chess club do it, then they have to let every other organization do it as well.
Any examples from experience with libraries, or even hearsay, Mike?
Steve Doyle did it at sixteen when he headed the largest chess club in New Jersey. The idea came from Glenn Petersen.
Practicality can generate reasoned and logical negativity. After that, some people just go out, and get things done.
All the best. Joe
I doubt the idea was new when Steve was using it some 35 years ago, I’ve seen it numerous times in articles promoting ‘guerrilla marketing’.
I also know from direct experience (my sister-in-law was the assistant head librarian for Lincoln Nebraska for several years, and ran the library system in Chaska County MN before that) that librarians DESPISE the practice, in part because it can damage the book.
Unless you use a good commercial printer, the ink can rub off on the book over time, leaving a reversed image that is slightly sticky and can cause the two pages to stick together. That will almost certainly happen if you just photocopy the flyers.
Depends on how you do it, yes. But what are we here to promote? Libraries or chess? You can fold it in half.
How many articles on guerilla marketing have you read? Any other good ideas?
All the best, Joe
I have known some that have done the same with chess books in bookstores.
I have been a librarian for almost 20 years now, and I cannot imagine any library with a policy that would allow for having flyers – no matter how nicely they are produced – placed in its collection’s books. Nor can I imagine any type of library worker (from a fulltime librarian to a teenage after-school shelving clerk) considering this type of thing acceptable. I believe that any person discovered inserting them into the books would be immediately told to cease and desist, and any library personnel coming across these flyers would summarily remove them and take them straight to the nearest “circular file.”
It’s true that the community bulletin boards in many libraries are overcrowded and many flyers simply get quickly covered over, ripped down, or not read for a variety of other reasons. Sometimes, though, these boards can be an effective way of disseminating information. They are still worth a try.
In my opinion, the best alternative would be to “take the high road” and contact the particular library (or the central library in a system) and ask how to go about having a notice placed on the library’s website, in the community events section, for instance. Patrons who are regular library users definitely look at these websites on a frequent basis. These are people who are almost always quite keen to find out about new activities being held at their local branch and often have many friends who would be interested, as well. Even people who don’t look at the website as frequently will get to see it at some point, perhaps when searching for materials in the online catalog, renewing a book, etc.
So … even though promoting chess is a really wonderful thing to do … I would strongly suggest not wasting time and effort trying to accomplish this by sneaking flyers into library books. It’s simply not going to get the job done, and will only result in causing needless (and very counterproductive) feelings of ill-will among the library staff.
As for bookstores, unless there are special circumstances – like being a friend of the manager of an independently-run shop, or something like that – it’s hard to imagine flyers stuck in books working out there, either.
Laurie