Hi folks. I’m going to direct my first rated tournament in June. Our base is a group of ~30 kids, grade school and high school age, the vast majority of whom are not USCF members and have never played rated chess.
My goal is to introduce them to rated play, foster USCF membership as a way of bringing them into the broader chess community, and draw some rated players from the surrounding area who might not otherwise show up at a “kids” club.
So here’s the question: We have a couple more club meetings (April and May) before the tournament. Does the USCF provide any promotional materials I can start putting in front of the kids – and their parents – to encourage them to join the USCF? Posters to hang in the room, USCF pens/pencils, back issues of CL to give away (not the one with Tim Taylor’s article, thank you), one-page reprints of CL articles/columns of interest to the new player are the kinds of things I have in mind.
Does USCF have anything to support new affiliates in this way?
The initial issue of Chess Life for Kids will be coming out in April. This new bi-monthly magazine will be aimed at members who are 12 and under and will be the default publication for those members.
I don’t know how many promotional copies they’ll have available, but contact USCF Scholastic Director Jerry Nash, jnash@uschess.org.
I think a series of chess posters would be a great idea, we used to have an 11 x 17 poster in the mailing for the Nebraska Scholastic Championships. (One year I had a local cartoonist draw a cartoon of a young girl and boy with a chess set and clock.)
My 12-yr-old son has a multi-year Youth membership. Does this mean he’ll receive the kid’s mag from April until he turns 13 and will then again receive the regular CL? Will these switches all be handled automatically or is some action required on my part?
The way things are currently defined, yes he will received Chess Life for Kids until he turns 13, after which he will receive Chess Life.
Whether the policy will remain that way or not is a different issue.
Also, we will have flags to permit members who would normally get
Chess Life to get Chess Life for Kids (and probably vice versa), as well
as the ability for people who receive Chess Life to subscribe to Chess Life for Kids separately.
Cool. So since I have an affiliate I could flag my reg membership to get CL for kids so i get both magazines? Who do we contact or can we change this online in the members area?
