Do you think changing the club affiliate membership fee from $40 to $20 would increase chess play in US?
Would the change in fees also make more money for the USCF?
That would increase the number of clubs that become affiliated?
That would increase membership in the USCF?
That would increase USCF rated tournaments?
That would increase USCF sells of equipment?
It is hard to get a chess club started. A bunch of people do not run into each other in the mall and say “lets start a chess club” . Sometimes a chess club has to start and then draw members to the club, instead of chess players finding each other randomly and saying hey lets start a club.
I have a club webpage (easy to find on goggle), my club is on facebook, i have flyers out, i have already applied and become a Club TD (although i can not have a ranked tournament till i am affiliated), still only 6 to 8 people meet, at the mall for my chess club and not always the same people. I am not going to lose the 6 or 8 people by charging them membership fees (so that we can become affiliated). If the cost of becoming afffiliated was lower, i would pay for it out of my pocket, and with hopes of the club growing because of becoming affiliated, i would start to hold USCF ranked tournaments. Which would impress on each club member to join the USCF to play in ranked tournaments. Without a local affiliated club to play inexpensive chess tournaments in. There will not be many ranked chess tournaments.
Think about it (easy to see on the internet) there are more chess clubs not affiliated than are affiliated. And then what purpose would joining and becoming a member of the USCF if you have no affiliated club to attend and no USCF local tournaments to play in. Why be a ranked player if you have no ranked players to play against? I am not fortunate to live in an area that has many chess clubs to choose from or chess clubs located close by. I think attendence to a chess club has alot to do with the distance between the chess player and the club,,, lets get more clubs started to reduce that distance.
To get the ball rolling I think lowering the affiliate chess club fee would greatly benefit the chess community.
The reality of the situation here is that if your fledging club isn’t ready or capable of paying the 40 dollar affiliate fee then your club simply isn’t ready for that step yet. Sure if it was 20 dollars you might pay it out of pocket personally, but just becoming an affiliate doesn’t all of a sudden bring new members. The only advantage here is if things wither away you are only out 20 dollars etc instead of 40.
If you are in an area with rated tournaments etc you could encourage your membership to join the USCF and go play in those. If there aren’t any tournaments in your area then having unrated tournaments is probably the way to go.
In fact if you do a few unrated tournaments and charge a couple of dollars extra dedicated towards your Affiliate fund it wouldn’t take long to reach 40 dollars.
Then your issue is convincing everyone to become USCF members.
I’d recommend seeing if you have a local newspaper in your area that allows for citizen journalism. If it does then you have a great channel to communicate to potential chess players through, whether or not they are USCF members.
If you don’t have a local newspaper that allows for this, you should contact the editor of the local paper (and when I mean local you should be looking for a neighborhood or area paper) and see if they would be willing to run a small story to get the word out. You’d be surprised what you could get if you just ask.
These are great ways of getting awareness going on in the non-USCF community.
If you’re looking at attracting the USCF community in your area, purchase a mailing list to do a postcard mailing to, or do an email blast from the USCF.
A lower affiliate fee might allow more K-12 school affiliates. Then those affilaties could run single-school USCF-rated tournaments for their school even if the great majority of the players were not USCF members, paying only the normal per game rating fee (assuming the TD was adept at handling JTP sections).
For an adult affiliate the difference between $20 and $40 may not mean much for most of the clubs or TDs that would want an affiliate membership.
I have been successful in starting chess clubs over the years. I have also had a couple of clubs fail, notably the latest one I started 4 years ago.
Getting a club started and getting the size of membership high enough to make it a successful thing are important issues. Sevan made a great point about getting the free articles and public service announcements. The local media usually is quite willing to help out in this area. I believe radio stations need to do a minimum number of public service announcements as part of their license with the FCC. Local newspapers are also usually helpful. All you need do is call the place and ask for the person that handles public service announcements and/or local news. They usually accept emails with copy of what you want said. This can be used to announce the club and other news, like changing of meeting places or times. It also is good to announce “events” on club night. I know that it was very successful for me in at least 2 clubs I started to get something in at least every 4 - 6 weeks. I would use the season to come up with a tournament. At the beginning of the club we would use faster time controls, G/15, G/20 and even G/30. As the club matured we would slow it down from G/30 to G/60. Having a “Fireworks Chess Tournament” with 4 rounds of G/15 would pretty much be the same as playing skittles anyway. Naming a “tournament” is a good excuse for an article or an announcement. It gets people’s attention.
We also started a club ladder and that worked great. It is important to keep things varied as well. Some people might like the 5 minute games while others don’t like them and prefer the G/30 or slower. Having a variety keeps more people interested and coming.
The big concern, to me, is what type of chess do the “members” want to play. If you have people that predominantly want to play coffee house, less competitive chess, then that’s fine. If they have a taste for competitive chess, with clocks and all, then that’s a different story.
If your members, even 6 to 8, are USCF members, then they will want to play competitive, rated games. If they aren’t members, then you might be better off starting with non-rated tournaments for awhile until they want the rated play. I know that I didn’t become an affiliate in the 2 successful clubs until well after 1 to 2 years. It took that long for the membership to grow and then for the members to want the competition model of play.
The difference between $40 and $20 for a club really isn’t the issue, in my opinion. If you have 6 regulars that want to play rated chess they can each chip in a little under $7 each and that will cover the affiliate dues. You can get this from membership dues or entry fees to tournaments.
As an aside on membership dues for the club I have an observation. The only club that really failed was the last one I started. When I created that club, I set it up so there would be no dues for anyone. It would be completely free to join. The 2 that were the most successful had membership dues. I would have a membership tournament in the fall of the year. The entry fee would be the annual dues. If people didn’t play in that tournament, the dues would be the same. I got some local merchants to donate some prizes like a 6 pack of Pepsi or a coupon for donuts. I got enough of these for everyone, so nobody didn’t win something. In fact in the most successful club I ran, we would have a drawing for these prizes. Anyway, I do think the membership dues gives a certain value to the membership that keeps some coming back. I believe this is especially important in the early phases of having the club. If you have 8 people play in your membership tournament and charge $10 for your dues/entry, you can pay for the affiliate dues and have an extra $40 in the club kitty to maybe buy a banner with the club’s name for public events or something.
I would not expect for affiliates to double as a result of the halved fee. However, if you take the opposite approach and double the fee then I can imagine over half of current affiliates not renewing (clubs may “combine” under one affiliate in order to submit rating reports), so there are inconsistencies with my guesses about what might happen.
As a TD who has started, co-founded, or helped over 20 USCF affiliates,
the difference between $ 20 and $ 40 for as an affiliate cost is truly
moot. For it takes far more than $ 40 anyway in terms of advertising,
promotion, running tournaments, etc, to do all of the things that are
vital in making an affiliate successful. Thus, when this fee is compared
to that of, say a premium adult membership, it does appear a bargain.
I would rather have higher-priced affiliates, and support services from the central office that meant something, than the $40 fee. As is, the affiliate is probably a loss leader for the office.
I must state this: I have found the support services, and the willingness
to help affiliates to be outstanding. And to them a very grateful
thank you.
Rob Jones
Denton Chess Club, Plano Chess Club, Ed Gurukul Institute, Universal
Academy, Dallas Chess Club, Tarrant County Chess Club, McKinney
Chess Academy, Legacy Christian Academy, etc.
Hi Lee:
I agree with the other posters who feel that the $40 is not a deterent. For example, the Hampton Roads Chess Club charges $2 to play in a one week rated event. Suppose that 10 players participate in a 3 round event. The income is $20. The expenses are $3.75 to rate the event, I estimate about $1.25 to pay expenses such as score sheets, paper, & laser cartridge. This leaves $5 toward the affiliate cost. That means that the affiliate will be paid for in 8 weeks. More players, the quicker it is paid off. If the proposal to reinstitute the affiliate commission for adults passes, that means that if you sell 10 USCF memberships, you will get an extra $30. Therefore, I don’t think that the cost is a problem.
Now, what do you get for becoming an affiliate? Free TLAs - both printed and on the web. A listing on the USCF’s club web area. The ability to run rated events. Inexpensive advertising for club events.
One of the best ways I have found to publicize a chess club is using the Internet. At least half the newbies who come to my club learn about it from the Chess House website.
For anyone who has bookmarked the Chess House website, the host is changing. Verizon who previously provided my fee site will eliminate the ability to FTP pages to the site. I have a new URL: http://chesshouse.zxq.net/
Regards, Ernie
The $40 affiliate fee is not a deterrent for a chess club, no matter what the type or size. The real questions are what do you want your club to be doing in terms of activities and what you get in return for being an affiliate.
If your club is purely social, gets together to play and have fun, and has no interest in rated competition, then being an affiliate of the USCF is not strictly necessary. It is completely okay to be small and informal. If you have interest from your members in USCF rated play, then being an affiliate makes it easier for you to operate and maybe make money for your club. Some people like to play rated games, some don’t. As a club you must balance the needs of your members. With affiliation you get both Chess Life and Chess Life for Kids magazines for your members to peruse on club nights. That might inspire a few to become USCF members and play in a tournament. There is a certain cachet in saying you are an affiliate of the USCF that helps with potential sponsors.
The $40 affiliation fee is not too exorbitant but it does show a serious commitment to the idea of being a real chess club and earning the money back to pay for it. Look at the fee as a key to the gateway to the wider world of organized chess. Having belonged to a number of organizations, $40 is about the cheapest fee one could pay to become part of a network of like minded groups.
sticking with the topic of this discussion: proposal to increase chess play in US:
I am not just whining about 40 dollars to get my club going, i think there are alot other people that would be interested in starting clubs if the cost was lower. I liked flat screen tvs when they were $3,000 to $2,000 dollars but i did not buy one till the price was $600 dollars or less, case and point about increasing sales, right now i bet you are looking at a flat screen monitor, if everybody would have bought them at $1,200 dollars when they came out, why did the manufacturers lower the price? i bought my flat screen computer monitor for $140. cost is important, and has an impact on membership. i am not a business major but marketing and cost need to be re-evaulated every so often for a buisness/club to excel or continue. As for marketing: 3,733,702 clicked the “like” button on a facebook “chess” page and the number keeps increasing. you figure out how much would you need to charge 3,733,702 people in order to run the USCF ? figure not every chess player is a facebook member and not every facebook member that is a chess player clicked on the “like” of the chess page. How many members currently belong to USCF? How many total clubs? I am just saying, i would like to see chess play in my town increase and all over the world, and if the people in charge can do something or re-evaulate information/data maybe this can happen. i believe 3 million people times $40 dollars is alot of money, how much does USCF need to keep running? thanks for comments good or bad, just need to get the game going all over and in my town too. thanks, Lee
It’s not quite fair to compare a $40 charge to a $2000 one.
Also a flat screen TV and a flat screen computer monitor are physical items for use. Technology advances and the cost of such things does reduce significantly as a normal thing. Even today, what will $40 buy you at Best Buy, Amazon, Office Depot or wherever? $40 isn’t a lot of money, especially when we are talking about running rated chess events. And if you aren’t running rated chess events, you really don’t need an affiliate membership.
A club could and should begin without being a USCF affiliate, at least if the person starting it is already a USCF member that knows about tournaments and rated chess. The novices and/or beginners need to get to a certain, minimum level of play before it warrants USCF membership.
It would be a good thing for the USCF to come up with a starter package for the novice or someone with less USCF experience to start a club. I recall the USCF sending our a free booklet many years ago to get a club going. It addressed things like marketing, setting up a budget and all. The problem is that if someone wants to start a chess club, they probably already have some type of experience in rated chess play, and they know someone, even if just from attending a tournament, that could guide and lead them in starting a club. I repeat though, that the beginning club should not become an affiliate when the vast majority of members of the club are novice chess players.
The vast majority of the people on this forum would like to see Chess flourish and going all over. I can tell you from experience in our local club and a couple of others that I had personal experience with that it isn’t the money. In Peoria, Illinois we have a foundation incorporated that we formed with money from running a few state and one national scholastic championship. We have money that we can and do spend on chess in the greater Peoria area.
Bradley University is in our city, there is usually a chess club active there. A number of years ago there was a pretty nice club that met on campus of 10 - 15 students. We offered to pay these students’ memberships in the USCF, the Illinois Chess Association and their entry fees to a tournament we hold annually on campus. Yes, we were making it so that the students could play completely free of charge and have a USCF membership with a magazine for the year also for free. Remember, these were students that were already coming to the weekly chess club meeting on campus, so there was a record that they would play chess. We have had that offer going now for 6 or 7 years and we make sure they are aware of this offer more than once a year. In that time we have had zero, none, zilch or nada amount of students take us up on that offer.
I also started a chess club about 4 years ago in the area I grew up in. I was working back there 4 days a week and decided to get a club going again. There used to be a chess club in the area, but the fellow running it had let it drop. I structured the club so that pretty much everything would be free to the members. I did kind of insist that people bring their own chess equipment, but no one protested at paying the $10 - $15 for a combo that we did occasionally as a group buy. We even got chess clocks at under $30 and everyone willingly bought one of those too. When I started the club, we had 15 people showing up. That was excellent for that area, and more than I ever expected. The numbers did dwindle over the next 2 1/2 years. Remember, once they bought the equipment, which everyone did happily, there was literally no cost for them to play chess. We never ever got to the level with these people of them wanting rated chess. They all were pretty much at the G/20 level of play. And it’s not as if I didn’t try. I offered numerous G/30, G/45 and even a couple of G/80 events for them on club nights and a couple on weekends. They just didn’t want to play competitive chess. In fact they just didn’t want to play even coffee house quality chess. It wasn’t the money. No one was mad or anything like that. They just didn’t want to come to club, even once a month or so to play.
I’m not discouraged by the above. I am more knowledgeable though about what people want and don’t want in Chess, and the reality of having a chess club in every community, not. We do quite well in Peoria with our club, that I help run with my friends. Chess is free there also. We even have offered to pay the occasional individual’s USCF dues and all so they could or would play rated chess at our club. Not one of these have taken us up on that either. It’s not the money.
I disagree.We found an excellent place to play at a Bridge Club on a night when they has nothing going on. At first, we charged $1 per visit to help pay their rent. Then it was increased to $2. Some players whined. THEN, the Bridge Club started carrying Liability Insurance and asked that our club do the same, which we were unable to do. We asked our State Federation to help since our club is an Affliate , they are studying this idea. I wonder if USCF would consider doing this for its Affliates??? = has anyone asked??? We now are requiring our chess players to join the Bridge Club, so they are covered, and for only $12 a year. Turnout dropped quickly. Now a pro organizer has incorporated and has such coverage, so he can rent our Club’s facility for his events. This is OK with one exception=he has seized our regular tournament dates and even the long running names of them.
If I recall correctly, USCF was (or was going to before the whole Polgar mess came down) going to offer a way for affiliates to qualify for group insurance somehow. I don’t remember a lot of details, but I know that this has come up before, and someone should be able to come up with details.