I notice that there don’t seem to be many (or any) big (open) scholastic tournaments in the summer. I’m assuming that that’s because scholastics are promoted through the schools and with schools out for the summer that’s hard to do.
Has anyone tried holding a big scholastic tournament in the summer? (Are any still being held that I don’t know about? Have there been any successes or would an attempt be doomed from the start?)
For the past 20 years I have held a tournament every July which has a junior and a scholastic section. Even in the days when I was also organizing the Nebraska Scholastic championships (usually in late February) and having a turnout of 200 or more players it was rare to have more than 50 youth and scholastic players in the July event.
I’ve also tried scholastic team events in August and early September that haven’t drawn very well, it seems it takes the schools a few weeks to get organized each year, events at the end of September do much better.
There’s certainly nothing wrong with a turn-out of 50 (scholastic & youth). I’d call that a successful tournament – it only looks small in comparison to the 200.
I’ll just have to realize that turn-outs will be much lower in summer. Is it harder to promote a summer event? Any suggestions on how to get a decent response?
You don’t have the schools to work with during the summer, so you either have to contact the players individually (which can get expensive) or find other ways to reach them. Online TLAs may help here, and we’re hoping to have this ready to go soon, I’m making some revisions to the form today. I expect there will be an announcement about it at next week’s EB meeting
We once held a June event that we had fliers for at the February tournament. I think it helped some, at least we got some of the entries on those forms. (I color-coded the flyers that I handed out in February versus the ones I mailed in May.)
I agree with you that you don’t need 200 to call an event successful.
I would attempt to get the tournament information in the hands of the scholastic coaches before the end of the school year. I have held early June events with some success, and I attribute most of the turnout to school year advertising.
Dunno about tournaments in the summer, but we have pretty good luck in our town running a weekly open chess night in the summers. Skittles games. Kids (and a few adults) like to come in and play on a casual basis. They keep their games up over the summer, and it’s very laid back. Just a thought for you. Some start playing in the summer, then move on to tournaments in the fall. 
During the summer, there are a number of chess camps. Some camps are two days, or as long as two weeks. Number of chess camps have a certified tournament director on the staff. It is not that hard for a tournament director to get access to a affiliate. For some reason, the chess camps never have rated USCF tournaments.
Chess camps would be an ideal place to have summer scholastics. Do not see the issue for not having scholastic tournaments in a chess camp, as the issue of not having a certified tournament director, or the issue of a affiliate. Not all parents want or care to have their child be USCF members.
Chess camps, have been designed to be during the summer. There is not a clear shortage of scholastic players during the summer. Its’ just that chess camps are not designed to have rated tournaments. Finding it odd and strange, its’ just the nature of the animal.
With (school) scholastic tournaments, it is more common to have it during the school year. As the school itself would be ideal to have scholastic event. Most schools have the scholastic events within the school district. There are a few that will ask other schools to come. Most schools, are going to keep it in house or only ask the local group of schools in the
area. There are some minor problems for a school to have a scholastic tournament during the summer. The coaches are more in part teachers that are on vacation during the summer. The students during the summer are now between grades, and some are on vacation themselves. Then there are the cost of the insurance to have students within the school during the summer.
The state associations could have summer scholastic events. As the state championships were in the winter or early spring, what would bring the players during the summer. If the state association has more than one championship a year, it only weakens the value of the title. The other issue, the state associations are going to have a number of adult
tournaments during the summer. The state associations could or do not have the man power to run more state level tournaments during the summer. Why run scholastic tournaments during the summer when you have a man power shortage, and than having a scholastic tournament without a title.
Scholastic tournaments are nice, having so many is only going to burn out the players. Scholastic tournaments are nice for the new and young players. Scholastic tournaments are ideal for someone under the age of 12, or under the rating of 1200. If the child is over 12 and over 1200, it is time to move onto adult tournaments. Summer tournaments, would be more ideal for this type of player. Scholastic tournaments only, can be a bad idea for the scholastic player.
Have come to the theory, having rated scholastic tournaments during the summer is a bad idea. I’m not a big fan of rated scholastic tournaments.
The Emory Castle Chess Camp, a weeklong affair held at Emory University in Atlanta in June, culminates with a Grand Prix tournament.
Great, but most chess camps never have rated tournaments. There are good points and bad points, for having rated scholastic tournaments within a small group of people.