Hi, I just renewed my membership and will soon return to activity in a local Chess club. My question is how does one go about becomeing a TD and or a Chess coach?
If you have never been a TD, you can become a club TD by signing a form stating that you have access to a copy of the current rulebook and sending it to the USCF office.
You can get this form online by going to the ‘Activities & Interests’ tab on the left sidebar of the USCF home page, then to the ‘Forms’ page. Download and print the ‘TournamentDirectorApplication.pdf’ file. There are other files on that page you should probably look at and possibly print out as well, such as ‘Intro to Tournaments’ and ‘Running Tournaments’.
While the above will enable you to become a certified club TD and direct small rated events, only USCF affiliates have the right to hold rated events, so you will also need to find an affiliate to sanction your events, or start your own affiliate. (There’s a form to start a USCF affiliate on the forms page as well.)
Thanks for the help. I am a little confused though. A certified club TD can direct small rated events, but only USCF affiliates have the right to hold rated evets? By the way what is an affiliate? I am trying to start a Chess club at my University, will that count? By the way, should I be a certain rateing before I think about this stuff or is that not really important? I also have my rule book on the way it is not here yet though. Thanks again for the help.
Chess clubs or other organizations (such as a school) can affiliate with the USCF. This entitles them, among other things, to sell USCF memberships and take an affiliate commission on them and to hold USCF rated events. The officers of a USCF affiliate do not need to be USCF members.
However, those events must be directed by a certified TD, an individual who must also be a current USCF member. It is not necessary to have a USCF rating in order to become a TD at the club level. At higher levels a USCF rating is required, along with the requisite experience directing events. There is also an exam that has to be taken and passed in order to become certified at each of the higher levels. Those levels are local, senior, assistant national TD and national TD. I believe this is explained in some detail in one of the documents on the forms page I mentioned in my earlier message.
Yeah, I have been reading them. I guess I am blind because I couldn’t find them until you pointed them out. Either way so far they have been very helpful. THanks again.
By the way, is there a way to turn in the paperwork for becomeing a TD online or is it strickly by mail?
At this time there is no way to sign up as a club TD online, you can either mail the form to the office or fax it.
o.k. I got the rule book friday, I read it and finished it today. I mailed my Club TD application today. Just out of curiosity. About how long after the USCF gets the application does it take to get some kind of word back? I am not in a hurry I was just curious.
That’s a lot to digest in roughly one day. Actually reading through it (and getting surprised a few times if you are like most people becoming TDs) means that you have a rough idea of where to go to review a rule if you are uncertain of how to best make a difficult ruling. This is not a knock on you as even NTDs will sometimes do this for circumstances that do not arise that often, and I’ve even been involved some of those rare (often pre-emptive) discussions with multiple NTDs looking at a situation and then referring to the rulebook to see which ruling is actually best to make (in the event a ruling actually needs to be made if the discussion was pre-emptive).
Unless you have eidetic memory (and probably even then) you should follow David Kuhns advice (in another thread) and periodically reread it. He is an NTD and chair of the rules committee and even he thinks a periodic reread is worthwhile, and as another NTD (albeit not as high profile) I agree with him.
For the fasted results go to your MSA and click on your Tmnt. Dir. tab. We no longer send out TD cards.
Tim Just
Chair, TDCC
I haven’t tried it, but Mike Nolan was working on allowing TD cards to be printed in the TD/Affiliate area. That is one more incentive to get yourself set up in there.
Yes, the option to display a TD card that can then be printed out is working, but you have to be registered for access to the TD/Affiliate Support Area. (And that means you have to be a certified TD.)
I don’t know if Darrell will be sending out emails when he issues or renews someone’s TD certification, but as Tim Just pointed out a currently certified TD’s certification level and certification expiration date do show on the MSA ‘Tnmt. Dir.’ tab. They also appear on your Chess Life or Chess Life for Kids label (if you are in a membership category that gets a magazine.)
Oh, yeah for anyone to think they have a firm grasp on everything in one reading is a little unreasonable, especially as you said in mostly one or 2 days. I fully intend on studying frequently, I just wanted to get certified as soon as possible and could not send in the application until I read it. This way I will be certified and able to assist in my local clubs tourny’s sooner. It is hard to get experience as a TD if you are not certified. I will probably try to take the test in 2 or 3 years so I can get a higher certification. I don’t plan on getting too high though, I can’t imaging the problems you guys face in National tournys. Scares me just thinking about that many problems.
You can’t get ANY experience credits if you aren’t certified as a TD.
I look forward to a chapter each evening with a nice snifter of brandy right before bedtime.