I hope to create in-house tournaments for teenagers who are resident at a substance abuse treatment center. We have pieces and boards available but no chess clocks. What problems might come up, and how would I address them? I am completely new to directing tournaments, and any support is most welcome and appreciated! Thank you.
I’ve got a few analog clocks I’ll send to you. I’m sure there are others here who have some old clocks they would be willing to part with for a good cause.
That would be awesome! Thank you so much! How would I get you my address?
Mr. Petersen,
Are you planning to have this tournament (these tournaments) rated or not? If the latter, it doesn’t really matter, and if the former, it doesn’t matter much. Do you have one or two clocks? If so, and you’re playing G/30, at this age and level most games will finish quickly, but if any are still going after, say, 50 minutes, put your clock on the game starting with five minutes per side.
In any event, I encourage you to apply for club TD, and read the rulebook.
Alex Relyea
Just send me a Private Message.
I did one ASAP tournament with an end time rather than with a set number of rounds (12 players and 14 rounds in one section and 8 players and 10 rounds in the other section that started an hour later). The time control was G/20 and I forgot to bring any clock at all. There was one game where I needed to use the chess clock app on my cell phone while the other 137 games finished within plenty of time. The first section started at 9 AM and we also got in a half hour lunch break before the ending time of 2:30 PM.
You might not be allowed to use a cell phone in a substance abuse treatment center, but that does illustrate how few games may end up actually needing a clock.
No, they will not be rated. Thank you very much for the suggestion about my clock!
I will take your advice here as well. Thank you!
I highly recommend the paper version over the Kindle version. I had the Kindle version on a tablet, there was a knuckle-headed player, I went the throw the book at him… It didn’t end well. 
Paper. Go with paper.
I own a paper version, use it regularly, rarely use a soft copy and will still disagree with you.
The search capabilities of the soft-copy would be especially useful for a new TD. I’ve read my version enough to be able to fairly quickly find the appropriate rules but that has taken some years of experience. There is extensive cross-references in both versions but it is still a lot easier to overlook an applicable rule in a paper copy than when doing a search in a soft copy.
If a new TD really wants the capability of throwing the book then get both.
PS I do realize you were probably joking, but taking you seriously did give an opportunity for an informative answer.
Sometimes I will remember a particular phrase but not exactly where it is in the rule book. For instance, recently I was asked as a special referee to help find the citation for the rule (for both US Chess rules and FIDE Laws of Chess) that a game is rated if both players make at least one move, even if the game ends with a loss because a cell phone rang. Surprisingly, you won’t find that one in chapter one of the Official Rules of Chess, where other rules such as touch move, illegal move, and draw claims are found. Instead, it is in chapter 8, The USCF Rating System. I remembered phrases from the rule, so it was much easier to find the exact reference using the search capability of the soft copy.
However, I also have a paper copy with me for use at tournaments. It would be a frigidly cold day in an otherwise extremely warm place before I hand over my Kindle or phone to a player to look at the rules.
Yes, it was a joke. Yes, I like the search and hyperlinks in the Kindle version.
Back to the OP:
First, thank you for incorporating chess in your outreach.
Second, in a non-rated, pedagogical setting, long-running games tend to work themselves out in relatively short order. Exceptions can be addressed by engaging the players in a friendly dialogue.
Don’t try this in a rated event, but in an unrated event in a beginner’s setting, it’s perfectly fine.