B. Also because of the Committee assignment; you probably need a wide range of clubs or would be club.
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By size of city/community.
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By demographic (inner city/sub)
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By Age Group (scholastic and perhaps Senior).
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Perhaps geography. That is a little dicey IMO
It is my experience that successful clubs have a broad base of members. Old, young, scholastic, non-scholastic, and draw from a regional area. Those clubs eager to support
local scholastics, and look for ways to market to new members are generally those that
will prosper. For, quite often, it is from scholastic players that new regular club players
emerge.Rob Jones
I first say thank you Mr. Goichberg, then I say about time. The idea of reestablishing the Club Committee was passed at the Delegates Meeting in 2006.
-Lawrence S. Cohen
USCF Delegate from Illinois
Now that a proposal for National Chess Day has been passed by the Board, the Clubs committee and its members should do all they can to promote the event. Clubs must avail themselves of the TLA’s and run promotional events. And not just tournaments. We need to exercise our creativity and tap our club members for ideas. Maybe we as clubs can promote a particular theme, like “Women in Chess” or “Baby Boomer Chess” or “Chess and Music” or…come up with your own theme.
This would be a good time to use the Special Events section of the TLA. I hardly ever see an event listed
I do not recall having seen any ‘special events’ listed for some time, are you sure you don’t mean ‘rated beginners open’ events?
One possible disadvantage of having a special events area is who will know to look there?
Clubs are not in a battle with web chess. Clubs are disdainful of web chess.
Web chess is ready and happy to be utilized and leveraged to enable chess clubs to bring their members convenience, efficiency, and team play in ways there were never before plausible.
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It would appear to me, that as a USCF committee, that our primary goal should be to encourage the growth of USCF members,
USCF Rated tournaments, and finally, USCF Registered affiliates, thereby increasing revenues for USCF to fund current and
existing projects.
Rob Jones
Did the USCF Clubs Committee give a report at the US Open? Did the committee hold a meeting? The blogs gave only sparse and often snarky bits of information about the delegates meetings. I would have liked to attend, but the expense to participate as a committee member and a delegate was too much at this time. While I did relay some ideas and suggestions from players and clubs to Mr. Rasmussen, it is not the same as getting together to brainstorm and develop planning for the future.
BTW, the committee chair needs to reach out more and contact the members; we are all busy and need feedback or a push, too. I know you are less than comfortable with e-mail, but ask and you will receive all the ideas and help you need to make your committee successful.
There was no report from the clubs committee at the delegates meeting. Since most reports were given in writing, this wasn’t unusual. There was a clubs workshop, but I didn’t attend. However, some other members of the forums were there. Perhaps they can report.
Alex Relyea
Knock, knock. Hello? What is our committee doing? Any reports? Any contact with the committee members lately? Hello? What is the committee chairman doing? Is he only interested in his own club?
Have you noticed from another thread on this website that there has been a drop in the numbers of USCF affiliates? How can we address this? How about committee members and other interested parties use this thread to help boost chess in the USCF. Anybody out there have any questions? This forum for clubs will only be as good as the entire membership of the USCF make it. This forum is open to everybody. Right now it is no more active than a sleepy dog laying on a couch. Time for the membership to get off its butt. Don’t wait for other people to do things for you. You will wait a long time.
What do clubs want from the USCF? How can the organization better serve your club’s needs? What information should the USCF provide for you to help you grow? The federation needs feedback from its member affiliates. Occasionally, Executive Board members actually read some of the stuff we post. Really.
What can your club do to increase chess activity in your area? Are you able and willing to sign up more USCF members?
Our club is a small one and cannot afford Liability insurance and wants to run small low entry fee events with Trophy only prizes; yet our very nice location requires Liability insurance which costs $265. Does not Individual membership and Affliate membership provide some level of coverage if I or our club provide authorized USCF tournaments and chess related activities? Has this subject ever been discussed by ANY committee or on this Forum?
I’m not sure where it is now, but there has been discussion in the past where the USCF found an insurance company that had good rates for club insurance, but the individual clubs would need to contact that company.
Seeing as $265 per year (or more) is needed for insurance, it is understandable why the $40 annual affiliate does not include insurance (each site has its own risk based on physical makeup of the site, club hours, and town/state the site is in, so there would not a flat fee that would work for everybody).
[quote=“jwiewel”]
But can the disclaimer on the Affliate application that says:
“I assume full legal responsibility for my organization’s activities. Affiliation with the USCF does not make me or my organization an agent of the USCF for any purpose.”
release USCF from all liability if an Affliate is authorized to conduct a tournament, collect membership dues, have it rated by the USCF. If I or some player or TD is harmed at a USCF event, can that individual be prevented from suing the USCF by this disclaimer? Does the USCF have its Officers bonded and have some Liability coverage?
The USCF does have liability coverage. There is nothing that can prevent the USCF from being sued even if the suit is ridiculous.
I know you didn’t ask it, but there is no requirement that an affiliate officer, tournament organizer, tournament director, tournament volunteer, tournament player, etc. be bonded.
Since many delegates were elected in the past without realizing it, it doesn’t look like there is any bonding requirement for them either.
My wild, uninformed, guess is that the executive board doesn’t require bonding either (well, there have been claims in the past that some board members have always voted together and getting together over dinner at the US Open is common, but neither is the type of bonding you were referring to 
).
Our club has not had to deal with the issue of liability insurance as yet. The events we held in the past were small and in a public venue (Borders). We will likely have to look into it soon if we hold larger, especially scholastic, events. If the insurance were only $265 a year, that would be a small price to pay and could be defrayed through donations to the club or over time as a tournament expense.
Bigger issues involve the costs of a site for larger events and publicity. We can hold small to medium sizea one day events at our club site. Anything larger, ie. 50+ players, will likely require a different venue. We are fortunate to have a number of hotels, schools, and a convention center nearby if we would get really ambitious. Before that we need to train some TDs and give them some experience. We also have to develp club publicity/promotional flyers, tournament flyer templates, add to our tournament administration binders, and acquire tournament pairing software which will be necessary for larger events. These things cost money and we need to increase our treasury through donations. (Our membership is free, which is really appealing in these tough economic times.)
Always open to helpful suggestions and questions. Our club membership is 96 and growing. We are trying to work with other clubs to help them. The cooperation should be good for all of us.
Just out of curiousity, where do you meet now?
We moved twice after Borders went out of business. Our present club site is at a church which has an annex with classrooms. The classroom we use has space and tables/chairs for twelve chess boards. When there is an overflow we may use another classroom. That will likely be needed very soon. The use of the facility is free, but we are planning on giving the church a donation soon when our treasury goes up a bit. On any given Wednesday we average 20 to 25 players for casual games. About half of the players are kids. Sometimes players from other clubs show up to play. Most of the games are played without clocks, but we have several DGT North American digital clocks and some other digital and analog clocks available for use. We also have 28 sets and boards. Club membership is diverse and is growing every week. Most of our members come from the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh.
We have a yearly rolling calendar of activities. In 2012 we are planning to renew holding several USCF rated events per year. Plus we will hold a number of unrated practice events to get the kids practice in using a chess clock, writing their moves, and familiarised with tournament rules. In May we will hold our annual club championship, which is unrated. Our club also has a team in the Pittsburgh Chess League; 12 players are on the roster. We are planning an interclub match. There will likely be a number of parties this year. We are always trying to find unique chess things to do. A couple of years ago we put on a chess play at Borders Books near Halloween. It was about the Frankenstein-Dracula variation. The teenagers who helped to write the play also gave a talk on the books by Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley. Our club emphasizes the social values of chess; USCF rated play is only a small portion of what we do.
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IMHO I would look into liability insurance and secure it. It’s not that expensive. Most places will offer two types from what I saw when calling around looking for the most appropriate option. One kind is where you can attach a rider to it and one that you cannot. Take for example with my chess center. I have liability insurance for things that happen onsite at the chess center. I can attach riders to it for blanket coverage for outside events or do individual ones on a per event basis.
I’d recommend to start calling around and looking into it. The last thing you need is for an accident to happen, there are medical bills to pay for whoever was injured, and then it turns out that the coverage for the location your using won’t cover it.
I’ll give a brief example of one that I know of that did happen in a church. There was a slip and fall that happened when someone didn’t see a spilled drink (and no it wasn’t a setup for an insurance claim). The person required a number of stitches to his head and was an older fellow. The church’s liability insurance refused coverage for the accident because the event was not a church sponsored event (the funds for the tournament did not go through the church’s bank account is one example of why it wasn’t considered a church event). It was lucky for this organizer that the fellow didn’t seek anything (even that amount to cover his personal medical insurance deductible).
And be mindful of the insurance policies as we all know they are not equal, so read the language over.
My opinion at least.
I agree about the need for this insurance. However, for the truly small club, it is expensive. Our club is mostly adults although open to scholastics. An average turnout is 8 players. We would like to do a club or city championship/ trophy only/ low entry fee event; but our nice location requires this insurance. Active adult players in our state are about 150. Should not USCF provide some help for small clubs? My inquires to the Club Committee Chair and the USCF contacts have been ignored.