Where Do You Meet?

Chess Clubs
1

Here in Peoria, Illinois we currently have a problem finding a meeting place.

When I moved here in 1996 I had a history of starting clubs in the areas I lived so they made me the VP of Promotion or whatever. At the time we were meeting in a single, but big, room building on the campus of Bradley University, which is in Peoria.

The university changed the function of that room/building and we were forced to relocate to the student union. There we had a time finding a suitable place with tables and then a place that was not noisy. Plus that area of the city had become more crime ridden than before making it so some parents did not want their teenage boys driving there for chess club.

Being the one they looked to to find space, I found the overflow dining room of a Denny’s restaurant. That worked for about a year then I found us space at our local museum that would also offer classes to the public. We were there for 12 years until they closed that location for a new, larger one downtown near the Illinois River. This area is not the best and they now close the museum at 9:00 pm or earlier, no matter what.

We have a large supermarket that was built across the street from the old museum and it had a dining area with perfect square tables for playing chess and also some booths that worked well. They have a number of food options including a salad bar, pizza bar, delicatessen area for sandwiches and the like. We have been there for 2 years and it is a free space. The only problem was it could get noisy, but not always. We have been there until the company decided to remodel. This remodeling is removing the open dining area and replacing it with a restaurant with servers and they are now serving alcohol. There is no way that we will be able to be in this space after the restaurant is built. They put us in their club room that they usually rent out with the understanding that if someone would rent the space they would have priority over us. The problem has been the last 2 weeks we have not found out about the rental until we arrived to find the space not available for us. There was no warning at all.

When this happened the first time, we were scheduled for 4 rounds of G/20 on our ladder so it was not a big deal and the people using the room were out by 8:00 only putting us back 1/2 hour. However, I decided to go looking for a space then. I had the consideration that on a Monday night if a place would be available, it would be apparent and available that Monday night when I went looking. Another fellow came with me and we talked with a competing supermarket with a community space learning we needed to talk with the general manager the next day. This space was not optimal but we could use it if we had to.

After looking at and talking with managers of 3 other places we realized we would be hard pressed to find something that evening. On the way back to the club meeting, I decided to stop and talk with the manager of our local Perkins Restaurant. This Perkins has some tables semi-partitioned off that would work nicely. Well, this manager was extremely nice and helpful. So, we arranged to begin there in 2 weeks, giving us a chance at the supermarket the next week to tell everyone about the move. Well, the supermarket did it to us again this last Monday and we were forced to go to the Perkins, having a member stand at the door to the supermarket telling everyone in our club to go to the Perkins, not optimal at all.

The Perkins is fair enough but there is not a lot of room to walk around and look at other games. Plus it is a restaurant with elevator jazz playing at all times. The company is opened till midnight and look to be open 24/7 in June. So, the hours are fine for us. There is no minimum we have to spend or anything. And the food is really good. It’s just not a room with tables and floor space that you would think a chess club would do well in.

I/we have come down to the following requirements for a space:

  1. The place needs to have public access so that we do not rely on any one person to have a key or to have us authorized to be there.

  2. It needs to be open and available at least until 11 pm preferably midnight or later.

  3. It needs to have tables that are good to play Chess on. The standard 6’ or 8’ banquet tables are fine. Square tables as you see in dining areas and restaurants are also fine. And we also can live with some, but not all, booths. We need there to be open floor space to walk freely between tables for viewing.

  4. The place needs to be quiet as well. Sure we can handle some normal noise but quiet is really desirable.

  5. Having the place for free is preferable as we got accustomed to this and thereby eliminated club dues altogether. Of course if we need to pay some rent, we can do that if it’s not too expensive.

Church Halls have been looked at and even tried in the past, but that usually puts us at the mercy of one person getting us in there and when that person either leaves or loses interest we’re out. Also if they want an church event on a Monday evening we are also out.

Going back to Bradley University is something we can consider, but it still is a dicey area and I don’t think the union has any quiet places available at this time. We also would need to get either a faculty member or student as our representative, and that’s not necessarily easy or consistent.

Other places like Panera Bread, Barnes & Noble, Starbucks, other coffee houses or restaurants all have hours that don’t work. They all close at 9:00 or 10:00 at the latest and that simply won’t work when we have a G/80, d/5 event or longer.

Our park district is literally no help. They have taken over the old museum building and an old YWCA building, for instance, and the best they will give is to charge us $20 an hour to use any space. A few of us have tried a lot over the years to work with them to no avail.

I suppose I could go to a few of the more public churches to see if we can use their basement or other meeting space. That just doesn’t seem too promising at this time.

So, what do you folks do for you club meeting space?

Where do you meet?

What hours do you meet and when?

Do you have to pay rent or make a minimum purchase or do you have free space?

At this juncture I am looking for ideas.

2

I’m not aware of any area club that has free meeting space. For larger clubs, $20 an hour sounds pretty darn good.

Alex Relyea

3

I would not say we are a large club. Our normal attendance is 8 - 14. We have seen numbers as large as 24 on one evening, but that is rare.

4

Does Peoria have a Senior Center?

Alex Relyea

5

We meet at a local McDonald in the hood. 15, I believe, it about the max we’ve had, and that’s when we get youngsters. It can get pretty rowdy in there sometimes, but we’ve never had any complaints from parents, and they keep coming back.

We’ve been everywhere in a city of about 140K (I think). Churches, restaurants, mall, banks, libraries.

Most of them were free, but we did have one church we paid $25/month for utilities, and it was really very nice, spacious fellowship hall, and we were always the only ones there, stay as long as we wanted, well til 11 or so. We even ran weekend swisses, and large scholastic tournaments there. Was a great place. A couple members decided to bring in some alcohol, and leave the evidence in the trash cans for the custodial staff to see - and, well, you know the rest.

It’s difficult to find good space, and we just take what we can get. As for now, at least we have a very nice church fellowship hall that we use for monthly tournaments. Donation: whatever we can give.

6

Well, there is no senior center in Peoria in a good area of the city. Peoria is just over 110K population.

I would like to find a church fellowship hall or community room and we would not mind paying something.

I plan on looking at some church facilities to see what we can find.

7

Try a Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), or Evangelical Lutheran Ron. They’re pretty easy to work with.

8

from what I have heard in the past [1960s] there were clubs meeting at VFW or American Legion Halls. The quid pro quo at the time was that the chess club would get free meeting space on one night of the week and in exchange 1 or more members would help with the set up on some other night for a non-chess event. American Legion & VFW may no longer be free, but it is a possibility to be looked into for your club.

Are there any of those morning/afternoon only restaurants [usually pancake houses] in your city? I have never heard of anyone getting them to let their space be used in the evening/night when they are usually closed, but maybe you could be the first.

Speaking of colleges, what about that community college just east of Peoria? Maybe they could provide space.

Just some ideas that you could look into. Good luck with the hunt for space.

Larry Cohen

9

The junior college has its main campus in East Peoria, just across the river. The junior colleges in Illinois were all built in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. One aspect of all of them is the parking is quite a walk to the main buildings. These campuses are also all out of town and quite windy and cold in the winter. While I am confident we can get space at this campus, it will be uncomfortable at best for people to get there.

They do have a couple of campuses in Peoria proper, but at this time there is no good space available. I checked.

We have looked at restaurants and currently are meeting in one, Perkins. It’s just that the meeting space could be better.

My experience with places like VFW and other group halls is that they want to rent the space out whenever possible. They also usually have a bar open most evenings serving alcohol. This rules out these places for our club.

I have looked to places where Bridge clubs, Backgammon clubs and Mah Jong clubs meet. There even is a game store that hosts Magic and other gaming events. Their back room is quite spacious with tables and chairs that are perfect for our needs. The problem is the owner is the one running it and closes at 8pm, no matter what.

I’m still looking.

10

In 2011, our club, which was located in a Borders Books, was forced to move. For a couple of months I scoured the area for a suitable place. We tried a pizza place, but that got pretty expensive. From there we moved to a church, using classrooms attached for our club sessions on Wednesday evenings and for our Saturday tournament. I plan a year in advance with the church to set up our calendar of events. The list is then put on our website at mchess.freehostia.com Right now we have over 160 members on our mailing list.

While looking for the new sight, I hit a lot of places to find the right fit. I also talked to the local Chamber of Commerce and the recreation director of the municipality and the head of the local library about potential sites. Here is a list of places I looked at which were suggested to me:

  • Senior citizen center - great place, spacious, had interested members, but they did not want to have kids around
  • Local library - almost suitable, but it closed too early. Nice room for tournaments, but always booked on weekends
  • Convention center/hotel complex - Many large and small meeting rooms. Lots of parking. Close to food and drink. Room cost too expensive for us.
  • Panera - Had a glass walled area for private groups to use. Central location, lots of parking. Food and drink available. Too expensive.
  • Community college - Nice place, lots of room and parking. Great place for a tournament. Just too far from the center of the community. Roads nearby are too “interesting” in the winter to travel on.
  • Senior village - This was pretty attractive. Nice room area. They were very helpful and cooperative. Low to no cost. Almost settled the club there.
  • Municipal authority - Had space for club activities and tournaments. Looked like a good place to have the club. Then some politico balked and nixed the idea. But this would have been a good place for us.
  • Park pavilion - Was offered one for free to use. But that would have limited the club to only mid-May to early September to use. We needed an indoor site.
  • Chamber of Commerce - They had a meeting room, good parking. Cost was $170 per week to use. But they did give us a list of places to see, contacts for potential sponsors of events. Very helpful staff. If we have to move, will talk to them again as their insights into planning were very helpful.
  • Several restaurants - Had large back rooms for banquets that were generally not used mid-week, but no guarantee we would be bumped. Also wanted to charge per week, or have us run a tab of at least $200 per night in food and drink sales.
  • Coffee shops - Centrally located. Looked at Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks stores. The Dunkin Donuts was open 24 hours, but did not have enough parking. The manager was interested because the back area in the evening was barely used. Starbucks was too small and had few usable tables. The denizens were a little creepy.
  • McDonalds and Burger King - Managers felt they were too busy and were not interested in the idea of a chess club being in their place.
  • Barnes and Noble - Had a café area, with tiny tables. Closed at 9 pm, much too early for our group. No chance of holding tournaments there. Borders had been really good to us, and made accommodations. B&N, not interested.
  • Various churches - We settled on one after having interviews with several pastors and priests over concerns, costs, environment, and how we could accommodate their needs while fulfilling what we wanted to do. The place we are in was the most welcoming and we were more than happy to do anything they asked of us. We have talked to other groups who also used the building. We have an informal agreement to help out the Boy Scouts with meeting the requirements for their chess merit badges.

We skipped schools because of the need to meet too many regulations. Our club had switched from a scholastic club to an open club when we moved to Borders. Saw no need or ability to switch back. We love kids, but do not want to be limited to only kids in the club. Having been independent for a while, we did not want to be under someone else’s authority. As soon as we settled in our present site, we renewed our USCF affiliate status and started planning for events and activities.

Overall, the search process took about three months of research, exploring, and interviews. Presentation in hand, wearing coat and tie, I hit the road to do the search until we found something suitable. Our club has been in its present site since 2012. From the total process, I found that dealing with churches or synagogues with classrooms was the best fit and the easiest people to talk to. Yes, you do have to have someone who goes to the church to vouch for you, but if you develop a good relationship with the pastor/priest/rabbi and the secretary, you have few worries. A major key is planning with them in well in advance. Keeping the facility clean and your group under control also helps.