Mississauga Juniors Chess Club - Bursaries

[Bob Armstrong]

Hi Erik:

Scarborough CC has opted to integrate the juniors right into the adult swiss right away, rather than have a separate " junior club " - they have to know how to score, and use a clock.

We now have 35-45 juniors in our Thursday night Swisses. They range from 1800 - 2200. We play in three sections, and the juniors regularly show up among the top placings, with the adults.

Bob A

[Erik Malmsten]

Hi Erik:

Scarborough CC has opted to integrate the juniors right into the adult swiss right away, rather than have a separate " junior club " - they have to know how to score, and use a clock.

We now have 35-45 juniors in our Thursday night Swisses. They range from 1800 - 2200. We play in three sections, and the juniors regularly show up among the top placings, with the adults.

Bob A

So you have most of the top juniors in Toronto, but is there a place for kids who have never played in a tournament and are looking for a place to play outside their school's chess club? There is not enough space on Thursday night, unless, like MCC, you have a junior club that finishes at 7:30. Has SCC done any community advertising like in the old days when Ridout would give simults in malls. The coaches in Scarborough like Smith, McArthur, and Yuan's VPSS could be bringing their students into organized chess.

[Bob Armstrong]

Hi Erik:

As far as I know, the SCC executive, at least in my recent memory, has not discussed the possibility of an SCC Junior CC, before the regular swiss on Thursday nights. There would of course be the additional rental expense ( we do pay a fairly hefty rent for 7:00 - 10:45 PM on Thursdays ). Would the junior club cover all the cost? Don't know - not sure the regular club could subsidize it - we already have what some consider a high 10-month membership fee. Secondly, do we have the volunteers to come in at 6:00 PM ( I assume overall you'd need an hour ), and who are willing to teach for free? Or should it be a paid position? Don't know, and think it has not been discussed. My belief is that we would have trouble getting club member volunteers to do this free, prior to them then playing in the club tournament for another 3 hours. I personally don't see it as being adopted by the club at the moment, and so will not be raising it. But maybe someone else seeing this would be moved to approach the SCC executive with a proposal?

As to advertising, we have been drawing 100 and more out to our Thursday night Swisses ( about 45% juniors now ), and so I think the executive does not currently feel we need the administrative burden of implementing an advertising program - the excellent, and simple , SCC website seems to be doing the trick. And although we have some room to expand, we are starting to get a bit crowded, though it is still quite fine for the moment.

Bob A

[Erik Malmsten]

Hi Erik:

As far as I know, the SCC executive, at least in my recent memory, has not discussed the possibility of an SCC Junior CC, before the regular swiss on Thursday nights. There would of course be the additional rental expense ( we do pay a fairly hefty rent for 7:00 - 10:45 PM on Thursdays ). Would the junior club cover all the cost? Don't know - not sure the regular club could subsidize it - we already have what some consider a high 10-month membership fee. Secondly, do we have the volunteers to come in at 6:00 PM ( I assume overall you'd need an hour ), and who are willing to teach for free? Or should it be a paid position? Don't know, and think it has not been discussed. My belief is that we would have trouble getting club member volunteers to do this free, prior to them then playing in the club tournament for another 3 hours. I personally don't see it as being adopted by the club at the moment, and so will not be raising it. But maybe someone else seeing this would be moved to approach the SCC executive with a proposal?

As to advertising, we have been drawing 100 and more out to our Thursday night Swisses ( about 45% juniors now ), and so I think the executive does not currently feel we need the administrative burden of implementing an advertising program - the excellent, and simple , SCC website seems to be doing the trick. And although we have some room to expand, we are starting to get a bit crowded, though it is still quite fine for the moment.

Bob A

So the SCC is happy with its current success, but has financial and space restrictions. For the MCC model to work a club needs to have space (perhaps free or low rent) and volunteers available. I think there is a large enough junior chess population for a junior club in Scarborough, but it can't be provided by the SCC. The CFC could have 1,000s of more junior members (future adult members) if it wasn't for the limitations of the existing clubs.

[Bob Gillanders]

For the MCC model to work a club needs to have space (perhaps free or low rent) and volunteers available.

Absolutely correct Erik. We have a good deal with the University on the rent, but the most important element are the volunteers. Paul Roschman, Vincent Chow and myself have been at it for a number of years now, but now we have added John Young, Lynda Lei, and Robert Beaubien. We now have a fantastic team of volunteers.

We hit a new attendance high last night of 135,
(Kids 106, Adults 31, less 2 duplicates)
and everything ran as smooth as glass.

[Bob Gillanders]

We hit a new attendance high last night of 135,
(Kids 106, Adults 31, less 2 duplicates)
and everything ran as smooth as glass.

And again this week,

New high attendance of 142.
Kids 114, adults 30, less 2 duplicates.

And I hear Rene is getting record numbers at his Burlington Junior Club.