Originally Posted by
Kevin Pacey
I think even if the CFC had adequate funds for a standard membership drive, a lot of the Old Guard would not be interested in participating. And, the Old Guard, when teaching new organizers the ropes (if they do) simply tell them to keep doing things the same old way. So, the new blood in terms of CFC members comes mainly just from juniors these days (it would seem), who tend to exit playing en mass as they become adults. Meanwhile, I suspect a lot of organizers are perhaps camera-shy, and actually don't want the media showing up at their tournaments in progress, at least (as one organizer in Toronto remarked in front of me that he didn't, back in the 1980s, even). Long ago things would have had to have been different, when the CFC was in its infancy. Then there would have been no choice but to do a membership drive, at least locally everywhere in Canada. Since then we've been hardly trying at all to bring in new blood (especially in terms of adults or even seniors) - instead we hope they come to us, and meanwhile old-time CFC members faceoff against each other with a high regularity that's sort of akin to long-time inbreeding.
At my fortunate chess club in Ottawa, there's no lack of organizers (maybe we are the exception). It's just that, as I alluded to above, when they organize, their advertising is limited to online (and in circles already dedicated to organized chess), or announcing an event in advance at the club. Otherwise, if word of mouth brings in the odd newbie off the street, that's just dandy, but hardly sought after. Our club barely has enough tables and chairs at the moment for when the club is at its peak points of the season - though we could ask the building to provide us with more tables and chairs if we needed them, and maybe use the skittles room for serious play, but there seems little desire on the part of organizers to strain themselves unnecessarily that way as part of trying to get more newbies through extra advertising, e.g. in free community papers or free advertising community TV stations.