10A) Discussion: CFC 140th Anniversary! ( Sept. 24/12 ) - Bob Armstrong

[Michael von Keitz]

Discussion here.

[Bob Armstrong]

New Business – CFC's 140th Anniversary Discussion - Sept. 24/12 (Bob Armstrong)

I raised this at the 2012 Spring On-line Meeting, but got almost no response. So I thought it worth canvassing the new incoming governors at the AGM, before I go ahead with a Website “ News “ post on it.

As Public Relations Coordinator, I have already drafted a CFC Website “ Latest News “ post for September 24, 2012:

" The CFC Regular Chess Post – Sept. 24/12 – CFC 140th Anniversary!

The Chess Federation of Canada was originally founded as The Canadian Chess Association ( CCA ), on Sept. 24, 1872 at Hamilton, Ontario. It was renamed the Canadian Chess Federation ( CCF ) in 1932, and for the first time included representation from all major cities in Canada. In 1945 the name was changed to Chess Federation of Canada ( CFC ) to avoid confusion with the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, ( CCF ), a political party that shared the same initials. CFC has its 140th ( and 80th ) anniversary in 2012. "

The question I raised with Michael von Keitz was whether we could use this fact to somehow further promote the continued existence of CFC, and perhaps especially after surviving 5 consecutive years of $ 30,000 deficits, and a near-death experience, and surfacing into very good operation now.

What might we do as an “ anniversary event / posts / etc. “ for Sept. 24, that will put our best foot forward for the members and the non-CFC chess playing public?

Any suggestions?.

Bob, Public Relations Coordinator

[Christopher Mallon]

To revisit an old idea... National Chess Day?

It's a Monday, and right around when many school clubs are getting started, so they might jump on the bandwagon.

[Kevin Pacey]

To revisit an old idea... National Chess Day?

It's a Monday, and right around when many school clubs are getting started, so they might jump on the bandwagon.

A National Chess Week involving nationwide simuls (with media coverage) was something voted for some years ago by Governors, but unfortunately the idea didn't get put into practice.

A National Chess Day for Monday September 24 this year would probably be on too short notice, even if the Executive, the Public Relations Coordinator, and a substantial number of Governors all were willing to participate to try to make it happen, in my opinion.

I don't think that at the moment we have sufficent infrastructure to make such a National Chess Day happen on a large scale anyway. By infrastructure I include simply having at our fingertips a very large list (i.e. hundreds) of club contacts.

Years ago, before the idea of a National Chess Week arose, I emailed all Governors and club contacts on the CFC's website (roughly 150-200 emails in total, if memory serves) asking if they'd be interested in the idea of organizing local simuls designed to support the CFC. That was without my suggesting coverage by the media. I suggested they could hold such simuls over the course of the year that I had contacted them in. I got only about six replies, and though most were positive, they were hoping for someone from the CFC to coordinate such an effort. Even after National Chess Week was passed as a motion, this apparently did not happen.

[Kevin Pacey]

For a 140th anniversary idea, how about a contest. A modest idea, perhaps, but practical. It need not be the only or main thing that the CFC plans for the day.

For example, a possible contest would be that at a specific time on September 24th, 2012, take a random draw from the registered members of the CFC Discussion Board (go through the members list from A-Z, and assign a number, the first person on the list with a name starting with A being number 1, etc.). Pick one or several winners, depending on how many prizes we wish to give away. Prizes could be CFC memberships, for example (if a Life member wins, he gets something else).

Promote such a contest as much as we are able. Give it a fanciful name, such as Ten Thousand In Ten (i.e. 10,000 members in 10 years). The benefits of the example contest above would include that we might pick up more registered members for the message board than we otherwise would have by 24 September this year.

There may be some very important details to sort out, but I'm offering just the kernel of an idea.

[Valer Eugen Demian]

To revisit an old idea... National Chess Day?

It's a Monday, and right around when many school clubs are getting started, so they might jump on the bandwagon.

I think this is a very good idea. We should give it another go, regardless of past failures. Also I would extend it to the more challenging "National Chess Week" after having the other one well established (happening) around the country. First things first!

[Christopher Mallon]

Thankfully it's in late September, so it's possible to get the schools on board.

We would also have to account for labour issues however... I think in BC teachers are on work-to-rule? Who knows what will happen in Ontario.

It would also be great to contact every club we can find and see if they can run a special Monday session that week. Have every school/club send in a picture and a count of how many players they had playing chess on National Chess Day, and maybe have a prize (gift certificate?) as a random drawing for all entries.

That would give us a lot of promotional pictures, a possibly huge number of people playing chess on one day - perhaps enough to get some attention in some quarters?

[Bob Gillanders]

It would also be great to contact every club we can find and see if they can run a special Monday session that week. Have every school/club send in a picture and a count of how many players they had playing chess on National Chess Day, and maybe have a prize (gift certificate?) as a random drawing for all entries.


I was thinking along similar lines, but asking all clubs to rent space on a particular day is not feasible. Clubs have enough trouble finding accommodations already. But if we made it a week long event, each club could meet on their regular day.

[Fred McKim]

I would suggest a ten day window for National Chess Week / 140th Anniversary
events.

Sept 21-30

This gives everyone a couple of chances to plan something.

[Christopher Mallon]

Maybe a bonus ballot if you get it right on the actual day, but anything in that window counts, so there are two opportunities for weekender events.

[Kevin Pacey]

I thought the idea of a National Chess Week, when voted for years ago, was to have simuls organized by clubs/organizers/Governors across Canada to attract members of the public and the media. Hence I thought the simuls were to be generally held in malls or other public places, and this is one reason why I thought having a National Chess Day on 24 September this year might (easily) be on too short notice.

Holding chess events (simuls? swisses?) just in clubs across Canada instead, over the course of 10 days, might be less of a challenge, but are we still going to ask the club organizers to invite members of the public to come into clubs en mass? If not, the exercise would seem to have less of a point, if not for us then perhaps certainly for the clubs.

I would also say again, how do we actually get into contact with enough willing clubs? And in just eleven weeks or so [edit: most of which are in summer]?

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Have every school

My son's school starts a chess club only in a late fall when outdoor activities cease due to weather conditions. September/October are full of all kind of -balls and tracks.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

To schedule something for September is also may be difficult for clubs as many of them get dormant during summer.

[Marcus Wilker]

Will CFC send any event packages to participating clubs? Posters or chess pins for everyone? Chess tubes for new members of the CFC who join during the 140th anniversary event?

Luckily, Annex Chess Club in Toronto meets on Monday nights :)

[Fred McKim]

So maybe we decide to hold the NCW in November. It's still the 140th Anniversary year....

[Christopher Mallon]

The first thing we need to know from the presumptive Exec is if there is a willingness to put a little bit of money into the project.

Whether that be for prizes, advertising and promotion, or anything else.

[Kevin Pacey]

From what I've heard, we haven't had as many Olympic Waive events organized by clubs (or anyone else) as we would have wished for, and those type of events were encouraged by the CFC in an Olympic year prior to this one, even. This adds to my doubts, even if we put off having 140th CFC anniversary club events until November this year.

[edit: here's a link to a search I did for *Olympic Waive* events on the CFC website crosstables for the period of 2010-12. It shows five such events to date:

http://chess.ca/crosstable?search_tournaments_date_start=2000-01-01&search_tournaments_date_end=2012-07-07&search_tournaments_name=%2AOlympic%20Waive%2A&key=442cde81694ca09a626eeddefd1b74ca

]

A seperate question I have is, why is a 140th anniversary to be considered special? It's not divisible by 50, for example. Granted, 2012 is the first anniversary year that's divisible by 10 that we've had since we've had someone as a PR officer.