Growing the CFC Membership

[Bob Armstrong]

Recently posted by me on ChessTalk:

I think the CFC needs to look carefully at how to draw casual players into competitive tournament chess. I think it needs to look at non-CFC rated ( so there is no payment necessary of an annual CFC membership ), low entry fee, " for the casual player " , clocks if possible, but recording not required, with lots of low-priced prizes ( chess books, local retail gift certificates, annual membership in local chess club; etc. ) tournaments, with good publicity where chess never really publicizes itself much - in the marketplace; on the community board at the local supermarket; flyers on telephone polls ( I know it's technically illegal ! ); on library bulletin boards; at the Toronto " Chess in the Library " Program; in the local community newspaper; on school bulletin boards, with administration approval ( elementary, highschool, community college, university ); and whereever else volunteer help is willing to advertise.

Once we have casual players playing under " near " tournament conditions, some will want the " real deal ", and they can then get the proposed first-time CFC'er 40% Discount annual membership when they play in their first CFC-rated tournament ( and they won't be asking about some historical relic called a " tournament membership " ).

Seems a sound way to grow the CFC membership. Are there some organizers out there who would be willing to try such tournaments?

Any more ideas on promoting chess outside the already-committed CFC community of players?

Bob

[Bob Gillanders]

Some good ideas there, Bob.

There is lots of chess being played outside the CFC community. The CFC needs to create the conditions where the casual player would find it irresistable to try "a real CFC tournament" at least once in their life. Not an easy task, but as always, the local organizers carry most of the water.

TD's report the hike in tournament memberships from $10/$5 to $20/$10 in 2009 has been a deterent in attracting new players. Adopting the Grassroots discount plan for new members would be an improvement. However, it does not address the inequity felt by the "once a year" players.

Another solution would be to replace the tournament membership with a shorter, say 6 month CFC membership. This would be popular with both the new members and the "once a year" crowd. New members would hopefully want to play a second tournament before their 6 month membership expired. Meanwhile, they would be enjoying reading Canadian Chess News and getting hooked on everything CFC. ;)

But the preceeding is all just a preamble to the following suggestion to organizers: Tournament entry fee for new (unrated) players includes CFC membership (either Grassroots discount or 6 month).

To illustrate: tournament entry fee is $50. For your typical weekend swiss, most of this ends up in the prize fund. However, unrated players are excluded from class prizes, and are very unlikely to win open prizes, and they know it. Every TD has experienced that long face from 1st time unrated players when they realize they won't win a prize, plus they are hit with CFC dues. The solution is their entry fee of $50 includes CFC membership (discounted, tournament, or 6 months). They can feel like they won something too.:)

[Bob Armstrong]

Hi Bob:

I'd like to look into your 6 mo. membership idea - it seems to have some merit.

But I do have a fear - chessplayers look for every way to save money. We had at SCC a few members who paid only the tournament membership to play in one tournament. It was legitimate, but somehow it seemed a bit unfair to all those other members who were taking out the annual membership, and maybe then not playing twice. I think we have a number of CFC members like this who pay the annual, but then end up playing only once a year. They will turn to this 6 mo. membership as an answer.

The issue is that 1/2 CFC's revenue comes from annual memberships. How much of a loss will CFC incur if numbers of members cut their fees in half? CFC does not have a large budget for what it tries to accomplish already. Note, for example, that our Canadian Chess News newsletter costs $ 18,000 per year to put out. Could we take the hit of many members jumping to take advantage of the 6 mo. rate? One can say that this is only fair to CFC'ers who only play once a year - but there is the balancing issue of what revenue CFC needs to function.

So I like your idea, because it does keep the one time per year player as a " member ", but I do see a potential real downside to it.

Other opinions on this?

Bob