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Success Story of a Chess Club - Blueprint for Success!
Blueprint for Success: Eight Ways to Grow Your Local Chess Club
By Bob Rasmussen & Edwin Sasaki
May 21, 2009
Fresno Chess Club members appear on Valley Public Television's pledge drive.
The Fresno Chess Club is perhaps the fastest growing chess club in the nation today. With 15 voting members in January 2007, the club has now grown to include 270 paid members. This is the story of how they did it by applying eight basic business principles. By following their blueprint, you can promote chess in your community and generate phenomenal growth in the membership of your chess club. But you may need to fight your old ways of thinking and you may need to keep an open mind about the need for change in your modus operandi.
First Principle: Timing
Founded in 1930, the Fresno Chess Club had always met only on Monday nights for the first 78 years of its existence. As a result, its size had never exceeded 40 paid members. In fact, in January 2007, its membership had fallen to just 15 people. In chess, as in life, timing is everything. A successful chess club must make sure meetings are held at a convenient place and time. Most chess players in our club found that Monday nights were simply not a convenient time to meet. Students had to attend classes early the next day and parents also had to go to work early the next morning. So after 78 years, we finally decided to hold two meetings a week, adding a second weekly meeting every Friday night.
Initially, there was strong opposition to making any changes. But just like successful businesses, successful chess clubs must adapt to change. The easy availability of Internet chess was hurting attendance at the Fresno Chess Club. It was imperative for the Fresno Chess Club to offer a more convenient meeting time. Rather than cancelling Monday nights in favor of Friday nights, we simply added Friday night meetings. After two weeks, it was clear that Friday nights were far more popular than Monday nights. In two months, the Fresno Chess Club doubled its membership.
This is what happened. The die-hard players who attended on Monday nights wanted to play as much chess as they could, now they attended on two nights a week, Monday and Friday. In addition, we attracted new players who could only attend on Friday nights.
Second Principle: Location
For 14 years, the Fresno Chess Club had met at the same location, a Carl’s Jr. restaurant in central Fresno. Over time, urban decay started to make that location less attractive for members and their families. Old-time members were opposed to changing the club’s meeting place. It was decided that, as an experiment, only the Friday night meetings would be held at a newer, safer location further north in Fresno. This new location was also a Carl’s Jr. restaurant.
The Carl’s Jr. restaurant works well for us as a site for our club meetings. First, fast-food restaurants are generally located in convenient locations with plenty of public parking. They often afford convenient access to local freeways. Second, Carl’s Jr. restaurants in Fresno have been particularly chess-friendly. They do not charge us any fee for using their facilities. All they ask is that we encourage our members to eat their meals at Carl’s Jr. Since we spend nearly six hours there playing chess, we are happy to eat our meals there. It is an unspoken rule at the Fresno Chess Club that if we play chess there, we should eat there. In this way we show respect for our host. Third, by meeting in a public place, we increase our exposure to the public and we gain new members when diners see our chess club members playing chess there.
Previously we had talked about the possibility of meeting at a church, a public library, or a recreational center sponsored by the city. But the Carl’s Jr. locations are the most convenient. They provide restaurant facilities and food, and give free advertising to our chess club. Since we have members from different religious faiths, we felt that choosing a meeting place connected to only one particular religion might make some club members feel uncomfortable.
Our relationship with the Carl’s Jr. restaurants is a mutually beneficial relationship. The original location had been the least profitable location in Fresno for Carl’s Jr. restaurants. Before the Fresno Chess Club had started meeting there, Monday nights were the slowest night at that location. Once the chess club arrived, Monday nights became their most profitable night. Carl’s Jr. saw that by permitting the Fresno Chess Club to meet at their restaurant, they had actually increased their profits. Often, fast-food restaurants do most of their sit-down business at lunchtime. In the evenings, most of their business is done at the drive-through window. Carl’s Jr. restaurants lost nothing by permitting the Fresno Chess Club to use the sit-down tables at night. In fact, Carl’s Jr. gained a lot of business from the captive audience of hungry and thirsty chess players.
Third Principle: Know Your Customer
We considered other restaurants in Fresno. But most of them had booths. This made it difficult for our heavier members to participate, as they were too large to sit comfortably in booths. When we finally decided on a new location for our Friday night meetings, one of the things that made the location optimal was that it had plenty of tables and chairs, instead of booths. This made it much more amenable to our larger members. At every step of the way, it is very important to try to understand your customers’ needs, to try to welcome all types and kinds of members, and to try to accommodate their special needs and special sensitivities.
Fourth Principle: Advertising and Publicity
Getting the word out is one of the keys to increasing membership. We could not afford to pay for expensive television, radio, or print ads. However, we volunteer our time at the local public television station KVPT. On a regular basis, we help with pledge drives by doing phone-banking. In return, the public television station gives our chess club the opportunity to make on-air announcements promoting our club, our meeting times, our website and contact information, and special chess club events. Unexpectedly, we found that there was a correlation between people who watch public television and people who play chess. Perhaps it was their level of education. By appearing on Valley Public Television during their pledge drives, we have always gained new members.
We also go to local scholastic tournaments to promote the Fresno Chess Club by addressing the kids and their parents and inviting them to visit the Fresno Chess Club. We realize that the future of chess is young people playing chess over-the-board. It’s important to recruit new members who are interested in playing chess over-the-board, as opposed to people who prefer to play only over the Internet and who may not wish to come to a chess club. One of the benefits of playing chess over-the-board at the Fresno Chess Club is that we emphasize the importance of good sportsmanship and courteous conduct. In this way, we encourage our young players to develop social maturity. These are lessons that are difficult to learn by playing chess only over the Internet. Another benefit of over-the-board play is the certainty of knowing that your opponent is a genuine human being, rather than a computer chess-playing program.
One thing we learned is that many young scholastic chess players quickly learn to play chess at a higher level than their parents. By inviting both students and parents to the Fresno Chess Club, we created a win-win situation for everyone. Talented scholastic players can develop their game by playing against more experienced adult players. Parents can learn more about the game too and keep up with their precocious children.
We created a huge banner and logo for the Fresno Chess Club, to promote our chess club. We display the banner every time we have a chess club meeting. When customers come to the Carl’s Jr. restaurant they can see our banner. When we have tournaments and local events, we always display our banner with pride.
We also sell t-shirts, caps, polo shirts, and jackets bearing the Fresno Chess Club name and logo. This promotes pride of membership. To advertise the Fresno Chess Club, we always wear our t-shirts to meetings and events. The profit margin on these items is very small. The benefit is not financial per se, the benefit is advertising the Fresno Chess Club and attracting more members by getting the word out. We believe that the garments need to be of a quality high enough that members are proud to wear them. We could have purchased lower-quality garments, but to encourage people to wear these garments, we decided to purchase the highest grade of cotton t-shirts based on thread count.
In June 2007 we began publishing a regular newsletter every quarter to publicize Fresno Chess Club events. Our newsletter helps us to maintain connections with members who are not able to attend every meeting on a regular basis, and it is a great way to gain new members.
We created a Fresno Chess Club website at www.fresnochessclub.org. This has been a wonderful way to spread the good word about the Fresno Chess Club.
to be continued...
By Bob Rasmussen & Edwin Sasaki
May 21, 2009
Fresno Chess Club members appear on Valley Public Television's pledge drive.
The Fresno Chess Club is perhaps the fastest growing chess club in the nation today. With 15 voting members in January 2007, the club has now grown to include 270 paid members. This is the story of how they did it by applying eight basic business principles. By following their blueprint, you can promote chess in your community and generate phenomenal growth in the membership of your chess club. But you may need to fight your old ways of thinking and you may need to keep an open mind about the need for change in your modus operandi.
First Principle: Timing
Founded in 1930, the Fresno Chess Club had always met only on Monday nights for the first 78 years of its existence. As a result, its size had never exceeded 40 paid members. In fact, in January 2007, its membership had fallen to just 15 people. In chess, as in life, timing is everything. A successful chess club must make sure meetings are held at a convenient place and time. Most chess players in our club found that Monday nights were simply not a convenient time to meet. Students had to attend classes early the next day and parents also had to go to work early the next morning. So after 78 years, we finally decided to hold two meetings a week, adding a second weekly meeting every Friday night.
Initially, there was strong opposition to making any changes. But just like successful businesses, successful chess clubs must adapt to change. The easy availability of Internet chess was hurting attendance at the Fresno Chess Club. It was imperative for the Fresno Chess Club to offer a more convenient meeting time. Rather than cancelling Monday nights in favor of Friday nights, we simply added Friday night meetings. After two weeks, it was clear that Friday nights were far more popular than Monday nights. In two months, the Fresno Chess Club doubled its membership.
This is what happened. The die-hard players who attended on Monday nights wanted to play as much chess as they could, now they attended on two nights a week, Monday and Friday. In addition, we attracted new players who could only attend on Friday nights.
Second Principle: Location
For 14 years, the Fresno Chess Club had met at the same location, a Carl’s Jr. restaurant in central Fresno. Over time, urban decay started to make that location less attractive for members and their families. Old-time members were opposed to changing the club’s meeting place. It was decided that, as an experiment, only the Friday night meetings would be held at a newer, safer location further north in Fresno. This new location was also a Carl’s Jr. restaurant.
The Carl’s Jr. restaurant works well for us as a site for our club meetings. First, fast-food restaurants are generally located in convenient locations with plenty of public parking. They often afford convenient access to local freeways. Second, Carl’s Jr. restaurants in Fresno have been particularly chess-friendly. They do not charge us any fee for using their facilities. All they ask is that we encourage our members to eat their meals at Carl’s Jr. Since we spend nearly six hours there playing chess, we are happy to eat our meals there. It is an unspoken rule at the Fresno Chess Club that if we play chess there, we should eat there. In this way we show respect for our host. Third, by meeting in a public place, we increase our exposure to the public and we gain new members when diners see our chess club members playing chess there.
Previously we had talked about the possibility of meeting at a church, a public library, or a recreational center sponsored by the city. But the Carl’s Jr. locations are the most convenient. They provide restaurant facilities and food, and give free advertising to our chess club. Since we have members from different religious faiths, we felt that choosing a meeting place connected to only one particular religion might make some club members feel uncomfortable.
Our relationship with the Carl’s Jr. restaurants is a mutually beneficial relationship. The original location had been the least profitable location in Fresno for Carl’s Jr. restaurants. Before the Fresno Chess Club had started meeting there, Monday nights were the slowest night at that location. Once the chess club arrived, Monday nights became their most profitable night. Carl’s Jr. saw that by permitting the Fresno Chess Club to meet at their restaurant, they had actually increased their profits. Often, fast-food restaurants do most of their sit-down business at lunchtime. In the evenings, most of their business is done at the drive-through window. Carl’s Jr. restaurants lost nothing by permitting the Fresno Chess Club to use the sit-down tables at night. In fact, Carl’s Jr. gained a lot of business from the captive audience of hungry and thirsty chess players.
Third Principle: Know Your Customer
We considered other restaurants in Fresno. But most of them had booths. This made it difficult for our heavier members to participate, as they were too large to sit comfortably in booths. When we finally decided on a new location for our Friday night meetings, one of the things that made the location optimal was that it had plenty of tables and chairs, instead of booths. This made it much more amenable to our larger members. At every step of the way, it is very important to try to understand your customers’ needs, to try to welcome all types and kinds of members, and to try to accommodate their special needs and special sensitivities.
Fourth Principle: Advertising and Publicity
Getting the word out is one of the keys to increasing membership. We could not afford to pay for expensive television, radio, or print ads. However, we volunteer our time at the local public television station KVPT. On a regular basis, we help with pledge drives by doing phone-banking. In return, the public television station gives our chess club the opportunity to make on-air announcements promoting our club, our meeting times, our website and contact information, and special chess club events. Unexpectedly, we found that there was a correlation between people who watch public television and people who play chess. Perhaps it was their level of education. By appearing on Valley Public Television during their pledge drives, we have always gained new members.
We also go to local scholastic tournaments to promote the Fresno Chess Club by addressing the kids and their parents and inviting them to visit the Fresno Chess Club. We realize that the future of chess is young people playing chess over-the-board. It’s important to recruit new members who are interested in playing chess over-the-board, as opposed to people who prefer to play only over the Internet and who may not wish to come to a chess club. One of the benefits of playing chess over-the-board at the Fresno Chess Club is that we emphasize the importance of good sportsmanship and courteous conduct. In this way, we encourage our young players to develop social maturity. These are lessons that are difficult to learn by playing chess only over the Internet. Another benefit of over-the-board play is the certainty of knowing that your opponent is a genuine human being, rather than a computer chess-playing program.
One thing we learned is that many young scholastic chess players quickly learn to play chess at a higher level than their parents. By inviting both students and parents to the Fresno Chess Club, we created a win-win situation for everyone. Talented scholastic players can develop their game by playing against more experienced adult players. Parents can learn more about the game too and keep up with their precocious children.
We created a huge banner and logo for the Fresno Chess Club, to promote our chess club. We display the banner every time we have a chess club meeting. When customers come to the Carl’s Jr. restaurant they can see our banner. When we have tournaments and local events, we always display our banner with pride.
We also sell t-shirts, caps, polo shirts, and jackets bearing the Fresno Chess Club name and logo. This promotes pride of membership. To advertise the Fresno Chess Club, we always wear our t-shirts to meetings and events. The profit margin on these items is very small. The benefit is not financial per se, the benefit is advertising the Fresno Chess Club and attracting more members by getting the word out. We believe that the garments need to be of a quality high enough that members are proud to wear them. We could have purchased lower-quality garments, but to encourage people to wear these garments, we decided to purchase the highest grade of cotton t-shirts based on thread count.
In June 2007 we began publishing a regular newsletter every quarter to publicize Fresno Chess Club events. Our newsletter helps us to maintain connections with members who are not able to attend every meeting on a regular basis, and it is a great way to gain new members.
We created a Fresno Chess Club website at www.fresnochessclub.org. This has been a wonderful way to spread the good word about the Fresno Chess Club.
to be continued...
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