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Hi everyone,
I live in Dawson Creek, BC. I started up a chess club in November and have had moderate interest, mostly from a few junior players and a couple of adults that come. I'm looking for some ideas and/or feedback on how I should set things up now and in the future with chess in our community.
The challenges with Dawson Creek are that it is fairly isolated (Grande Prairie is 90 minutes away and is the only other place with a close"ish" club. Not even close enough to drive to for an evening of chess for the most part. It is also not large - population of around 12,000 or so.
Currently the club runs out of a local elementary school for free - Tuesday evenings from 6-9pm. Everyone that comes is still fairly new to chess, though there have been a couple adults who dropped in once or twice who are decent, but don't seem too interested in playing anything more than casual chess for now.
I am not the strongest of players myself, so I have kept the teaching to simple stuff - chess notation, basic development of pieces, using a chess clock - that sort of stuff. Really it's only a few juniors who are interested in that particular portion of things.
My concern is that if we just keep things at a drop-in sort of level every week that perhaps people will eventually get bored of it and things will taper off. There is only one kid who really seems like he wants to go deeper with chess, and would probably play an actual event if there was one offered. I might be able to get him to come to a Saturday active event in Grande Prairie down the road.
Our community does not have a lot of schools (4-5 elementary schools, 1 middle school, 1 high school, and a coupleprivate schools with small numbers of kids in them) but should I try and generate more of a scholastic level of chess in the community somehow? I work until 5 every day, so after school won't work, but I could potentially do something on my lunch break if it was a good use of my time.
Should I look to run a Saturday event myself in town and see what kind of interest there might be?
Right now I've got a facebook site up, a website (that is just barebones and I could develop more), and I did the typical poster thing as well which drew in a few folks. I also ran a tv spot on the local community news on how to play chess which gave a little nod to the chess club as well at the end of it. Are there any other ways I should be looking to promote?
I am open to any suggestions. I drive to Edmonton 4-5 times a year (6-7 hours away) to play chess and was hoping to develop at least a small group of folks who might want to play the odd weekend event or something, but perhaps I am expecting too much from a community as small as the one I live in.
Interestingly enough, funding is probably one of the few things I could get my hands on if I had people. The BC Chess federation graciously donated 6 sets and I purchased 4 clocks for the club as well just to get things started, but I could find other areas of support in the city, though probably there would need to be at least a decent number of kids involved to make it easier.
Interested in any thoughts you folks might have as I know some of you have experience in this area. Thanks.
I live in Dawson Creek, BC. I started up a chess club in November and have had moderate interest, mostly from a few junior players and a couple of adults that come. I'm looking for some ideas and/or feedback on how I should set things up now and in the future with chess in our community.
The challenges with Dawson Creek are that it is fairly isolated (Grande Prairie is 90 minutes away and is the only other place with a close"ish" club. Not even close enough to drive to for an evening of chess for the most part. It is also not large - population of around 12,000 or so.
Currently the club runs out of a local elementary school for free - Tuesday evenings from 6-9pm. Everyone that comes is still fairly new to chess, though there have been a couple adults who dropped in once or twice who are decent, but don't seem too interested in playing anything more than casual chess for now.
I am not the strongest of players myself, so I have kept the teaching to simple stuff - chess notation, basic development of pieces, using a chess clock - that sort of stuff. Really it's only a few juniors who are interested in that particular portion of things.
My concern is that if we just keep things at a drop-in sort of level every week that perhaps people will eventually get bored of it and things will taper off. There is only one kid who really seems like he wants to go deeper with chess, and would probably play an actual event if there was one offered. I might be able to get him to come to a Saturday active event in Grande Prairie down the road.
Our community does not have a lot of schools (4-5 elementary schools, 1 middle school, 1 high school, and a coupleprivate schools with small numbers of kids in them) but should I try and generate more of a scholastic level of chess in the community somehow? I work until 5 every day, so after school won't work, but I could potentially do something on my lunch break if it was a good use of my time.
Should I look to run a Saturday event myself in town and see what kind of interest there might be?
Right now I've got a facebook site up, a website (that is just barebones and I could develop more), and I did the typical poster thing as well which drew in a few folks. I also ran a tv spot on the local community news on how to play chess which gave a little nod to the chess club as well at the end of it. Are there any other ways I should be looking to promote?
I am open to any suggestions. I drive to Edmonton 4-5 times a year (6-7 hours away) to play chess and was hoping to develop at least a small group of folks who might want to play the odd weekend event or something, but perhaps I am expecting too much from a community as small as the one I live in.
Interestingly enough, funding is probably one of the few things I could get my hands on if I had people. The BC Chess federation graciously donated 6 sets and I purchased 4 clocks for the club as well just to get things started, but I could find other areas of support in the city, though probably there would need to be at least a decent number of kids involved to make it easier.
Interested in any thoughts you folks might have as I know some of you have experience in this area. Thanks.
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