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CFC membership has been declining for several years. How can we (the current members) attract new members, or persuade former members to renew.
As far as I can see, about 95% of the reason for being a CFC member is to play in rated tournaments. If we organise tournaments, the membership will increase. Yes? Or am I being too simplistic?
CFC membership has been declining for several years. How can we (the current members) attract new members, or persuade former members to renew.
As far as I can see, about 95% of the reason for being a CFC member is to play in rated tournaments. If we organise tournaments, the membership will increase. Yes? Or am I being too simplistic?
Any thoughts?
John, I know you're delighted to see me responding, lol. I was going to do an Executive Summary of your question...
But here are some return questions: what is the benefit to current members to grow CFC membership? What if all the membership did was to stop the decline in membership, would that be good enough?
In other words, is the status quo good enough, and if not, why?
And since your involved with kids, the next questions are obvious: should the CFC be stressing (as it is under Vlad Drkulec) growing the membership of children members and ignoring almost totally adult membership? What are the pluses and minuses of this policy?
Only the rushing is heard...
Onward flies the bird.
Re: How can we increase the number of CFC members?
Hi John;
You have to run more tournaments that are affordable (lower entry fees), you do not have to give out big cash prizes to the U2000 players.
You also need to make a tournament worthwhile so that players are not losing rating points at a drop of a hat.
One way would be that when two players are rated more than 100 points away that none of the 4% rating difference is used
to take points away from the higher rated but the lower rated will get the 4% to help increase their rating.
The higher rated would just lose the 16 points for the loss.
With all the underrated juniors out there you are basically sending the older members packing up and not renewing.
Re: Re : Re: How can we increase the number of CFC members?
Just curious
(Q1)How many hrs a week training are the adults(those who think juniors are underrated) doing?
(Q2)What happened the last re-invention of the CFC?
Re: Re : Re: How can we increase the number of CFC members?
It might be a good start to keep in mind that there is intelligent life outside of southern Ontario.
I guess I'm biased, but there's a lot of potential around here and no advertising initiative by the cfc
Think of the potential new membership that could be drawn by some smart advertising. I'm sure most people (Around here anyway) don't know the cfc exists.
Oh and for the love of God would somebody step in and tell Thunder Bay to stop calling their little tournament the "Northern Ontario Championship" when the two best players in northern Ontario (by far) live in Sudbury. I already asked nicely :P
Re: How can we increase the number of CFC members?
Thanks for raising this question, John.
I will raise three measures for debate: measure of success, tournament format and loyalty programs.
Measures for success
- I would say if we can approach Quebec's level of participation, then we are successful. Yes, they have government assistance, but they also have an excellent operational model.
Format specific:
- 1 day would target the extinct working adult demographic
- Fixed round start times: what other sport thinks it's reasonable for 100 people to watch 2 finish their endgame? This means a "sudden-deathish" time control like 30/90, SD/60. In the US they have a 3 or 5 second delay which avoids knocking the pieces over. This will make for a more balanced day with ability to plan meals and breaks.
- Why always swiss? have knock-outs, double/triple eliminations with consolation.
- If Swiss semi-annual tournament, why not have overlapping sections across tournaments? For eg Open, U2000, U1600 in spring and Open U2200, U1800, U1400 in fall.
Loyalty program:
- Grand prix
- CFC loyalty points for chess goodies.
CFC membership has been declining for several years. How can we (the current members) attract new members, or persuade former members to renew.
As far as I can see, about 95% of the reason for being a CFC member is to play in rated tournaments. If we organise tournaments, the membership will increase. Yes? Or am I being too simplistic?
Any thoughts?
I think this is a misleading question. The CFC needs money for national championships, FIDE events like the Olympiad and a newsletter, and can only get it through memberships. They want members to get money. If the CFC had sponsorship then then could offer free membership to everyone who ever played in a CFC rated tournament, as well as FQE rated, CMA rated and BC. Then the CFC could claim that they are an organization representing 100,000 chessplayers. In turn, that many members would attract sponsors and advertisers.
It might be a good start to keep in mind that there is intelligent life outside of southern Ontario.
I guess I'm biased, but there's a lot of potential around here and no advertising initiative by the cfc
What makes you think that an advertising initiative is the answer? For advertising to be effective it has to be repeated. If we advertised every week in the community newspaper the cost is shown in the following rate card.
The smallest ad would cost $2600 if you repeated it 26 times in the local community newspaper. We would need to get at least three new members every time the ad ran in order to break even ignoring the incremental costs of a new CFC member. The trick is that putting together an ad that in one or two short lines would compel people to buy CFC memberships is not terribly realistic.
I have an ad on Kijiji which probably pulls in one or two enquiries a month. Not much but still worth it for a free ad. The local website windsorchess.com probably generates half a dozen enquiries a month many of which are well qualified. Being out and about in public playing or teaching chess in libraries or shopping centers probably generates one or two contacts a week. Getting on the local or national news or radio can often generate many new enquiries. Of course once you get the enquiry you have to be able to convert them. Word of mouth is the most effective method of advertising. Appearing on the news is usually worth at least two or three new enquiries.
Local advertising has to come from local organizers and my suggestion is to use the free stuff that is out there and to take every opportunity for free publicity. I have studied advertising and marketing at the undergraduate and graduate level and read a great deal beyond and above my studies and I simply don't see how a shotgun approach targeting the whole population can work to generate enough leads to justify the cost. Most of the people who suggest local advertising don't understand how such advertising works.
Think of the potential new membership that could be drawn by some smart advertising. I'm sure most people (Around here anyway) don't know the cfc exists.
Oh and for the love of God would somebody step in and tell Thunder Bay to stop calling their little tournament the "Northern Ontario Championship" when the two best players in northern Ontario (by far) live in Sudbury. I already asked nicely :P
Start a competing tournament called the Real Northern Ontario Championship. I am sure the players will enjoy the extra opportunity to play.
Last edited by Vlad Drkulec; Friday, 26th September, 2014, 01:46 PM.
Re: Re : Re: How can we increase the number of CFC members?
Okay Vlad, you're free to shoot down a very vague idea if you want, but just follow my line of reasoning for a sec if you will :).
When I became a 'new member', around 16 years old (and I'm assuming a large number of potential members fit my profile), this is what happened...
1. I played a few relatives, started beating them, got more interested in the game.
2. I looked up "free chess online" or something like that. Joined a site, started playing. Eventually I found chess.com, best site ever.
3. After playing online for a while, I wanted to join a club.
4. I didn't look up the local newspaper for chess ads. I'm a kid in 2014... I'm not reading a newspaper.
5. What I did do is google "Sudbury chess". Unfortunately I found a link to a club in england and nothing else.
6. I did find the CFC website, but nothing kept me there... there was nothing about the Sudbury club or any sudbury tournaments.
If I hadn't stumbled upon the Sudbury chess club, purely by coincidence, I would never have been invited to a rated tournament, and without wanting to play in a rated tournament, I would never have joined the CFC.
So... A few suggestions.
- All open CFC tournaments should have to be registered before hand and posted on the website.
- All active chess clubs should have the option of registering with the CFC.
- 50% off new memberships(?)
It's been my experience around here that if an old person starts playing at a club, you get one more member. If you get a new kid, before long their dad and half a dozen of their friends are wanting to play in the next tournament... a better target imho.
And seriously, I'm not posting a 'competing' tournament. Thunder Bay's events are bogus as long as I'm not invited :P.
Re: Re : Re: How can we increase the number of CFC members?
I think the CFC executive did a great job at stopping the hemorrhage. But now the next step is to actually improve the services and increase the membership. It requires a completely different approach. Here are a few points that I believe are important to consider while doing this :
Public opinion of the CFC
It's not a secret that in the past, the CFC had its share of money disappearing. Furthemore, with the absence of national championships and very little services offered to clubs and members, many people wonder where their membership money go. Most people I talked to in Quebec seemed to be simply indifferent or resigned about the situation. In other provinces there seems to be more animosity toward the CFC, which is understandable considering all that happened in the past years.
However, things seem to be better lately (although the CFC supported Ilyumzhinov, while the public opinion was clearly in favour of Kasparov, but we should not start this again).
Good ways to improve this would be :
1) More transparence (mostly about where the money comes from and goes).
2) National championships held every year
3) Presence of sponsors. If no sponsor is willing to trust an organization, it's a good indicator that something wrong might be going on.
4) Semestrial reports in the magazine or online
Sponsorship
Let's face it, sponsorship is really hard to find. But it's not impossible either to find some money, and it is a real shame that the CFC has not obtained any "real" sponsorship in the past years. The principal responsibility of the FQE president is to find sponsors, not solve day-to-day problems. Perhaps if the executive had someone to answer all the numerous issues at the CFC, Vlad could spend some time finding sponsors (and I'm sure he could find some with his position of CFC president). There are even some federal programs for which the CFC would be eligible. For instance, the CFC could hire a full-time summer student at zero or little cost.
FQE-CFC relations
It's not clear how exactly will the FQE-CFC evolve in the future. Perhaps some collaboration on services and administration could help both organizations save money. In any case, there are nearly as many players in Quebec as in the rest of the country, so both organization really need to work together to improve the services they provide and cut on the expenses.
Promoting clubs
For an organization covering such a large territory, clubs are essential. The CFC should realize that and start a program to help clubs both in a logistic and financial way. The FQE has given rather large amounts of money to some clubs (sometimes over $1000) so that they can reach new members. And it most cases it really paid off. The CFC would only need 25 new members to get the money back in a single year.
National Championships
The national championships, with perhaps the CYCC as an exception, represent huge risks for the organizers. This is why the Canadian Open, Junior, Women's and Closed have no organizers this year. A large amount of both the USCF and FQE budget is spent for national championships. Meanwhile, the CFC does not give a single dollar to any of these tournaments. The last two CYCCs have been very succesful, and I believe the next one will be, but let's face it, it is mostly thanks to the hard work of the organizers and the high entry fees.
Only a few hundred dollars could make a difference for some organizers. And this is not an amount that should be too hard to find in sponsorship for the CFC.
CFC Magazine
No online magazine will ever be able to replace a paper magazine. But John Upper is doing a fantastic job (and the newsfeed seems to attract quite a few people as well) and I strongly believe it is a good way to keep members and attract new ones.
I have a lot of other comments and suggestions, but unfortunately not much time. In case, none of the above is meant to criticize the executive. As I said, they really managed to stabilize the CFC situation. But gaining new members will require a lot of work and major changes.
If to keep the same membership model, then only competitive chess in clubs, opens, closes, various championships would increase numbers. The online magazine does not attract many (and maybe even repels with an aperiodical delivery). I don't see any other reasons that masses would become members of the CFC.
...I simply don't see how a shotgun approach targeting the whole population can work...
Of course you don't. But what If you were selling iPhones at 50% off the normal retail price? The lesson is, if you want the shotgun approach targeting the whole population to work, you have to make them WANT what you are selling.
Some salepeople claim they can sell ice to an Eskimo. Your years of studies obviously didn't get you that far. You would much prefer to sell to little kids who are much more gullible, and tell everyone how great you are at getting kids to play chess. Geez, my dead grannie could do that from her grave.
Only the rushing is heard...
Onward flies the bird.
What makes you think that an advertising initiative is the answer? For advertising to be effective it has to be repeated. If we advertised every week in the community newspaper the cost is shown in the following rate card.
The smallest ad would cost $2600 if you repeated it 26 times in the local community newspaper. We would need to get at least three new members every time the ad ran in order to break even ignoring the incremental costs of a new CFC member. The trick is that putting together an ad that in one or two short lines would compel people to buy CFC memberships is not terribly realistic.
I have an ad on Kijiji which probably pulls in one or two enquiries a month. Not much but still worth it for a free ad. The local website windsorchess.com probably generates half a dozen enquiries a month many of which are well qualified. Being out and about in public playing or teaching chess in libraries or shopping centers probably generates one or two contacts a week. Getting on the local or national news or radio can often generate many new enquiries. Of course once you get the enquiry you have to be able to convert them. Word of mouth is the most effective method of advertising. Appearing on the news is usually worth at least two or three new enquiries.
I agree advertising is expensive. Free ads are great.
One free ad I can see. Canada could be a leader. Get rid of the girls sections..."Canada Is Not Afraid Of Girls Playing Chess With Boys".
Boys are in an "open" section. Let's stop being sexist. Girls can compete on an equal board.
Chess culture is an old boys, sexist culture that continues. It has to be addressed.
There are senior tournaments, blitz tournaments, blindfold tournaments ...why not have the odd all female or male tournament but treat women with respect CFC.
Recruiting youth is a smart move. Lets concentrate on dealing with girls especially.
There is a lot of crap going on in the word. We should divide it up evenly.
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