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Dark Knight / Le Chevalier Noir
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Chess clubs (Mississauga, Burlington, Hamilton, Scarborough) that I am familiar with, have all experienced increased memberships in recent years. This is possible thru good volunteers, good programs (tournament schedules and side events), and making newcomers feel welcome. Many newcomers are those that got interested in chess online, but now want to try the real deal, and that is OTB chess. :D Their words, not mine.
If a chess player wants to play OTB, he will find his way through GOOGLE. Almost never from advertising! This is the point of my argument. Agree or disagree?
Final comment, playing OTB at a club or tournament is more expensive than online! No dispute, somebody has to pay for the room. Chess as a pastime is very inexpensive. For those who would complain about a $20 annual membership fee, please stay home and enjoy your online chess.:)
Only married people, pay money for something they can get for free.
By the way....... my name is not Tiger.
A computer beat me in chess, but it was no match when it came to kickboxing
If a chess player wants to play OTB, he will find his way through GOOGLE. Almost never from advertising! This is the point of my argument. Agree or disagree?
I used to play OTB at Willowdale CC and in the CFC tournaments in the 80's and currently I play almost every Sunday at North York Library.
By the way....... my name is not Tiger.
A good website is the best (cheapest/effective) way for a club to attract new members. The poster idea is to entice others (not inclined to google chess) to consider chess, that gentle nudge. Only by trying it, will we see if it works!:)
So you do appreciate OTB chess. Excellent. At what fee level would you stop playing at the North York Library? $1/week? $20/year?
I'm surprised by the inept remarks in thread above. I have news for you. We are living in the GOOGLE century! Not in the 70's. If you believe that advertising on the street will get you a single customer than you should contact your local health professional. Even if you target your advertising on Canadian amateurs chess players on Yahoo or MSN Zone, I believe that less than 0.1% of the targeted audience will join OTB. Why? Membership fees and rating calculations. Period.
In Egi's case, he got 2 players because membership is free. Ask them to pay $20 a year and you will never see them again! I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings, but truth must be told.
for starters, something like 30% of the Canadian population does not have electronic access. So how do you readh that 30%?
Advertising is all about trying every possible avenue in the hopes that something works. Even those who are online aren't necessarily looking at chess ads.
Even those who do google [your town] chess club, how did they get to that decision? They woke up one day and said "Hey, I've never played chess let's google chess?" More likely, they saw or heard something somewhere that jogged a memory and so they looked up their local chess club, probably not right away but eventually. Or perhaps they have a friend or a child who likes chess. So get your events in the news, local community paper, and yes pamphlets to put at rec centers and libraries and anything else you can think of. The point is to raise awareness, not necessarily to result in immediate sales
The experience in Victoria is that a pamphlet is a useful thing. And it is cheap. I don't think putting the CFC logo on it is important, use the space to list all the local chess things you can think of.
Finally, it is essential that you have a web page that is the first thing that comes up when you google [your town] chess club. Even if your other advertising and promotion works, the next step for most people is to google.
Your comments about it being hopeless to have a club when people can play online - well, Internet chess is a boon for many people but it doesn't work for everyone. Lots of people prefer face to face contact, with internet chess, as convenient as it is, a poor second.
The point is to raise awareness, not necessarily to result in immediate sales
My understanding Bob wants customers not awareness. If your goal is awareness that I'm sure you aware that your local bowling league is looking for bowlers to join their co-ed league. And also bridge club in Victoria has urgent need for contract bridge players. And Roger do you play golf by any chance? Are you aware about beautiful golf courses in Victoria?
A computer beat me in chess, but it was no match when it came to kickboxing
A good website is the best (cheapest/effective) way for a club to attract new members. The poster idea is to entice others (not inclined to google chess) to consider chess, that gentle nudge. Only by trying it, will we see if it works!:)
So you do appreciate OTB chess. Excellent. At what fee level would you stop playing at the North York Library? $1/week? $20/year?
Who is calling you Tiger?
What we did in Brantford years ago was to get into the public's face as much as possible. Setting up at outdoor festivals in the summer, malls in the winter. Having your information handy and updated. Getting info to the libraries and schools. All the common sense stuff. Yes it is time consuming and you will not see the results overnight. Trying to sell over the board chess is an uphill fight.
I am now doing these types of events in Calgary and they are starting to pay off (no stampede to the club yet, but we will be at the Stampede this year!). We did a couple summer festivals and some of the people who saw us there have shown up at our door. We are setting up in a large mall in February for 3 days, at no cost. Our giant set will get their attention, and I will act as the fisherman to reel them in.
Every city has websites where you can post stuff for free. You just have to find them and post your info. Community newsletters are great, but usually you have to pay, so it can be expensive. We are trying this now and we will see if we get any bang for our buck.
Another thing you can do is to attract as much media attention to your events as possible. A well written press release, properly timed will get results. You have to do a blanket release to radio, tv, newspaper and websites. I don't do this for every tournament, but I have had good results when I have done this. Its free advertising when you get a bite.
Now, the big challenge is how not to scare the newbies away. If you master this, you are on your way to some good numbers. Every club should have a couple of "Joe's". Joe is the guy who is friendly, not super strong, and is willing to be the Joe for every new person who walks through the door. You need more than one Joe (or Josephine).
If none of this works, then you go to plan B. Women in bikini's work wonders!
Community newsletters are great, but usually you have to pay, so it can be expensive. We are trying this now and we will see if we get any bang for our buck.
If none of this works, then you go to plan B. Women in bikini's work wonders!
Years ago we used to be classified as a service club so the municipality gave us the room for free and the commnunity newspaper advertised us for free.
With those bikini's, be careful the martini's don't end up with more than an olive in them. :)
Years ago we used to be classified as a service club so the municipality gave us the room for free and the commnunity newspaper advertised us for free.
Gary, am I surprised that you omitted to mention how many showed up? I guess it's irrelevant.
A computer beat me in chess, but it was no match when it came to kickboxing
Gary, am I surprised that you omitted to mention how many showed up? I guess it's irrelevant.
The years I was vice president and then president, about 5 years total, the paid membership averaged around 100 or slightly more. I forget the posted capacity of the hall but it might have been around 130. We had the hall Tuesday evening and Sunday afternoon. Tuesday was the organized tournament events and Sundays was usually more informal with speed chess and offhand games. Players also used it as a makeup day for games that didn't get played on Tuesday.
We had the normal turnover of members so the advertising must have worked. There was also another thing which might have kept membership so low. A player had to pay CFC membership if he couldn't show he was already a member and he had to maintain that membership for the year. It was included in the price of the membership so if a player could show he had a membership the amount was deducted, as I recall.
My understanding Bob wants customers not awareness. If your goal is awareness that I'm sure you aware that your local bowling league is looking for bowlers to join their co-ed league. And also bridge club in Victoria has urgent need for contract bridge players. And Roger do you play golf by any chance? Are you aware about beautiful golf courses in Victoria?
If what you're asking is "have I ever gone to an organization because I became 'aware' of them and then some time later (months, years later) joined them for a while as a result" the answer is yes. (both bridge clubs and curling clubs come to mind for me).
If what you are asking is "has the Victoria Chess Club or any of it's activities had new members become 'aware' of chess through our advertising and show up some time (a long time even, 6 months for the examples I'm thinking of) later" the answer is yes.
Victoria has eight library branches that will post club posters for free, and more than half the total population of the region comes through them every year. Even if only one in a hundred of them notice the posters that's a pretty big audience for a pretty small expenditure.
Sometimes we find things by accident when we are looking for something else. sure, a lot of folks will do a google search, but not everyone will. How does it hurt to have a few posters up too?
Victoria has a flyer (that folds up into a pamphlet) that lists the various clubs, activities, and groups known to us that we distribute from time to time. It's also useful to have something to hand to walk ins at the club.
A short story... My family moved to Victoria in the fall of 1965. One day a few months later I bought a chess book at the old downtown Eaton's store, and when I started reading it at home, out fell a business card with contact information for the Victoria Chess Club. Because of this experience I've always believed that clubs should routinely use these simple, low-demand methods of advertising themselves. The big trick, of course, is hanging onto the new members who show up, but that's a different story...
This is the problem with older generation of chess players. They think it's still 1965. Well it's 45(!) years later, two generations apart. New generation of chess players don't buy books. They buy ChessMaster, Fritz, Rybka and chess on DVD's. Before you start arguing put yourself in 7-year old shoes with a computer and chess software.
Last edited by Ernest Klubis; Tuesday, 26th January, 2010, 11:01 AM.
A computer beat me in chess, but it was no match when it came to kickboxing
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