Your Community Is Key To Your Success

 

As a chess coach, your main focus is on helping your kids develop as players and as individuals. Parent volunteers are a great asset as you build a chess program, and if you are associated with a school club, your teachers and administrators are a valuable support network.

But don’t forget about your community-at-large. There are members of your community who may not even know your program exists—if they did, you would have even more supporters who can help you achieve your mission of teaching kids the game of chess.  

In our community, our school system partners with a local non-profit organization to help teach kids how to play chess and improve their skills. This organization, the Madison City Chess League (MCCL), conducts tournaments and chess camps, connects chess coaches with local schools, and offers kids the opportunity to play for free every Monday night at the YMCA.

While it is important to offer these traditional forms of chess education to students who are interested in playing chess, it is also important to create opportunities for members of your community-at-large to participate in and celebrate with your chess program.

When members of your community are invited in to see what you are doing, you will find some of the best supporters for your continued existence.

Create Fun Chess Events That Raise Awareness of the Chess Programs in Your Community

1.  National Chess Day

On the weekend of National Chess Day, the Madison City Chess League invited Grandmaster Alexander Stripunsky to Alabama to participate in a simultaneous chess match with students. The simul occurred in the Davidson Center for Space Exploration at the United States Space and Rocket Center. 

This event was reported in local media and in Chess Life Online. National Chess Day is a wonderful opportunity for your chess club to hold an event that lets others know of your chess organization's existence and the opportunities it provides others to play chess. Examine the resources available in your own community. You never know what type of unique event you will be able to host to raise awareness in your community about the benefits of chess until you ask yourself, "What could we do for National Chess Day?" 

 

 Photos by Scott Wilhelm.

 

  

2.  The Madison City Chess League Challenge

On April Fool’s Day, the Madison City Chess League (MCCL) held its first challenge to the Community. The MCCL chess kids ages 10 and younger challenged any local leader or business person to a chess match. The event took place in the Madison City Schools Central Office Board room. There was one catch: if a kid won the game, the adult or business sponsoring the adult would donate to the Madison City Chess League, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. We used an online form to register adult players and sponsors and matched them up with great kids eager to play and show their skills. 

It was a huge success! 

We had the mayor, city council president, school superintendent, local business owners and executives all agreeing to sit down one evening to play a game of chess. We even had a local TV reporter play and do a story about the event.  These pictures say it all: 

 Photos by Scott Wilhelm.

 

The adults played White, and the kids played Black.  

The kids beat the adults by a final score of 12 to 5. The adults who signed up to play were great sports and came to support the cause. 

The kids had a night they would never forget, and the MCCL non-profit organization raised awareness of our organization and the work it was doing.

3.  Madison Street Festival

In October each year, the city of Madison hosts a street festival in downtown Madison where vendors and artisans share a fun-filled day with lots of families in attendance. The Madison City Chess League participated by having its members host a table demonstrating blitz chess and teaching kids how to play. 

It was a great hit at the street festival, and numerous families were introduced to our organization for the first time.

4.  An International Match with Students from China

It is important to celebrate and share your success stories so others in the community become aware that chess programs exist, and kids have the opportunity to play and grow in the sport of chess. You never know who might read an article in a newspaper or online and become your next volunteer, donor, or participant.

Use social media to spread the word. Develop a webpage so people in the community know what is available and your events schedule.

When sending out media releases, don’t forget about TV stations. One of the best examples of publicity our chess program received was when a local TV station spent a Saturday with our kids while we played an online chess match with kids from China!

That story was then retold in the December 2014 and February 2015 Chess Life For Kids Magazine, and it all started with local press releases that went out to every form of local media.