electronic communication with club members

Hi! I'm interested in exploring the use of electronic communication to supplement and promote local chess club participation. Chess dot com does such a great job of creating an online environment in which members feel safe and welcome. I especially love to play against players from Europe, South America, etc. And I can play when I feel I am up for it, and I can play without leaving home. It's great. But locally, how to we use electronic communications with our chess clubs? Perhaps each case is unique. And maybe not. Is the school chess club in Texas so very different than the school chess club in New York? I expect not. Likewise, the same issues of communication generally will be found in various places as well. How does the club handle the situation with the player who wants to coach members as they play their games? How does the club handle the situation with the player who takes offense at the level of humidity in the room, etc. I'm sure there is a great deal of common sense and psychology involved. So many people are online now. People who play chess online and people who play at their local chess club. How to promote the local chess club electronically? If FIDE events are never to be sanctioned online, let's use the internet to promote over-the-board playing. Here's one idea: for its premium members, chess dot com arranges a premium page at, for instance, meetup dot com to serve the local chess club of the premium members. If the chess dot com premium member wants to arrange with someone else locally to serve as "webmaster" of the local club's meetup page, fine, no problem. The premium member goes to the meetup page and grants administrator privileges to the "webmaster". By making such an arrangement, the premium member more likely appears to his/her local club as promoting chess and not chess dot com. The other benefit is that the local club would not need to pay for the meetup site.

one group of chess players prefers to play online; another group prefers to play OTB. How to use the internet to promote OTB playing at local clubs?

I really wish the Chess Organization page was more like this. Or maybe even have the Chess Organization mechanism become a group or be linked to a group for that purpose and a user's profile could/would be linked to that when they are a member as they are now when they set up the Club/Organization page.

RainbowRising: the OTB club here is small and getting smaller!

Martin: which Chess Organization page are you referring to?

By collaborating with meetup dot com, internet users are less likely to duplicate their efforts. Meaning chess players who use chess dot com to find local clubs may be more likely to meet, in real life, chess players who use meetup dot com to find local clubs. Where I live, we have the Tri Cities. Each city is roughly a 30 minute drive from the other. And the phone calls are long-distance. Suppose the chess club in Midland uses chess dot com to communicate with its members while the chess club in Bay City uses meetup dot com. What's the likelihood that these players find each other?

Rich - I don't know who you are but I'm glad you said that.

And not only that, but couldn't we tell parents that chess helps kids to learn patience? I mean, it does, doesn't it? Even playing online. And playing OTB has the added benefit of developing sportsmanship, not to mention friendships in real life.

Right. Apparently they value the OTB experience. The ones who are also online might think of someone else to invite. They could invite them electronically, by e-mail or through chess dot com. Then again, if there was a page for the chess club at meetup dot com, that would be still another way of electronically inviting people to play OTB. 

yeah i must be another exception then as well as i enjoy both chess and fifa...but mainly chess :p

For example, our main local club (USCF affiliate) is http://www.chess.com/club/jopin-chess-club

danthebugman set up the page and if you go to his profile it shows up as his organization. Anyone can set up a page for their local club and have some information about it. Right now it just ties to one user.

There's probably more people playing chess today than in any other time in history. If chess made it through the 16th century, I'm sure it will be fine throughout the 21st.

I see what you mean. So then the club makes sure that whoever sets up the web page(s) maintains it as well. Good on you for promoting by eviesays dot com as well. I hadn't heard of that site but it looks like a good one too.

ah, yes, I see what you mean: one wouldn't be interested in electronically inviting someone to the chess club when one could invite them in person. Still, it a web page with info about the club is a handy way of letting people know things like days and times of meetings, location, driving directions and parking. It isn't even important to have the pages give users the option to interact with each other online. But it's nice to have that option. "Better to have it & not need it than to need it & not have it."

I agree! but I'm incorrigibly optimistic. Any pessimists out there care to throw in their $0.02?

I don't think chess will go online only. I think OTB will continue to be popular mainly because of scholastic chess and also because of grandmaster and other tournaments with high ranking players.

I also think that, if computers "solve" chess, then OTB play will be even more valued than it already is. Maybe we will even understand ourselves better psychologically.

I've noticed the police don't even have to escort you to jail any longer, they just "electronically invite" you. It's called "tasering"

Nice. If I had to make a guess, I would guess that you would go to a chess club on a regular basis before going to a fifa club regularly.

Trysts: I might believe you if you cite a news article I can read.

Since you're in Michigan already, just go to Highland Park, and you can watch people being "electronically invited" to jail by taser, all night

trysts: hmm...maybe we could get more people at our chess club meetings that way...are tasers expensive?

I'm a pepper-spray girl, myself. But a waitress I work with carries a taser, maybe I can ask?

All for the love of the game.

No thanks, don't bother. After watching a few You Tube videos like this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAiffFdCua4 I've decided tasering would not be a good way to invite people to our chess club.