Tips for Managing Clubs

Hello all! As you may know, I started my own club Energetic Chess recently, and I'd like to share some of my tips that I learned from my experience as an SA in my own club. Although we're only 6 days old, we have already accumulated 75 members at this point. If you'd like to join my club, feel free to do so, as we have many tournaments, vote chess, team matches, entertainment, daily puzzles, and more . 

Tip #1: Have Rules

This may sound kind of strict, and maybe you want your club to have a bit more of a loose feel to it. From my experience, if you give your members leeway, your club will turn into chaos and you won't know what happened to it. I have some rules such as:

1. You have to earn your promotion

2. Use chat to chat, use notes for announcements and welcoming people!

3. No spamming, cursing, or advertising.

4. SA and Admin can kick people who violate these rules.

By putting these simple and reasonable rules into place, people know what you'd like them to do and not do. It makes the club a more happy place in general!

Tip #2: Promote People

This may seem a bit controversial, as you'd like to keep the promotions scarce or maybe you only want to give it to your best friends. However, by giving people roles because they're helping the club, you are promoting good work. People are more willing to help the club because they might get promoted because of it. Also, there is less work for you to do!

Tip #3: Listen to your Members

One of the biggest mistakes I did at the start was I started 3 live tournaments, and set all of the settings myself: date, time, duration, swiss/arena, time control. People didn't want that! Some couldn't make it, some hated blitz, there were problems all around.

What did I do?

I created a forum in my club, and asked people what their preferences were. By doing this, I was able to make the tournaments more personalized for the people in my club, and we ended up having about 10% of our club attend the tournament! (which is pretty good in my opinion )

Tip #4: Have Lots of Tournaments, Team Matches, and Vote Chess Matches!

Basically, have lots of things for your members to do. If they think a club is boring, they'll probably either turn off all notifications, or leave.

Tip #5: Have Other Entertainment

Personally, I think if the only thing your club does is play chess, it could get... a bit boring sometimes. To combat this problem, I have 3 people who are in charge of posting funny riddles, jokes, and even daily chess puzzles for members to solve! Having something for your members to look forward too is always a great idea.

Tip #6: Use Your Daily Invites (wisely)!

I can't stress this one enough. You have to use your daily invites if you want your club to grow. You only get 30 a day, so you have to use them often and wisely. For instance, don't send an invite to a person who has been inactive for a month. How do you think that'll turn out?

Thanks so much everyone for reading! I hope you enjoyed it, and maybe learned something about managing your own clubs today! Have a wonderful weekend