Final Survey Analysis and Results

The survey was open to all viewers and chess players in and around the winston salem Chess club. 11 people responded, which sufficed as a sufficient amount to gain an insight on what the club can do to improve. The purpose of this survey was to carve out a way of club growth that's different from the Greensboro Chess Club, and to significantly and consistently increase the turnout of members to the club.

Age

Out of the 11 participants in the survey, 4 were between the ages 25-34. 2 were 35-44, 2 were 45-54, 2 were ages 55-64. and one was 65-74 years old. What this says can be interpreted many ways. Maybe older people do not like to use the computer, but this is not so, as a majority of the participants are older than the millenial generation. Usually younger players like blitz and don't like longer games, but this is just a theory at this point.

Contribution Hours to the Club

Here is where many can put their money where their mouths are. This part of the survey really showed how many people were so quick to voice their opinion, but not so quick to attend and make a difference. out of the 11 participants, 2 spent at least 3 hours volunteering for this organization, 2 spent one hour, and seven spent zero hours. That's 63% whispering from the backseat or looking at our events and it's not acceptable. Why not come to the club and make a difference in our meetings?

Recommending the club to others

By extension of referencing and word of mouth, this is very important because we want to also know why someone wouldnt want to recommend this club to others. We have great people and a solid turnout averaging around 10 a week! I would wager that the members I see often didn't take the survey. I ask you, what would make you want to recommend the club to others?

Club Satisfaction

As President of the Winston-Salem Chess Club, this is an area that I want to improve the most. Only 4 people were somewhat satisfied with the club, but I think the younger players are the ones who are not satisfied or aren't sure.

Time Control

Clearly, the people have spoken! I will do my best to arrange long games in the future with the highest level of player satisfaction. 88% of participants said that they would like to see more LONG GAMES. I will make it so, as that is a representative majority I cannot ignore. Maybe the younger players do favor the longer games.

Club Matches and lectures

More people dont care about the club matches than I thought. Perhaps cancelling the Charlotte match was a premonition to the results here, because no one really cares about them. We will try one more time with the WS vs Greensboro Club vs Club Match hopefully in July. As for my Lectures, I'll do them once a month in person and see who I attract. 

Thank you all for your participation. Comments and Questions are welcome. 

Thanks for the survey Tony.  Just want to say that I go to work early on weekdays and hit the sack around 8pm as a routine.  So, Thursdays are hard to make it to the club.  I will try to arrange a Thursday or two in the coming months by changing my work schedule on Friday morning.  I support the club but will be more assistance when I retire (if my wife lets me or Mr Trump doesn't cut my benefits!) at the end of 2018.  At my age, I am planning patiently and hope the club will be patient with my plans.  If I can help with the club website (not Facebook), let me know.  I can do that from a distance as long as given rights and someone is available through email to feed me information to post.  Thanks!  

Members, I'm one of the 2 in the 35-44 age range who participated in our WS club's most recent survey.  I do like the idea of the club hosting USCF-rated, over-the-board tournaments on upcoming Thursday nights.  One of the current ideas being discussed is to have weekly games (longer than Blitz or Quick, perhaps TC: G/75 w/d5) that are USCF-rated for all of its current members (can be current WSCC members and/or guests of this club).  This club has enough USCF tournament directors to figure out an ongoing availability schedule, should these tournaments re-surface, to ensure that at least one TD is on-site to conduct that night's round of the tournament's over-the-board games.  There are several formats for our members to discuss and vote on should these ideas continue to gain sufficient member interest and momentum.  One format, as an example of what's been successfully used by other NC clubs in recent years, consists of having the longer game tournament (i.e. TC: G/60 w/d5, TC: G/75 w/d5, etc.) played as one round per week in a given range of months (i.e. January, April, July, October, etc. -- preferably on months with 5 Thursdays if these are to be totaled as 5-round events) in a calendar year.

I have also begun to pose this question to the NC Chess.com page, to see if any would be interested in playing in one long rated game per week. I will start this in August. Following months will be November and March. I think G/75 time controls would be favorable. I can't wait until the Library opens. Then we can have more long games!

Is the club's current plan to have the G/75 games played at the newly renovated Central Library - 660 West 5th Street in downtown Winston-Salem in the near future ?

Eventually. August we will feature the g/60;d5 on Thursday's at Miller.  Whenever the library opens we could begin G75;d5 there on Tuesdays

So, thanks for this survey data. I was one of the 45-54aged respondents. A couple observations and comments. Personally, I travel quite a bit so between being away and wanting to see the fam when I am here, I have come to the realization that I can come when I can. So be it. To volunteer within those constraints would be irresponsible. In fact, I joined the recent chess.com tourney because I can exist without the geographic ties a good bit easier and still be a teammate. Perhaps a weak representation, but such is my mindset. I do that and I pay my dues. Best membership I can muster for now.

I realize I am in the minority regarding game timing, as I would much prefer g/30 controls. In fact I showed up one Thursday solely because I thought that was the plan. It was less formal and the games went well enough, but I had to be back home to put the kids to bed after 2 games. So it goes.

Everyone's mileage varies, and that is what makes life interesting. Happy to participate as I can and wishing you all the best each day. Thanks for your continued efforts to make this club better and better.