How to Start a Chess Club?

So I would like to make my school chess club a USCF affiliate.

Now I looked at the form online and it has a lot of stuff that we don't have such as a website, a fax etc. We don't have 5 members yet, I was planning to have the people in my club become members AFTER the club has been created. The club is new and I was planning on making it USCF affiliated to host some rated tournaments to spur interest among the players in our school club. 

Also for club TD, are there any requirements besides the manual such as age as it seems like all you have to do is buy the manual, read it and just submit a form. Is it really that straightforward?

I would have googled but it doesn't seem to have the answers and the USCF website is quite vague.

Thank everyone!

Signing up as a USCF affiliate is easy.  You don't need any "members" to join the USCF as an affiliate.  USCF Affiliate memberships can be purchased online at this link:  https://secure2.uschess.org/webstore/affil.php

The cost is $40/year for an affiliate membership.  Affiliates can actually sell USCF memberships and can get a discount on them.  So you can either make some money for your affiliate selling USCF memberships, or pass on the discount to the people who are joining the USCF through your affiliate.

Also, K-12 schools that join as USCF affiliates can run USCF rated events for the students of that school.  The students will need to be entered to receive USCF ID's, but the students don't necessarily have to join the USCF (joining is encouraged, of course).  The affiliate would have to pay rating fees (as usual).  To avoid confusion I will post those details below in a separate comment. 

Yes, the USCF is not necessarily easy to work with, especially for new affiliates or TD's.  The easiest thing to do is to get another experienced USCF affiliate or TD to help you.  The second easiest thing to do is to ask questions of the USCF, which you can submit at this web site.  They are very responsive to the web queries.  http://www.uschess.org/component/option,com_wrapper/Itemid,327/

Yes, correct, to become a USCF Club TD, you just need to read the rule book and send in the form that says you read the rule book.  Some of the rule book is obvious, other parts of it are complex and understanding of those intricate details will come with practice.  As a starting point, I suggest to new TDs, just read the book, sign the form, and send it in.  Nothing says you have to understand all the details yet.  There are a lot of complexities (for example) about color assignments, bye assignments, adjusting pairings manually, cash prizes, etc that the Club level TD probably doesn't need to worry about.  I believe that to become a USCF TD, you must also be a member of the USCF (an individual member or part of a family membership).

Make sure you buy and read the current copy of the Official Rules of Chess.  The current and newest version is the 6th edition.

Correct, there are no age requirements for a USCF TD.

Good luck!

Here's the information I promised about how a school that is a USCF affiliate (grades K-12) can run a tournament that is USCF-rated, and the players don't need to have individual USCF memberships.  This is taken from the USCF Affiliate and TD support area (which is limited to Affiliates and TDs  ).

This is taken from their FAQ document, part 2.

==================================================

JTP (Junior Tournament Player) Events are ones where US Chess membership requirements are waived for young players. There are two types of JTP Events:

• Primary JTP Events
• K-12 In-School JTP Events

Any US Chess affiliate may run a Primary JTP Event, all of the players in it must be in the 3rd grade or earlier.

A Scholastic Affiliate that is owned by an accredited school may also run a K-12 In-School JTP Event. All of the players must attend that school and be in the 12th grade or earlier.

All players must have US Chess member IDs with birthdates that confirm they are of an appropriate age. (See the earlier FAQ entry for instructions on how to generate a member ID for a player who does not yet have one.)

No adult players (such as coaches, teachers or parents) may play in a JTP Event, even as house players.

To code an event as a Primary JTP Event or K-12 In-School JTP Event, you will need to change the Participant Coding using the editing form in the TD/Affiliate Support Area. (The K-12 JTP type will only be offered if the affiliate is a scholastic affiliate.) Until the Participant Coding is changed to a JTP Event, any non-members will be flagged as errors.

Here are responses from the FAQ document (part 1) that cover some of your earlier questions.

Any current US Chess member in good standing can become a certified TD. To become a US Chess member, go to our Membership Webstore. To become a TD at the starting (club TD) level, you need to print out the Club TD Application form, complete and sign it, and then mail or fax it to the US Chess office. You should have access to a copy of the current US Chess rulebook and the latest updates to it.

The application form (and other useful forms) are at: http://www.uschess.org/component/option,com_uscf_dirlist/Itemid,412/.

Information about the US Chess Rulebook and the latest updates to the rulebook is at: http://www.uschess.org/content/view/7752/28/.
Note: The 6th edition of the US Chess rulebook came out in both digital and print form in 2014.

Any chess organization can become a US Chess affiliate. Schools (grade 12 and below) should become a Scholastic affiliate, colleges should become a College affiliate, prison chess clubs should become a Prison affiliate, all other chess organizations should become Regular affiliates.

You can apply to become a US Chess affiliate at: https://secure2.uschess.org/webstore/affil.php.