setting up a Social Chess club

[AustinElliott]

Seems to me the definition of "social chess club" is some combination of "Meets in a bar or cafe" and "don't want the hassle of playing in a League".

Recent experience at our South Manchester club, bearing out what someone said above, has been that we get more enquiries from people via Facebook than anywhere else. So pages /accounts on as many social network sites as you can be bothered with.

Of course, running a 'social' chess club on the same night of the week as several of the established local clubs have their club night will mean that you've little chance of pulling in anyone from those, even if they might be interested in a social chess night. I don't mean that snidely (honest)... just that it will reduce the chances of that particular population of chess-interested people going along, as they're busy. So one might suggest that finding the weekday night when the minimal no. of local clubs (and Universities?) have their club nights is probably a good idea.

[Chris Goodall]

Recent experience at our South Manchester club, bearing out what someone said above, has been that we get more enquiries from people via Facebook than anywhere else. So pages /accounts on as many social network sites as you can be bothered with.

I can add to that: dates, dates, dates. Work on the assumption that a post on your Facebook page dated 1 month ago will get 50% less interest than a post dated this week, and a post dated 2 months ago will get no interest at all. The best way of keeping your dates up to date is to create a new mini-event for every club meeting night that you hold, and to create that event immediately after the previous meeting night, because people will look for the timestamp showing when you created the event. Don't stick 50 dates in the calendar at the start of the year and forget about it. People will check how old that information is and if it's 2 months old, they won't believe it. They'll think maybe you cancelled this week's session and forgot to update the site.

[Simon Rogers]

just wonder if any of you people, can help

my mate have set up an chess club in the heart of Manchester, and it been going for over 18 months now.
but the question is that, how do we spread the word etc, to get people in?

The way to increase membership either for a social chess club or a more serious chess club is to advertise, advertise and advertise.
One way is to design and distribute colourful posters.
The A4 and A5 posters can be used to advertise the club on noticeboards in supermarkets, libraries and community centres, which are free of charge.
Also, it's worth getting in contact with the local newspaper. They might be able to do a feature on the chess club.
Local radio stations might happily do a feature for you aswell.