Tuesday, May 22, 2007

The final frontier

I suspect that the vast majority of chess clubs, primarily for financial reasons, do not own or control their own space. They arrange to use senior centers, schools, libraries, community centers, local pubs, etc. often during off-hours for these locations. There are exceptions, of course. For instance, the Marshall Chess Club in New York holds title to its Greenwich Village brownstone and I think I read somewhere that the Mechanics Institute Club in San Francisco has some kind of sweetheart deal on its space.

For our part, the BCF rents the space which houses the Boylston Chess Club. The good news is that we have control over the use of the space 24/7, but of course the challenge is that we must generate sufficient revenue through dues, tournament income, and donations to cover this substantial expense.

It turns out, however, that those who borrow their space face challenges of their own.

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