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 Club News / Suggestions |
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Scholarship Program
The club will soon initiate a scholarship program in which our members nominate those individuals to be considered for a one-time paid subscription to Gameknot for a period lasting a minimum of 3 months. At some point during the scholarship period, one of the club's coaches will train the recipient. All members will receive notification prior to each scholarship period so they can nominate / re-nominate one individual of their choosing.
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Clarification of Scholarship Program
Several members have indicated confusion about the club's new scholarship endeavor. Under the program, members can nominate one non-premium (non-paying) current Gameknot user to receive a one-time paid scholarship to Gameknot lasting at least 3 months. The scholarship itself will not be awarded to a Knights of Honor club member. I have come across several "non-premium" GK players who I felt were making strides in their efforts to improve their chess skills. These are the people who qualify for the scholarship. Please list your nomination in the "Scholarship Nominations" thread giving a 1 or 2 sentence reason as to why the person you are nominating deserves the award. You may nominate a person more than once, and I encourage doing this. My goal is for every member to have his/her nominated individual to eventually receive the award, so keep trying. If you have further questions, post them here or shoot me a private message.
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First Award Recipient
Tygloalex, nominated by tekoahbaer, is our first scholarship recipient. His term is scheduled to begin December 1, 2008. His current rating is 1585, and he has been a GK member since July 2006. He is a member of the Mathematics Nerds teams.
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New Coach
One of our newest members has agreed to be the club's 4th coach. Since the first of September, 2 people have been coached and 4 people are in the process of being coached. Three are in line for training, one of which will be mentored by our new coach. If you are interested in a training session, please post your needs/expectations in the "Club Members Desiring a Coach" thread and if you want to become a coach, please send me a private message or post your intentions in the "Club Members Available to Coach" thread.
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New Mini Tournaments
The club will be hosting 2 (or more depending upon interest shown) Knights of Honor mini tournaments. If you would like to participate, please indicate your desire in the respective thread below. For every 10 members interested in a particular classication of tourney, I will open a new group given the fact that the club now consists of 72 individuals. For example, if 30 people are signed up for Mini Tournament IIA, I will start 3 groups of IIA. If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me via private message.
“Knights of Honor Mini Tournament IIA” thread for members with a rating below 1450:
gameknot.com
“Knights of Honor Mini Tournament IIB” thread for members with a rating 1450 and above:
gameknot.com
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. . .
Our mini tournaments are now underway. We have 3 tourneys--2 for 1449 and below rated members and 1 for 1450 and above rated members. Our first tourney is now 95% complete. I will post the results of each upon completion. A 3rd round of club tourneys is scheduled to initiate in August, so if you missed this one, stick around for the next ones. Good luck to all of our participants!
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2009 Membership Drive
The club just initiated a membership drive for 2009 to commence March 1. The drive is open to all members, existing and new alike. The person who is responsible for bringing in the greatest number of new members will be awarded a one year paid membership extension on January 15, 2010. In order to receive credit for the new member, notification of the recruit must be made within 3 days of the recruit's club membership date. If more than one claim is made, the credit will be split between all interested parties. If the drive is successful this year, it may become an annual event.
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2nd Award Recipient
Congratulations to alexmootoo who was recently awarded the club's 2nd scholarship. The term has been increased from 3 months to 1 year. Mr. Mootoo was nominated by eqj2.
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Membership Drive
Tom (tom318) has already brought so many new members into the club that I cannot keep track of them all. This is largely because of one of his friends and a big proponent of the KOH club, bigcol1. Thanks to both of you for helping to increase the club’s membership by 40%.
I also want to thank bravo58d and sgardine for their efforts in recruiting new club members. Sam (sgardine) was so excited about helping to grow the club that he started recruiting even before the membership drive even officially began. Jon (bravo58d) is also an honorable mention as he is responsible for bringing many new members, and he did so without regard to the contest reward. Jon is also a faithful moderator to whom I depend greatly in helping to carry out the administrative functions of the club.
As winner of the contest, Tom was rewarded a one year pre-paid membership extension. Since Tom had a platinum membership, he received the extension at that level.
Though only three club members participated in the drive, I feel as though it was a great success. We are now 140+ strong!!! We also continue to grow and flourish thanks to all of our members.
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Mini Torunament Frequency Change
The club's 3rd round of mini tournaments are scheduled to commence July 16. Due to popular demand and suggestion, new mini tournament rounds will reoccur every 4 months thereafter on the following schedule:
March 16
July 16
November 16
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fatcat2
02-Jul-09, 23:42
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Emergency Membership Drive Summer 2009
I think we may need to introduce an emergency membership drive - if club founder tennesseehiker agrees with me - in order to cope with a sudden decrease in forum posts for our club. I certainly need no reward for helping the Knights of Honour Chess Club to boost its number of members; however, I think that such a reward scheme, as detailed above, would reap great dividends. I await tennesseehiker's authorisation of this Drive.
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Emergency Membership Drive
I will authorize the drive if you will help to fund it. However, I have found the hard way that more members does not necessarily mean more participation. Even with the reward of a $40 membership extension, less than 3% of our members took advantage of the drive. Moreover, it is getting difficult to manage the membership as it stands. Sending out private messages to 150+ people is a daunting task.
Up to this juncture, I have offered a free gold subscription scholarship to deserving candidates nominated by our members. Again, less than 3% have taken advantage of the offer.
As of next month, I will have spent $150 out of pocket on club incentitives. I'm having a difficult time justifying this expenditure based on the number of folks taken advantage of the free offers.
I do have a thought, however, as to how we can possibly determine a means of getting further participation in our club in addition to our new monthly club matters messages, which is a new initiative itself. I would like to start asking other club founders about their stategies for obtaiining club participation. Would you be willing to help with this effort?
Jim
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aandersen
28-Aug-09, 05:23
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I have an idea/suggestion
This idea comes from a lifetime of watching men while they are watching some kind of sporting event.
One of the things i have noticed is that men seem to enjoy a small bet on the outcome of the game they are watching. In the case of my current boyfriend, I have recently found out that he places a bet, not on his own team to win but on the opposition. He sees it as a kind of insurance policy. If his team loses, he wins enough to pay for a couple of beers. If his team win, he is happy to pay for his own beers. Odd but probably harmless behaviour I think.
Anyway, you have inter club (intra club, not sure which) tournaments, so would there be any interest in virtual gambling. I have used this before in teams and it has been quite popular, although I have found to my cost that you have to be careful not to upset anyone whose beliefs are against gambling.
Roughly, the way it works is that everyone who wants to take part is given say,100 virtual dollars which they can use to bet on the outcome of individual games or the overall winner of the tournament. It needs a volunteer to be banker and bookmaker. This person sets the odds and keeps track of everyone's wins and losses.
Another thing I learnt as I went along is that you need to make sure that folk don't get carried away with the excitement of the whole thing and start openly discussing the progress of active games.
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aanderson's suggestion
I welcome any suggestion that will help to improve our club. Anne, would you be interested in serving as the banker and bookmaker? If so, please start another post further explaining your idea in the first thread. I look forward to seeing how this plays out.
Jim
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aandersen
04-Sep-09, 05:40
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Virtual Gambling
Since my original post, I have had time to look through the posts on the forum, and think about them. I think the "virtual gambling" idea would not work well yet because of the low level of activity. However, I think it possible that a more clubby type of feel to the place could be induced and I am currently thinking over a couple of ideas which may help in this direction.
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tennesseehiker
13-Nov-09, 20:20
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New Club Moderator
I would like to congratulate bigcol1 for his promotion to club moderator. He has single-handily recruited more members to this club than any other individual short of myself.
Kudos to bigcol1 for a job well done!
Jim
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Congratulations to our newest Gold scholarship recipient
While my funds are tight this year, I decided to increase svetozar551's scholarship from a 2 month Silver subscription to a 1 year Gold subscription.
Future scholarship recipients (if their GK accounts are still active):
pinkbobblegirl (as nominated by utrync) -- scheduled for June 2010 if possible
7angels (as nominated by me -- someone who has done much to promote this club)
-- scheduled for December 2010 if possible
If you are interested in nominating future scholarship (non-KOH members), please respond on this thread or send me a private message. While minorities and people from poor countries are given precedence, all nominations will be scrutinized by me and the club's many and loyal moderators.
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Frequency of Future Tournaments
Due to lack of interest, only 2 or possibly 3 of the 6 thematic tourneys offered in Tournament VI will be able to transpire. For this reason, I am going to change the frequency of tournaments in this club. Instead of offering a tournament every four months (3 times a year), I am going to offer future tournaments every 6 months (twice a year).
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Good Idea
It should prob create more interest since less is being offered...so much is offered on GM as well as our club so bumping the tourneys to just 2 should help
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