| April 1999 | Newsletter of the British Chess Federation | Online Edition |
The BCF must improve its communication with clubs and learn to
promote itself as a product, according to a new survey. Marketing Director
Mario Houska, a chess player himself with four highly successful chess-playing
children, conducted the survey to identify the BCF's strengths and weaknesses
in its relationship with clubs.
There are almost 1,500 clubs in the country, and 150 were selected to take part in the survey using stratified random sampling. This means that instead of choosing a completely random set of clubs, 30 were chosen from each of the five Unions to ensure that all regions were covered.
Only 39 out of the 150 clubs completed the survey, but Houska says this is a high enough proportion to draw conclusions that are 95 per cent accurate. He pointed out that Mori polls, used to predict the results of elections, are based on interviews with 1,000 people, while the BCF survey received responses from 2.6 per cent of the total number of clubs, which is a much higher percentage than that which a Mori poll depends on.
Nearly all the responses (89 per cent) came from club secretaries. A disproportionate 92 per cent of the respondents were male, indicating that the BCF must do more to encourage women to participate in club activities, Houska wrote in his report. Clubs were asked questions on topics which included junior chess, team events, sponsorships, publicity, ChessMoves and the Game Fee. "One thing that amazed me was that sponsorship is quite high, clubs are actively seeking it," Houska said. An estimated 570 clubs are involved in seeking sponsorships and an estimated 390 have already had success in obtaining sponsorship. Houska is currently negotiating his own sponsorship deal for the BCF with an international company.
Another finding which impressed Houska was the extent to which clubs are in contact with their local press: 34 per cent have a permanent chess column in their local newspaper, and 59 per cent have occasionally written in the local paper publicising their achievements. However, only eight per cent are using ChessMoves, a website or local radio for publicity. Whilst two-thirds of clubs would not pay to receive ChessMoves, 74 per cent think it could be a great means of communication with the BCF. Houska proposes that ChessMoves could be produced at no cost to the BCF (with the help of sponsorship) and distributed to the clubs free of charge. "I don't want ChessMoves to be thrown into the dustbin, so I will be consulting the clubs about what they want to see in it," Houska said.
BCF directors should think in terms of a common goal, the report says. "There is a need for change," Houska wrote. Comments by respondents included, "If we won the European why did we not shout about it? Sadly disappointing", "Get a great website going", "No Game Fees for juniors", "More administrative efficiency", "Apart from grading what does the BCF do?", and, "Sell chess more efficiently to the general public". Houska's next step will be to liaise with the other directors to help them develop a corporate strategy and implement the recommendations in the report.
"We need to do quite a lot, but the potential is there," said Houska. "We have a rough diamond that needs to be polished. At the moment we don't have a policy on how to polish it, where we want to be. All we have is a mission statement that says we should do whatever possible to encourage chess at all levels, but I'm not sure all the directors are doing that."