Volunteers and the team behind a chess tournament

Even a small evening splits into six areas of work. At a small event one person can cover two or three of them - but the areas have to be named, otherwise everything lands on the organizer by default.

Guidance for the key roles - what to announce before round one, the organizer's checklist.

The numbers are indicative and depend heavily on format: a children's event needs more people for the same field because the parents arrive too, and blitz needs more because the rounds run back to back.

Children's events in particular need one more person: somebody whose job is the parents. Otherwise the arbiter takes that on and stops arbitrating.

• Among your own players. The main source. Someone who has been to five evenings knows the format better than any outside volunteer and cares more.
• Players who are out. In a knockout there are people with nothing to do who already understand everything.
• Parents at children's events. Almost always willing - you simply have to ask specifically rather than «can anyone help».
• University volunteer centres. Most universities have one, and they need hours and events to report.
• Chess schools. Older students are glad to work at events, particularly if it counts as practice.
• The partner venue. A bar or co-working space often provides a member of staff who is there anyway.

The mistake nearly every organizer makes is explaining everything at once and verbally. A volunteer retains half of it and then comes to ask questions exactly when you are busiest.

• One page per person. Their area only: what they do, when, and who to turn to. Not the whole event regulations.
• Send it in advance. The day before, not handed over at the door.
• Have them arrive half an hour early. Show them the room, the desk, where the water is, where the spare clocks live.
• Name one person to ask. One, not «ask somebody».
• Give them permission to say «let me find out». A volunteer is not required to know the regulations - they are required not to invent an answer.

A volunteer does not work for money, but they do not work for nothing either: they get something else. The organizer's job is to know what, and to give it deliberately.

And one thing that matters more than any of the above: write to them the next day. A personal message of thanks with a few words about how it went brings a volunteer back more reliably than any gift.

• Vague roles. When «everyone helps», nobody does, and the organizer runs around the hall.
• A dressing-down in public. Criticising a volunteer in front of players guarantees they will not return.
• Forgetting to thank them. Especially at the prize-giving, when everyone is watching.
• Loading the same person every time. The most reliable helper burns out first, because everything goes to them.
• Not letting them go on time. If you agreed on two hours, release them after two hours, even if things are unfinished.
• Treating help as owed. After a few events that becomes noticeable, and people quietly stop coming.

A good health check: after an event somebody asks, unprompted, when the next one is and whether help is needed. If that has not happened for several events in a row, the problem is how the work is arranged, not the people.