If all you did for that $10 an hour was watch your favorite game, the gravy train would crash or dry up pretty quickly
First you read the rulebook and become a club TD. Then you volunteer at a number of tournaments and gain experience to become a local TD. Then you continue to do a lot of tournaments and after about 10-15 years to become adept at local tournaments you have a chance to work at a national (probably after improving your certification level to at least senior TD) at which point you would get travel and somewhat more than half the pay of an NTD. After demonstrating your skill and dependability and improving your certification level you can eventually reach the point where you are an NTD making that $10 or so per hour. That means it is a mere 20 years, or 100-150 tournaments (try to average at least 100 players and it helps if the average is at least 200 players), or 1000-3000 TDing hours away. It’s not too onerous, and they become easier after the first 50 tournaments and 25,000 games.
Make sure you listen to how the floor chief and chief TD of the tournament handles dicey situations so that you can handle them when you are chief TD. Also plan on being the floor chief or chief TD of some local tournaments before working a national (or the “gravy train” is going to be near minimum wage).
Being retired, you may be able to get the requisite tournaments in more quickly. If you hurry, do a lot of scholastics, and work with TDs that already do a number of the nationals (so that you learn how to direct in a way that is expected at a national) then you just might be ready for the 2013 supernationals. That is pushing it, so don’t delay.
Ask the organizer who pays $11/hour to replace one of his TDs with you.
Sorry that I offended you, Mike and Steve with my lame attempt at mild humor. I live in a podunk state where opportunities to work with larger events is rare. It seems to me that USCF should have a positive program to make opportunities available for aspiring TDs to gain the experience of working with experienced top level TDs. I believe some Organizer/TDs do have the opportunity to make or lose good money and so want to keep competition down . If USCF had a proactive program to train TDs at their sanctioned events, would we not have better TDs in the sticks? OK, $170 a day is not enough for top level certified TDs. Again, I apologize if I have offended anyone.
I don’t know about Mike or Steve but I wasn’t offended. I just gave you a standard answer for people who ask how easy it is to become an experienced TD. Some people are daunted when a question asked in jest is given a serious answer.
As far as training TDs goes, you can look at the National HS in KC in 2007. There were 17 TDs for the 1447 players. 4 of the 17 were in the back room, leaving a 111 to 1 ratio of players to TDs on the floor. With numbers like that you need an experienced core of people to avoid becoming overwhelmed, but there were still 3 or 4 first-timers to a national scholastic staff (plus one additional TD who had done nationals when they were bid out but was a newbie to USCF-run national scholastics - Steve, I had a lot of confidence in you as a super-experienced “newbie” and you lived up to my expectations). Also some of the other section chiefs were in the position for the first time after previously serving as section assistants and having done well.
The USCF does try to see to TD training. Doing so at a national means that if the trainees don’t measure up then the rest of the staff has to pick up the slack, but it is still done if feasible. At KC I was quite happy with my first-timer section assistant (Mike Gooch) but I have heard that there have occasionally been problems with other first-timers.
In Chicagoland there are opportunities available for potential TDs to gain experience if they are willing to start out volunteering, and that is even though the area has 5 active NTDs, 2 active ANTDs (plus one more in central IL) and a number of active Sr and Local TDs. A number of TDs are quite happy to train somebody else so that they can actually play in a tournament rather than direct it.
I realize that it is tougher in areas that don’t have as many tournaments, but significant TD experience really is needed before working at a national.
TD union demands higher hourly wages for experienced directors. Organizer has to raise entry fees to compensate. At some point, the number of entries begins to decrease due to higher fees. Smaller turnouts mean less TDs. Is this really what the proposed TD union wants?
Most TDs are like most chess players. They do it for the love of the game and are content with their expenses paid plus a small stipend. Except for a few titled players, nobody gets rich at chess tournaments.
Michael Aigner
In most years the USCF runs four major national scholastics, the K-12, Elementary, Junior High, and High School. As I recall, the TD to player ratio is lower for the K-12 and Elementary than what Jeff quotes for the High School. Thus the USCF likely pays for 70 or more TD’s to staff these four major events. Assuming a “TD Union” would want to double the hourly rate that the USCF pays, the USCF would have to shell out an additional $50,000 to $60,000 annually. I use the double rate based on what I pay and receive locally compared to what the USCF pays.
What area of the USCF budget should be impacted by this increase in TD fees? Keep in mind the biggest line item is office salaries. Perhaps we could ask some of the employees who make around $10 per hour to take a pay cut.
(Edited to correct the spelling of Jeff)
The younger kids need significantly more TDs per player than the HS players, and it is an even higher priority to have more experienced TDs for the younger kids. In the event a first-timer is not fully up to snuff, it is much more likely that an HS player will appeal a decision than an elementary player will.
P.S. I corrected my first name in the quote.
15 years to get Senior and work Nationals is a bit long… I worked my first National as a Local TD after only having been a TD for less than a year. I got Senior at 1 1/2 - 2 years as a TD. I’ve had 4 years where I was not active at all or I’d be ANTD by now (o: So, I’ve been directing 8 years and will get my ANTD by mid next year (hopefully) if you take the 4 years of no playing or directing out, that is ANTD in 4 - 5 years possible. I’m sure several have done it much more quickly as well.
As an aside, my first national was the SuperNationals in Kansas City. I had a friend NTD who was on staff and they needed more floor TDs and I got the free lodging/food and $100 for my four days work. I was in one of the K-8 under sections at that point and at that tournament when our section was complete, the section chief simply dismissed us (at later tournaments, most Chief TD’s want you to move up a section after your section is complete). I didn’t get much pay at the first one, but it got my foot in the door so that I’ve worked at least 4 nationals since.
I would recommend that a local TD (or senior) that has one of the Nationals come close to them volunteer to help a day or two to show the organizers and Chief TD’s they are dedicated. It goes a long way towards getting a nod for a future spot from the Chief TDs.
Yes Josh but I think that National event was held in your local area and we had an NTD who was helping get us started who was working the event too. It is harder to do if you don’t hap[pen to love ont he doorstep of the National location. I started working at national events as a volunteer runner becuae my kid was there playing. Being a TD already I was able to help in little additional ways and was there when they needed more TD help. But the first 2 national that I worked as a TD I was there as a volunteer TD without pay - paid my own way to the tournament and own housing - which was OK because I was taking my son to play anyway. And that was part of your point as well.
Kansas City isn’t too local to here Allen. (o;
The Junior High/Middle School National in Louisville was my 3rd National.
But yes, the point was that it can be done much quicker than 15 years… And to do that volunteering helps you a long way.
Sorry Josh - didn’t realize that. The 3rd local I mean - I do realize KC isn’t local to Louisville 
You know I’m poking fun at you Allen!! (o:
On subject… If I didn’t enjoy directing tournaments(and I’m sure Allen would say the same as he makes a lot more than me) I wouldn’t be doing them. I enjoy my job and can make nearly $30/hour working Overtime doing something I like at work. So, being a TD is not about the money per se. I think the compensation is fair to compensate me for my time, but I’m doing something I enjoy so don’t expect to get rich off it. There are many like me (including Allen) That enjoy doing it, and as long as we get something to compensate for time lost, we’re ok with it. As long as there are those like us, the consensus will be to continue to hire those like us instead of raising the rates to 15/hour or so.
I gotta tell ya, this whole discussion flabbergasts me. It never even occured to me that TDs got paid. I guess part of that is because my only tournament experience has been scholastic and I being a kid at the time assumed that all the officials were school faculty and volunteers. The only reason I wanted to become a TD is because of the years I spent as a Cub Scout leader for my boys. I learned at that time how important volunteer were and I wanted to be available to help in my local area with a game I love. I never even thought about getting paid for it.
I started out spending 15 years of being a volunteer TD for the local tournaments (for 50 cents per player our local club provided the entire TD staff, dozens of boards and sets, and some clocks for long-running games that didn’t have them). The tournaments finally grew large enough and numerous enough that I couldn’t get enough of a volunteer staff any more (I could solo 80 players for a K-8 or 200+ for an HS tournament with a fixed board team section but the tournaments were significantly larger than that, especially the K-8 state championships that were exceeding 700 players). Starting with the 04-05 school year we finally started charging an additional $100 per TD for a one-day tournament that was being sponsored by a school and that was enough to get other TDs to assist without feeling they were being taken advantage of (those tournaments were often good enough fund raisers that they could still cover a school’s chess expenses for the year). If there had been enough other TDs still dedicated (crazy?) enough to volunteer then the 04-05 rate change may never have happened.
With large scholastic events in our area at least the TD taking entries, setting the event in computer, dealing with the USCF adn submitting results charges, as does the chief floor director - usually a dollar or two per kid.
That still works out to $10 per hour or so for 200-300 kids due to the extensive work on the computer.
But some of those are really organizer duties as well.
Even at lower levels of tournament direction, the trials and tribulations of being a TD compared with the rewards are disproportionate. At one of my single-day quads, the workday is close to 14 hoursmore often than not by myself. My compensation (financially speaking) is a “a dollar a head” for the tournament. I used this definition in the unlikely event a two-headed player shows up. A downside might be in case a player with only half a brain wants to play, that would cost me money. So far neither has happened.
As Mike says, the only way to make money at being a TD is as chief of a major tournament or be the organizer a reap and big profit while risking losing one’s shirt. It’s obvious, very few TDs if any ever got rich doing this. Most of us do this as a labor of love, and the appreciation of players to your effort is worth more than any amount of money.
Don Millican
Senior Tournament Director