Any thoughts or suggestions on what to do with the couple of consistent problem causers who manage to suck so much of the fun out of chess for everyone else? 90%+ of players (and parents) are great, but whenever there is a problem the cause thereof usually seems to come from the list of usual suspects.
I’m afraid you’ll need to be more specific.
Alex Relyea
If you have someone who consistently misbehaves, tell them they have one chance left, then if they misbehave again expel them from the event and ban them from future events. Especially if you are renting space and not playing in some public place like a park you have the legal right to ask someone to leave and if they do not it is trespassing.
If you have a person who has consistently caused a problem in your events and you are thinking of banning them for future ones it would be a good idea to compile a list of previous problems caused by this person. The national office takes a dim view of an organizer or director refusing to accept an entry from someone whose membership is not suspended without adequate cause. In case this decision of yours is appealed you want to be able to back up your call.
When I was on the Ethics Committee (many years ago), several tournament banning cases came before the Committee. In every case, we ruled in favor of permitting the organizer to ban the individual, because in every case there seemed to be good cause.
Bill Smythe