Looking for ideas for a high school chess club

Hi, I am currently in the process of founding a new chess club in my high school. Our school has never had a chess club before, and this is the first time I am creating a chess club. I am currently unsure what to do for my members in this club, whether I should just make it an informal group just for playing chess with friends, or incorporate some lessons and coaching into it. Any ideas/suggestions?

Maybe try and find some online lessons for chess players, and maybe some books, and distribute them between different levels, such as beginner, intermediate, and master, and you can even try and get the schools help in finding a volunteer chess coach.

this is a high school people are too lazy to read whole books

I think what will be a good idea will be to allot some time (maybe around 30-40 mins) per session for a quick lesson and then have the students play chess for the rest of the time where they can apply what they learned. We might also do tournaments and fundraisers where we have a chess tournament and all proceeds can be donated to charity.

coming from a high school junior, I'd say it depends on the type of kids that are going to be there. If you have a group of intermediate to advanced level players in your club, and they actually like Chess, i would incorporate some lecture type lessons on openings or game showcasing, etc (but nothing too crazy). If the people in the club have never played chess before, i think the main idea you should be going for is to make it as fun as possible. once you get them in the door, they'll find chess is a very fun hobby. furthermore, if you're a teacher, i would try not to hassle the guys if they don't show, most of them are probably missing 20+ assignments, so maybe make a specific day (Mondays at lunch for example) dedicated only to the chess club. If this is a student making this post, don't give the other guys lessons, that would make you seem kinda cocky and arrogant imo. but it's cool that you're actually making a club, i only know two other people that actually know how to play chess and even then they're rated 400 points lower than I am, so there's not a lot of places for me to really learn more with other people if you know what im saying

You don’t necessarily have to make them read Whole books - a small section each day going incrementally should be good enough.

Would you be interested in joining the Student Led Chess Association? We help to bring chess clubs together for tournaments, scrimmages if you wish, and other charity tournaments. Depending where you are we may already have a league in your area, or will establish one in the future. This can be a great way for you to coordinate with other schools and organize such tournaments and expansion. This could help define the path you want to take with the club. There is no pressure on you to make it a competition as we try to keep the environment casual for newer players. This could allow you to discuss with other club leaders and see what works. I decided to keep my club pretty casual as of right now, but for those who are curious I teach or help where I can.

Please let me know if you want our help. You can reach out to me at at gabriel@studentledca.org or on this post if you wish.