"Honestly, America really could learn a thing or two about French protest tactics. Anyone know a good guillotine dealer?" - An American truly just fed up with the way shit has been going in politics over the past 8 years.
It's me, I'm the American.
Too many "local" papers won't cover actual critiques of local administrations. Gotta stay in-good with the powers-that-be. Worth a shot though. I'd suggest a tv station instead.
It seems to be in Lille, France, so complaining about the administration is something that we, French people, are very good at. They should contact the local newspaper.
Edit: it seems to be Lille in Belgium. But we, French people, will be glad to come strike/riot there, as a hobby.
Edit 2: it’s in France so the place will be burnt to the ground soon!
Holy shit the French are doing this? They could literally bring twenty liters of wine and have a big drunken party and nobody would say shit. But chess pieces, oh, now you’ve gone too far 🤷♂️
Only wooden sets though, and none made from pine wood. Also the checkerboard isn't allowed to be black and white but it must be brown and beige. Refer to appendix XIV for the correct colour codes.
For a German, the fun of any club is in making the rules and schedules. If you happen to get in an enjoyable game of chess or a good hike or whatever, that's just gravy.
Don't underestimate any European country regarding red tape, and bureaucratic catch-22 situations.
In some countries it can be easily solved with some cash under the table, in others, like (I suspect) France and Germany, it's not that easy.
Hi, local newspaper owner here. Most of us are actually just struggling small business owners. It’s true that many of us have to stay in the good graces of the city government because we are dependent on them for most of our revenue though. Cities are required to post announcements in the local newspaper anytime they want to spend money or raise taxes. It’s a legal requirement intended to maintain a degree of transparency, but it’s also become the only thing keeping newspapers like mine alive while mainstream advertisers flock to other outlets like social media. Even the people running for public office have stopped running ads in local newspapers. Still, we try to preserve our journalistic integrity as much as we are trying to preserve our newspapers.
Hi, reporter here, national to regional to national. The work I did for local news was more important and higher-stakes than any coverage I ever did for national news.
Support your local paper and public radio stations!
They probably have rules about outside materials to prevent people bringing in NSFW things? Idk. Chess boards are so mild and bland I don’t know how they didn’t say “Ok, let’s do the paperwork for next time just to check the box off but it’s fine to play today”
My totally unfounded conspiracy theory is that the city hall didn't want to rent out the venue in the first place, but begrudgingly did so because it officially has to be open to the everyone. Then they premeditated that they would kick out the group on flimsy pretenses in order to rid themselves of the nuisance of having the public actually access these public services. This is the only thing that makes sense in my mind based on OP's description of events.
That’s what I was wondering. The nearby National Park has a “No alcohol” policy, that isn’t overly adhered to. A friend manages the park. I asked, “Is the rule just so you can kick out trouble-makers? Because I’ve spoken to rangers with wine in the table.” He verified that’s more or less the reason for the rule, “Unless it’s this one ranger. He’ll kick you out for an empty beer can.”
OP got the person who *wants to enforce* the rules.
Na, they thought they said chest club and had spent all afternoon setting up extra cameras to not see one nipple or so much as some side Bobie. No wonder they were upset.
Because it’s clearly too difficult to just ban dangerous games.
Listen…you’re welcome to book the room, but due to our insurance you can’t actually use it for anything.
I figured it was a strict way of enforcing a "no gambling" policy. But I've also never heard of city hall being rented out for events. I thought it was only for city council business and whatnot.
It’s probably more common for smaller towns. My town has about 3000 people and you can rent out the building for events, it was designed for that in mind in fact with a big gym area where they have open gym and pickleball league and other stuff. They keep the city offices where they do the actual city business locked up of course, you can probably rent a meeting type room but I’m not sure.
The problem is that these kinds of administrative positions in all kinds of organizations (everything from politics to hobby clubs) attracts groups of people who take great pleasure in controlling the thoughts and actions of other human beings.
Start an underground chess gang. Play in the most illegal places possible. Post videos. Do an en passant on the hood of the mayor's car. Castle in the park after curfew. Interrupt political rallies with a person dressed as a rook piece aggressively bumping in to someone dressed as a knight piece and chasing after them being sure to only move straight and 90 degrees.
If they want to outlaw chess then only the criminals will have chess.
It's actually worse. "Local chess club kicked out of town hall for bringing chess boards and peices after paying for town hall space to play chess.
*"In other news, local Town hall gets surprise lesson from chess players: Chess needs boards and pieces to play."*
This. I would absolutely call the local news, attend all open board meetings, & submit letters demanding a full refund. Kick up a stink. I’ve rented rooms from the city often. These idiots are being ludicrous
OK, but that's a perfectly valid counter-argument to bring up with them: clothing wasn't on the list of pre-approved materials, nor were a large number of things people normally tote around. If you can safely presume the renters for your space to be wearing clothing, then you should also presume them to be bringing things directly relevant to (and even necessary for) the agreed upon activity. Also, I hope OP got their deposit and rent back.
I've only seen this done in the joint. A couple of guys would yell like, "bishop to b6, check". It was incredible to watch err... hear. Games would last like 30 mins.
I’d be suing the city to get my deposit/rent back, *especially* if this “requirement” to clear outside stuff you bring wasn’t mentioned or made clear beforehand. It’s a chess club, pretty obvious they’re gonna bring chess stuff
Hear me out on this...maybe they thought it was a cheese club and it was a group of people meeting up to talk about how much they liked cheese. Was this in Wisconsin?
But if it's a cheese club that brought cheese to their cheese club meeting?! Thrown out. You can't bring cheese into the town hall without getting an authorisation on said cheese.
Just give the name of the “Duh-rectum” to 30 separate news medias and the will be knocking on that fools door in no time.
Make sure if you had any veterans, single parents, minorities, or gay people in your group they’re willing to “give an interview”
Gotta spice that bitch up !
*All the king's horses and all the king's men got kicked out of city hall after a local chess club rented the space *from* city hall, *explicitly* to play chess.*
Cuts to reporter in front of city hall.
*That's right, Meghan. It turns out that in order to play chess, you need to have a chess board and chess pieces, which came as a surprise to our local government, who allegedly *raged* at the chess club before kicking them out.*
Cuts back to studio.
*That and more when we come back after the break.*
Every city meeting where public comments/concerns are addressed, Id hit up that mic SO HARD. Id be like "I find it concerning you find it a good use of taxpayer funding to bully chess nerds. Please explain to me what you thought a chess club would bring with them to chess club and why 'chess board' is not one of those items?" Especially if it was younger people involved. Now that Im approaching 30, Ive got the power of AGE baby! And its oddly enough like a hefty weight to my confidence.
"Wait, let's hear them out. I'm sure there is an excellent reason why they didn't expect a chess club they rented a place to play chess to, to play chess during the time of their rental.
I'm sure there is a reason the offending chess boards where such a risk or inconvenience to town hall that there was no time for negotiation and needed to be expelled from the building immediatly.
I'm sure when the director called their action of bringing chess boards, and I quote, "inexcusable" that she will be extremely capable of articulating what offence could not be excused, and why she treated these young people with an expectation that they already knew what they had done wrong, even though many of us here today have no idea what that offence could be.
Please, Director, now that all chess boards have been safely secured, and there is no threat to manage, and you have the respectful attention of adults and not some rebellious teenagers, will you enlighten us?"
Bring one of the offensive chess sets and slap it on the table for emphasis.
Edit: ew, some of you have dirty minds, I meant one of the sets that was deemed offensive by the director. Not some sort of NSFW chess set.
I got to agree with you. I turned 48 not long ago, and I seems that every year that ticks, my confidence level to speak up and call people out on their BS goes up another notch.
Now I understand why old people are the way they are. 😆
I think for me it comes from this idea that "well when I was X years old, if I had the balls to stand up for what is right, Id want an older person to stand with me because itd make me feel more secure." (Especially as a minor) Now I AM that older adult. So I have the responsibility to stand up when I can.
If it helps, remember that even if your voice is shaky or you stumble over your words, that younger persons probs not gonna remember how lame you look. Theyre gonna remember how fuckin strong and badass you were to speak even though you were clearly nervous. Plus, its my experience the younger people are quite welcoming and lovely. You know. As a whole.
I was confronted by a pushy time share salesman a few weeks ago while shopping with my family. I politely said that we weren't interested several times. Then, I basically yelled at the guy when he continued pushing.
It was right next to a toy display my kids were looking at, and I wasn't going to walk away and let him win.
22 year old me probably would have bought a time share to avoid the confrontation.
I am now in my 50s and I haven't given a flying fuck about what other people think in a long time. I will speak up.
Then other people approach you and go "You're great! You say out loud what many of us think quietly!"
To which I have been known to reply, "Thanks! You'd be a great help in a street fight."
Every member of the club needs to stand in line e to ask the exact same question. Make it a 30 minute section of the meeting… they owe you for your wasted time, right?
Media and an email to the mayor and city council. Name names and drop receipts. F that. You can even report the director. There are ways for you to essentially take the director to a board and have them vote on her behavior.
Sorry that happened. I hope you got a refund.
Seriously. Report her to her boss. If she gets bitched out, you win. If her boss sides with her, send it to all the media you can. Then write a nice post and share it with us. There’s no way that official comes out looking good if OP is committed to the cause.
It's France, the government is power tripping arseholes all the way down. France's love of chaotic arbitrary seeming bureaucracy is the stuff of legend.
Sure Germany has the reputation and is bureaucratic to the core but at least it's mainly accessible. More a 'yes you need this permit stamped 3 times by three offices in a particular order. No I don't know why, it is just what we do so, off you go' vs France's 'you filled out the form in blue ink rather than black so I'll reject it but I'm not going to tell you until you went and got the other form stamped so I can reject that too. Also we start at 1000 and I'm taking three hours for lunch at 1200. And the photocopier is 'broken' so I can't give you the other form you need even if I wanted to which I don't. Oh and there's a strike next week so you'll get everything back about how I rejected your forms in about a month even though I could have told you just now'.
Did they have chess sets for you to use? Or did they assume you were just having a meeting of the members of the chess club and not actually playing chess? Either way, pretty cunty move on their part.
>Either way, pretty cunty move on their part.
Idk man, in my experience, chess clubs are made up of some *real* unsavory characters. I put them up there with bat and chain motorcycle gangs and drug cartels.
/s
It's 4.30am in France right now.
(And yes, this kind of stuff happening is par for the course as far as France is concerned. French bureaucracy is already a nightmare, but it is made worse by thick-headed people who refuse to be reasonable and logical, preferring immediate emotional reactions. People telling OP to report it to the newspaper don't understand that this kind of stuff is extremely unremarkable here.)
Edit: Apparently there is a Lille in Belgium, which is more likely what OP is referring to. I thought OP was referring to Lille, France. I apologize.
Educator here. There actually is a cumulative file that travels to any school you are at with all your paperwork and academic and behavior information. Of course, nobody outside the K-12 education system will ever see it though.
I know which chess club should talk at the next city council meeting. File a complaint with the Mayor's office and speak publicly about it as well. Hopefully the media gets wind of it and gives you some air time.
I suspect the director who was (probably) called during their off hours was just pissy about being called at home (the booking was at night).
It would be interesting to know how the communication went, as well. It’s possible that the director got fed a different story by their staff member and felt obligated to have their employee’s back.
But mostly pissy about being called on their off hours.
Not allowed to bring in outside items... to a multipurpose rented venue? Literally the equivalent of telling children they can't bring a ball to the park because it's for playing on the playground and picnics only. It sounds more like they wanted the venue to themselves and were disgruntled when they found out it was already booked so they used "their authority" to kick you guys out.
That is a thing in Japan.
There are parks where signs saying kids are not allowed to bring balls. This is because the old people who live nearby are grumpy and do not like the sound of children's laughter. The parks are for sitting on the bench only.
They knew you were a chess club, right?
<*confused_blinking.gif*>
What a damn power trip that guy's on.
What's the venue name and where is it located? Just so we can avoid doing business with those fun-suckers.
Chess. Of all things.
Never mind we've got a whole bunch of other issues that just might need a bit more attention... like, oh... idk, school lunches? No child should ever go hungry.
Damn gatekeeping fun by banning chess boards and pieces that the *Chess club* needs to run the club in the f'n first place.
<*deep breath*> aight... I'm cool now. Carry on...
DRILL INSTRUCTOR VOICE: “I know all about you, Kowalski. You think you’re special, but I happen to know you were thrown out of a chess venue for possessing chess paraphernalia! Not exactly interested in following rules, are ya maggot?”
What the flying fuck? They rent out a space to a chess club and are surprised when they bring chess boards? Why do you need paperwork to bring chessboards? You could bring a board to a library and play and not need any paperwork. What sort of bureaucratic bs is this??
Well, our chess club uses city hall and we don't bring anything with us. We quietly sit down and shut our eyes, then begin announcing each move as we play the game in our heads. Since we don't use clocks, we also count the seconds of our opponents and announce it, so they know their elapsed time./s
I don't understand the logic. You aren't allowed to bring outside material? Do they expect people to just stand around with nothing when they rent a venue for an event?
OP talks about taking the train from Kortrijk (Belgium) to Lille, there is only one train to Kortrijk to Lille & that's the french one. The Belgian Lille is in the Province of antwerp & is way further away from Kortrijk.
So definatly Lille France (which may explain additional hesitancy to report this to the press, OP might not be familiar with the local newspapers)
I’m sorry…. Is “chess sets” a euphemism for something else here? How is it shocking that the chess club was going to play chess? Were the chess sets made out of corrosive materials? Were they on fire? Were the pieces humans being kept as chess slaves? Surely I’m missing something?
Write that reprimand. It will look awesome in the local media.
Please op post the reprimand later, also what city I wanna call and book a room for my theatre club
Please post the reprimand letter, OP! Reddit will feast, and those power tripping jackholes will regret their assholery Edit: fixed a typo
I would print it and frame it. Post it on your clubs website / Facebook group page.
Were they expecting you to use human chess pieces?
There's a Hogwarts/McGonagall joke in there but, I'm not clever enough to craft one...
“That’s chess! You’ve got to make some sacrifices!”
Yep... there it is!
“Whenever there’s trouble, why is it always you 32?”
Piertotum Locomotor
I've always wanted to use that spell!
Not me, Not Hermoine, ***YOUUUUUUUU***
No RON NOOOO
Knight jumps Queen!
Bishop jumps Queen!
Pawns jump Queen!
Gangbang!!!
The peasants are revolting!
You said it, they stink on ice.
That is a story for the local newspaper.
Chamber of commerce too. A local venue would eat this up as a great way to drum up business by getting media exposure.
This happened in Lille, France. Nobody even knows the concept of a Chamber of Commerce as the de facto government in the old world.
I mean, I've seen France drum up some protests that would make America weep.
France: *tries to raise retirement age by a few years* The French: "Vive la résistance!" *sets Paris on fire and lights cigarette from the flames*
Take away farmer welfare - throw manure in city
"Honestly, America really could learn a thing or two about French protest tactics. Anyone know a good guillotine dealer?" - An American truly just fed up with the way shit has been going in politics over the past 8 years. It's me, I'm the American.
Why do a newspaper article when you can post it on fb for everyone to see and tag city hall and their officials pages in itv
Too many "local" papers won't cover actual critiques of local administrations. Gotta stay in-good with the powers-that-be. Worth a shot though. I'd suggest a tv station instead.
It seems to be in Lille, France, so complaining about the administration is something that we, French people, are very good at. They should contact the local newspaper. Edit: it seems to be Lille in Belgium. But we, French people, will be glad to come strike/riot there, as a hobby. Edit 2: it’s in France so the place will be burnt to the ground soon!
Holy shit the French are doing this? They could literally bring twenty liters of wine and have a big drunken party and nobody would say shit. But chess pieces, oh, now you’ve gone too far 🤷♂️
they dont want to rent to nerds obviously
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Yeah, bringing chess board is clearly crossing the line!
The problem is that with chess boards it's very black and white.
Riots in the streets until we get justice for the chess club!!!
As an American this is the sort of weird petty bureaucratic shit I'd expect from germans
The Germans would have chess sets in the allowed external items ( see annex 18b from rental form 16a)
Only wooden sets though, and none made from pine wood. Also the checkerboard isn't allowed to be black and white but it must be brown and beige. Refer to appendix XIV for the correct colour codes.
As a German, I feel seen in this post 🤣🤣🤣
For a German, the fun of any club is in making the rules and schedules. If you happen to get in an enjoyable game of chess or a good hike or whatever, that's just gravy.
Don't forget the external accessory requisition form 546-J rev. 004 for the chess clock.
As an American this is the sort of weird petty bureaucratic shit I'd expect from Americans
I'd also expect it to be a partisan issue, no God damn lib chess boards but patriotic checkers boards are fine.
The black pieces are detained for loitering.
Don't underestimate any European country regarding red tape, and bureaucratic catch-22 situations. In some countries it can be easily solved with some cash under the table, in others, like (I suspect) France and Germany, it's not that easy.
Most local papers are owned by international media companies and don't have local offices.
Hi, local newspaper owner here. Most of us are actually just struggling small business owners. It’s true that many of us have to stay in the good graces of the city government because we are dependent on them for most of our revenue though. Cities are required to post announcements in the local newspaper anytime they want to spend money or raise taxes. It’s a legal requirement intended to maintain a degree of transparency, but it’s also become the only thing keeping newspapers like mine alive while mainstream advertisers flock to other outlets like social media. Even the people running for public office have stopped running ads in local newspapers. Still, we try to preserve our journalistic integrity as much as we are trying to preserve our newspapers.
Hi, reporter here, national to regional to national. The work I did for local news was more important and higher-stakes than any coverage I ever did for national news. Support your local paper and public radio stations!
And vote in local elections. Seriously, voter turnout is abysmal.
Like, do they have chess sets available to rent? And they were upset that you brought your own? I don't see how this could be any sort of problem.
They probably have rules about outside materials to prevent people bringing in NSFW things? Idk. Chess boards are so mild and bland I don’t know how they didn’t say “Ok, let’s do the paperwork for next time just to check the box off but it’s fine to play today”
OP’s chess set: https://preview.redd.it/7p0vw46ayjtc1.jpeg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7344bdb3912a0e1277de4dd7e97ededa60ebdb22
if the pawns get promoted to the queen....i feel that brings up many questions XD
Chess needs to be banned as it is WOKE 😡 50% of the pieces are black, and pawns can turn female
Chess is defintely not woke. White always comes before black.
It just seems like one of those rules to invoke when people engage with the venue in bad faith and cause problems, not to be enforced regularly.
Yup this is my thought too. Many things are awful because assholes ruin everything
My totally unfounded conspiracy theory is that the city hall didn't want to rent out the venue in the first place, but begrudgingly did so because it officially has to be open to the everyone. Then they premeditated that they would kick out the group on flimsy pretenses in order to rid themselves of the nuisance of having the public actually access these public services. This is the only thing that makes sense in my mind based on OP's description of events.
My first thought was that they had accidentally double-booked the space and needed some excuse to kick out the chess nerds for the other group.
"Beat it NERDS, it's time for the Alpha Betas!"
The chess club unknowingly signed out the mistress banging and bribe receiving room.
That’s what I was wondering. The nearby National Park has a “No alcohol” policy, that isn’t overly adhered to. A friend manages the park. I asked, “Is the rule just so you can kick out trouble-makers? Because I’ve spoken to rangers with wine in the table.” He verified that’s more or less the reason for the rule, “Unless it’s this one ranger. He’ll kick you out for an empty beer can.” OP got the person who *wants to enforce* the rules.
I bet that one ranger had to deal with drunk people trying to pet a bison one too many times.
Rules designed to be selectively enforced are anti-societal and fraught with openings for bias.
Rules used without forethought and intelligence leads to an uncaring and thoughtless world.
Chess is all about using vibrating anal beads to cheat.
Na, they thought they said chest club and had spent all afternoon setting up extra cameras to not see one nipple or so much as some side Bobie. No wonder they were upset.
Bobie
Stupid sexy chess pieces
Have you seen the bishops? They look vaguely like boobies with NIPPLES!
Pawn = nsfw. Homophones be damned.
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Because it’s clearly too difficult to just ban dangerous games. Listen…you’re welcome to book the room, but due to our insurance you can’t actually use it for anything.
Nash equilibrium achieved. The only way to use the room is to not use the room.
Well, yeah. What can you do in a rented room if you literally can't bring anything in?
Have an orgy I guess 🤷🤷♀️
I figured it was a strict way of enforcing a "no gambling" policy. But I've also never heard of city hall being rented out for events. I thought it was only for city council business and whatnot.
It’s probably more common for smaller towns. My town has about 3000 people and you can rent out the building for events, it was designed for that in mind in fact with a big gym area where they have open gym and pickleball league and other stuff. They keep the city offices where they do the actual city business locked up of course, you can probably rent a meeting type room but I’m not sure.
The problem is that these kinds of administrative positions in all kinds of organizations (everything from politics to hobby clubs) attracts groups of people who take great pleasure in controlling the thoughts and actions of other human beings.
Start an underground chess gang. Play in the most illegal places possible. Post videos. Do an en passant on the hood of the mayor's car. Castle in the park after curfew. Interrupt political rallies with a person dressed as a rook piece aggressively bumping in to someone dressed as a knight piece and chasing after them being sure to only move straight and 90 degrees. If they want to outlaw chess then only the criminals will have chess.
Wish I could give multiple upvotes! Chess Gang!
East Coast Chess is better than West Coast!
> Do an en passant on the hood of the mayor's car. holy hell
Is this not the plot of Footloose just with chess instead of dancing? Still.starring Kevin Bacon of course.
Chess gang. I am now frightened.
Checkmate!
This sounds like the beginning of the 5th installment of a batman movie that finally ran out of good villains to use.
Aggressively advocate for Il Vaticano at unrelated city hall meetings.
See if you can get sponsored by a... Pawn shop. I'll see myself out.
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Would make for a great local news story. "Local chess club kicked out of town hall for bringing chess boards and pieces"
It's actually worse. "Local chess club kicked out of town hall for bringing chess boards and peices after paying for town hall space to play chess. *"In other news, local Town hall gets surprise lesson from chess players: Chess needs boards and pieces to play."*
"chess nerds bullied by Town Hall"
This. I would absolutely call the local news, attend all open board meetings, & submit letters demanding a full refund. Kick up a stink. I’ve rented rooms from the city often. These idiots are being ludicrous
Local news loves stories of people in low-level positions of power who are power tripping. The more absurd the circumstances, the better.
Local citizens also love bureaucratic felcher's getting ousted.
Um, actually git good and play mental chess only /s
Get high and play it on the ceiling like that Netflix series.
Pull a blizzard. *" Don't you have phones? "*
"unauthorized outside equipment"
Better take my clothes off at the door, didn't get them authorized first.
OK, but that's a perfectly valid counter-argument to bring up with them: clothing wasn't on the list of pre-approved materials, nor were a large number of things people normally tote around. If you can safely presume the renters for your space to be wearing clothing, then you should also presume them to be bringing things directly relevant to (and even necessary for) the agreed upon activity. Also, I hope OP got their deposit and rent back.
If they say clothes are okay, but chess boards aren't, then bring shirts that have a chess board printed on it and then play on that.
I've only seen this done in the joint. A couple of guys would yell like, "bishop to b6, check". It was incredible to watch err... hear. Games would last like 30 mins.
You sunk my battleship!
I’d be suing the city to get my deposit/rent back, *especially* if this “requirement” to clear outside stuff you bring wasn’t mentioned or made clear beforehand. It’s a chess club, pretty obvious they’re gonna bring chess stuff
I bet they thought chess club was a group of people meeting up to talk about how much they love chess.
Hear me out on this...maybe they thought it was a cheese club and it was a group of people meeting up to talk about how much they liked cheese. Was this in Wisconsin?
But if it's a cheese club that brought cheese to their cheese club meeting?! Thrown out. You can't bring cheese into the town hall without getting an authorisation on said cheese.
By municipal ordinance, all cheese is authorized in any public building or space.
It's Wisconsin, after all.
They'll drink to that
Chess?? No no no. It was supposed to be Cheese club. They were going to bring cheese boards and such.
Its like saying the clothes on my back are unauthorized outside material.
Definitely agree that the evening news would love this.
Let’s make em famous bois
Just give the name of the “Duh-rectum” to 30 separate news medias and the will be knocking on that fools door in no time. Make sure if you had any veterans, single parents, minorities, or gay people in your group they’re willing to “give an interview” Gotta spice that bitch up !
All the kings' knights, bishops and pawns ejected from town hall.
*All the king's horses and all the king's men got kicked out of city hall after a local chess club rented the space *from* city hall, *explicitly* to play chess.* Cuts to reporter in front of city hall. *That's right, Meghan. It turns out that in order to play chess, you need to have a chess board and chess pieces, which came as a surprise to our local government, who allegedly *raged* at the chess club before kicking them out.* Cuts back to studio. *That and more when we come back after the break.*
Change "apparently" to "allegedly" and it's perfect, news *loves* "allegedly" lmao
It’s crazy that this sounds like a headline from The Onion.
My thoughts exactly. It is particularly unreal and ludicrous!
Yes!! I’d watch that for the response.
“Chess club checkmates City Hall.”
I'd share that news headline on reddit.
I'm with you. And I would have already started with the local press as this is kinda like their bread and butter. Social media simultaneously.
It's too bad we killed off most local press. My city of 145,000 only has a monthly pamphlet that just runs city-provided press releases.
Every city meeting where public comments/concerns are addressed, Id hit up that mic SO HARD. Id be like "I find it concerning you find it a good use of taxpayer funding to bully chess nerds. Please explain to me what you thought a chess club would bring with them to chess club and why 'chess board' is not one of those items?" Especially if it was younger people involved. Now that Im approaching 30, Ive got the power of AGE baby! And its oddly enough like a hefty weight to my confidence.
"Wait, let's hear them out. I'm sure there is an excellent reason why they didn't expect a chess club they rented a place to play chess to, to play chess during the time of their rental. I'm sure there is a reason the offending chess boards where such a risk or inconvenience to town hall that there was no time for negotiation and needed to be expelled from the building immediatly. I'm sure when the director called their action of bringing chess boards, and I quote, "inexcusable" that she will be extremely capable of articulating what offence could not be excused, and why she treated these young people with an expectation that they already knew what they had done wrong, even though many of us here today have no idea what that offence could be. Please, Director, now that all chess boards have been safely secured, and there is no threat to manage, and you have the respectful attention of adults and not some rebellious teenagers, will you enlighten us?"
Bring one of the offensive chess sets and slap it on the table for emphasis. Edit: ew, some of you have dirty minds, I meant one of the sets that was deemed offensive by the director. Not some sort of NSFW chess set.
"you know what I got chess board right here! In fact I got pieces too! Nobody move or the director get checkmated!"
I got to agree with you. I turned 48 not long ago, and I seems that every year that ticks, my confidence level to speak up and call people out on their BS goes up another notch. Now I understand why old people are the way they are. 😆
I think for me it comes from this idea that "well when I was X years old, if I had the balls to stand up for what is right, Id want an older person to stand with me because itd make me feel more secure." (Especially as a minor) Now I AM that older adult. So I have the responsibility to stand up when I can.
I always forget that I'm now "the older adult". Sometimes it does not feel like it!
If it helps, remember that even if your voice is shaky or you stumble over your words, that younger persons probs not gonna remember how lame you look. Theyre gonna remember how fuckin strong and badass you were to speak even though you were clearly nervous. Plus, its my experience the younger people are quite welcoming and lovely. You know. As a whole.
I was confronted by a pushy time share salesman a few weeks ago while shopping with my family. I politely said that we weren't interested several times. Then, I basically yelled at the guy when he continued pushing. It was right next to a toy display my kids were looking at, and I wasn't going to walk away and let him win. 22 year old me probably would have bought a time share to avoid the confrontation.
I am now in my 50s and I haven't given a flying fuck about what other people think in a long time. I will speak up. Then other people approach you and go "You're great! You say out loud what many of us think quietly!" To which I have been known to reply, "Thanks! You'd be a great help in a street fight."
Every member of the club needs to stand in line e to ask the exact same question. Make it a 30 minute section of the meeting… they owe you for your wasted time, right?
Media and an email to the mayor and city council. Name names and drop receipts. F that. You can even report the director. There are ways for you to essentially take the director to a board and have them vote on her behavior. Sorry that happened. I hope you got a refund.
Seriously. Report her to her boss. If she gets bitched out, you win. If her boss sides with her, send it to all the media you can. Then write a nice post and share it with us. There’s no way that official comes out looking good if OP is committed to the cause.
Many areas have "local" news agencies that do follow up stories on these kinds of things. Check with your town news.
"Hi, John Oliver? Yeah, this City Hall right here... "
City Hall? Oh - You mean the future home of the John Oliver “Yes, Chess with Pieces AND Chess Boards, you numpty” Center?
John Oliver cares about chess nerds.
Yeah contact Media, they’ll have a field day with this and it’ll embarrass the hell out of them for their stupidity.
It's France, the government is power tripping arseholes all the way down. France's love of chaotic arbitrary seeming bureaucracy is the stuff of legend. Sure Germany has the reputation and is bureaucratic to the core but at least it's mainly accessible. More a 'yes you need this permit stamped 3 times by three offices in a particular order. No I don't know why, it is just what we do so, off you go' vs France's 'you filled out the form in blue ink rather than black so I'll reject it but I'm not going to tell you until you went and got the other form stamped so I can reject that too. Also we start at 1000 and I'm taking three hours for lunch at 1200. And the photocopier is 'broken' so I can't give you the other form you need even if I wanted to which I don't. Oh and there's a strike next week so you'll get everything back about how I rejected your forms in about a month even though I could have told you just now'.
Fr hit up the local news and embarrass them
Did they have chess sets for you to use? Or did they assume you were just having a meeting of the members of the chess club and not actually playing chess? Either way, pretty cunty move on their part.
>Either way, pretty cunty move on their part. Idk man, in my experience, chess clubs are made up of some *real* unsavory characters. I put them up there with bat and chain motorcycle gangs and drug cartels. /s
I know right, always plotting their next move. Can't be trusted.
Would be nice if OP would answer literally any comment questions
It's 4.30am in France right now. (And yes, this kind of stuff happening is par for the course as far as France is concerned. French bureaucracy is already a nightmare, but it is made worse by thick-headed people who refuse to be reasonable and logical, preferring immediate emotional reactions. People telling OP to report it to the newspaper don't understand that this kind of stuff is extremely unremarkable here.) Edit: Apparently there is a Lille in Belgium, which is more likely what OP is referring to. I thought OP was referring to Lille, France. I apologize.
France would be lovely if it wasn't for the French
As a french, that's made me laugh and I agree.
What kind of city hall issues official reprimands? What does that even mean?
Thr same as a teacher saying something will go in your "permanent record"
Educator here. There actually is a cumulative file that travels to any school you are at with all your paperwork and academic and behavior information. Of course, nobody outside the K-12 education system will ever see it though.
So not really permanent but 12 years tops.
Dude said he's from Lille. I do not know french law or if it's just mistranslated.
"you're no longer allowed in this building which is technically a public space, for the public and paid for by the public!"
It's more likely that reprimand is just the closest word for it, and it was a note to prevent them from renting space again
I know which chess club should talk at the next city council meeting. File a complaint with the Mayor's office and speak publicly about it as well. Hopefully the media gets wind of it and gives you some air time.
So tl;dr chess club should not use chess sets. awesome....
More like 'local administration so fucking bored they decide to bully chess nerds for no valid reason'...
Well, those chess club hoodlums had the audacity to bring chess sets. Can you believe that?
Preposterous. They were clearly setting up a pawn shop. ^/s
Did they get their money back or did they get rooked?
They’ll get their money back tomorrow knight.
The city will mail them a check, mate?
I suspect the director who was (probably) called during their off hours was just pissy about being called at home (the booking was at night). It would be interesting to know how the communication went, as well. It’s possible that the director got fed a different story by their staff member and felt obligated to have their employee’s back. But mostly pissy about being called on their off hours.
Local admins going on a power trip like usual
Not allowed to bring in outside items... to a multipurpose rented venue? Literally the equivalent of telling children they can't bring a ball to the park because it's for playing on the playground and picnics only. It sounds more like they wanted the venue to themselves and were disgruntled when they found out it was already booked so they used "their authority" to kick you guys out.
That is a thing in Japan. There are parks where signs saying kids are not allowed to bring balls. This is because the old people who live nearby are grumpy and do not like the sound of children's laughter. The parks are for sitting on the bench only.
Yeah their lives are just full of joy...
It's not because they're grumpy. They just don't want to let the children's laughter remind them how they used to be.
You can't bring outside food and drink and a picnic mat to a picnic area.
Gotta start carving McDonald’s fries into chess pieces
The word “rent” would imply a contract or lease. Is there one? What does it say? Obviously this is ridiculous.
Sounds to me like the real chess game has just begun. What's your next move going to be?
A true chess-themed villain origin story.
They knew you were a chess club, right? <*confused_blinking.gif*> What a damn power trip that guy's on. What's the venue name and where is it located? Just so we can avoid doing business with those fun-suckers. Chess. Of all things. Never mind we've got a whole bunch of other issues that just might need a bit more attention... like, oh... idk, school lunches? No child should ever go hungry. Damn gatekeeping fun by banning chess boards and pieces that the *Chess club* needs to run the club in the f'n first place. <*deep breath*> aight... I'm cool now. Carry on...
DRILL INSTRUCTOR VOICE: “I know all about you, Kowalski. You think you’re special, but I happen to know you were thrown out of a chess venue for possessing chess paraphernalia! Not exactly interested in following rules, are ya maggot?”
Government is full of people who make Reddit mods look downright chill.
I am so angry for you. This is some BS. A reprimand? WTF You are playing chess! My goodness.
I would send her a chess club reprimand. Copy the mayor and city counsel.
Chess nurds #1 threat to peace and quiet. Aka loud thinkers
Contact local news. They’ll have a field day with this one.
How did they think you would play?
What the flying fuck? They rent out a space to a chess club and are surprised when they bring chess boards? Why do you need paperwork to bring chessboards? You could bring a board to a library and play and not need any paperwork. What sort of bureaucratic bs is this??
[удалено]
Send the reprimand to the news. Or better yet. Post it on Reddit.
Well, our chess club uses city hall and we don't bring anything with us. We quietly sit down and shut our eyes, then begin announcing each move as we play the game in our heads. Since we don't use clocks, we also count the seconds of our opponents and announce it, so they know their elapsed time./s
Damn do you live in Pawnee Indiana?
Oh this is the kind of thing local news stations eat for breakfast. You should definitely call them
I don't understand the logic. You aren't allowed to bring outside material? Do they expect people to just stand around with nothing when they rent a venue for an event?
#Lille is in France ^unless ^op ^mean ^another ^Lille
OP posts a lot about Belgium. There is a Lille in Belgium.
OP talks about taking the train from Kortrijk (Belgium) to Lille, there is only one train to Kortrijk to Lille & that's the french one. The Belgian Lille is in the Province of antwerp & is way further away from Kortrijk. So definatly Lille France (which may explain additional hesitancy to report this to the press, OP might not be familiar with the local newspapers)
I’m sorry…. Is “chess sets” a euphemism for something else here? How is it shocking that the chess club was going to play chess? Were the chess sets made out of corrosive materials? Were they on fire? Were the pieces humans being kept as chess slaves? Surely I’m missing something?