For organizers · 7 min read
How to share the work: co-organizers, helpers and organizations
Many hands, one key each: a co-organizer who can do everything, a helper on the door for one night, and an organization for clubs in several towns.
By Castle Gambit · Updated
On this page
On this page
The short answer
On Castle Gambit you share the work three ways: make a member an organizer (everything but handing the Castle over), give a member a helper role (tournament director, arbiter, door or helper; in early access, switched on Castle by Castle) for one night, one event or the whole Castle, or start an organization to run several Castles. An organization role never gives power inside a Castle by itself.
Key takeaways
- Organizers open the lobby, pair people, settle results and let people in; only the owner can hand the Castle over.
- Have at least one co-organizer: nobody settles a game they played in.
- Helper roles are small keys: a TD, an arbiter, the door or a pair of hands, for tonight, one event or for good.
- An organization groups Castles in several places; each Castle keeps its own members, nights and roster.
- An organization’s public page never lists people, and stays private until you choose to show it.
Every club that lasts has more than one person who knows where the clocks are kept. On Castle Gambit there are three ways to share the work, from the biggest key to the smallest: a co-owner or organizer who can do everything, a helper with one job for one night, and, for groups that run clubs in several places, an organization over the top.
The rule under all of it: give people exactly the key they need. Many hands, one key each.
Owners and organizers
Whoever starts a Castle is its owner. Any member can be made an organizer: they open the lobby, pair people, settle results and let people in. In practice an organizer can do everything an owner can, except hand the Castle to someone else.
It all happens under People, in Members. Next to a member, Manage has:
- Make organizer, and back again with Make member (they stay a member, without the organizer tools).
- Hand the Castle over (owners only): they become the owner, and you stay on as an organizer.
- Remove from the Castle, for when someone shouldn’t be a member. To remove an organizer, make them a member first.
Stepping back yourself? Step down as organizer keeps you a member, playing as usual. Another organizer can make you one again.
Helpers: one key each
Sometimes you want a hand, not a co-organizer: someone on the door at the busy start, a TD for the knockout, a strong player you trust with disputes. That’s a helper: a member with one role, for a set time.
| Role | What they can do |
|---|---|
| Tournament director | Opens nights, shows tonight’s code, checks people in and out, puts the TV up, runs pairings and tournaments, settles results, adds roster players, edits events, and downloads the files (downloads come with Keep). For one event, or the whole Castle. |
| Arbiter | Settles results and disputes. Nothing else. |
| Door | Shows tonight’s code, checks people in and out, adds roster players at the door. |
| Helper | Puts the TV up. That’s it: a pair of hands, not a key. |
Under People, Helpers, pick a member, a role, and how long it lasts:
Tonight only: until 4:00 am, then it ends by itself. Perfect for the friend on the door.
One event: the TD for the Thursday Knockout, and nothing else. It ends when the event does.
The whole Castle: until you take it back.
Their panel shows only their part: someone on the door sees Tonight and the poster; an arbiter sees Tonight and the games. Helpers must be active members, and leaving the Castle ends their roles. Players never see roles, and nobody is emailed about them. Who has which role, and who gave it, goes in your Castle’s activity log. Take it back ends a role at once.
Your organizer hub
Help run more than one Castle? Organizer tools in the menu opens your hub, “Your Castles”: each Castle you own, organize or help at, tonight first, with what needs you (join requests, disputed results, roster games) and a Run tonight button. Its Calendar puts every Castle’s nights on one page.
On any organizer page, the Castle’s name at the top switches between them, so you can settle a dispute at one club from the other club’s parking lot.
The badge beside the name says where you stand: “You own this Castle”, “You organize here”, or, for a helper, “You help run nights here”. Helpers get the hub too, showing only the Castles and the parts they help with.
Organizations, for clubs in several places
Most clubs only need a Castle. An organization is for a group that runs clubs in more than one place: a club with branches in several towns, a university, a league. Each Castle keeps its own members, nights and roster; the organization is the group that runs them.
Start it: Start an organization (from Start a Castle, “Running clubs in more than one town?”). Give it a name and a web address. You’re its owner.
Add its Castles: start its first Castle from the organization’s page, or link one you already own. Players still join each Castle on its own.
Invite its staff: a co-owner or an admin, by their handle. They say yes or no in their hub.
An organization’s owners can do everything; its admins everything but hand the organization over or change who the owners are. An invitation you sent can be withdrawn until it’s accepted, and anyone can leave: they lose the organization’s pages, and the Castles they own or organize stay theirs.
A new Castle started from the organization’s page (Start a Castle in and its name) is linked from the start. Linking one you already have needs you to be that Castle’s owner, so nobody can pull a club into a group it didn’t choose.
Organization roles and Castle roles
Here’s the part that surprises people: an organization role gives no power inside a Castle. Being the organization’s admin doesn’t let you open Tuesday’s lobby at the Riverside branch. When you link a Castle, you tick who should help run it (“Make organizers there”), and they become ordinary organizers of that Castle, which its owner can change like any other.
It works the other way too. Unlinking a Castle takes it off the organization’s pages and shared calendar, and its members, nights and roster stay exactly as they are. You can choose to remove the organizers the link added; anyone that Castle made an organizer itself stays.
Where house rules are switched on, an organization can keep shared house rules (a league’s standard Swiss, say) that its Castles’ events can follow. They’re read-only inside each Castle: the organization’s staff change them.
What’s public, and handing over
An organization is private to its staff to begin with. It can have a public page, which lists its name, a line about it and its Castles, and puts “Run by” your organization on each Castle’s page. Two things have to be true: you tick Show “Run by” on Castle pages in its settings, and we’ve switched public pages on for your group (we’re doing that group by group). Even then the page never lists people: not staff, not members.
Organization invites are the one email in all this: one message with the organization’s name and the inviter’s, and only when you share a Castle with them or we’ve vouched for the organization.
When the time comes to pass it on, Hand it over makes someone else the owner (you stay on as an admin). The last owner can’t leave without doing that first, so no organization is ever left with nobody holding the keys. For keeping the room itself in good shape, read keeping your club night safe.
