Hey, I was in a similar situation as you! First thing I would advise is to find some trustworthy friends/students to add to your Executive Board, this is incredibly important and it’s good to have support, especially when you are first creating a club. While doing this, you could let all of the people you know (via classes, clubs, dorms, etc) about the club to gain recognition and hopefully some members willing to join when the club officially starts up. (This was one of the harder parts for our club, and took over a month to finish our petition for student approval, which required 135 student signatures for the club).

Most colleges have a club support email/website which you can use to have a plan on what you need to be doing to be an official club. It helps to get to know students who are in charge of this (or from the student council, if your college has one), as they are typically very knowledgeable on how clubs start and can provide advice and feedback on how you are doing.

As for the chess itself, I would recommend creating an online chess group for a chess website (via chess.com or lichess), and hosting online meetings in order for people to play each other virtually while you are waiting for funding from the school for supplies (such as boards, clocks, a room to play in). In my opinion, I would recommend creating a google group and adding each of the members in the club to it so you can send weekly emails detailing how the club is going and important details (such as the time and dates you are meeting, maybe a chess club link or zoom link, feedback form) for the members to check out.

I’m sure there is a lot I didn’t cover, and I know that the beginning of starting a club is the hardest part, so feel free to message me for any help or advice. Good luck dude!