ultramarina, as far as expenses go, does your DC' school hold fundraising for the chess club to help parents out? One of my teacher friends is a GT coordinator for her school and they're raising $$$$$ right now for a trip that involves thousands of miles of travel. School's goal is for parents to incur zero expense unless they decided to come along then they're responsible for their own travel expense. Within the first week of announcement, they had two substantial donations from community organizations.
I share your reservation about participating in competition. We're opposed to DD competing in any types of music or ballet competitions even if the cost may not be an issue but obviously, chess is a game and you have to compete one way or another. I agree though with Bostonian that participating in local teenager/adult tournaments is a good alternative.
