Free Chess Sets for schools

Discussions regarding the 70,000 Free Chess Sets for Schools in England.
Paul Stimpson
Posts: 109
Joined: Mon Feb 25, 2008 10:52 pm
Location: Essex
Contact:

Re: Free Chess Sets for schools

Post by Paul Stimpson » Tue May 20, 2008 11:53 pm

Justin,

Sorry to labour the point

Ernies question
Does any school get the 10 sets upon request even if they don’t take part in the Chess for schools project?
from the website:-
Whatever your current level of Involvement in chess, being part of ‘Chess For Schools' will help you raise your game with less personal input.
Remember all participating schools receive 10 free chess sets.

Once registered you will receive details on how to participate in the scheme.
The answer as given :-
Beig part of the "Chess for Schols" project is two fold. 1. requesting sets 2. agreeing to use them.
and you state...
I will just point out that the question you mention was answered on 10:27pm on the same day.
Then you state
That's pretty clear
It wasn't clear to me.

It does not answer Ernies original question, it is not clear, If you register to get the sets why do you need to then Participate, it is not clear there are no strings attached. That is specifically what was asked.

Charles finally cleared this up when he stated the schools will get sets with no conditions attached.

I have to agree though that a FAQ would be most useful, it would at least prevent the same questions being asked again and again.

Justin Hadi

Re: Free Chess Sets for schools

Post by Justin Hadi » Wed May 21, 2008 8:59 am

Paul,

You may have a point.

Best regards,
Justin

Paul Stimpson
Posts: 109
Joined: Mon Feb 25, 2008 10:52 pm
Location: Essex
Contact:

Re: Free Chess Sets for schools

Post by Paul Stimpson » Wed May 21, 2008 9:43 am

Justin,

You may not have been aware that initially there was a £30 (From memory) charge associated with a School
"participating" in the Chess For Schools Scheme. This was queried by Andrew Martin and then suddenly dropped.
I guess the problem on the website is that the charging bit has been removed but the wording still leaves some doubt
as to what is actually required from a school to get these sets.

Obviously the financial model for all this was at that stage still in flux. I guess Ernie was just wanting to clarify exactly the requirements for the schools to acquire the sets.

I would suspect the charging element would have been used to cover the "Chess for Schools Academy" as if the take up is as Charles predicts, an arm of the ECF would be required to manage things. ie Advice, Leagues, Competitions, Coaching materials etc etc Perhaps that was the idea initially though as I said above this has now been dropped from the site.

I understand that Charles is working free of charge for the ECF in a full time capacity on this project but this can only be for a set period of time. If the project requires long term running centrally by the ECF then the financial impacts of that would need to be costed through.

Justin Hadi

Re: Free Chess Sets for schools

Post by Justin Hadi » Wed May 21, 2008 11:32 am

Hi Paul,

You are right in what you say. I was not aware of this charge. The financial impact is not known.

Thanks,
Justin

User avatar
Charles W. Wood
Posts: 554
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2008 11:50 pm
Location: Bradford, West Yorkshire
Contact:

Re: Free Chess Sets for schools

Post by Charles W. Wood » Wed May 21, 2008 11:52 am

Hi Ernie

Are you struggling with this one, or should I say you are needlessly over complicating a simple stance. Sets go to schools that agree to use them; to be exact: will not put them in a cupboard and forget them, thats the only precondition. NOT enforced coaching, NOT demmended membership (unless the ECF changes its stance to all members), NOT enforced tournament entry. As for funding from the ECF, I do HOPE they do because it will help other coaches which will in turn help the kids. Any and all monies I've ever had from the John Robinson Fund/ ECF as a whole has only been used in two tournaments to help establish them. No one at all got paid a penny. I HOPE for funds for coaching, I never mentioned me.

As for large number of vans, each school get 10 sets each. Unless the parcel haulier is sending 1 set at a time, so 1 van will do, for a 10 minute dop off.

And I've never heard of the Chess Link Project.

Question:

What precondtions do you think (after the mass of "Just to use them" answers) schools are signing up for?

ITS FREE!!!!

The Renaissance Academy is a sponsor of Chess for Schools, it gave them me for free to run the project. ECF is also a major sponsor, it is giving the Office/the Board for free, to administrate and guide the project. Each county association that gets involved will be a sponsor as they will be supportting the schools and LEAs in their area.

When it comes to the CCA you will only get as much as you can get from council, do you get mega bucks from your local council?

Councils do have funds to set up clubs and sports training of many different kinds, but that is to be justified by the county association (you). Not me, not the ECF, just you. Thats if you go down that road. There are funds at council BUT it is up to use it, Yorkshire might not but the CCA might.
Charles W. Wood
Captain of Legion

User avatar
Charles W. Wood
Posts: 554
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2008 11:50 pm
Location: Bradford, West Yorkshire
Contact:

Re: Free Chess Sets for schools

Post by Charles W. Wood » Wed May 21, 2008 12:33 pm

Paul Stimpson wrote:Justin,

You may not have been aware that initially there was a £30 (From memory) charge associated with a School
"participating" in the Chess For Schools Scheme. This was queried by Andrew Martin and then suddenly dropped.
I guess the problem on the website is that the charging bit has been removed but the wording still leaves some doubt
as to what is actually required from a school to get these sets.

Obviously the financial model for all this was at that stage still in flux. I guess Ernie was just wanting to clarify exactly the requirements for the schools to acquire the sets.

I would suspect the charging element would have been used to cover the "Chess for Schools Academy" as if the take up is as Charles predicts, an arm of the ECF would be required to manage things. ie Advice, Leagues, Competitions, Coaching materials etc etc Perhaps that was the idea initially though as I said above this has now been dropped from the site.

I understand that Charles is working free of charge for the ECF in a full time capacity on this project but this can only be for a set period of time. If the project requires long term running centrally by the ECF then the financial impacts of that would need to be costed through.
Hi Paul

The charge was a concern. As covered on a different thread. The charge was for the paperwork to go to schools to inform them of the wider chess world. It was an idea to cover the cost of an information pack, thats all. As I found a solution to this by contacting the DfCCS (DfES) so we now have email access and no printing and posting cost needs to be balanced off. It was dropped way before any one mentioned it, just the web site had not been updated.

As for managing Leagues and stuff, thats down to the county associations if they want to take part. Leagues and stuff is for you guys not the ECF to make one huge super national mega league. Counties would not benefit from that course of action where the ECF ran the leagues.

As for future costing, thats also down to council and board to guide. It would have to be self funding (moving forward) I guess and as we don't have enforced membership we will miss out on a lot of revenue that would help the ECF to grow (but that my personnal opinion not ECF line). If we made £5 junior membrship for each of the 500,000 kids we hope to develop and only half took it up, thats £1,250,000 in membership revenue (bit simplistic but still).
Charles W. Wood
Captain of Legion

andrew martin

Re: Free Chess Sets for schools

Post by andrew martin » Wed May 21, 2008 2:53 pm

Charles,

Would you distance yourself from the comments of Donna Southgate or do you in principle agree with them ?

User avatar
Charles W. Wood
Posts: 554
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2008 11:50 pm
Location: Bradford, West Yorkshire
Contact:

Re: Free Chess Sets for schools

Post by Charles W. Wood » Wed May 21, 2008 4:59 pm

Ernie Lazenby wrote:Charles. Please expand upon this comment you made

Any and all monies I've ever had from the John Robinson Fund/ ECF as a whole has only been used in two tournaments to help establish them. No one at all got paid a penny. I HOPE for funds for coaching, I never mentioned me.

and this one

There are funds at council BUT it is up to use it, Yorkshire might not but the CCA might.
what council are you referring to ECF?
I applied for money from the John Robinson Fund to aid setting up a tournament (as per the objects of the fund) and used it to help develop the tournaments. It worked, Thank you ECF and John Robinson.

As for councils, I meant Local Authorities. Who have pots of money for coaching, and cohesion work.
Charles W. Wood
Captain of Legion

User avatar
Charles W. Wood
Posts: 554
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2008 11:50 pm
Location: Bradford, West Yorkshire
Contact:

Re: Free Chess Sets for schools

Post by Charles W. Wood » Wed May 21, 2008 8:18 pm

Ernie Lazenby wrote:Charles this is whats going on in Cleveland.

http://www.chesslinksproject.btik.com//
Thanks mate, always interested in different ways things are done.
:D
Charles W. Wood
Captain of Legion

User avatar
Charles W. Wood
Posts: 554
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2008 11:50 pm
Location: Bradford, West Yorkshire
Contact:

Re: Free Chess Sets for schools

Post by Charles W. Wood » Thu May 22, 2008 6:10 pm

Ernie Lazenby wrote:
Charles W. Wood wrote:Hi Ernie

Are you struggling with this one, or should I say you are needlessly over complicating a simple stance. Sets go to schools that agree to use them; to be exact: will not put them in a cupboard and forget them, thats the only precondition. NOT enforced coaching, NOT demmended membership (unless the ECF changes its stance to all members), NOT enforced tournament entry. As for funding from the ECF, I do HOPE they do because it will help other coaches which will in turn help the kids. Any and all monies I've ever had from the John Robinson Fund/ ECF as a whole has only been used in two tournaments to help establish them. No one at all got paid a penny. I HOPE for funds for coaching, I never mentioned me.

As for large number of vans, each school get 10 sets each. Unless the parcel haulier is sending 1 set at a time, so 1 van will do, for a 10 minute dop off.

And I've never heard of the Chess Link Project.

Question:

What precondtions do you think (after the mass of "Just to use them" answers) schools are signing up for?

ITS FREE!!!!

The Renaissance Academy is a sponsor of Chess for Schools, it gave them me for free to run the project. ECF is also a major sponsor, it is giving the Office/the Board for free, to administrate and guide the project. Each county association that gets involved will be a sponsor as they will be supportting the schools and LEAs in their area.

When it comes to the CCA you will only get as much as you can get from council, do you get mega bucks from your local council?

Councils do have funds to set up clubs and sports training of many different kinds, but that is to be justified by the county association (you). Not me, not the ECF, just you. Thats if you go down that road. There are funds at council BUT it is up to use it, Yorkshire might not but the CCA might.

There are questions arising out of your post which lacks clarity. Perhaps you could clarify some points but to avoid a plethera of confusing answers perhaps its a good idea to deal with one point at a time so;

How exactly can the CCA help the project? please be detailed and keep to the core of the question. I am keen to help but as someone who likes to deal in facts it would be helpfull to know what is expected of us.
Hi Ernie

Here are the facts. Very simply, you need to use the project to develop junior chess using the resourses you have. I am not here to dictate direction, I'm just here to help liaise between you and the authorities that want to develop chess for schools. I don't set expectation, you do. Your committee up there is in charge of its self. You can even back out and not be involved at all.

So simplifying even further an example might help: say you have 3 coaches working in the CCA area, and you and your committee want to develop chess by developing skills and understanding of the chess club organisers in each school. Then you would use the 3 coaches (as you see fit between you) to train each person from each of the schools. Then you may want to set up one or more of these: Schools League, Junior Tournaments, Blended Tournaments, Open days, Britsh Land Challenge Event, EPSCA Event etc.

Your choice, its for you to work out what you think is best for your area. I'm here just to make sure it happens in every area, even the ones where there is no, County, Local, Junior, or professional Academy to benefit.

So what do you need to do first:
a.
1. Make sure you have CRB's for all coaches and a register of those you are working with.
2. Get (if you haven't already) an up to date Child Proctection Policy, and make sure everybody involved understands it.
3. Get (if you haven't already) Public Liability Insurance to the tune of at least £5m cover.
b.
1. Have a committee meeting to work out what you want from the above list, and which way you believe the project would benefit from your experiencies.

No one holds your hand here, I'm going to be there to do the meetings with you. How you work with the schools, Agencies and LEA's is all your problem. You've had over a hundred years to get ready for this. (Bit of a tip though don't slam professional coaches too much they are a good resourse for aiding development)
Charles W. Wood
Captain of Legion

User avatar
Charles W. Wood
Posts: 554
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2008 11:50 pm
Location: Bradford, West Yorkshire
Contact:

Re: Free Chess Sets for schools

Post by Charles W. Wood » Thu May 22, 2008 7:53 pm

Ernie Lazenby wrote:Charles I have finally lost patience with you and the rubbish you keep on pushing out.

Dont for one minute imagine that I and others on the CCA executive have not looked at all these issues and long before you appeared on the scene.
We dont need any of the advice you offer because we are more than able to do what is right and have done it.. We have very capable chess coaches working in the area all CRB cleared in fact one is an ECF coach of international reputation.

I take exception to someone preaching to me and our executive about what we should or should not be doing. If we were clueless incompetant and lacking any foresight I may welcome your imput.

I promised I would not get irritated but now I am.
So you ask what you should be doing. Then say you don't want to know. Strange man. If I remember rightly I did try to call you to sort some of these points out, but you ask to do on here. As for the big three, thats your local government not me. The rest is you guys. Thats why I'm not preaching we want you to come up with the best way forward. I'm just here to link the two together.
Charles W. Wood
Captain of Legion

User avatar
Charles W. Wood
Posts: 554
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2008 11:50 pm
Location: Bradford, West Yorkshire
Contact:

Re: Free Chess Sets for schools

Post by Charles W. Wood » Thu May 22, 2008 8:46 pm

Ernie Lazenby wrote:Charles let me help you a little; I wanted to know how the CCA could help the Chess for school Project, your reply relates to matters we already have a handle on, yes many say I am strange we are all different are we not.

So to repeat. Excluding good housekeeping measures we already have what exactly can the CCA do to help the project.
Just be ready.
Charles W. Wood
Captain of Legion

User avatar
John Upham
Posts: 7162
Joined: Wed Apr 04, 2007 10:29 am
Location: Cove, Hampshire, England.
Contact:

Re: Free Chess Sets for schools

Post by John Upham » Wed Jun 03, 2009 4:23 pm

All,
I have authorised to pass this excellent news on :

("it" was the previously mentioned Friday launch without fanfare of the first tranche of free sets)
Dear John,

Yes, it was a great success, thank you. The teacher was very excited about getting the chess club up and running after the summer holidays.

Best wishes,

Caroline Morris

Project Manager, Chess for Schools
Good news! :D
British Chess News : britishchessnews.com
Twitter: @BritishChess
Facebook: facebook.com/groups/britishchess :D

Matthew Turner
Posts: 3600
Joined: Fri May 16, 2008 11:54 am

Re: Free Chess Sets for schools

Post by Matthew Turner » Wed Jun 03, 2009 6:37 pm

The implication is that this trial launch has seen one school receive sets - is this true? How can this be a template for distributing 100,000 sets. Let's have some answers Mr. Majer.

User avatar
Carl Hibbard
Posts: 6028
Joined: Fri Dec 08, 2006 8:05 pm
Location: Evesham

Re: Free Chess Sets for schools

Post by Carl Hibbard » Wed Jun 03, 2009 7:34 pm

Matthew Turner wrote:The implication is that this trial launch has seen one school receive sets - is this true? How can this be a template for distributing 100,000 sets. Let's have some answers Mr. Majer.
There are more "launches" planned - this was only a trial, remember there are actually 500 sets already in existence so you don't even need to have made anything at this point :?
Cheers
Carl Hibbard

Locked