Chess club development scheme

[Dai Carpenter]

I would like to continue the debate from another thread in which I proposed that the ECF adopt a club accreditation scheme. Many sports governing bodies in the UK are now operating such a system (including some I would guess small governing bodies such as table tennis, canoeing and lacrosse), and so I think it would be feasible to start one. I think if chess wants to 'professionalise' its approach (this is the key, professionalise means a lot more than merely paying people money), then club accreditation:
1.) Is very useful in attracting funding from bodies, as it ensures that child protection policies, committee's etc are in place. Chess doesn't need to become a sport etc to attract funding, there is a lot of funding out there now due to current political policy that seeks to use community groups to combat social exclusion and promote community development, but to access this funding issues such as child protection and perhaps coach accreditation need to be addressed.
2.) Could be used to assist the development of the game, particularly in schools, by giving the clubs some direction and incentives to try and boost their membership
3.) There are other reasons also, and these should become clear below.

Based on the approach being taken by several sports, the outline of the scheme I proposed was as follows:

"The most common thing being pushed (in sport) is developing school-local club links. Whilst ideally this would involve regular chess clubs being set up in a number of schools supported by local volunteers, it's difficult to obtain sustained commitment from volunteers and you want to attract as many schools as possible. So a short cut is to instead run a few 'taster' sessions in schools (i think finding volunteers to do say two or three sessions in total is easier; or if you have only a couple of volunteers - move around and approach new schools). Adapt chess, it doesn't matter if the kids don't know how all the peices work at this stage. Then following this invite the school(s) to some sort of fun tournament at your club - hopefully they'll enjoy this and you'll attract a few kids (and their parents) to try it out a few more times.

The difficulty usually faced is finding volunteers. Towards this many sports are expanding their club accreditation schemes - the basic idea is that the governing body gives sufficient incentives so that clubs see a gain in providing them with volunteers. So for instance in chess, it could be that each club is required to say link with 2/3 local schools as part of the club ECF membership. In return for doing this and becoming an ECF accredited club the club receives:
1.) 2 free coaching/simultaneous sessions a year from a titled/2300+ player (we have enough of them in this country!). Many sports operate a similar 'ambassador' scheme and in chess it already works both ways a bit with the elite players getting free entry to everything 'in return'. (Might also help the clubs raise a bit of cash as members would probably be willing to pay a little to attend these.)
2.) 3 free places in tournaments that are part of the British Championships fortnight (would help also to promote this a bit and stop the slide in numbers competing). Give away free/discounted places maybe in other events that we are looking to boost too.
3.) Free entrance into some sort of couty/national club knockout champs
4.) Free/discounted coach and arbiter training (organised regionally)
5.) Members of the club become eligible to play for county/zonal/national/junior representative teams (i.e. to play junior international chess you have to be a member of an accredited club; that may make the parents more keen to help the club out in its duties)
6.) Entrance to some kinda prize draw
7.) Access to a 'member clubs' only section of the ECF website (which could say include the grading list)
etc. There are any number of things you can introduce, but I do like ideas 1 and 2"

I should also explain that accreditation in sport normally means that the club has things such as a committee in place, a child protection officer, signing up to codes of conduct, and that all people working with juniors have CRB's etc. This is moving towards becoming compulsory; often those clubs who are actually developing school and community links then become eligible for higher accreditation and bonus benefits such as the 'ambassador' scheme which gives them free visits from top coaches and athletes etc. Some sports also stipulate that in order to compete in events, you also have to be a member of an accredited club; though personally I don't think this would be appropriate for chess as chess has a number of recreational players who drift in and out of the game.

My apologies for the delay in replying to the following post:
(on Developing school-club links) "I think that's best left for Junior Chess Clubs to deal with. Senior clubs in my opinion discourage juniors unless they are very well behaved or very good and probably not if they aren't both!!... Junior clubs are there for Junior players. If those Junior players are mature enough to become members of adult clubs then they will be accepted." (Paul Stimpson)
- You may be right and I would have no objection to clubs targeting adults instead; FE institutions that run courses for adult learners, day care centres for people with disabilities etc. Run chess courses in these. Alternatively, the club could provide volunteers for schools but ultimately link those schools with a different, junior club in the area. It's building the volunteer workforce and actually going out to promote chess that's important. Some clubs of course will simply refuse to become accredited, but this is no reason not to try - I think chess urgently needs to address many issues of 'professionalisation' so that it is more appealing to funding bodies, an be more active in introducing itself as a game to people. Of course, a number of posters also seem to think that juniors and adults can be succesfully mixed.

Also my apologies to Charles Wood for not replying to your posts, and I think you're initiating some excellent stuff in Bradford.

I really think that chess should follow sport here, and consider going down a similar route of club accreditation, and I would be very interested in the thoughts of further people, and to get a debate rolling.

[Charles W. Wood]

Dia

Thank you for your comments, just re-enforce them; everything Dia has written is correct (Even though I would like to see chess as a sport) the money is there, we just need to get advice from someone like Dia. I did exactly that with several outside advisers. Your suggestions make for interesting reading, but I have achieved a good measure of success without most of those suggestions but did use the rest of the information you put forward outside the suggestions. The best part about being me is I am open minded, so I'm taking them away and will discuss any we can adapt to fit here.

Thank you.

[Paul Stimpson]

Dai,

It's certainly a good idea.

The difficulty usually faced is finding volunteers.

Yes this is the problem, I know Charles as had success getting volunteers but getting people to give up their free time is always the most difficult thing. Our growth in Essex has been slowed because of this so I know from first hand.

[Charles W. Wood]

Dai,

It's certainly a good idea.

The difficulty usually faced is finding volunteers.

Yes this is the problem, I know Charles as had success getting volunteers but getting people to give up their free time is always the most difficult thing. Our growth in Essex has been slowed because of this so I know from first hand.

Paul

Try this it worked for me, I put up a job advert in the playing hall at my tournements asking for what I needed, Webmaster, to Controller, to CRB'd drivers. It worked for me. Just make it look like any ordinary job vacancy and parents will fill then holes.

Good luck.