Certificate of Merit

[Stewart Reuben]

CfS.
Today, 4 December 109 packs of 10 boards and sets were received at the office of Dr Evan's M.P. in Oxford. The distribution from there still has to be worked out.
As Manager of the Scheme I have been concentrating on the Certificate of Merit. The physical separate parts are now in the ECF Office, apart from the list of components to go in the box. I only thought of that yesterday.
The online exam logistics for taking the exam Level 1 have yet to be completed. There will be an announcement and marketing started only when everything is ready.

Stewart Reuben

[Matthew Turner]

Stewart,
This is fantastic news. I am a little surprised that this is being announced here. Will Holloid be making an announcement soon?

[Stewart Reuben]

Matthew, they are masters of their own fate. I did not know until 4.30pm.

Stewart Reuben

[Matthew Turner]

Stewart,
So far on this thread it has been said that chess sets have been distributed in East Sussex and have arrived in the Isle of Wight. You have now added that over one thousand sets have arrived with Dr. Evan Harris (from a logistical point of view - I hope he has a big Office, because it will be difficult to distribute Chess to Schools this near to Christmas).
By my reckoning we are talking about potentially 2,500 sets going out so far. Given that Holloid are employing a PR agency it seems remarkable that they haven't issued a press release to mark such an impressive achievement. Perhaps, they want to have a big fanfare at some future point. In that case would they be happy with the ECF's Marketing Director for stealing their thunder? Surely you would expect to have an agreed marketing strategy, but there doesn't seem to be any co-ordination between Holloid and the ECF.

[Carl Hibbard]

Any news on sets or the status of CoM at the moment anyone?

[Stewart Reuben]

Dear Carl, Matthew
Matthew has to realise that, from the perception of Holloid, there was nothing special to say about the Oxford sets. It was business as usual. By the way, all but two were delivered before the end of term.

Naturally there has been a hiatus because schools were closed and so was Holloid, although for a much shorter period.

Concerning the COM. Chris Majer has taken that back under his wing, so I was solely in charge of CfS while Chris was too busy. I am not quite sure where we are with the technical side of the tests. But having just now blurted it out on ChessFM, the John Watson progrmm on ICC, I might as well announce that:

LV= are proud to announce they are sponsoring the COM.

Stewart Reuben

[John Upham]

Any news on sets or the status of CoM at the moment anyone?

We are setting-up a final (I hope!) proper trial with Wilsons School and Neill Cooper.

We have to see the application operate without personal intervention from myself in terms of registering new students by a particular school.

We have overcome the "lack of schools data" issue which caused a cessation of work from myself : that has been resolved in conjunction with Alan Martin and Kirstie Lapworth.

Following the registration of the students there will be a classroom trial at Wilsons using practise questions (free) followed by tests using the Level One (formerly Bronze) syllabus.

The test will be deemed fully successful if the schools get the hard-copy certificates for each student who passes with Merit / Distinction in a reasonable time frame. I'm hoping for a turn round of three business days and I know Kirstie will be keen for this happen as I know she (and I) are totally committed to make this a success.

OK, it has not been delivered as soon as we'd like but having it work correctly was my main criterion for going live.

I hope that all makes sense!

[Mike Truran]

Stewart

The LV= sponsorship sounds like very good news. Are you able to share more information with us?

Mike

[Stewart Reuben]

Mike Truran >The LV= sponsorship sounds like very good news. Are you able to share more information with us?<

We have not decided on how the press release will be worded, thus it is impossible to provide more information currently.

Stewart Reuben

[John Upham]

We have not decided on how the press release will be worded, thus it is impossible to provide more information currently.

Stewart Reuben

Stewart,
What details did you provide to ChessFM?

I must remember to tune to ChessFM to be kept in the loop on projects I am working on.

Perhaps I can listen again via the BBC iPlayer?

[Stewart Reuben]

John Upham >What details did you provide to ChessFM?<

Less than I gave to EC Forum.

Stewart Reuben

[John Upham]

John Upham >What details did you provide to ChessFM?<

Less than I gave to EC Forum.

Stewart Reuben

Less than

LV= are proud to announce they are sponsoring the COM.

Which words should I subtract to obtain the ChessFM version?

[Stewart Reuben]

Something like
Recently a new sponsorship has been found in LV=, an insurance company.

Stewart

[John Upham]

The third (and we hope final!) trial of CoM has been scheduled for 3pm, Monday, January 25th, 2010 at WIlson's School, Surrey with Neill Cooper acting as the CoM administrator for Wilson's School.

The tasks that need to happen prior to the trial are :

1. The ECF Office flag the school as being CoM enabled
2. The School makes a payment (real or virtual) to the ECF Office for CoM credits (more than one per student will be required)
3. The School registers the students who will take the test.
4. The School allocates the bought credits to the students.

I will remain at home monitoring progress via the database recorded full audit trial.

5. The children log on to the trial CoM system
6. They take the practise test as many times as they wish (20 random questions from a pool of 100)
7. They take the plunge and take the real Level One test (which will cost one CoM credit per test)
8. The children will be informed immediately as to the outcome of each test.

My target for success is to see CoM certificates delivered to the school by Friday of the same week : I hope this is not unreasonable.

I would like to see them presented during school assembly and photographs taken (with multiple signed permissions from various parents and agencies) during the following week.

I hope the forum is happy with this!

[John Upham]

A thought that I hope is worth sharing with you about the CoM delivery platform :

In addition to providing an examination for anyone world-wide (current language barriers excepted), the CoM platform would allow for :

1. Part accreditation of ECF Coaches (to various levels),
2. Part accreditation of ECF arbiters,
3. Part accreditation of ECF organisers,
4. et cetera

The above would all require the creation of a pool of suitable Questions and Answers for each but if this was available then it could be delivered via the same application.

Just a thought...