On the ECF web site on Wednesday a post will be put up about Chess For Schools by Gerry Walsh and Peter Wilson. As this is public knowledge as of 17th December 2007, so I can tell you the bones of this post.
A company called Holloid Plastics in Basingstoke is about to start making 250,000 FREE chess sets and Boards for every state school in England. (Scale: the 1 football pitch 6 foot deep in chess kit). This project starts in March and should finish around December next year. As the ECF will need local leagues to help liaise with the schools after the sets have been drop off I have put together a "road map document"of how I believe leagues can take advantage of this.
How do I know all this, I'm sorting out the sponsorship for the Haulage so that it doesn't cause mass panic and too much work for the county associations.
Idea of size: my local leagues' (Bradford) boundry has 150 state schools in it and we are planning to have 1 liaison officer for every 3 schools to advise schools on the best way to turn each of the boards delivered into a league player inside 5 years. Each schools is getting 10 boards and sets, so thats 1500 players inside 5 years.
Why tell you lot: because if you play in an English league you will know the best activist to mention this to, and then get them to talk to me.
If sounds like alot of work, it is, but imagine if that work doesn't happen.
The Renegade
FAQ:
1. Collages and Uni's are not part of this project yet but I can ask the question to Holloid Plastics and see if they wish to include them.
2. The distribution hopefully will not be needed by the local or county associations.
3. How to get in touch; through the ECF, Renaissance Academy or Bradford Chess web sites.
Charles W. Wood
Good question (In fact probably the best) The thing about English chess is we run things differently from club to club, league to league or even comparing counties. Putting this information forward helps the chess community be able to start to get their heads around the scale of this. If you have activists or about to start doing work in the junior development field you don't have to try and reinvent the wheel, I (and many many others) have tried to keep the information we have gathered so we can pass it on to help. A good example is CRB's, I england they cost £45-ish but are available for the admin cost for volunteers (about £8 or £9). In the south alot of Clubs play in the county league only which makes it a bit harder for them to cover local schools, and as state schools run very differently to Grammar theres things that will help activists get a better responce from schools, E.G.: if you ask a state school directly if they want chess for their school the answer 9 times out of 10 is no but using other organisations such as Teach First or Duke of Edinburgh Award gets better results. So get or activists to contact me.
Renegade
The first sets have just landed at my house. Thank you for all your comments. The project is alot further down the line than we could of ever imagined thanks to the donation of haulage from Fortec Pallets. We have managed to accomadate some other project and organisations outside the State Schools structure. I am looking forward to many other people getting in touch about helping the areas they cover.
Renegade (charles)
