Kevin L. Bachler wrote:

Also, by working with colleges, USCF may be able to take advantage of other
resources.

Advertising/marketing/video students might be willing to make materials for USCF
as part of a project.

School printing capabilities might save USCF money on cost.

Kevin L. Bachler

I am not trying to pour cold water on what may be some excellent ideas,
but I do wish to enter a word of caution here. I cannot speak for
Illinois, but in Nebraska, this past year has been one of the worst
years financially in more than a decade. Hundreds of millions of
dollars were cut out of both higher and public education. At the same
time, the "No Child Left Behind" act which went into effect last year,
is placing huge accountability upon schools to perform nearly
flawlessly, with of course less money than they've traditionally had.
Here in Omaha, the local university cancelled more than dozen labs for a
physics class because of lack of money to pay the professors. In
Lincoln, the University had to put a hiring freeze on, and was almost
ready to cut tenured faculty, until our legislature ignored the
governor's wishes and raised taxes so that no further cuts would have to
be made.

Class sizes are higher than they've ever been here in Omaha in schools
and many Elementary classrooms have over 25 students in them, which is
not good. Many smaller school districts have had to merge with their
neighbors or close altogether. Some are combining
teaching/administrator jobs, or superintendent/principal jobs to save
money. Some are not even replacing principals (or superintendents) when
they quit and are making sharing arrangements with other school
districts just to stay open one more year, in the hopes that things will
improve.

Nearly ANY idea proposed right now that doesn't have the funding
attached to it, is going to be immediately rejected as impractical, at
least around here. I know that California and Oregon are experiencing
horrible financial problems as well.

Does that mean that Kevin's ideas are bad? No. In fact, Kevin has
made some really good suggestions, but unfortunately some of them would
not be workable or practical right now here this state.

Successful school chess programs around here have ebbed and flowed over
the years, and nearly always the key to their existence or non-existence
has been the presence of an interested or dedicated coach, teacher or
parent whose child enjoys chess and would like to see some chess played
and offered at his/her school. The program often lasts as long as the
teacher, parent or student maintains the time and the interest in
keeping things going. If the teacher leaves, the parent changes jobs,
or the child moves to another school the program goes dormant.

Chess club money is usually of secondary if not tertiary importance (at
least in Nebraska). This is not to say that money would not help a lot,
only that it is not the most critical component for success of a school
chess program.

My point is that asking schools to start or help finance the start of
chess programs right now is likely to be met with a flat "no", because
many schools can barely meet the needs of their students right now and
funds and programs are being cut. If someone can write grants or offer
funds to help seed these programs, then the programs sound like an
excellent idea. Also, in a few years when and if the economy improves,
these would be excellent ideas.

I would caution anyone however in thinking that things will remain on
course without the key local people in place to run it and keep it
going. When key people leave, often the program goes dormant, because
the people don't know what to do or how to do it, when they are left in
charge.

Best Regards,

Bruce