Kevin L. Bachler wrote:


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.

Think about it Bruce. You are making an argument FOR this, not against it.
This is exactly why a college should want a chess program. At practically no
(incremental) cost, they get a new club, and local volunteers to run it. (A
thought that occurred to me later is USCF may want to offer a college affiliate
a few (perhaps 5) free memberships if 1) It first signs up 5 new members and 2)
the club is open to the local community.) They get knowledgeable TD's, local
competition, an Internet league. Wow, if I'm a college I'm thinking here's
something we can add exactly when we need to be doing take-aways.

If I were the local community, I'd BUY the 5 "base memberships" just to get a
free place to play.

Kevin L. Bachler

No I am saying it will not work presently. Please do not claim that I
am agreeing with you, because I am definitely not.

Best Regards,

Bruce