Chess Scotland Fund Raising

[Patrick McGovern]

start what Andy? two protagonists hurl thinly veiled accusations and nothings said; i have a laugh and you comment?? get real :p :p

[Andy Howie]

Pat

Had I actually been in Scotland I would have reacted quicker. I can't monitor the board 24/7 because people are can't behave themselves.

Not I am nipping this in the bud before we have a repeat of the Council thread. If you can't see why then we are in a sad state of affairs.

I am not being dragged into a debate here. This is about funding and I will not have it derailed so stay on topic

[Alan Jelfs]

How about a charity chess-boxing match?

I will take on Andy Muir :ymbringiton: The winner gets to choose which events get FIDE-rated next year.
Phil Thomas can take on...well, pretty much every CS junior chess post-holder! Winner gets to publicly display the others budget spending
Geoff Chandler can fight a chess-engine-robot-thing: if Geoff wins the engine has to switch off its tablebases and 'play on a real chessboard'. Geoff loses and he has to write an article on 'Why the Lewis chess-pieces are actually chess-pieces'.
Sure there are more match-ups we'd all like to see?

How about a tag team match between the Burnett brothers and the Tweedie brothers?

[Matthew Turner]

There have been ideas for fundraising and expenditure over a number of threads, but I wanted to return to this one to make a more general point about fundraising.
Chess organisations raise a certain amount from their 'membership' and when more funding is required the immediate reaction is a small increase in fees, be they membership fees, grading fees, affiliation fees or entry fees. The aim to get a small amount of money from a relatively large number of people. I would suggest that in the medium term this is the wrong way round - the aim should be getting a very small number of people to pay (give) a lot. If membership fees went up 20% and membership remained constant (which seems unlikely) it would still only raise a fraction of the amount given by the anonymous benefactor to the Scottish Championships.
Their is the view that anonymous benefactors come along at random, or that sponsorship consultants need to be employed to recruit them. Neither of these is correct. Attracting benefactors to chess is a subtle process which requires chess to have a profile amongst individuals with substantial disposable income.
Here was my first idea for fundraising again.

"Invite the great and the good from Edinburgh Chess Club to a Black Tie Dinner at a local establishment. Get them schlossed, have a game of heads and tails if they can still stand and then have a charity auction. It's a tried and tested formula"

[Ianbrownlee]

here's a few ideas

1. Run tournaments with the sole aim of raising funds , It's my experience people value cheap trophies rather than prize money. I don't think there are many people in Scotland relying on prize money

2. Run a national schools competition with similar fees already charged by other organisations. give Schools the incentive to pay this fee by offering other incentives such as Chess Scotland resources for developing chess clubs As well as raising money School chess both primary and secondary can be developed

3. Create an inter regional chess league again raising money, one or two teams per region

4. Give clubs an incentive to raise funds, for example each club will be rewarded if they use one club night per year raising money

5. Use Chess Scotland resources (e.g our stronger players could give simuls) to raise money

6. as with point 2 create a school ( and other ) affiliation list with a fixed fee Again with point 2 make the fee attractive to schools. We could learn a lot from existing methods already in place. Do all that's possible to promote Chess Scotland as the authorative chess body in Scotland. Point out the positive points regarding chess in Schools

7. link local chess clubs to schools. Local chess club membership would benefit financially from new membership

[Matthew Turner]

Ian,
You have some interesting ideas, let me give you some thoughts

1. Fundraising tournament with trophies rather than prize money. That is a decent idea, but surely this is more appropriate at a local level rather than a national level. Wouldn't it have more appeal to fundraise for a local junior going to the world Youth in India rather than raising funds to go into a big pot

2. National schools competition
Not sure about this - a physical competition is always going to run into problems with travelling distances and Internet based tournaments are fraught with difficulties from School firewalls and the like. Yes2Chess is trying to organise one with the backing of Barclays, so why not accept that someone else is doing this and let them get on with it?

3. Inter-regional league - isn't that the SNCL?

4. Give clubs an incentive to raise funds - couldn't the incentive be that they'll raise funds? They can then use the money to support local chess initiatives/players.

5. Use ChessScotland raise resources e.g. stronger player to raise money - I don't really understand this ChessScotland doesn't own stronger players. You are effectively asking stronger player to donate their 'pay' to ChessScotland; Why do you think they will/should do this?

6. Recommend resources/good practices to schools - great idea, but isn't this a core responsibility of a nationally governing body; I personally think it should be a spending priority not a fundraising opportunity.

7. Link local clubs to school - this is very, very difficult to do. it would be great if it can happen, but again I don't really see it as a fundraising opportunity.

[Ianbrownlee]

Hi Matthew

1. Fundraising tournament with trophies rather than prize money. That is a decent idea, but surely this is more appropriate at a local level rather than a national level. Wouldn't it have more appeal to fundraise for a local junior going to the world Youth in India rather than raising funds to go into a big pot

I was thinking on local congress or open level rather than national level


National schools competition
Not sure about this - a physical competition is always going to run into problems with travelling distances and Internet based tournaments are fraught with difficulties from School firewalls and the like. Yes2Chess is trying to organise one with the backing of Barclays, so why not accept that someone else is doing this and let them get on with it?

There are enough schools to have these tournaments locally and schools tend to encourage the use of technology whenever they can especially if its cheap. As a guiding hand Chess Scotland would have a high profile

Inter-regional league - isn't that the SNCL?

no the SNCL comprises of individuals teams from differentm leagues and is not a chess Scotland event . I was thinking of a setup with composite teams from each league. In other words a completely different setup from the SNCL

[Matthew Turner]

"There are enough schools to have these tournaments locally "

There might be, so now all we need is a team of people to organise these local events - ah, I think we've found the sticking point!

[Andy Howie]

Ian,
3. Inter-regional league - isn't that the SNCL?

I have a few ideas on this. Going to speak to one of the hotel chains to see if I can get sponsorship for it. Not holding my breath...

[Ianbrownlee]

I have a few ideas on this. Going to speak to one of the hotel chains to see if I can get sponsorship for it. Not holding my breath...

how about giving a mandate to the home junior board (of which I am a member)to develop this. There is a member covering each region in Scotland. As a start , a letter campaign introducing these guys to each school. Bear in mind we are trying to promote chess on behalf of chess Scotland and other affiliated chess bodies could help in the spirit of co operation