7. RECOMMENDATIONS
The Role of Chess Scotland
It is agreed generally that CS must be clearer about what it does and does not do in both Adult and Junior Chess. We recommend that a form of manifesto is drawn up, so that members, chess players, media and government can see an understandable and consistent position.
For instance, as the official governing body, it has certain functions which are necessary for the smooth running, growth and development of the game:
While it need not be involved in the detailed organisation of day-to-day competition, it must retain responsibility for awarding the national championship titles at both adult and junior level.
However, it does have a duty to promote an adequate supply and structure of playing opportunities.
It should accredit and provide access to training for arbiters and coaches – the process of disclosure is a major step towards this aim.
It should provide and manage the grading system.
It should have responsibility for sending teams and individual players to represent Scotland at international events: selection, elite coaching, accreditation and travel.
It should lobby on behalf of chess, chess players and chess clubs.
It should take clear control of promoting chess in schools and in clubs.
It should provide models and examples of best practice for development of the game at regional and grass roots level.
These mainly are existing functions and, aside from the costs of international competition, have no major financial resource implications. There are questions, however, about how these functions should be carried out.
In order to be clear, assertive and authoritative about the above, it probably is necessary for CS to make a major review of its membership and affiliation structure. In line with typical sports organisations, it is proposed that:
Membership of CS, either directly or via an affiliated club or school is compulsory for all entrants to official events and championships; for international players; and for grading.
Membership fees are raised to more realistic levels, with a major campaign to explain the new structure.
There should be one level of subscription, to include grading and the magazine, with no opt-outs.
Life membership is abolished.
Members have access to other benefits, such as reduced coaching fees and training events.
The Internet is a huge resource, already evident in the excellent CS site. Huge value could be added for members with a password protected site.
These proposals are untested and fall at the edges of this project’s remit. It has been noted, however, that the organisation is not seen as wholly fit for purpose, so a full review is perhaps overdue.
It is also evident that paid, full-time staff will be necessary to carry forward a change process and to manage a more focussed and professional organisation. The financial implications are equally obvious but the necessary business planning process is beyond the scope of this project.
Junior Chess
Outside the family, young people can be introduced to or can make progress with Chess in school and/or in a club.
Chess in Schools is the easy route to introducing young people to Chess: there is a captive audience, a convenient and familiar environment and, with luck and some promotion, a willing and enthusiastic group of organisers. It is clear that CS should develop a strategy to engage with primary schools throughout Scotland and the processes and tools are well understood:
Lobbying of government and local authority liaison
Information packs to persuade, educate and guide
Training of teachers, both staff and peripatetic
Regional coordination of supply teaching and leagues.
In an ideal world, both a central post and regional coordinators would be employed, requiring a major fundraising effort.
Having stimulated interest at primary level, the secondary issue (sic) is to develop a strategy to minimise the transitional drop-out rate between primary and secondary and at ages 13-15. A number of actions are recommended:
Regional coordinators to engage with secondary schools and promote feeder liaison
Information packs for secondary school teachers
S1 participation in leagues and back to primary to help coach
Clubs to engage with schools
Because no new coordinators would be necessary to carry out these functions, their cost-effectiveness becomes evident, since there is little on-cost in the programme.
However, the major difficulties in keeping 12-16 year olds engaged with Chess still remain to be overcome – primarily an image problem. Only a focussed marketing strategy can overcome this, comprising:
Publicity campaign to highlight successes, international competition and prestige
Heavy promotion of the National Junior Championships and the prestige of winning
A bank of chess playing celebrities to be called on occasionally.
It is conceivable that a sponsor could be found to assist with this, working in the schools and on the Internet, with such sites as MySpace.
Chess in Clubs presents a more difficult scenario than in schools. The two major variables, regionality and the willingness of adult clubs to engage, pose difficult questions:
How to promote the setting up of clubs where there is none?
How to persuade adult-centric clubs to establish and/or promote junior sections?
In our view, this is more a question of time and effort than of money. Major effort here would distract from achieving easier and bigger gains in schools.Therefore, our recommendation is to set aside any major campaign in the short term, relying instead upon increasing positive awareness from work in schools, on the Internet and general publicity to generate more club activity over time.
Overall, since CA-S and others appear to have real strength in the club circuit, perhaps the best strategy would be to encourage their efforts and coordinate them with school organisers.
Nonetheless, there still remains a problem where the best aspiring juniors want/need to set themselves against and learn from more experienced players. Developing and promoting a simple set of guidelines for clubs willing to develop a Junior section, perhaps coupled with incentives such as the provision of free (or subsidised) coaching or links with a Chess Academy to strengthen club teams, would not involve major effort.
The concept of the Chess Academy, to provide centres of excellence, a focus for coaching and a mix of age groups, seems to provide real way forward in the long term, providing a regional link between clubs and schools.
A major recommendation would be to develop a way forward for this idea, based on the Lothian model. However, with (former) SJC registering the charity Chess Academy – Scotland we can only presume that there is a “competitive” move in a similar direction. We would need some detailed discussion with CA-S ahead of deciding whether to pursue such a strategy or leave it to them.
The split between CS and CA-S does create a problem in terms of managing both the calendar of events and the development of the junior game, with conflicting ideas and practice. Of the various optional scenarios available for managing this situation, the recommended course of action is as follows:
In line with the “manifesto” for CS functions outlined above,
CS should take control of promoting and developing Chess in schools;
CS should work with others to promote and develop Junior Chess in clubs; and
CS should retain control of and promote the National Junior Championships
But should consider delegating their organisation.
CS, CA-S and other partners can then promote and manage the calendar of junior events to best advantage.
Chess and Disability
There is no disability in Chess.
By integrating this thought into everything that it does, CS can take leadership in creating opportunities to play, eliminating discrimination and providing the level playing field. This will bring more young people into the game and help to create better appreciation among their able-bodied counterparts.
Each project, therefore, should have a disability component in its planning.This does not lead necessarily to increased costs but, if it does, fundraising can cover this. (As a by-product of an integrated disability strategy, most funders will look favourably on applications which have consideration of the disabled at heart.)
Action Plan
In summary, the strategic aims for CS in the promotion and development of Junior Chess in Scotland are as follows:
1. Concentrate effort and resources on primary schools, with four actions:
A sustained background campaign of persuasion, aimed at central government and local authorities
Information packs for individual schools, about setting up and managing Chess in the school
Teacher training and support
Paid regional coordinators to liaise with and between schools and clubs and organise league competition.
2. Use the regional coordinators to liaise with secondary schools to minimise the drop-out rate through:
Secondary school information packs
S1/P7 competition and coaching
Teacher training
Liaison with clubs.
3. Improve public awareness and image of the game of Chess through a concentrated marketing strategy comprising:
Improving the prestige of and heavily promoting the National Championships
Publicity highlighting events and successes, particularly on the international stage
Use a bank of Chess-playing celebrities.
4. Work with partner organisations to develop Junior Chess in clubs:
Produce a set of guidelines for setting up and running junior sections in clubs
Work up a set of incentives for clubs to invest in junior sections, such as training and attractive local leagues
Work up an integrated and staged set of competitions leading up to the National Championships.
To begin to make progress on an action plan it is necessary now to make some estimate of the costs of doing the work. The following are preliminary estimates only, for the purpose of providing a notion of scale and guiding detailed planning.
1. Primary Schools.
Regional coordinators – say 4 with a central manager,
at £30,000 each including expenses £150,000
Information packs 20,000
Teacher training – via CPD, no costs to CS
PR campaign 10,000
TOTAL £180,000
2. Secondary Schools.
Information packs £ 10,000
Teacher training – via CPD
Regional coordinators – in place above
TOTAL 10,000
3. Marketing Strategy
Improve the National Championships £ 50,000
Publicity campaign 20,000
Celebrity bank – expenses budget 10,000
TOTAL 80,000
4. Junior Chess in Clubs.
Guidelines and information packs £ 10,000
Organising local/regional leagues - partners
Staged events and competitions - partners
TOTAL 10,000
Support for international competition 20,000
GRAND TOTAL £300,000
For planning purposes, therefore, it would seem prudent to look at an annualbudget of this magnitude. This would be administered by a CS JuniorCoordinator (the central manager at 1 above), whose outline job descriptionwould be to:
Take overall responsibility for the promotion and development of JuniorChess in Scotland
Develop and promote the National Championships
Manage the regional coordinators
Liaise with CA-S
Produce print and web-based material
Appoint and manage a publicity agency
Raise the necessary funds
Report to the CS Council.
The necessary financial resources would have to come from a number ofdifferent sources, according to need and appeal:
The Big Lottery – for project funding over a four year period, probablythrough the Young People’s Fund
Various private trusts and charities – for core and project funding
Scottish Executive – for core funding
Local authorities – for contributions to coordinator salaries
Private sponsors – for the Championships and leagues.
The Fundraising Strategy will cover this in depth; and the Finance section willlay out more detailed costs and cash flows.
Role of the Scottish Junior Chess Association Educational Trust
The Trust has been proposed as a convenient vehicle, because it is preexisting,to raise money for the implementation of this plan. As a registeredcharity, it has two major advantages:
It can draw down Gift Aid on donations
It can apply to other charitable trusts for grant support to carry out itsfunctions.
However, as it operates at present, there is also one major disadvantage: mostmajor trusts and foundations do not accept applications for funding which is tobe disbursed to other bodies or individuals. For major projects, therefore, theTrust would be in the position of having to manage them itself.
Chess Scotland, in its own right and even without charitable status, is able toapply to Lottery sources and to many private trusts as well.
There are five possible courses of action:
Constitute the SJCAET to enable it to carry out the functions ofdevelopment and promotion described in this plan, on behalf of CS: thiswould be complicated but not impossible (involving formal links withCS) and the agreement of OSCR (the Office of the Scottish CharityRegulator) may be required.
Leave the Trust as it is and carry out the fundraising strategy throughCS, accepting that there would be some restraints on which charitablesources might be approached.
Register CS as a charity in its own right, to enable it to carry out all thefundraising.
Take a combined partnership approach, with the Trust becoming morepro-active in seeking funding for those aspects of the plan which it canachieve: a new constitution would be required but a less complicatedtransition than described above.
Let ChessAcademy – Scotland manage and fund Junior Chess inScotland, with CS trustees on the board.
Our recommendation is the first: CS must retain control of its Junior Chessstrategy but has much wider responsibilities, so it would be inappropriate forJunior Chess to “lead” major change within CS. Instead, CS should delegateresponsibility for executing this plan to the reconstituted Trust, which shouldinclude major representation from CS on its board.
This implies abandoning the “independence” of the Trust but it is difficult to seehow that has provided an advantage.
A further benefit of using the Trust in this way is the possibility of includingother interests in determining the future of Junior Chess in Scotland, without the requirement to manipulate representation on the CS board. This might alsoprovide the opportunity to heal the rift which arose following the merger (or,perceived by some, “takeover”).
Trust Constitution and Operation
The operation of a trust is governed by the Deed of Declaration of Trust (withinprevailing trust law), established when the trust is formed or when a deed isamended. The deed is a legal document and it is recommended that legaladvice should be taken before finalising any changes to the deed.
In former times the deed had to be stamped but this is no longer the case andno stamp duty is payable. However, in order to protect against the possibility ofthe trust deed being lost in the future, it would be advisable to register the trustdeed in the Books of Council and Session. This is a public register which takesin important documents and issues official extracts; an official extract is treatedas equivalent to the original signed document for legal purposes. The cost ofregistering a trust deed and obtaining one extract is of the order of £20.
Because the SJCAET is a recognised Scottish Charity, OSCR must be notifiedof any changes to its constitution. If the trust’s purposes were to change,OSCR’s permission would have to be sought – in this case, the purposes arenot changing. A copy of the new trust deed should be sent to OSCR withinthree months of the change taking effect.
Copies of the relevant form and guidance notes are at Appendix IX.
An amendment to the trust deed requires a resolution of the trustees. The existing trust deed is drawn very broadly and confers on the trustees powers to do virtually anything to further its purposes. These powers should not be lost in the new constitution – a draft is included at Appendix X.
This draft has been modelled on a standard trust constitution and, on adoption, should be signed by the three existing trustees before (a) witness(es).
Only one important decision needs to be taken before finalising the draft – that of the number of trustees (and, consequentially, the size of the quorum). The minimum number of trustees is three: it is recommended that the maximum be set at nine, allowing that a normal number might be six. The quorum is usually two-thirds of the number of trustees in office.
To establish this and to make some informal decisions around how the trustees might operate, it is recommended that a small working group is established, comprising two of the three trustees and two representatives of Chess Scotland. It should be pointed out that the trustees have the powers both to appoint and to remove other trustees.
While there is no requirement to allow for formal representation by other bodies – and this can be restricting and problematic if, for instance, someone does not wish to serve – an informal agreement about the composition of the trust and the expertise desired might result in:
Two of the existing trustees (for the time being)
Two nominees from the CS Junior Board
An invited trustee from one or more other interested bodies
A junior Chess player
A lawyer, accountant or prominent business figure.
As trustees retire, others can be appointed to ensure a full skill set. It will be important to ensure that the trust is not dominated by any particular interest group, such as CS, so a majority of independent trustees would be advisable.
In this way the operation of the trust in pursuit of its purposes can be guaranteed although, in addition, there is no reason why the trust should not consult with others on the best way to go about its work (through an annual open meeting, say, or through regular meetings with CS).