Obtaining public funds for your chess project Can

Obtaining public funds for your chess project Can we do it? Yes we can!

What’s ‘excellent’? Whether big, small, middling, projects must be: • Feasible • Well-planned • Value-adding • Fun!

The ambitious Aberdeen Schools Project succeeded because • It had an excellent prospective teacher/manager with a proven track record • It had community, academic and local authority support • It was extremely well-designed / budgeted • It completed all the funding application forms professionally, including promise of research

The Project established • The validity of the principle of the ‘visiting chess coach’ • Research singled out for extremely high praise by the Scottish Government • Rave reviews by Education Inspectors, involved schools, parents and local politicians • The first international ‘Chess in Schools and Communities’ conference

Yet the funding ran out? • The local authority seriously over-spent and was required to cut back sharply • Chess was only one of many casualties • Money always eventually runs out? • But the project was a considerable landmark nonetheless!

Projects can be all sizes and shapes • Living chess • Chess days in schools • Teach teachers to play, teach chess and run school chess clubs • Regional leagues / individual competitions of various sorts • And so on

What’s key about any project? • It suits local needs / meets local demands / enthusiasms • It must not least promote sociability and fun! • It’s ‘your’ move … decide with due care … and go for it!