I approached my son’s school about starting a chess club. An interest survey was distributed and about 100 kids are wanting to join. None of us were expecting this kind of response and the school is now getting nervous about the possibility of parents forgetting to pick up their kids and other such miscommunications so they want me to hold the club from 4:30 to 5:30 so parents have to bring the kids back to the school . This way there won’t be any confusion about where each child is supposed to be and the school is not responsible for them. Personally, my comitment went from one day a week to a group of 10 every day of the week. Now I am going to have to either be at the school from the time my son gets out until the club is over or pick my son up and go home just to turn around 20 minutes later and drive back to the school. I can also imagine the response of parents when they are told they have to get their kids off the bus just to turn around and drive them back to the school. Anybody experience anything like this and have suggestions? Thanks!
When there aren’t barriers to participating, it isn’t unusual for 25% or so of the students at the elementary school level to participate in an in-school chess program. (One local elementary school here had close to 40% of their students participating in a lunch-time chess tournament in the media center.)
If 100 kids showed interest on the survey, I’d expect 30-50 to actually show up at least once, though, and probably less given the way they’re structuring it.
I suspect the school is concerned about this turning into a free after-school daycare program, perhaps they’ve had similar experiences with other after-school activities?
I don’t think that is it. They actually had a situation where a child forgot to go to a club and rode the bus to an empty home.
I think Nolan is right, that there will be a lot less than 100 kids show up for any one meeting. My experience has been that a lot show up for the first couple of meetings, then attendance drops off once the kids have a chance to check it out and see what you’re offering.
My principal had every student take home a permission slip allowing them to be in the chess club. The parent not only had to sign it, but provide contact informatoin. That way if someone had a problem with locating the student after hours we had a way to contact the parent.
No way would I accept having the kids go home and then be returned. The kids would make a fuss at home and parents would get upset at the inconvenience. You could place a limit on how many members the club can hold. This can be based on how many you feel comfortable handling, and space and equipment availabilty are very good excuses for placing limits.
And get the parents invovled! Ask for volunteers to help in crowd control, passing out paperwork, and in general keeping things manageable.
Radishes
Thanks for the responses. Taking the kids on a first come basis would have been the way I would have handled it. Unfortunately, the surveys didn’t go out at the same time and half the school got them after the other half turned them in. Kind of threw that option out the window and left me trying to figure out a way to make this work. I wanted to do 10 kids a day every day for their first meeting and then start merging them into larger groups. The school is really concerned about keeping up with all the different kids and schedules. I feel confident I can manage this but understand the school’s concerns. I Just wondered if any one else faced this and how they handled it. Thanks! Carol Lee
Is there ways to get other coaches to help you out? Having that many students is just going to burn you out.
I still have contact with a gentleman who used to run a club and still holds tournaments. I’ve asked him if he knows anyone who might like to make a guest appearance. So far no offers. This school is probably quite a distance from anyone he knows and he is my only contact with the Chess world. I only know him because I took my son to watch the men play when he was four. My son had such enthusiasm for the game and showed enough potential that he kind of took him under wing. Other than that, I asked for help from parents on the survey but I don’t know how well that’s going to pan out. I admit, I was very intimidated when the surveys came back but I figure there are only two months of the school year left. I might get burned out but I can manage for two months.
Go to the adult chess club(s), for a few meetings. If the club is close to you, the members of the club can help or not. There can be a coach within the club or a tournament director. True, going to the chess club and your scholastic club would be work. Having good friends at the chess club can pay off down the road.
It is way to late in the year for a scholastic tournament, but you can get help with organization for the 2006 - 2007 school year. I’m not a big fan of rated scholastic tournaments from K-5, but having an un-rated tournament next year will give the players and the parents some final goal. If the director wants a rated tournament, firer the SOB.
As long as the tournament isn’t being used to prepare players for local, state or national competitions, I don’t think it’s too late in the school year to run an in-school tournament.
Whether or not it should be USCF-rated is a separate issue, I don’t like to rush students into USCF-rated play, I’d rather they think of that as a goal to work towards–when they’re ready.
That’s just it, there are no adult clubs in our area. The one I referred to was 35 miles away and no longer meets. That’s why I started all this. I searched for two years for a place for my son to play and there just isn’t anything out here. I also have no plans of going to/hosting tournaments. I’m not a Chess player, never been to a tournament, just a parent. My entire experience with Chess is taking my son to an adult club and reading children’s Chess books. Tournaments would be a little out of my box at this point. My goal was to take a handful of kids, teach them the game, use books to give them a 15 minute lesson each meeting, then just let them play. None of us can believe this many kids are interested.
Oh yeah, I actually approached the school two months ago, it has just taken longer than I expected to get this going.
Anyway, working with this many kids isn’t the issue. The school is concerned about everyone involved - parents, teachers and myself, being able to keep track of them all and make sure they are where they are supposed to be. The school is worried about things like a child getting on the bus and going home to an empty house because the parents think they are with me or the other scenario of someone not coming to pick up their child. I think it is a situation of me not being a school employee when the school is responsible for them until they get home. They are saying the school can’t afford to have someone stay late every day until the kids are all picked up. I guess they were willing to do it if it were a weekly club, but since there are so many kids, I want to take a small group every day of the week. For this reason, they want me to take the kids at 4:30 so they go home and are brought back to the school by their parents.
Just wondered if anyone else has ever encountered this kind of situation.
Thanks!
carollee
What state are you in, as it would help with dealing with your problem. As your state association can be of some help. As a coach, or someone with good organization skills could be within your city, and does not know you are around.
Do understand how a parent wants to have their child enjoy chess. Can understand how you want your child be able to play with other children. But, your child does not have the time to play 100 other children. And you yourself do not have the time to take care of 100 children alone.
What I feel the school is doing, is making it harder for the students to play. This in time will limit the amount of students going to your club. Think you will only have within time around 20 or less.
When you had 100 students, they came to play chess. Not all of the players came to play chess because they enjoy chess but a friend came to play chess. And that friend came to play chess because a friend wanted to play chess. When you have children, just doing something new they all want to do it. In time it will thin out, do not like what the school is doing but it will thin out faster.
Feel you are going to but heads with the school some time. As I feel some members of the school wants to close the club. Before you re-start the club for the 2006-2007 school year, try to work with someone to have a chess camp. Only someone that plays chess, can give you a fair understanding of the level of the players, and the ones that do have long term hope to stay with it.
The USCF can provide you a mailing list of current and past USCF members in the area. While there might not be a club there surely are players who might be interested in helping.
I helped coach at my children’s elementary school for many years. We would have up to 50 kids at a time out of 450 total at the school.
As soon as the kids arrived for the weekly meeting they had to sign-in. If a kid didn’t show up within a few minutes of school letting out we would call the emergency number listed for the child. Of course we would review the daily attendance list to make sure a child was in school that day.
Unlike your situation we had a teacher who was willing to stay late. Perhaps a small fee for the kids to participate would be appropriate. The fee could be used to pay the teacher to stay late. Many clubs charge a fee to pay for a professional coach, so this wouldn’t be out of line.
I wish you the best of luck.
I hope this doesn’t go through twice, I posted this morning and I don’t see it.
I am in Missouri and looks like a new club just opened about 20 miles from me. I’ll check it out.
I trust the school is being upfront about their concerns and intentions, but I too see the possibility of the late start time excluding kids. This is more than I meant to take on but I know there are a lot of little ones excited about this. I don’t want to weed kids out like this. I know most will drop on their own. I contacted parents to let them know I am not a teacher or a coach and 27 have already dropped. I am sure many more will drop after a meeting or two and this won’t be such a big deal. If they don’t drop - it’s only two months. I’ve made no commitment to continue this next year. I would like to, but I’ve set up no expectations. As far as managing them on my own, I’m used to having a houseful of neighborhood kids anyway, so I really don’t feel that spending a daily hour with @ 10 kids - or a daily hour every other week with @ 15 kids is a big deal. I’m a stay at home mom with a child who thrives on being kept busy. He participates in other after school clubs as well and won’t be there every time.
It is probably a little late for the mailing list of USCF members to be of help but it is worth looking into.
As far as paying a teacher to stay, that’s something to consider but I hope to find a solution without asking for money. I don’t know how well that will go over with parents since it wasn’t mentioned from the start.
I read on this site that a lot of scholastic clubs are started by parents, I was just wondering if others ran into this kind of stumbling block. Now I know there is at least one other school out there that requires a school employee to be there, so probably has the same concerns.
I can tell you what we have done, if that’s any help.
Our club is totally run by parents, and is under the umbrella of our PTA (but only somewhat!). All the school provides is the space.
Kids formally sign up for chess club. A registration form goes home at the beginning of the year. It lists the rules–when club meets, when kids need to be dropped off/picked up, etc. Parents must sign the form to give their kids permission. We require a daytime phone number on the form.
We charge $20 to $30 per year to cover basic expenses–chess equipment, a bit of paid tutoring, teaching materials (“Pawn and Queen” books from USCF for the beginners), and a chess club t-shirt. We aim to break even, and the $20 or $30 does make people think twice before automatically signing their kid up.
We currently run the hour before school on Mondays: 7:50-8:50 a.m. Yes, we get 60 kids, even at this hour. It is also easier to get parent volunteers at this hour, because it’s before work. The kids are focused, because it’s the beginning of their day. Obviously, there’s no problem with “leftover kids.”
For 60 kids in two rooms, I try to get between 4 and 6 parent volunteers per session. Some of this is crowd control (no chess knowledge required) and some of it is a bit of teaching (chess knowledge required).
For a while, we did it after school. This did not work as well for several reasons: 1) it turned into cheap child care so we got too many kids who didn’t care about chess at all, 2) the kids were “toast” after a day at school 3) it’s impossible for working parents to volunteer to help (Near us, most of the parents who know chess are working parents–it’s just the way it is.) 4) we had to give them a snack to get them through the afternoon and 5) yes, we ended up with “leftover kids” at the end of the session.
That said, after school chess does work at other schools in our district. Clubs in our district have taken many forms: one guy teaching a few kids after school, completely “hired-in” programs, you name it. Whatever works!
Doing the club in the mornings was an option the school gave me. I have been avoiding it like the plague though because my son and I both have ADHD related sleep issues. I have been reconsidering the option due to the 4:30 to 5:30 time frame being such an incredibly bad idea. Akzidenz, you just made it sound all the more appealing. I think my son and I are just going to have to toughen up and make it work. He and I have already been discussing ways to make it work and he is all for making the sacrifice of getting up earlier if that’s what it takes. I just hope it doesn’t lead to severe consequences for my son. I guess if it does, I’ll let him sleep in while I take care of the clubs and his dad can bring him to school later. Hopefully they will let me have at least one small group after school so he still gets to participate. Ok, kids are on spring break this week, guess I have an answer for the principal on Monday morning. Thanks for the input.
Just wanted to let everyone know how things turned out. First of all, well over 100 kids finally turned in their surveys. After my second contact went out I lost about 50 of them. I agreed to hold the club in the mornings before school and lost more. The final head count is 37. I divided them into four groups (k-2 beginners, k-2 advanced beginners, 3-5 beginners, 3-5 advanced beginners). The groups are basically even so the most I have on any day is 10 kids. So I have clubs Monday through Thursday every other week. The mornings have been rough on both my son and I but it has been worth it. We are really enjoying this. When I met with my first group and it was time for them to go to class, I was really sad that I couldn’t have more time with them. I wish I could have them for an hour and a half but the club starts at 7:10 as it is. I’ve made arrangements with the local library to let me continue the club over the summer but unfortunately they will only give me one hour a month. Guess I’ll have to take all four clubs at the same time through the summer. Carol Lee
You have figured out yet another way to deal with a big group. Groups of 10 sounds terrific. I could see where that could be a lot of fun and the kids get a lot of attention
Good work!
Hello!
I, like yourself, am in Missouri, and have read your interesting account of getting a chess club started.
When I started the chess club up this year at the 5th and 6th grade middle school, the principal required me to give out permission slips to the kids who wanted to join. The parents had to sign it and give their phone number in case we needed to contact them. The permission slip told about how the club was going to be run and that it would be after school. The principal wanted this because he, too, was concerned that the parent knew where their child was and what it was all about, plus having the contact information was essential in case anything happened while they were at the meetings.
I don’t understand why they were saying they would have to pay a teacher to stay after school for club meetings. Most of the teachers I know stay after school anyway, and we always ask for one of them to sponsor us. This year I didn’t get a sponsor, so we are having our meetings in the school cafeteria. This worked well since we started out with almost 30 kids, and now we are down to around 15 showing up at each meeting.
I’m curious, though, as to why the school is placing these restrictions on you. Didn’t you mention there are other after-school clubs? How are they handling the parental thing? Does the school run late busses? If so, how does anyone know what those kids are facing when they get home? What’s different from that and what you’re wanting to do? I think they are being unreasonable, which seems to be typical of any school that is approached by someone like you to do what you want.
I also suggest you go to mochess.org to take a look at the Missouri Chess Association. You might be able to find some help there. This is the official chess magazine for our state.
Radishes