Maine Scholastic Chess Coaches Meeting

With small attendance following the norm, seven of us met to discuss topics relevant to scholastic chess and to plan for the state scholastic championships in late winter. Ron Lewis facilitated the meeting that generated plenty of healthy discussion for two hours. Kathy Richards presented a detailed financial report that showed that there was a small net gain after last year's tournaments. Then we set dates for next year's championships. The most healthy discussions included the definition of a team and the format of the high school tournaments.

I'm sure that there will be a detailed write-up written on chessmaine.net, so I'll spare being long-winded. Teams will continue to be defined in conjunction with USCF rules and regulations in order to keep confusion to a minimum.

Dick Powell from Deer Isle-Sonington, Ryan Tripp from Orono Middle School, Steve Abrahams newly of Orono High School, Dan Deluca from the Airline School, and myself were the other five attendees. It was nice to hear viewpoints from the experienced and the brand new. Steve brings experience from other states and had many fresh insights, while Ron provides the experience and knowledge of past practice that is invaluable in discussing perennial issues.

I enjoyed the time discussing scholastic chess and feel extremely confident that we are continuing to point the scholastic ship in the right direction.