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Becoming an
Active Silver Knight Chess Coach
Please read this information
very carefully before filling out the application below!
A Silver Knight is the most important volunteer position in the Silver Knights
Alzheimer’s Prevention Charity. Becoming a Silver Knight though you will be teaching chess to adults of all ages is not about
teaching chess. A Silver Knight must be someone who has a love
for adults and seniors enough to sacrifice a little time and
money to save their lives and bring joy and friendships into their lives. A Silver Knight is brave and does not quit when you are faced with a challenge but relies on your brethern of other Silver Knights for help.. Silver Knights ask
questions and find out the answers because they realize that they are LIFESAVERS and not just chess coaches. All other considerations are secondary.
You must be very patient and kind. Silver Knights are an elete group of trained volunteers who follow through with their commitments because they realize that the lives of others are in their hands.
If you are only interested in becoming a Silver Knight just to
show off your chess skills, and not because you want to make a difference in
the lives of "The Greatest Generation"and "Generation Xers" and the "The Net Generation" to save them from a horrible
death from Alzheimer's, then please read no further. We are looking for
volunteers who care about others and would be willing to teach them tiddilywinks if that was the best way to prevent Alzheimer's. It is very important that a Silver Knight Trainee be able to follow the instructions given him or her as we have found that when people who have taught chess before try to do things their way it inevitably ends in failure and the trainee quits. Can you follow instructions? If you don't understand the instructions are you humble enough to ask a question? If not then please read no further.
The
Silver Knight is volunteering for a minimum of 2 hours per week for a minimum of 1 year. (One hour is to be spent preparing for and transpartation to and from your class and the other hour is to coach the class.) A Silver Knight may be a man or woman who is at least 18 years old and is willing
to go through the online training to become a Silver Knight which is a 5-step
process that takes about a month or two depending on how quickly you act. You will be taught how to raise funds if need be to get your starting supplies for the class.
You will be taught how to generate a contact list of 20-50 potential sponsors using Mapquest.com that will even tell you their contact information and even how far away they are and provide a map to the location near you where your class can be be held. If you do not have the computer skills to generate the list, our National Headquarters will do this for you. You will be taught how to contact all those potential sponsors and set a meeting to speak face to face with the director of the facility where you want to teach. You will be given all the documentation and training you will need for your first class. Then you will be given documentation and training for your other classes as you need them along with more training in how to teach adults. Silver Knights will also be coaching their adult students in starting their own chess clubs.
You need transportation to and from the classes, which will be no
further than 5 miles from your home. You will also need a printer to print off the documents we send you for your classes and of course paper and ink. It is best to
also have a high-speed Internet connection because the documents are detailed. You should have some basic
computer skills like how to email photographs and download and file the
documents we send you so that you can find them when you need to print them. You should be able to copy and paste as well as be able
to type. If you are not sure how to do some of these things, we will
provide all the training you will need.
During
the training you will gather the needed supplies including chess sets, a demonstration board, a customized Silver Knight golf shirt with your
name on it (available in our gift shop for only about $30). You are required to use this Silver Knight golf shirt (our uniform) whenever you are teaching a class or meeting with a director where you represent the Silver Knights.
You will need to either order 1 copy of the PBS Home Video: The Forgetting- A
Portrait of Alzheimer’s from www.Amazon.com
for $11.63 (used) or $14.99 plus shipping.
You should show this video during the first class! Every student must see this video (they can check it out and watch it at home) OR read the book The Forgetting:
Alzheimer's: Portrait of an Epidemic (Paperback) by David
Shenk (Author) $2.99 (used- order at least 3 copies
to be checked out). We are working on a 2 page summary about Alzheimer's and Alzheimer’s Quiz before they can pass
the first section of the course- “The Rules” and get their framed Pawn
Certificate. You may invest your own funds to get these items if you don't already have them or we will give you strategies that you can use to raise the funds since we are a charity. The summary and quiz are free.
You will need to become familiar with our website and post a thread on the Guild of Silver Knights section of our Open Forum and every 8 weeks update your thread (we will
provide instructions). You will need to provide a photograph of yourself (in .jpg format) for the
website like the other Silver Knights have done. Our National Headquarters will do everything it can to make your classes fun for both you
and your students.
Since you are a member of the charity we ask you to contact your friends, neighbors, relatives, chess buddies and co-workers and let them know that you have found this wonderful charity and that you have volunteered to help save lives and encourage them to consider volunteering or donating to the charity also. We will provide you with the documentation to make this easy.
A Silver Knight must be quite familiar with the rules of chess or willing to
learn them. A Silver Knight need not be an expert chess player because if you are just a fair chess player you can learn along with the students as a detailed
lesson plan is provided with each class. A Silver Knight should be a good listener as most people find it rude when they are interupted. We teach advanced teaching skills and concepts and ideas that are not taught in any book presently published so if you have taught chess before, you will need to be flexible and learn how to teach The Silver Knight Way. You can only teach from our documents.
Having
previous experience working with adults and the elderly or teaching chess is a
plus but neither is mandatory. Again, being a Silver
Knight is not about teaching chess. Being
a Silver Knight means that you are willing to spend some of your money or raise the funds and spend some of your free time to
help save the lives of those you teach from the horrible disease of Alzheimer's.
There
is no pay for anyone in the organization. We are a group of volunteers
who are paid with the joy of knowing that you have saved the lives of our
precious adults and senior citizens and added joy to their lives. The Silver
Knights is supported by local donations. You will need to find individuals
or organizations that would be willing to support your efforts to save
lives. You will receive training on how to go about doing this in
the process of becoming a Silver Knight. Again, the training to become a
Silver Knight only takes about a month or two if you respond to the training emails. We are here for you, so if you
have a question, JUST ASK!
You are not permitted to use the words "Silver Knights" or our logo on any documentation you might have and documents you have used before are not premitted in the classroom while you are teaching a Silver Knight class. You are not permitted to alter our documentation in any way or use them in other chess classes you might teach. They are for adult chess courses only.
The Duties of a Silver Knight
E-MAIL RULES-
1. I will always assume the best of other members of the charity.
2. I will always replay to an email within one week unless previously arranged.
3. I will not type in all caps as that tends to suggest shouting.
4. I will not use this website for anything other than it's stated goals.
A Silver Knight donates at least 2 hours per week to serving the community by
protecting adults and the elderly from Alzheimer’s disease by coaching them
how to play chess and providing opportunities for them to play including teaching them how to start their own chess club. Helping your students start their own chess club is vital because they become committed to the charity because the chess club belongs to them because they started it. If they volunteer to help, they are more likely to be dedicated to making chess a part of their weekly life.
If you
are coaching more than 4 students in a class you
should (if you don't already have one) purchase your own demonstration board (about $30- $60.00 from www.wholesalechess.com or any other location you wish). If you know that you will be teaching a class of four
students or less it can be taught on a standard chessboard.
You
will also need to purchase a few “Quality Chess Set Combos” (same store
as above at about $10 each depending on the number purchased or any other location you wish),
which is the Silver Knight "chess set of choice." Any
Staunton style chess set will do if you or the student has one. The $10 chess sets can be
sold for $20 to students who can afford them and given to those who
can't. Remember, we are a charity, but after your initial
investment, we expect that donations should cover the cost of printing
documentation, gasoline to and from your classes, and for awards, that the students earn in the process of taking
the course. Silver Knight donations should never be use for anything other than your needs for your classes.
Your
total investment or the amount you will need to raise in donations if you don't already have a demonstration board, uniform and sets will
be between $100-$200 dollars depending on the number and size of chess sets and
demonstration board. We ask you to make this investment to show that you
are really serious about becoming a Silver Knight and saving the lives of
adults in your area from Alzheimer's and not just trying to find an opportunity to show off your chess skills or learn new ones for free.
If you already teach chess and have
sets and demo board then the only initial investment you will need to make will be the
Customized Golf Shirt with your name on it (about a $30 investment.) We are here for you, so if you
have a question, just ask!
The Silver Knights Headquarters will email you and make available detailed
lesson plans, FunSheets, attendance sheets, grading sheets, quizzes and other
materials to aid in teaching. Note: these documents do not come automatically. You must email them us as soon as you are finished with "step one" in the training to get "step two" and so on. The training goes as fast as you respond to the emails. If you do not get the materials you need within a few days then please email or call us.
You will need to purchase at least 10, 2-pocket
folders for your first class to hold the documents (an investment of
about $7 to $10 ). You will teach a ½ hour lesson (you can take
longer if you, the facility and your students wish) and then supervise your
students as they play for the next half hour. Classes can go longer if the Director of the facility, your students and you agree to. There is no minimum or
maximum class size though the average class size is around 8-10 students. We have taught classes with only one person and saving the life of one person is
well worth the effort to us. Small classes usually grow as the
word gets out.
When
your students have learned the first 4 lessons and know the rules of chess they
will earn a framed certificate. You will encourage them to start their
own CHESS CLUB right away! This is important because it gives them a chance to
play chess outside of class. Information about how to do this along with
everything else will be provided. The National Headquarters will provide you with the training and promotional fliers to help your students start their own chess club. The Silver Knight is not obligated to attend the students chess club, but we encourage you to do so as much as you can. We are here for you, so if you
have a question, just ask!
In
order to present to the public and our students a uniformed program, the documents used in the program may not be changed without written confirmation from The Silver Knights National Headquarters in
Scottsdale Arizona. You may also not add the name "Silver Knights"
or our logo to any document you have created. You may not use any of the Silver Knight documentation in a class other than an adult Silver Knight Class. They are for Silver Knight Classes only. That being said, we are
always open to receive suggestions from our Silver Knights as to improvements
to any aspect of the program.
Every Silver Knight is expected in the first year of his knighthood to recruit a minimum of two other Silver Knights to the charity, which is easily done by distributing our promotional fliers to local chess clubs. We will provide all the materials you need to teach your classes. Do not use outside materials. If you think that there should be something added to our lessons please email and let us know. If we feel that you have a good point we will likely add it to the material! We have spent a lot of time making sure our lessons are in the proper order and make sense. Using outside materials can often confuse students.
Once
your application below has been approved and you have gone through the
Silver Knight Training Course, you will be trained how to easily generate a contact list and set appointments to go to
places like hospitals, senior centers, libraries, veteran's hospitals and
anywhere you can find adults who want to learn how to play chess. We
will provide instructions on how to do this or we can even give you the contact
information or more if you wish. We are here for you, so if you
have a question, JUST ASK!
Only those who are serious and will dedicate a minimum of 2 hours per week for a minimum of 1 year and responsibly commit themselves to this charity and follow the instructions and principles of this charity need fill out the application below.
The
Vigil and Application Form
In
the Middle Ages when someone was going to take the serious step of becoming a knight, they would go through
what was called a "Vigil" and spend the night from sunset to sunrise in prayer before being
dubbed the following day. Becoming a knight was a serious
commitment. In the same way, becoming a Silver Knight is a serious
commitment and a time of soul searching should be done before making your
request to become a Silver Knight. Be sure you are getting into it for the correct reasons because if you decide to quit before the year is up you will not only be disappointing a lot of people, but you will be allowing those you could have coached chess to come down with Alzheimer's When you feel that you are willing
to commit the time and funds necessary to become a Silver Knight, and are willing to participate for the right reasons, and follow our instructions, please fill
out the following application form. A Silver Knight is bound by a Code
of Chivalry, as were the Knights of old not the least of which is loyalty to
the charity.
Although
becoming a Silver Knight is serious, because our mission is one of saving
lives, there is also a lot of fun in being a Silver Knight. You
will have the fellowship and support of other Silver Knights not only across the
world and will you will have the opportunity to meet with your local Silver Knights on a
regular basis. You will of course also have a lot of fun teaching adults
the exciting game of chess. You will get the opportunity to get to know some of the greatest people on this planet who have been called "The Greatest Generation" who have a wide variety of incredible experiences. Our national headquarters will provide you
with training materials and regular communication by email to answer any
questions you might have. So, when you have a question, just ask!
The Silver Knights’ Code of Chivalry
I HEREBY SWEAR TO THE
FOLLOWING OATH:
-
Defense- I swear and take this oath to defend the sick and
elderly against the monster called Alzheimer’s. This is my calling
and joy.
-
Joy - I swear to bring
happiness to those I serve, for many I serve are going through difficult
times and playing chess is a joy they really look forward to. Often many
I serve just look forward to seeing my smiling face each week. With my smile I will be generous.
-
Generosity - I swear to be
generous in so far as your resources allow. I swear to give a little if I
only have a little. I swear to give a lot if I have a lot because being
generous not only helps those who need help but is an aid to my soul too. I will share what I have with humility.
-
Humility - I swear to value first
the contributions of others. I will not boast of your own accomplishments,
I will let others do this for me. For to be humble when you have been given so much talent takes courage.
-
Courage - I swear to choose a more
difficult path, the personally expensive one of courage. If it is easy to
do it probably is not worth doing. Being courageous when others run away will be shown in the light of truth.
-
Truth - I swear to always speak the truth in love. To lie is to dishonor myself, and the Silver Knights
Alzheimer's Prevention Charity and my other Silver Knights. Standing side by side with my other Silver Knights shows loyalty.
-
Faith - I swear to have faith
in my beliefs, for faith roots me and gives me hope against the despair
that human failings create. Having faith means to strive to always do what is right.
-
Righteousness - I swear as a
Silver Knight to seek to emulate everything in the Code of Chivalry as
sincerely as possible, not for the reason of personal gain but because it
is right. When I do what is right, it inobils me.
-
Nobility - I swear to seek great
stature of character by holding to the virtues and duties of a Silver Knight,
realizing that though the ideals cannot be reached, the quality of striving
towards them ennobles the spirit, growing the character from dust towards the
heavens.
-
Courtesy - I swear to treat all,
but especially the sick and elderly with kindness and tenderness. I will
honor them for they richly deserve my respect.
-
Honor- I swear to try to behave in an honorable way at all times so as not to disgrace the Silver Knight Charity. I will do what I say I will do. I recognize that it is a great honor to become a Silver Knight and I will fulfill my duties to the best of my ability.
- Love- I swear to try to be patient and kind, never jealous or envious, never boastful or proud, never haughty, or selfish or rude. I will not demand my own way.
- Loyalty - I swear to unwavering
commitment and loyalty to the Silver Knight Alzheimer's Prevention Charity. As a Silver Knight
my loyalty is to the ideals of the Code of Chivalry and to the charity I
serve. I will not abandon my commitment easily. As a Silver Knight
I will faithfully fulfill my duties and the instructions given to me.
When I am sick and cannot fulfill my duties I will contact the director
of the facility where I teach to let my students know they should go
ahead and play chess without me.
- I swear loyalty to my Silver Knight brothers and sisters and I will treat all its members with respect at all times. I vow to respond to all emails in a timely manor (within one week unless you indicate that your otherwise cannot. I will answer all questions with honesty. I recognize that I am now taking a 1-year-long vow to help save lives and I will not quit before that time unless I am physically unable to follow through with my commitment.
- I vow to encourage everyone I meet to volunteer 1-2 hours per week and to recruit new Silver Knights, Silver Squires, Silver Pages and Noble Heros by passing out charity promotional materials and talking to individuals and groups whenever I get the chance because I recognize this is my charity. I vow to do this because even a single life saved from Alzheimer's is worth it!
Filling out the form below means that you are making a commitment to the above conditions. If you have questions don't fill out the form below but email us at
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
to ask the question. Only fill out the form below if you are serious about committing to the charity and donating a minimum of 2 hours per week for 1 year and following the instructions given to you by our charity. Thank you.
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Your application will be reviewed. Depending on the
number of applications, it may take up to a week to finish the review. You will
receive notification by email letting you know that you have been accepted.
Good Luck!
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