CCHE 650 Meaning of Social Entrepreneurship at Cochise Chess

Entrepreneurship is a means of solving social issues in higher education, such as pathways to college for students in poverty. Cochise Chess provides a pathway by connecting impoverished youth and adults in Cochise County with experienced, college-educated instructors who meet them where they are geographically, culturally, and linguistically. Branding, including on social media channels, is essential to our outreach efforts. Social media allows us to reach individuals across Cochise County at little to no cost. Branded promotional materials that appear on our social media channels make our content memorable, engaging, and promote further interactions.

The only problems at present are 1) finding an intern who will share some of the social media effort and 2) figuring out how to leverage LinkedIn to garner more professional contacts. I’ve been invited to present and panel at the first-ever St. Louis Chess Conference (n.d.) so offering content related to that event might help.

See above regarding LinkedIn. I live in the middle of nowhere, so the amount of networking in the area is limited. LinkedIn could, in theory, allow me to overcome those geographical limitations.

In regard to the “meaning of change”:

Change can cause development and growth because workers rise to the occasion and buy-in. Leaders might model this buy-in (Evans, 2010, p. 3) and make themselves available to subordinates in order to facilitate further buy-in. As the organism that is the organization grows, workers have a chance to grow with it in a symbiotic manner.

For example, my right hand man at Cochise Chess was our first regular attendee. As he improved his chess, he sought to help others to do the same. When I expanded the organization beyond the Bisbee area, he took on additional duties as a volunteer, including teaching me bookkeeping and chatting with me in Spanish. He grew with the organization. And as a result of his growth, I improved as a leader, and Cochise Chess improved its offerings. Winston soon became Cochise Chess’ first paid employee.

Grief and Bereavement can occur because competence and the status quo are threatened. Change might affect existing competence because it’s simply no longer needed. Very few students want to see the sage on the stage, for instance. Also, a worker might need to gain new competences in order to become aligned with changes in their organization. The challenges of gaining new competence — time required, exercising unfamiliar or atrophied intellectual muscles, or just funding — can be huge stressors. All these changes challenge the status quo of the individual’s homeostasis as well as the firm’s equilibrium (Evans, 2010, p. 3). The status quo is, by definition Not-Change. Tensions — and even conflict — can occur at these connection points.

In addition to the aforementioned, change can cause conflict when there is a lack of support. Support from leadership and fellow workers can help an individual see the continuity between the old order and the new. Giving employees sufficient time and contact delivered through their preferred means will create at least the impression of continuity with what came before, building bridges in the worker’s story of how they make and make meaning within a workplace.

How can you relate these statements to your selected social issue/educational challenge video pitch topic? And – for many of you entrepreneurship and being entrepreneurial is a change – how can you relate these statements to yourself in relationship to entrepreneurship? In addition to the Change article in BBL please use 2 outside literary sources to corroborate your commentary while citing in APA format.
 As a relatively new social entrepreneur (Facebook, n.d., website (n.d.), I’ve embraced the many changes that my endeavor has brought about. The changes have necessitated competency improvements in many areas. I’ve actively sought to improve my chess playing by spending more time reviewing my games with the engine (computer program that plays chess better than any human), studying courses on the Chessly platform about openings, middlegames, endgames, and more. Improving my Spanish has been key in reaching Spanish-speakers in Cochise County and our more recent expansion to Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico. Recruiting a native Spanish speaker to tutor me generated improvement. Confronting my profound loathing of social media enabled more cross-county and international interaction that would have been impossible otherwise.

The content on grief and bereavement from Evans (Evans, 2010, p. 2) was eye-opening. While nearly all libraries in Cochise County are interested, including the award winning Copper Queen Library in Bisbee, some have not responded as one might expect to the offer of high-quality, free programming that requires exactly zero effort from librarians. Those other libraries tend to be in the most conservative areas of the county. Overall, they offer very little programing to their patrons. An example: At the Benson Public Library (n.d.), I saw a summer reading program graphic on Facebook about someone who does juggling. There’s not a lot more than that. At the Tombstone Public Library, there isn’t even that. I feel like the librarians there are disconnected from what they could do. It’s like preemptive grief: if there’s no meaningful change, then they won’t need to grieve.

The Meaning of Entrepreneurship at Cochise Chess

I’m a transformational leader who emphasizes partnerships in learner-centered chess education. Unlike most entrepreneurs who follow from Say (Dees, 2001, p. 1), I shift economic resources into areas of lower productivity and yield throughout rural Cochise County and northern Sonora to raise the potential of all citizens regardless of language, socioeconomic status, gender, or ethnicity. Or rather, because of them. That’s a large part of the social value of what I do. To undertake networking the Cochise Chess brand, I utilize the following attributes: persistence, openness, curiosity, engagement, creativity, and flexibility.

Achieving, reevaluating, and redeploying the competencies needed to maintain and grow my nonprofit requires considerable persistence. It also takes persistence to keep going when no one shows up at the Elfrida Public Library because the kids are all at vacation bible school instead of playing chess like they’d prefer (end rant). Openness and curiosity have supported outreach at each location and our social media efforts. My team is wide to receive. At the level of the individual learner, I can’t assume much about their educational journey, including chess. Creating a meaningful conversation about chess with a 5 year-old — or 75 year-old — takes openness and curiosity. My assistants and I choose to be fully present to attend to what each learner shares. That’s what learner-centered engagement looks like!

Creativity is manifest in our promotional materials (Facebook and website, n.d.) as much as my use of humor to lighten the mood and lower the threshold for participation. In the entrepreneurial context (Martin & Osberg, 2007, p. 31), chess is held in high regard. Our nearly 500 members across 8 locations are often serious about learning, so being more serious is unlikely to be effective. Beginners especially want to see that it’s okay to make mistakes and even to laugh at them.

I’ve done all this in two years with less than $12,000 in donations and grants in just two years. In every way, my enterprise embodies Dees (2001, p. 4) definitions of social entrepreneurs as change agents, especially “acting boldly without being limited by resources in hand” and “recognizing and relentlessly pursuing new opportunities to serve [the] mission.”

Community centered planning and charter schools gave rise to Social Entrepreneurship as we know it. I’ve also chosen them because they bear many parallels with Cochise Chess.

Cochise Chess exemplifies community centered planning because we ask people what they want (and don’t want). Our attendees wanted more locations, so we delivered more locations. They told us more bilingual instruction was necessary. I recruited a native speaker to volunteer to give me lessons in Spanish and sought out more bilingual chess instructors. This is a more horizontal, conversational approach. Many changes introduced to rural areas have historically come from outside the community, often without much stakeholder engagement or even permission. We’re turning that around one conversation and community at a time.

One nonprofit alone is not enough to innovate socially. Especially in a rural county where poverty is the norm and some libraries lack a budget for books. It takes a team of teams. Therefore, in a recursive process that includes one-on-one feedback, listening sessions, and written reflections we bring ideas for growth and adaptation to our partners. Those partners include long-standing nonprofits like Central School Project, Bisbee Science Lab, local businesses, and volunteers, including our diverse, inclusive board, along with public libraries county-wide We harvest their expertise to refine the ideas, then we bring the ideas into being according to best practices in education. Normally, a person would need to live in New York or Chicago or another big city to access such high-quality, chess education.

Our innovative approach is why our membership is 40% girls and women. It’s why the majority of our members come from ethnic minority groups. And it’s why, according to senior leadership at the St. Louis Chess Club, these results are unheard of for a chess program in the United States. In comparison, US Chess, the federation competitive chess in the United States, only has a membership that is 13% girls and women (New York University, 2023). 
 Cochise Chess is like a charter school in that we sidestep the regulations and other restrictions that public schools in the area face. We are not bound by test scores or the high costs of maintaining buildings and grounds. Our modest budget of approximately $50,000 mostly consists of donations-in-kind. And yet we serve a whole rural county, offering chess education in both Spanish and English.

I do not answer to a department head or superintendent who might lack specialized knowledge or general knowledge about best practices. Neither are my volunteers. We can stay lean and responsive. We apply that time to bilingual chess instruction and a low, low student-instructor ratio of 5:1. Our partner locations provide the space and carry the clean-up costs. They get to brag about their programming, while we avert the expenses of rent and utilities. Everyone wins!

Social Enterprise and Social Mission

Yes, Sevalaya appears to be a social enterprise. The founder has transferred his business acumen to the nonprofit sphere in order to maximize improvements in financial, social, and environment well-being across Tamil Nau. In other words, the benefits are socialized rather than privatized. The return on investment takes the form of stronger communities and well-educated, healthier citizens in the area of operation.

Sevalaya’s mission of supporting holistic rural development regardless of individuals’ ability to pay, “caste, colour, religion, language, gender, or nationality” (Sevalaya, n.d.)shows that they are dedicated to bringing benefits to everyone. If the website is to be believed, the benefits stay with the individuals who need them and in the associated communities. And while there is a commercial venture in the form of ShoppeSeva, the return from its sales are then “donated to Sevalaya’s operations” (Sevalaya, n.d.).

I’m not sure why Sevalaya would not be considered a social enterprise.

Impact Investing For this question please examine and review the website

I would say that Villgro (Villgro | Making Innovative, Impactful Social Enterprises Succeed, 2024) is a metasocial enterprise or social enterprise incubator. While they do not directly cultivate a greener, more sustainable future or bring accessible healthcare to a particular community, they provide the necessary expertise for innovative charities to do so.

References

Benson Public Library. (n.d.-b). https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064544718813

Cochise Chess. (n.d.-b). https://www.facebook.com/cochisechess/

Cochise Chess (n.d.-b). Cochise Chess. Cochise Chess. https://cochisechess.org/about-cochise-chess

Dees, J. G. (2001). The Meaning of “Social Entrepreneurship.” N.A.

Evans, R. (2010). Change is What It Means. In Seven Secrets of the Savvy School Leader. http://www.rodelfoundationde.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Change-Is-What-It-Means_Dr-Robert-Evans.pdf

New York University. (2023, October 5). In checking chess’s gender bias, researchers find parents and mentors shortchange girls’ potential. phys.org. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-chess-gender-bias-parents-shortchange.html

Martin, R. L., & Osberg, S. (2007). Social Entrepreneurship: The Case for Definition. Stanford Social Innovation Review. http://cddrl.fsi.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/2007SP_feature_martinosberg.pdf

The Saint Louis Chess Conference. (2024, February 10). The Saint Louis Chess Conference. Chess in Education. https://chessineducation.org/saint-louis-chess-conference/

Sevalaya. (n.d.). Sevalaya. https://www.sevalaya.org

Villgro | Making Innovative, Impactful social Enterprises succeed. (2024, April 8). Villgro | Making Innovative, Impactful Social Enterprises Succeed. https://www.villgro.org/