If you are thinking of starting a club, it’s quite easy. Answer these questions and you will be well on your way...
(credit: FOX network)
Rules & Dictionary?
See my previous post HERE for the basic rules and
how to play duplicate Scrabble – a great variant for new players and groups.
Who?
Will you be catering for young or old people?
If you have young people what will the age limit be and be careful that the
club does not turn into a "babysitting service". If children
are attending do you require a parent or guardian present and check you have
the necessary child protection policies and vetting in place. If you are going to cater for the mature
generation ensure that all the necessary requirements are on the ground floor,
with the least amount of steps to climb/descend.
Who else
is out there?
Your first port of call should be the All Ireland
Scrabble Association – AISA. Find them at www.irishscrabble.org. When you set-up a new club let AISA know. It costs nothing and you get some promotion
out of it. It will also help new players
and clubs keep in touch with what’s happening. You can also find them on Facebook HERE (page) and HERE (group).
Insurance?
Will you need public liability insurance or will
the venue have insurance. Sometimes a pub or hotel's insurance will cover
your activities. If you are going to use a community centre or public
area you may need to get insurance.
Formal or Informal?
I believe there is room for both, but that is of
course only my opinion. This is really up to you. Normally both
will not work together as you will have members that will be quite serious, and
want to get on with playing Scrabble. On the other hand you will have
members that will enjoy the social side of the night out, having a laugh and a
chat and playing Scrabble at the same time. Of course you will have
people that love Scrabble so much that they will participate whatever the
setting is like. This is really a question you need to ask all the
members and decide what the majority want.
Aids?
Will the club allow aids. That is to say will
players be able to check words in the dictionary and lists before placing their
word down. There are 2 sides to this issue:
One side is that if you allow people to use aids
they may learn more, see words they can use and impart that knowledge onto
others. Of course this may lead to people to fish through the book trying
to find that magic 7 letter word with 3 i's, 2 l's etc.
The other side is that if you do not allow aids,
players will have to learn their words as quickly as possible and it will
probably create more competition in the short run. However, in the long
run this may lead to the club member's vocabulary becoming stale and outdated
and when new words are introduced, the club members will not become aware of
the additions and may fall behind in national play.
The first option is probable more suited to a new
club starting out with fairly new members and the second option will probably
suit long standing clubs.
Visitors?
Will visitors be welcome to your club. If
they are, let AISA have a name, address and contact number so anyone travelling
to your area can check in advance and join in your clubs activities.
Remember visitors - "When in Rome, do as the Romans".
Cost?
Will you be charging a weekly admission fee, or a
yearly membership fee, both or neither. Don't forget that most people
will want to see some return for their money or at least they will want to
understand where the money is going. Your club should not be really run
at a profit, because that gets very complicated as you may have to register as
a business, pay tax and things could get very complicated!!
Copyright?
All material using the name/logo/design of Scrabble
must include the following text - Scrabble® is a registered trademark of J.W.
Spear & Sons Ltd., a subsidiary of Mattel Inc., © Mattel 2003. All rights
reserved.
I think that's about everything I can think of to get going but if you have any other queries send me an email at j.j.ryan2014@gmail.com
John The Captain Ryan
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