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BGonline.org Forums
BG in South Africa
Posted By: Max Urban
Date: Thursday, 8 October 2009, at 12:24 p.m.
This post is partly in response to Phil’s post about creating a US BG Federation. In the 2nd part I describe the club that I play at in Johannesburg, which is perhaps just meant as a little food for thought for anyone who has been considering setting up something similar elsewhere. Of course it’s also meant to let people know that there is an active BG community in South Africa.
I play at the Prime Point Club in Johannesburg which has 5 committee members running it. While this is obviously on a much smaller scale (our club only has around 25-30 members) we have found that having a number of dedicated individuals planning events has worked well for many years now. Each committee member is given a “portfolio” (organising events, running scores/ratings, treasury, organising quizzes and recruiting new blood) and from time to time we meet and plan the months ahead. The point I’m trying to make is that leadership is important – just look at top companies, sports bodies or other games clubs – they have all recognised this. It has nothing to do with power battles.
As an aside, for anyone who is interested in opening a new BG club (or would like to restructure an existing club) the format we use is the following: We have three divisions (A, B and C). The A and B divisions play 21 point matches in a round-robin format that runs over a period of 8 weeks (we have 9 players in each division). Results for each division are e-mailed out weekly along with ELO Ratings. At the end of each 8 week cycle we usually set two weeks aside for catch up matches (other fun events are organised for those people who have already finished all their matches). At the end of a cycle we have a prize giving where cash prizes and trophies are presented to the top three players of each division. The top or bottom players of each division are automatically relegated/promoted to the next division. The 2nd from the bottom/2nd from the top in each division play each other in a playoff match to be promoted.
The C division follows much looser structure and does not have weekly scheduled 21-pointers. Instead this group plays weekly round robin matches (5-pointers or 7-pointers depending on numbers). This allows newcomers to join the club at any point during the year. Anyone who joins the club has to start in the C div, but can then work his (or her) way up. Weekly winners of the C division also get a free entry into a raffle for a ticket into our annual South African Open.
We play an annual membership fee. Part of the membership fee is returned in prizes, part of it is used to organise bigger tournaments in between cycles and some of the money is used for a free dinner each cycle, so that people who generally don’t do so well in their matches feel that they are getting some sort of return from their fee (other than the joy of playing of course). We play in a great restaurant which is open ‘til the wee hours of the morning and gives us a 10% discount on meals and drinks.
Of course, anyone who is coming to South Africa next year for the 2010 FIFA World Cup is welcome to pop by and have a few games.
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