| |
BGonline.org Forums
Some suggestions.....
Posted By: Phil Simborg In Response To: Backgammon is coming back to Columbus, Ohio! (Jason Marshall)
Date: Friday, 6 January 2012, at 4:05 p.m.
Good luck with your new Backgammon Club in Columbus. I started a club in downtown Chicago a few years ago and eventually gave it up because it was just too much work and we have 3 other weekly clubs in the Chicago area, but I really enjoyed it for the most part. For what it’s worth, here are some tips:
1. Join the USBGF and get registered as a club with USBGF—there is support, there are national competitions your members can compete in (with Stick, Mary Hickey, and Chris Yep you would have one of the toughest teams in the country); and there are many, many other benefits for you and your club members to being a part of the USBGF.
2. Take Ken Larsen’s offer to help….he has done a great job keeping people at his club in NC interested and active, and his ideas for use of the web, newsletters, etc. will make your club more successful
3. Try to ignore the jerks. There will always be one or two people that you will never be able to satisfy, and ANYTHING NEW you try, and ANY RULE you propose for the benefit of the group will be resented or hated by someone. You cannot please everyone certainly applies to running a backgammon club.
4. Bill Davis has an article on how to start and run a club successfully, and no one has proven this skill better than Bill…he has the most active and competitive club in the world. And Bill is a great resource for help and advice.
5. Because you have some of the best players in the country in your area, your “normal” players will rightly feel they have little or no chance to win or get their money back, and they could become turned off and stop coming just to watch Stick, Mary or Chris win every week. So what I suggest is that you keep the entry fee very low and offer side pools for those who feel they have a good shot at winning and who want to risk more. Also, I suggest you spread the money out more evenly amongst the top finishers so that 1st place doesn’t get most of the winnings. You can do the same with your point system, and you can award 5 or 10 points or something every week just for showing up…that rewards attendance as well as performance. I also suggest that with a smaller group, as you will likely have for a while, DO NOT do double elimination or round-robin, as that only increases the chances of the better players winning all the time. Do a consolation division so that the players who get knocked out in the first round still have a chance to walk away feeling like a winner.
6. Remember that many people are cheap and will come and not eat or drink. You have to take care of the establishment or they won’t want you back. Make everyone pay an extra $5 or $10 entry fee but get a food ticket for that amount that they can use for food or drinks…that guarantees the establishment a minimum income for letting you play there.
7. Especially with a smaller group, you have the time and flexibility to not make it the same thing over and over and over. Once in a while, have a doubles tournament; have a chouette tournament; combine a lecture from Stick or Mary for a half hour with the event; have a special “side event” for people knocked out of the tournament where they can enter for $5 and compete by playing on XG to see who can get the best PR rating, etc. etc. I have many ideas I have used and will be glad to help.
8. Once you get going, develop “club pride” by establishing a rivalry with Joe’s club in Cleveland and challenge them to a semi-annual competition between clubs, or challenge the Indianapolis Club (Sean Garber) to a competition.
Of course, many will disagree with some of these suggestions. Ignore them, I'm right.
Good luck and all the best!
| |
BGonline.org Forums is maintained by Stick with WebBBS 5.12.