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BGonline.org Forums
Promoting backgammon - Grass Roots
Posted By: Phil Simborg In Response To: Promoting backgammon - Grass Roots (Michael Petch)
Date: Tuesday, 1 February 2011, at 1:26 a.m.
What you say has a lot of merit. I can't find fault with any of it. HOWEVER, your experience and your way is NOT the only way to promote the game. And just because your way is a good way, and it works, doesn't mean other ways aren't also good and also work.
If the USBGF thinks it is a good thing to start clubs in high schools and colleges and get boards in front of as many children as possible so they can bring them home and play with their families and friends, what's wrong with that? Why say that is "wrong" or not good, just because you happen to have learned with your family? Why can't they both be good ways to spread the game?
At least the USBGF is DOING SOMETHING TO PROMOTE BACKGAMMON. And that something does not at all exclude your ideas. Please, tell us how to implement your ideas. How will you get more families to buy those backgammon boards and open them up at home and play with their kids? If you have a good plan, we'd all love to hear it.
The USBGF has a good plan. Through schools lots of people are starting to get exposed to backgammon that were not before. They are getting boards and learning how to play on line and they are being taught how to use GNU and XG and they are encouraged to play with their friends and families.
At our course at GSU where we have 44 students currently taking a required backgammon course, part of their homework is to teach and play with a friend.
Here in the Chicago area, during this next year, we will have AT LEAST 2 elementary schools, 6 high schools, and several colleges with backgammon clubs. How can that do anything but help the growth of the game and the exposure to other students as well as to their families?
I appreciate your ideas and desire to help grow the game, but why criticize others who are actually out there doing what they think will help, just because it's not the same way you would do it?
It's nice to have ideas, but as they say, talk is cheap. The USBGF is out there actually making things happen, and they should be supported and encouraged. If you think there's a better way, then do it. If we knew how to get backgammon boards into the hands of every family and see that they play with their kids, we'd be doing it. But we do know how to get clubs and teams going in the schools, and we're not just sitting around talking about it and criticizing people who aren't helping, we're doing it!
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