Board Game Programing

Nice to meet you! I love to work with different folks in our nearby communities who share interests Our ideas we discussed with the con are based on things that are popular here in Moscow, and feedback we got from congoers last Spocon.

We are planning an open game room for people to pick up a game and play it, it would run 4 hours friday and 8 hours sat and sunday and have one PBG and one assistance to help people pick out a game and get started. We are also discussing a gaming social party, and a workshop panel on how to start and run a game club.

Well we have two people so far who are commited to making it up there, and a huge pile of games. Working on more people to oversee our programming and organize stuff. Spocon said they were going to help with open board game room assistances to help faciliate game playing those hours, and help with toting and setting up/tearing down.

But working with locals would be great to help plan stuff, and you might have some good ideas that the Spokane community can use.

The main logistical concerns, are of course, monetary. Our club is a free non profit community group, and money for transport, lodging, food, and entrance are a major stumbling block but we are working on it and have time to plan at this stage. The con has been great with trying to give us the non monetary things we need, and we really want to do this.

Forgive the novel that follows

Chris S. and I have discussed locations and etc. on the phone, and it sounds like locations for the open game room and the potential social are pretty much established, except for panel rooms for any workshops we do.

The idea is to mainly do an open gaming room rather than specific demos, in that we have a large room, huge piles of games, and people just come in, look, and play. We are thinking of running it 4 hours Friday, and 8 hours sat and sunday. The room will be LOCKED at night for security of the investment of the games on loan.

For hours of operation, this room will contain two staff-- one PBG member and an associate from local area-- to not only take care of the games, but also help any attendees who come in to find a game they may like or even teach them how to play. I envision each day being made of two shifts, needing four people who are hopefully familiar with board games (if not them all), and social enough to enjoy teaching them and chatting with attendees to get them started on playing. And having two people ensures that in a crowd everyone gets greeted, and security is not endangered when one of the 'facilitators' needs a break for some reason.

The open and unscheduled nature of this room will hopefully let folks enjoy learning and seeing new games, and they can do it on their schedule rather than juggling programming panels, their own obligations, or interests etc. They can look or they can actually play as well so time limitations are only on hours of operation and their own plans.

Once we get more practiced we could also sponsor demos and group games at this site, such as an open call to sit in and learn to play "X" game at "Y" time.

Now, unofficially, last year our fan table was pretty darn popular and we ended up selling games by virtue of people asking us for advice on fun games to try. I know at least five people I talked to left our table after talking and looking at our game stash, went to the dealers room, and then bought games discussed.

I mention this to indicate that while PBG and game club programming ideas are not in "business", the hands-on nature of this programming will probably involve some people interested in a game and might lead to sales with on-site vendors (keep money local!).

This may encourage any local game vendors to perhaps consider getting involved in helping with game activities, perhaps by using this location to sponsor sit-and-play learning demos of good games, or even help with other aspects of this programming goal.

While overt sales pitches could be tacky, there are indirect ways to get sponsor names and pass out coupons, etc in more passive associations that I do not think could offend anyone and might please all gamers all around.

ALso, in regards to programming, we had a LOT of people at our fan table bemoan the lack of a public game club in the Spokane regions. This is why we want to teach a workshop on creating a casual gaming club-- I want to cover things such as steps in goal selection, how and wear to cheaply advertise, how to look for a site, etc. I will NOT cover legal items such as bank accounts and such because that is for a more advanced club status, and also depends on where you live etc regulations. This is the workshop I planned to create for this years con, though it could be a panel with other folks if there are some interested in getting involved.

In the future, there are many different things to cover in panels such as different catagories of board games, how to collect games on a budget, how to teach a board game, how to design a board game, how to review a board game for others or evaluate it for club uses, etc. This year I want to keep it simple, though, because I feel the open game room is the most important thing to focus resources on.

In regards to the gaming social, I think that is still under discussion, and while the idea was met with pleasure, there are logistics to work out and other con-staffers need to evaluate this idea.

The concept behind this is that there are ways to allow people of all ages to socialize by providing light social interactive party games to spark conversation, pleasant fun snacks and fancy non-alcoholic fancy drinks to enjoy (italian sodas, virgin mixers, etc) The idea is that the con (or other sponsor) can provide the buffet (for a fundraiser fee, perhaps?) and that we gamers can work together to provide a series of tables for people sit at, nosh, and play. And hopefully, provide a facilitator at each game table to 'host' the party game and get it going. People can come and go and have fun.

So that is it for now

In regards to what I want to do, I am personally limited by two major factors- poor health this year, and the fact that I have to move into a new apartment that weekend and the contract requires we meet on the 1st exactly. So I find that I am unsure as to what to guarantee since right now I am not sure what I can personally deliver, and we are still gathering personnel and monetary resources for the currently planned activities.

However, if our ideas are exciting to others, it is hoped that we can work with others to make board gaming a more prominent feature, and the advantages of such can be discussed in another incredibly huge long thread elsewhere

Thanks for the support of the ideas

I only hope that my health recovers sufficiently to allow me to participate as much as I want. But at the very least, I can help think-tank ideas before hand.

As mentioned in another thread, I have been very sick, and in fact have been homebound for all but a few days since november. I am currently on my fourth round of infections for the year of 2009. So its hard for me to acknowledge this, and yet I still want to participate and assist.