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So am trying to get a club going as i have come to relize the people i play with ever weekend are not what am looking for in a group. So what are some ideas on how to make a group. i have 8people willing to join my group with lots of interst from new and younger player. As i have no problem teaching new people and allowing younger players something the other group of 40k players won't do no one under 25can play with them and never a game under1500pts. Just looking fo, opinions on how to do this and itnot get crazy and out if hand and i end up a babysister for a bunch off kids. i really want to fouces on just fun freindly games. thanks for any help

If you decide to run a club, be prepared to spend more time running the club than playing. As the organizer, you will be the main point of contact for people wanting to join, people wanting to set up events, people complaining about other people and so on. You'd better be a social person, as you're going to be the face of it as well, and you're front and center.

Well the simple answer is:

1) Make sure of number of players you want in your club that are willing to chip in money as well (these things dont always run free)
2) Find space that can meet the needs of X number of players
3) Folding tables and 6/8x4 (home depot has these. and felt for the table top
4) Arrange meeting times and game format (or just let them play however they want
5) Snacks.

Maybe set up a private web forum for your members, that can take care of a lot of the organization and give a place to keep a record of anything you were talking about.

Also, you will need at least 4-6 tables and plenty of terrain for the club, preferably stored where ever you are playing. This is to prevent one person from becoming the terrain guy and one day not being able to come and leave everyone with nothing to play on.

Make sure everybody realizes that you are wearing 2 hats at all times. One is being the Organizer, which is a hat that may force you to be the "bad guy" sometimes. You may have to call out people on their behavior, be judge and jury for rules disputes, and people may not like that sometimes. Your other hat is just being yourself, and people need to be able to seperate this hat from the other.

Everything said above here is very good advice, this has been my experience as well.
A good way to deal with the workload is to delegate some of the things that need to be done, and work together with the other members as much as possible to build the best club you can!

If there is someone who is regularly complained about (for good reason) do not hesitate to ask them to leave or even ban them, you don't want the club to be spoiled by a minority of people, you need to be peoples friend and also in charge, with the power comes responsibility however.

We have a place to play tables and other needs all ready worked out. there's a nother guy wow been playing 20years that's also in charge he runs fb and all run 40k but we will work togother to run things. he play 40k also just more in to fb. i guess we kind of both step up to makeing a club more about fun of warhammer and haveing a good time and teach younger and newer players. verse are cournt group more comptive nature and shuneing new and younger players away.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I was thinking of make a code of conducet rules and such that must be followed at all times if you brake rules. U will be baned for a a week first time second time a month and then for 6months if you come back and still brake rules you will be band form club permanently

Maybe instead of a 1 week band first time, maybe just a polite verbal warning followed by ban, it does depend on the violation though, like being a dick may have meant they had a bad day and a nicer warning would be best, if someone broke someone else's models out of rage I would ban and strongly recommend that they refund the victim. A code of conduct is a great idea, maybe make people sign a little form saying that they acknowledged the code of conduct, and make them read it!

The group of 6 players I play with are mostly organized by myself, and form a small club of our own. I also used to run another club when I lived in Toronto that had at its highest 17 other people. A couple of things I would pass on to another club organizer are:

Organization: It's great if you all know each other in your everyday personal life, but not likely. You will probably want to set up some kind of online way to get information out about upcoming events, rules, and such. You can do some kind of forum for your club, a web page, or use a form of social media. I found it easy to just make a Facebook group, as everyone was on Facebook, and it made it easy to set up email reminders and a central place for everyone to communicate. Here you can post time/date/place for upcoming events, and people can rsvp, so you know what size group to expect that day. Also a great place to post the rules!

Communication: A lot does fall into the above, but worth being a separate point. You have to be the main voice of moderation between players. You need to communicate the clubs rules as well. Everything from use of forge world, to rules of being in the club, to rules for each day/scenario, to expectations of members. You need to talk to new and old members, get feedback from events, and develop a clear feeling of how everyone wants it to go. Its a good idea to keep regular communication with/between the players. This is another place online portals will come in handy. People can ask questions in advance of an event, which will make your life easier than answering them on the spot that day. You may also be able to settle disputes before they hit the table top this way. Be prepared to check your online portal on a very frequent basis, usually multiple times a day. Keeping some kind of club style FAQ as these questions come up and posting them online will also help.

Type of club/games: You made it clear that the main goal is to be fun and welcoming. I couldn't agree more with you, that is what this game is about, being a fun game (although the hobby may be about many aspects, just referring to the game right now). Are you going to set points limits up ahead of time, or are people just going to show up with their armies, and make lists on the fly? Are you going to run events/campaigns, or will it just be a "show up and play random people" style of day? Will these things change from event to event, or will every event be the same?

Be decisive: You will often be called upon to make judgement calls about things. Try as much as humanly possible to come up with an answer in advance, and an approach for things you don''t have an answer for when they come up. Being more relaxed environment, I could see some issues such as:
Leniency for proxies: is it okay to proxy a whole army I am interested in playing, just a few models, on a rule of cool one off basis, or does every model have to be the exact and appropriate GW model?
Leniency for rule books: Do I need to have a physical BRB, codex, and FAQ for each army I play, can I bring my laptop and have digital versions for any of those. This ties into the above.
Rule deputes: How do you handle them. If it's clear to you, you may make a call, but be prepared for a possible backlash from the player who didn't get a ruling in their favor. If it isn't so clear, are you going to let all the fun stop for 30+ minutes as people plead unrelenting cases and try and look up obscure references online. I like the good old roll to see how to play it for now, play it that way for today/this game, and after the game, we'll sit down with clear minds and figure it out for future reference.

Rules: Post these on your online portal (facebook/forum/website), and make them readily available to everyone. Make sure these stay consistent. It's okay to change them now and then to make them fit the wants of the group, but don't bend them for people on a one off basis or you will have regular occurrences of people expecting that. It's a good idea to sit down with the forming group one day and hash out how everyone want the rules to be, and as people come and go, sit down again every so often and make sure they still work for everyone. You can print out a form for everyone to sign, or just have it clear that by coming to events and being a member of your online portal, you agree to have read the rules and abide by them.

Representing the many: This is one of the toughest parts, for me anyway. You may find as you go along, that the wants of the many conflict with one or more members. This is where you may have to make the tough decision to cut people. Don't go cutting people all over the place, as many players would rather compromise than not play at all. Often a friendly one on one chat will clear these issues up. It could work out, for example, that when you form your group, the majority don't want to allow forge world. Then as you get four or five more members, the majority now want forge world. Are you going to allow it at the risk of upsetting the minority (which are probably represented mainly by more veteran club members), or are you going to allow it because now a higher number of people want it, and your club is a true democracy. Will you not allow it to keep the veterans happy, or because this was already laid out before? Calls like this can be tough to make, trying to keep everyone happy will be your hardest job! You may even find that in order to satisfy the many, the club may change from what you originally wanted out of it(happened to me in Toronto). Are you willing to make these changes and compromise? You have to remember that you are after all just another member of the group, and although you should most definitely get a voice, it shouldn't be that much more than any other member.

Club member expectations: This is situation dependent. Is it going to cost anything for the space you play in? Do you already have lots and lots of terrain and enough tables? Are food and drink going to be provided? Are players going to need to bring their own terrain, food, and drinks? Who is responsible for newly raised club expenses? Are you footing the bill for these things, is everyone going to be expected to split the costs as the come up, or is there going to be a club fee? How do you handle accidental damage of models? How about poor behavior? Are there attendance retirements? If you have a free place to play (grats!) and enough tables with enough terrain for them all, that's great. What will you do if your club expands and the space you have is no longer adequate? If members do pay a fee, what will it include, and how much will it be?
These expectations need to be as clear and unbending as the rules. For terrain for example, we have one weekend every month or two where everyone gets together and as a group we work on making more terrain for the group. People do build a piece or two on the side as well every so often, but this helps keep the terrain fresh and replenished. If you don't show up for a terrain day, that's fine, but if it's clear you are not coming to them, then we have a chat, as it is expected of everyone to help with this.

I'm sure there are a few things I haven't covered. But this is quickly turning into quite the wall of text. Remember, if you are organizing the club, your main goal is to keep everyone (within reason), happy. It will be a fair amount of work, but it is its own reward, trust me!

Good luck!

My advice, be ready to get a LOT of unexpected calls/questions/etc etc because you will be the one they look at for getting in or finding out whats going on.

Not saying its a bad idea i plan to do it myself if i dont find one when i get back to Nebraska in a few months. But you will be expected to put forwarth a lot more than the average player. I dont plan to do it till i have terrain to offer up as well, as people dont usually walk around with terrain in their bags/boxes.

From running my club I can give the following advice:

- It's a lot easier if you can get some friends to help run it and also helps the club still be open if you're not around for some reason.

- Have some scenery as most people unless they've been advised beforehand wont bring it and that's assuming they own any.

- Boards while very handy are optional as long as you have tables in the venue (preferably light easy to move tables)

- You'll probably get lots of random questions and be asked make the call if there are any rules disputes / questions

- If you have to pay for your venue make sure someone has a close eye on the finances as you don't want to find your club with a room hire bill it can't pay.

- Even if you don't have to pay for the venue a membership fee of some kind might be an idea if you want the club to start buying scenery etc

- Somewhere to store the scenery etc as it saves people having to move everything around every week.

- Maybe have a couple of quick alternative pick up games (e.g. munchkin) as if someone doesn't have a game for any reason depending on the person having someone randomly wandering around with nothing to do can be distracting to everyone elses games.

- Be prepared to not get to play any games you had planned, especially if they are with another one of the organisers, due to random stuff coming up.

frogy27 wrote:
We have a place to play tables and other needs all ready worked out. there's a nother guy wow been playing 20years that's also in charge he runs fb and all run 40k but we will work togother to run things. he play 40k also just more in to fb. i guess we kind of both step up to makeing a club more about fun of warhammer and haveing a good time and teach younger and newer players. verse are cournt group more comptive nature and shuneing new and younger players away.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I was thinking of make a code of conducet rules and such that must be followed at all times if you brake rules. U will be baned for a a week first time second time a month and then for 6months if you come back and still brake rules you will be band form club permanently

If you do have rules of conduct, allow someone else to type them out.