Changes Coming in 2008

A few things to note in the coming year:

1. GCOM-Middletown is changing nights... Starting in January, GCOM-Middletown is moving to Saturdays. Sessions will happen on the last Saturday of the Month: Jan 26, Feb 23, Mar 29, Apr 26, May 31, Jun 28, Jul 26, Aug 25, Sep 27, Oct 25, Nov 29, Dec 27 -- mark your calendars now!
2. GCOM-Damascus is returning to a schedule of "all Fridays"... Now that we won't be making the road trip to Middletown on the last Friday, we will resume having game night on those Fridays at Damascus.
3. We have now been at the Damascus Community Center for 10 months, and by-and-large, things have gone very well. Having Game Night at the Center has allowed us to grow without concerns for space, parking, etc. Our agreement with the Center was never really formalized, and as you all know, we are, for the most part, an off-the-books operation for them. In order to make sure that our relationship with the Center continues to be beneficial for both sides, the following things need to be made known:
• Now that we are using the Classroom, rather than the Art Room, we need to put the tables back in their U-formation and stack the chairs back up before we leave. It would be nice if all of the cleanup was not left for the people who are the last to leave on any given night.
• Recreation facilities. If we would like to use other parts of the center (The ping-pong tables, the pool tables, etc.) then we are going to need to have a more formal setup with the center. This would involve getting all of our regular attendees a membership badge for Montgomery County Recreational Facilities (if you already have one, great, if not, we can get you one. If you are not from Montgomery County, we can still get one for you). If we don't wish to do that, it's OK with them, they just need us to restrict our use of the other rooms (this is due to insurance & liability concerns). Please feel free to discuss this, but as I don't see much use of those parts of the center these days anyway, I am likely to say that we don't want to deal with the hassle or (possible) expense. Please correct me if I am wrong.
• The center has asked that any kids stay with us in the Classroom, or that some of us stay with them in the Conference room. I think it would be best if we tried to move ourselves in with the kids rather than vice-versa, as the TV in our room is less accessible. Most of the time that they are not playing games with us, the kids spend
  watching TV or playing video games, but we do need to make sure they are respectful of the center we are using as guests. There are a couple small tables in there suitable for 4-player card games, and the large table is great for larger-space games like Railroad Tycoon or even Agricola. I don't want this to become any one person's burden, so it would help if everyone stayed aware and occasionally volunteers to have a game in there. That room has the nicest chairs, too!
• Parking... They have asked that we not use the handicapped spots in front of the building without an appropriate sticker or tag. I do this more than the rest of you, usually because I am bringing in games, but I wanted to make you aware of it. The existence of our shiny new game cabinet should help with the amount of game-toting-in, in any case.

Finally, there one thing I think it would be nice to implement, but that I (and Noreen) cannot provide all on our own, so I am looking for help from the rest of you.... Refreshments: I always find game night more enjoyable with a soda (or three) and something to snack on... Now that we have some on-site storage we can carry-over snacks and drinks from week-to-week. Please help us out by occasionally bringing snacks and/or sodas to share with the group and we will keep them in the cabinet until they run out. As supplies get low, I may remind people that we are in need of resupplying the cabinet. Please remember that everything that will be there is something that someone brought, so if you partake, please provide as well.

In fact, with this last item, there really is no reason to wait, so I will be bringing some things to share tomorrow night, please feel free to do so as well. Keep in mind that it is better to have small, single-serving bags/cans/bottles/packages rather than larger containers that, while they may be lower in price, have more danger of their contents going stale/flat.

Hope you all have a great holiday season, and we look forward to more great gaming together in the future.