Episode 376 – 5 Ways to Help Your School’s Board Game Club
Wow. We’re… Back? It’s been a very busy two weeks, and we’re already halfway through the summer. Let’s look forward to the start of school and talk about board game clubs!
376 Fact
Space facts are always cool. Let’s talk about the HS-376 – a popular type of satellite, and the first launched by the Space Shuttle!
Sponsor Message
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What We’ve Been Playing
Clash of Magic Schools
Merchants of Magick (our review)
Paper App Dungeon (review coming soon)
Charcuterie
Canvas Critters (we think that’s the name? It’s in development)
Autumn (bought from Gameria in Barcelona)
Colt Express
Welcome Community Members
Whoa! A whole bunch of people have come to spend time in The Family Gamers Community over the last few weeks! Let’s gather ’round and say hi! Welcome!
Backtalk
We talk about hobbies in the Discord community and games we’d like to see based on those. Organs? Eurovision? Camping?
For more on organs, check out episode 253 with our organist friend.
For more on camping, read our review of Camp Pinetop.
SNAP Review – Captain Flip
Aye! We build our pirate crews in this bag-pulling, tile-flipping game.
Captain Flip was nominated for the Spiel des Jahres, and it’s easy to see why.
Watch the video or read the transcript of this review.
For Science!
We try a special Polar seltzer flavor – Jalapeno Citrus Margarita.
Very different from other Polar seltzers we are familiar with.
5 Board Game Club Tips – For Parents
We reached out to our friend Liz (a teacher who runs a board game club) for some help with these tips.
1. Is there a board game club at all? Help start one!
Reach out to your children’s principal. Is there a board game club? Is there a similar club (like chess club) that could be expanded to include board games?
You can also reach out to the Parent-Teacher organization to suggest a board game club as a new after school activity.
2. Help with Programming
If there is a club, or if you’re helping to start it, help the club advisor with planning what to do each week! Be prepared to teach games, too.
Teachers have full time jobs and do this extra. But if you’re listening to this podcast, you might know more about hobby board games than they do.
3. Figure out how to purchase games FOR the club
You’ll be tempted to loan your own games, but you don’t want to do that. Kids will lose pieces and not treat the games with the same care you would. You’ll probably want multiple copies of some games too.
So, approach the PTO with financing the purchase of those games. Your word will carry more than a teacher’s in this case.
4. Suggest and help organize a PARENT NIGHT
The school can host an event where parents and kids play games together (hopefully with help from the PTO).
Gamewright used to have a fundraiser program called the Gamewright Game Night. We don’t know if they do that any more, but that was a great community event. You can combine it with a bake sale or another school community event – and then also show that there would be support for an after-school club.
5. BE ON TIME
The number one complaint from teachers who run clubs is that people don’t respect their time. They don’t show up on time to pick up their kids (or don’t show up on time as volunteers). Teachers are people too, often with their own kids they need to pick up from other places!
What if My Kid Doesn’t Go to a Traditional School?
Most of these tips still apply for a homeschool co-op, library, or community club. Ask what’s available, make suggestions of what YOU can do to help make this happen. Be willing to volunteer, and you don’t have to fund this all yourself!
New Backtalk Question!
We are talking about school board game groups. So tell us about yours!
Do you have a board game group at your school? A D&D group? What’s it like? Share your best story from your school game group!
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