On March 14, 2009, a Town Hall meeting was held after hours
at the Dallas Open SCRABBLE® tournament. In attendance were
NASPA Steering Committee members Chris Cree, John Chew,
Mary Rhoades, Steve Pellinen and Sherrie Saint John.
Chris opened the meeting with a brief recap of the situation so far,
including the December meeting with Hasbro, the cancellation of
funding for serious SCRABBLE play as of the end of 2009, and the
implications for clubs and tournaments. He then opened the floor
to questions:
- What relationship will NASPA have with cross-tables.com? — John Aitken
- Seth Lipkin is a member of the Steering Committee and is taking an active role in organizing NASPA. — John Chew
- What relation will Hasbro and NASPA have with clubs, with particular reference to trademark usage? — Jim Hughes
- Sanctioned clubs will be permitted to use the SCRABBLE trademark, be given guidance on its correct use, and Hasbro will provide templates and assistance for press releases that use the trademark. — John Chew
- What happened to the club questionnaires? — Carol Kaplan
- 146 responses have been received so far, and the key suggestions will be summarized next week on NASPAWiki. — Mary Rhoades
- When will NSA clubs become NASPA clubs? — Carol Kaplan
- July 1, 2009, if they pay a fee. — John Chew
- When can players join NASPA? — Dave Wiegand
- Now. — Chris Cree
- Will NASPA consider outreach and promotion using Facebook and game set inserts? — Rod MacNeil
- Yes. This is one big reason why we are charging fees, to build a war chest for a publicity campaign in 2010. — John Chew
- Will NASPA prepare an information sheet for directors to give to players? — Tom Tremont
- We would welcome your helping us prepare one, but otherwise encourage you to redistribute a monthly news bulletin that we will soon begin producing. — John Chew
- Must club members who do not attend tournaments pay the NASPA membership fee? — Joel Sherman
- They do not currently have to if they do not want to play in tournaments; the Membership Committee is considering alternate forms of membership for these and other players. — John Chew