I've done it again!
So... in the past 2 weeks, I've founded another bridge club. Today was the first meeting of the Google Santa Monica bridge club, and we actually had 2 tables! The biggest the Harvey Mudd club ever got was 2 tables (not counting the times when we hosted the ACBL Unit 551 games, which really only had 1 table of Mudders on any given day). and it wouldn't surprise me if membership at Google grew from here. Hurrah!
Unfortunately, half the members were complete newbies, and so we spent the first while just going over the rules and how to play. I am only aware of 4 people who are familiar with the Standard American bidding system (3 of whom showed up today, and 1 of whom hasn't played in years). Only 2 of us have been to a sanctioned club before. This definitely has potential, but like the HMC club it looks like we need to start at the very beginning (which is certainly frustrating, since I've already done this once). These people are new enough that only 2 of us have heard of bidding boxes and think they're a good idea. I admit I was on the other side of this debate the last time I had it, but I've been convinced that bidding boxes are a useful thing to have. We'll see if I can do the same thing here.
Stuff to learn for next time: lunch is not a good meeting time for a bridge club. You'd rather eat your food than play bridge, and you therefore only get about 3 hands in during the hour (and then you're late to your after-lunch meeting). A better meeting time is in the evening after work, so that you can play for several hours if you want. and despite what a vocal minority claims, we definitely want quick (5-10 minute) lessons at the beginning. This will help the newbies understand what the crap is going on, and will probably work better than giving them a hand to play and walking them through it.
Unfortunately, half the members were complete newbies, and so we spent the first while just going over the rules and how to play. I am only aware of 4 people who are familiar with the Standard American bidding system (3 of whom showed up today, and 1 of whom hasn't played in years). Only 2 of us have been to a sanctioned club before. This definitely has potential, but like the HMC club it looks like we need to start at the very beginning (which is certainly frustrating, since I've already done this once). These people are new enough that only 2 of us have heard of bidding boxes and think they're a good idea. I admit I was on the other side of this debate the last time I had it, but I've been convinced that bidding boxes are a useful thing to have. We'll see if I can do the same thing here.
Stuff to learn for next time: lunch is not a good meeting time for a bridge club. You'd rather eat your food than play bridge, and you therefore only get about 3 hands in during the hour (and then you're late to your after-lunch meeting). A better meeting time is in the evening after work, so that you can play for several hours if you want. and despite what a vocal minority claims, we definitely want quick (5-10 minute) lessons at the beginning. This will help the newbies understand what the crap is going on, and will probably work better than giving them a hand to play and walking them through it.