Transition and Evolving.

This post is a little different to normal, as it doesn't focus so much on the models, rules, my own army or someone elses for that matter. Its not about the direction that Games Workshop are taking any particular game, race or hobby materials, and its certainly not about the next even deadlier batch of Tyranids. This is about community, and in particular, the gaming club.

Having joined Tredegar Wargames Club just under a year ago, we're soon looking to enter a transitional period. In just a few weeks time, we'll be losing three of our most regular members. All three guys have been at the club far longer than I, and I think its fair to say help make the heart of the club beat greatly. Monday nights will surely be a little quieter thats for sure! So what does this mean for the club?

First of all, I think its fair to say we're a small club. We have at least 20 members, but many of these have the rigours of life that keep them away, be it work, children etc. This leaves us with around 10 or so regular members. This still gives us plenty of variety in games, whether its 40k, fantasy, specialist games, or non GW games being played at our venue. While the gap left by those leaving to pastures new will be noticeable, we still have other members who give greatly to the club in terms of inspiration and soul. The thing is, we now need to evolve.

A few months ago, I was asked to be Chairman of the club. To be part of the club for a short period and asked to take up this position was a great honour, and the longer I've been in this position the more I've seen how much needs to be done. With three people leaving, we need to recruit more members and fill our ranks. The more people we have, the bigger and better our club will be. With more members comes more money, which, with good planning could go from us surviving, to growing. I personally would love to see us grow with new members, take part in friendly tournements with other clubs, put on special events, and be able to buy more things for us all to use. The question is how.

Part of the reason of this post is to see if any of you have had good ideas about making your club better and bigger. We're currently floating a lot of ideas around, posters, fliers, promotional video etc, but everything is unproven. We have a great venue, and we need to start using it to its capability. We recently ran our first all day event there which you may have seen recently on my blog, and we'd love to run more like it. The lads who are leaving for university will still come back to visit, so we'd love to run some more all dayers to coincide with their returns.

Its only in the 11 or so months that I've been in this club that I've rediscovered my love for the hobby, and the people at the club are an incredibly huge part of that. I've built an army of my own, started a second, been to Warhammer World with the club for a huge battle, once to spectate and once to game, I've even had an interview at Games Workshop to work on the White Dwarf magazine. My love for videogames has been put on a backburner as the batteries in my Xbox pad last longer as I toil away painting at my desk long into the night. This hobby hasn't just caught my imagination, it coiled its delectable tendrils around my brain and simply won't let go... and I welcome it. 

This is why I want our club to evolve into a larger and even more enjoyable place. So just how do you attract new members to the club? How do you show them your own enthusiasm and passion for this hobby and inject it into them? I ask these questions to you, the blogging universe. 

The Community.

On our clubs trip to Warhammer World, I had previously mentioned about a couple I met and got talking too. James and Angela Askins, a couple who live in Nottingham and are both incredibly embedded in the hobby, couldn't get rid of me for many minutes, and I apologise for keeping them from sculpting and painting! I think James gave me a wee present to get rid of me, and here it is.

I wish (and hopefully will soon have) a photography set up to take much more detailed pics so I could give this justice, but you can still probably see how awesome this looks. James (who is a member of The Dogs of War) was telling me that he'd had a tryout for a miniatures designing position at Games Workshop, and one of the things he was tasked with was to copy the Grimgor Ironhide model. This head is the decapitated head the Black Orc waves cheerily in his hand. As soon as he showed me it I was impressed, the slight sneer on his face, how you can sculpt that much detail I'll never know. However, seeing how impressed I was at this face James said I could keep it as a momento of the day. What an absolute gentleman! His partner Angela was also incredibly lovely, talking about painting, showing me her current project (which was looking sick!) and they both shared stories about the hobby, from Games Workshed to John Blanche and even vikings hanging out with Gandalf. Which is the subject of this post. 

As someone who has been into videogaming for a very long time, and seen the birth of online gaming, it often appalls me at how people act on there. Swearing and abusive comments being commonplace. Incredibly annoying I'm sure you'll agree. Well, experiences in wargaming, for myself, are very much the opposite. Everyone seems genuinely helpful, either to give tips, gaming advice etc. You only need to be on here to find this out. 

FTW, WhiteScars, Faeit 212, Sons of Isis, and Wargames and Migraines have all been incredibly helpful in any matter I have so wished help with or simply been amazingly friendly to talk too. It really shows just what a great hobby this is to be involved in. You only have to walk into a Games Workshop and fight the over friendly staff off to see what I mean! I've only been re-involved in the hobby for about 8 months and already I feel like I never left it for almost 10 years, the people at Tredegar Wargames Club have been so welcoming and helpful, and its an honour to say I'm now a part of this. Part of what we do at the club is to try and make it grow, from gaining new members to improving what we have to enhance the gaming aspect, everything is being looked at and its an honour to be able to help the club in this way. 

When I was young and was first shown the hobby by my brother in law, I felt that this was something I wanted to do in more than just a past time way. That feeling has started to resurface, hence why I'm blogging about it, and trying to get the club I'm a part of improve as much as possible. 

Cheers everyone I've mentioned and also to the people I may not have.