As I read through the materials that talk about the hobby dying or say that there is no new blood coming in, I get distressed. I do not understand why we do not plan to expand the hobby the way we plan campaigns in our games.

Keith Fornier (l) and Dave Powell at the Gamers' booth.

So as a club president, I have some ideas that have been effective in finding gamers for our club. I am a union organizer by profession, so some of the ideas I am going to write about are similar to the ways that unions reach out to workers and supporters.

The first thing we did was design a flier that stands out. However, a flier does nothing unless you can get it around to key places and unless you talk to people. The key question you have to ask yourself is where are the communities of interest? These would include hobby shops, military recruitment centers, VFW halls, National Guard armories, and Reserve centers. There are people in all these places that you can talk to about gaming. You can also talk to history teachers at junior high schools, high schools, colleges and universities. You can invite them and their students to come and play a game. We have gotten players from all these areas. I am sure others out there could think of more.

The next question is, where can you advertise? Community TV is great--it's free. Your ad will run dozens of times each day. We took the flier we made and asked them to run it. We also took out ads in the local newspapers. Club members can help by chipping in and paying for the ad. Again, we just have the paper print our flier. This has generated many calls. Also, the many hobby magazines can run your ad. We advertise regularly in The General and Operations. Another thing you can do is to write a press release send it off to your local newspaper. Next, call the hobby editor, editor in chief. or the feature editor to see if they will do a feature article on your club. When l was trying to set this up, both Avalon Hill and the Gamers were of great assistance. Both were willing to have people interviewed Avalon Hill even has a professional P.R. person.

So, what do you do when you get calls from people? Do not turn people without experience away. Whenever someone calls us and they have no experience we invite them to come over and play a few turns of games like History of the World or Civilization: these are great teaching tools. People will also get interested in other games. Encourage teenagers to game with you. They are the future of the hobby. Gaming is a great way to get young people away from Pac Man and Nintendo. Encourage women to play, too. Women do well in games. They have a great sense of detail, and many like to compete and win.

Do things as a club, establish regular meeting times and places.

The key point here is that we must talk to people. As simulation gamers we have a great hobby. It is intellectually challenging, fun, educational, and imaginative. Think about it. One day we can be on the fields of Gettysburg, the next at the dawn of time, the next even at some future event-all without leaving home. These are great selling points. Also remember that games are a great stress reducer. We have a minister who needs to get away about once a month. He comes here to game and just get away from everything. Gaming recharges his batteries. As gamers we have nothing to be ashamed of. I have been gaming since the late'80s. Some of the finest people I have met I have met through gaming. These people are lifelong friends.

At the last July 4th parade here in Mandan, we passed out about 100 fliers and talked to about 50 people. This was great. These are just some ideas that we have tried. I am sure there are others out there.

We have about 20 people that game with us off and on. They range from lawyers, teachers, students, cooks, store managers, military people and more. Our group is diverse. When we want to play a long game like DOD/WIF, we tell people that we are looking for those who are hard core, who will come just about every week. We call them warriors. Over time, we find them. Create an environment at your gaming site that is friendly, fun and affirming. People will continue to come back. All they want is to be accepted. We do not charge dues and do not require everyone to own the game we are playing. However, we do make sure that the rules, charts and whatever else people need are there. Our two standard house rules are that we do not allow smoking or alcoholic drinks during the gaming session.

Stay in touch with your gaming friends regularly. Get them involved in activities. For example, Dave Fields did our flier. Tim Simons did our press release. Kevin Boehm and others will do demonstrations for us.

The point is simply this. We can sit around and complain that people are not knocking at our door. We can cry about lack of interest and we can sing the death knell for the hobby or we can act!!! We can help build it. The decision is ours. I hope some of this is useful to people out there, As always I am open for discussion. So, to those who complain and do nothing I offer the words of Joe Hill. "Don't Mourn, Organize." Brothers and sisters, it seems to me that it's time to organize!