Staring a Local shooting Games club, help!

[jigenbakuda]

I want to stat a local STG club for my area, but I don't really know how to proceed. But there are some things I need to think about but I have no idea what to do, like venue, advertisement, activities, legalities, and etc... On top of that STGs aren't exactly popular. How in the world do you tempt new gamers? Any help towards this would be much appreciated, You can give me help from a members point of view, in what you would like in a STG club, no need to have experience in running a gaming organization.


Venue
Should I have it at a library, a local game shop (most are gamestop <cries>), a random business. Whats a good place to run the meeting with access to tvs and such?

Advertisement
How the hell do people find out about my club? Do people come out of the pocket to make their clubs succeed? Where do you advertise? Do you have sponsors?

Activities
Tournaments? Casual play? Co-op competitions? Super Play run creations, What is the best way to get STG fans to come and have a great time?

Legalities
Is it legal for me to let another person play my gamecube in a public setting? Is it legal to play Mame in public? How would people bring their pcbs and stuff if Mame isn't allowed?

Group contribution
Do I allow others to bring their games? Or is it easier if I just use my own?

Government
What positions are generally needed to run a successful club? President, treasurer, secretary, spokesman? What positions should I have in leadership positions?

Once again, thanks for any advice you can muster.

[Aleksei]

where are you located?

[jigenbakuda]

Jacksonville in north east Florida.

[Frenetic]

Maybe you could append it to an existing gathering like Ancient City Con or a convention. Offer to work the con and get in contact with the video games room organizer. Let them know you'll bring some games/equipment and want to run a tournament.

http://www.ancientcitycon.com/

Here's Jacksonville Anime Day which is not for a while but something to keep in mind for the future.
http://www.jacksonville.animeday.net/

Wasabicon is later this year:
http://www.wasabicon.com/

Hope this helps!
F

[jigenbakuda]

Maybe you could append it to an existing gathering like Ancient City Con or a convention. Offer to work the con and get in contact with the video games room organizer. Let them know you'll bring some games/equipment and want to run a tournament.

http://www.ancientcitycon.com/

Here's Jacksonville Anime Day which is not for a while but something to keep in mind for the future.
http://www.jacksonville.animeday.net/

Wasabicon is later this year:
http://www.wasabicon.com/

Hope this helps!
F

Thanks for the suggestions!

Ancient city con is a new con actually in jacksonville and it has just started recently, I've gone 2 out of the 4 years they have put it on. Its sad actually. While jacksonville has smash, streetfighter , soul caliber and marvel players, outside of that, there are literally no fanbases, like a handful play guilty gear, an even smaller amount play kof... And thats mainstream fighting games, as you can imagine if the fighting scene is that homogeneous...the stg scene has no hope. Last year I did a panel on intro to STGs (which I made a thread for here) There were like 3 people in there besides my personal party I played every single stg they had the whole con both years and I had no one to play with for hours. Shikigami, deathsmiles, and otomedius. I had some onlookers, but I couldn't get them to touch the sticks I pleaded for them to just try, but they were like... its too hard Hell I even got people to play Samurai Shodown with me, but STG? NO dice. They wouldn't let me bring any games unless I brought a system and the game...

Anime day, is strictly anime, no vgs of any kind... Unless I showed up with a little area 88 anime action, there is no hope for me promoting my vision.

Never been to wasabicon, but I heard people badmouthing it. I need to give it a shot tho. There might be other gamers like myself there.

But sadly those events are only once a year. I was just planning on taking things into my own hands so I could try to develop a club thats a bit more regular. Most the gamers in florida are in centeral and south florida. Its great they have scenes, but I want to start a scene in jacksonville. They don't have stg scenes, but they have larger amounts of gamers there.

[Frenetic]

Dang, nice job on doing a shmup panel at a convention. I've been wanting to do one of those for a while, maybe this'll get myself in gear to do so.

Have you checked out the #shmups internet relay chat channel on EFNET? Check it out at www.mibbit.com. It's fun to hang out there and it's really kind of a club that is on 24/7. Lots of stuff goes on in there that's not on the forum, people streaming plays, lots of real time chatter, etc.

Cheers,
F

[CptRansom]

How the hell did I miss this?

I'm down for playing games. CLUB +1

[cathoderaze]

Im in Tampa but Im down to join!

[spadgy]

I think if you put the location in the subject line you might attract in a few more interested and local players!