Cultural Norms and Club Expectations

[Devin Fraze]

Cultural Norms and Club Expectations

(also, our first club ban)

Hey everyone! Our organization is growing at a really wonderful rate. However, with growth comes growing pains. It seems to me that it is time to discuss and create some clearly defined club expectation and norms to help define the type of culture and organization we want to grow into.

Examples of that might be a willingness to play people, or an expectation to play new people within the first hour. Other examples might be a certain type of game etiquette or agreeing to be relatively quiet so as not to disturb serious games or other Tea Zone patrons.

Which sort of things do you all value? What sort of norms should we strive for as a club? Reply to this thread or leave a comment on facebook to join the conversation! Over the next few weeks we can create a list that most/all of us agree upon.

The Ban

tl;dr Jordan is banned

One last critical note. A policy on how to treat minors will be included in this. For most people treating children with kindness and respecting their personal boundaries may seem obvious. Unfortunately, we have had a new player recently attending our weekly meet-up who has been bullying one of our youth. I am making an executive decision to ban this person from attending the Sunday meet-up. His name is Jordan and he is no longer a welcome member of our club. If the OSU club chooses to invite him to play with them, that is not a problem and could be a good outlet, but since the CGC strives to be open to all people, his actions are not acceptable. If I had acted sooner and talked to him before things got out of hand, we may not have needed to take this route. But the circumstances are as they stand. Please feel free to reach out to me (Devin) by email if you have a concern with my choice to ban this individual. Hopefully by creating clearly defined policies this will be the only ban we will have to institute as a club. Sincerely, Devin Fraze

[Ray Chenault]

Devin,

You have done more for the club and its growth than anyone since I started playing the game. I for one, back any decision you make.

Sorry to hear that someone's courtesy escalated out of control. It's not what I would have expected from anyone in the Go community.

Ray

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[Devin Fraze]

Thank you for your support Ray

Devin

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[Peter St. John]

Sorry about the ban, it's rare but it happens. I have the rare distinction of being in the only fistfight ever recorded in a chess club :-) (I'm sure I exaggerate). The other guy got suspended for a year. It was a small club too.

When a club is larger it makes sense to elect a committee once a year, then you can just handle something and vote on a ban or whatever, later (which is what happened to my guy). The chess club where I served on a committee for a couple of years was 60 people average at the annual business meeting.

We were too small of course when I was in columbus and I think we ruled by consensus, I don't remember actually making any decisions at all LOL but Ray might remember.

Peter (the one in NC)

[Vivien Jian]

The Columbus Go Club has been a unique community where fun and valuable experiences can be had by members of all ages and backgrounds. We support decisions that will make the club continue to be such a community.

Vivien

[Peter Zunick]

I posted on the facebook group to try to get some discussion going, but generally, I think this is a really important thing to bring up. I'd rather talk and think deliberately about the culture we're creating at the club than just cruise through on autopilot. =) And I especially don't want that culture to turn into something where people show up to play go but feel like they're being attacked!

Pete (Columbus version)

[David Edgar]

A few good practices I’ve seen:

• Bowing over the board and thanking your opponent before and after the game (especially if your opponent is stronger).

• Being careful not to try to win the review. If the review is a chance to take back your pride, maybe its better not to review. 

• Correctly handicapping games. It shows respect for both players and makes for the most informative and revealing games. I am a big fan of earning back handicap stones once you know your levels (ie. 3 wins in a row = a change of handicap).

• Being serious when playing much stronger players. When playing someone more than 9 ranks stronger, the game is really a gift. The best way to pay it back is to remember and never make the mistakes highlighted in the review again ;). 

• Monitoring the opponents emotion/motivation when playing much weaker players. When playing much weaker players it can’t be to feel good about yourself. Playing a soul-crushing move has no teaching value (unless your opponent is arrogant). There is no need to win your teaching games.

Best of luck!

David

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