Get involved with the CoCo! Yes, you!
What's the most important thing you need to start a Scrabble organization? That's easy: You need enthusiastic players who will show up and play. As long as you have that, everything else will follow.
We are blessed to have that part already solidly in place. We've been running tournaments for a couple of years now, mostly here in the Pacific Northwest, and we have a reliable player base that has attended our events time and time again. Thanks to them, we knew going into this process that we couldn't fail. The first official CoCo event, in February 2020, already has a full entrants list. We have a good baseline to start from - at the very least, we know we'll enjoy many fun weekends with our Scrabble friends each year, and we're immensely grateful for that.
With all of that said, we don't want to settle for the very least. What we really want is to take this small group, build upon it, and turn it into a serious movement to advance the cause of North American Scrabble.
That's an ambitious goal, I know - but it can be done. We just need a little help from you.
Let's talk about a few areas where the CoCo could use a little extra manpower (and womanpower!):
More players: This is the obvious one. The easiest way to support the CoCo is to play in our events! With every new player we attract, our organization gains a little more legitimacy, which is important - we want to put our best foot forward as we seek out media attention, sponsorship money, and the respect of the international Scrabble community. And hey, there's something in it for you, too - you get to play fun events in cool cities against some of the strongest fields you'll find in North America.
More directors: Tournament directors are the lifeblood of any Scrabble organization, and great ones are priceless. Planning events and running them can be hard (and often thankless) work, and it's absolutely essential to have skilled people doing it. We have a committed set of directors already on board, and they're spread out across a few different regions of the United States. We would love to have more, especially in regions we haven't tapped into yet. If you're a tournament director, especially one who's east of the Mississippi and/or north of the Canadian border, we would love to chat.
Some marketing savvy: If we're really going to grow this organization and its player base, we'll need to put in a lot of work promoting it. This means creating engaging content for our audience, plugging the CoCo and its events on social media, and perhaps doing a little PR to connect with media outlets and get our group some publicity. We have some skills in house already in all of these areas, but we could absolutely use your skills and creativity.
Some technical know-how: This is a big one, and it's also the one where talent is most scarce. Running a Scrabble organization requires a lot of tech skills - you've got to have data science people to crunch the numbers and crank out player ratings, web design people to make your site nice and pretty, coding people to create all sorts of scripts and programs, and on and on and on.
...and leadership: The CoCo is not a dictatorship, and it never will be. Jennifer and I founded it, with the broad support of many dear friends, because we love this game too much to watch it wither. We envision a brighter future for Scrabble and firmly believe that a democratic governance structure is necessary to make that future a reality. We want you to help us choose the CoCo’s leaders and inform as much of our governance as interests you - everything from tournaments to ratings to disciplinary processes. If you'd like to be part of a steering committee to plan all of this out, let us know.
If you're interested in helping with any of the above, or in other ways, please get in touch! We are eager to welcome you into the organization. The CoCo is run for the people, by the people, and that should include you.