A thank you to the people who keep the CoCo going
We're halfway through the CoCo's third year, and as I reflect on how far we've come, there are a whole lot of people who have made our tournaments, online club, and much more possible. This post is meant to recognize all those people who have contributed to the CoCo - and invites anyone interested in supporting us to learn more about possible ways to help.
Some of the contributions to the CoCo are very visible. Conrad Bassett-Bouchard kicked us off with a beautifully designed logo, complete with a brand and style guide, color palette, and font. Shan Oran Liu designed the amazing Scrabble-themed banner that debuted in Minneapolis last month and may make a sneak appearance at Word Cup. Will Anderson and a host of other Twitch streamers took Scrabble streaming to a new level during our 2020 Virtual World Cup. Vince Castellano donated 3D-printed custom hardware to make in-person tournament broadcasts possible.
The names of veteran tournament directors may be familiar to you already, but if you haven't looked lately, we've welcomed more than half a dozen brand new directors recently. You can check out our newly launched Director Directory to see who's directing tournaments in your area. If online Scrabble is more your jam, current and former CoCo Club directors Becky Dyer, David Whitley, Geoff Thevenot, Peter Armstrong, and Rod Weis deserve thanks for keeping our club running on Woogles for more than 70 consecutive weeks.
You may recognize Peter Armstrong not just from CoCo Club, but also from the spectacularly scenic live tournament he ran earlier this month in Madison, Wisconsin. Did you know he also serves as the CoCo's treasurer, and as a board member? As treasurer, Pete keeps the CoCo's nonprofit finances in order, providing crucial information on the financial health of the organization and empowering the CoCo to use donated funds for the best use. Speaking of our Board of Directors, the other current and former board members include Conrad, Geoff, Becky, Evans Clinchy, Mike Johnson, Puneet Sharma, and Steve Pellinen - all of whom have helped to guide the CoCo's strategic growth.
Behind the scenes, many other volunteer efforts have laid the foundations for everything we do today. Martin DeMello has transformed results submission and pairing calculations, while simultaneously enabling the posting of truly real-time standings for the first time in Scrabble history. By writing and continuously improving the CoCo's web-based scripts, he has single-handedly made it possible for new directors with no coding experience to seamlessly run tournaments - often while playing in those events themselves. I can't thank Martin enough for all he has contributed to the CoCo on the digital side. The CoCo's coding and digital needs continue to grow, and we're also incredibly grateful to Rod Weis for recently stepping up to help on this front.
Beyond writing code, we have had many authors of a different variety as well. By that I mean the many authors who have written content for this very blog, including several tournament directors. Our two most popular guest blogs were both written by Adam Logan. If you haven't checked out his game analyses already, you can read them here and here. Our resources for helping players to learn strategy and build their vocabulary don’t stop there; we also thank Sandy Nang for compiling fun word lists for us to engrave on CoCo bookmarks. You can pick up one of our new wood bookmarks - each featuring a different fun playable Scrabble word list - at Word Cup.
Of course, no CoCo volunteer acknowledgments would be complete without recognizing Becky's countless contributions. From tournament entrants lists to membership rosters and ratings, she has kept the CoCo's many databases up to date, often adding players to tournament entrants lists in less than two minutes after they register. Other contributions you may not know about include the efforts of the CoCo's Conduct Team - Michael McKenna, Mary Goulet, Scott Jackson, and Zachary Dang - all of whom have contributed their time to implement the CoCo's conduct policies, thereby ensuring that our community remains harassment-free.
Last, but not at all least, we thank every single one of the more than 50 people who have donated to the CoCo or purchased Premium Memberships. It is a simple and true statement that we would not exist today without your financial contributions.
Two and a half years ago, the CoCo was me and Evans and a small handful of pioneering directors. Today, the CoCo encompasses many people, and we're ecstatic to see our group continue to grow. We have big ideas for the future, and community support is what will turn those ideas into reality.
If you're inspired by the CoCo's values, vision, and priorities, here are some ways you can get involved:
Volunteer. There are so many ways for people to contribute their skills, talents, or time. We welcome more help with graphic design, basic (but important!) data entry, and writing and mailing personalized thank you cards. If you want to help, let us know. We'll find a niche that suits you, and we welcome as much or little time as you're able to give.
Write code. We have aspirations for bigger and better tournament databases and more sophisticated tournament software. If you know how to code, we’d be glad to put you in touch with our Tech Team to see how you could help.
Improve and maintain the website. As the person who built the entire CoCo website with essentially zero coding experience, I know better than anyone that it can be improved. If you’re interested in website building, design, or maintenance, I’d love to hear from you.
Direct a tournament. The lifeblood of any Scrabble organization is its directors. Directors make tournaments happen, and we're always eager to hear from people willing to direct.
Make a donation. We'd love to invest in new resources to grow our presence and the quality of our tournaments. Examples of how we'd like to spend future donated funds include purchasing high-resolution cameras and professional lighting equipment for live streams, and a projector and portable screen for displaying live coverage at tournaments. We are a nonprofit and post our finances online, so you can track how we spend.
Suggest an idea. There are tons of great ideas in the community, and we are glad to crowdsource ways to make Scrabble on this continent better and better. Let us know what's on your mind and how you'd love to see it happen.
So many people have contributed to the CoCo over the past 2.5 years that I fear I'm inadvertently leaving someone out. If that's you, please know that I appreciate everything you and every person mentioned in this blog has done to bring the CoCo to this point. Running the CoCo until now has been a heck of a lot of work. In an organization this nascent, every person who volunteers or donates makes a world of difference. Thank you, all.