Another perspective on the state of North American Scrabble
In 2008, I played in the National Scrabble Championship in Orlando, an event unsurprisingly won by Nigel Richards. There were 662 entrants, and first prize for Division 1 was $25,000. In 2009, NASPA was formed, and the new organization took over the license to use the "Scrabble" trademark in North America. Thirteen years later - on July 22, 2021 - NASPA announced that Hasbro was terminating NASPA's license to use that trademark.
So what exactly went wrong over the course of those 13 years?
Don't worry - I won't try to cover the entire modern history of North American Scrabble politics. (I couldn't come close, anyway.) What I will try to do, though, is summarize a few of my thoughts and opinions, which don't necessarily represent the opinions of the CoCo, the CoCo's board, or any other CoCo members.
Slurs/Expurgation
Was NASPA's awkward handling of the slurs/expurgation issue its undoing? I believe so, at least in part.
The handling of the slurs/expurgation issue is relevant in that it was symptomatic of a larger problem in NASPA - its inability to listen to its members and operate in a way that's transparent and consistent with democracy. NASPA took a serious issue that demanded action - racism - and decided that only NASPA leadership could know the correct response to this issue.
While a strong anti-racist response was called for, NASPA went straight to the dictionary and decided for everyone that words played on a Scrabble board constituted "hate speech," after seemingly saying the opposite in all the prior years leading up to expurgation. I still find it troubling that NASPA has not taken a strong enough stand against racism.
Sexual Harassment
NASPA's mishandling of this issue was a fundamental reason behind the formation of the CoCo. The CoCo takes a strong stance against harassment, while NASPA's failings in this area were once again symptomatic of a bigger issue - its failure to listen to its members and act in a way that's transparent and consistent with democracy.
Lack of Democratic Governance
Throughout its existence, NASPA has done many things very well. For instance, NASPA has done an excellent job of holding big events (Nationals), which is not an easy task. I'm sure that from its own perspective, NASPA has accomplished many of the goals it set out to accomplish as an organization. Also, I never doubted the work ethic or competence of anyone at NASPA.
Despite this, I believe that NASPA was doomed to (eventually) fail from Day 1. There was a decision made to form an organization that wouldn't set out to operate in a democratic manner. This would be an organization where a few people would always decide what's good for everyone, despite the tremendous pool of talent existing in the Scrabble world. I never really understood this decision. Before NASPA was officially formed, there was a lot of discussion about forming a truly democratic players' association, modeled after players' organizations in other countries. We obviously didn't go that route in 2009, probably for a lot of reasons.
This brings us back to the CoCo. The CoCo truly is a democratic players' association. Because of our governance structure, there's no one on the CoCo board who is permanently in charge. Likewise, anyone can get involved and eventually become a board member of the CoCo, or even the executive director. The CoCo is structured in a way that most benefits players, by operating in a way that's conducive to transparency and democracy. The CoCo board is willing to seriously and openly discuss important issues such as racism, climate change, and public health, especially with respect to how these issues impact the current Scrabble tournament environment. This is why I'm involved with the CoCo - and why I'm still hopeful about the future of our game.
