If you like to play Scrabble, but don’t have friends who also like to play, the best thing you can do is form a Scrabble® club and try to attract people from your city. It may take a few weeks or even a few months to acquire many members, but stick with it and eventually you will have enough people to play with. Even if you only get one new member to your club, at least that will give you someone to play with.
When starting a Scrabble® club, the first thing to do is decide whether you want to provide all of the Scrabble games used by your club or whether you want your members to bring their own games.
One possible solution is to buy several inexpensive games on the eBay auction site, or even visit your local Goodwill or other stores that sell used games. The most expensive sets are the deluxe ones that come with a turntable and burgundy tiles instead of the wooden ones. Plastic Suitcase Scrabble® Boards come with black tiles and are quite nice too. Do a search on eBay for a couple of weeks to figure out the prices – some people will sell the game cheap but make up for the shipping price, others will charge $ 20- $ 30 or even more but will ship it for free.
When you first start your club, you have no way of knowing how many people will join, unless you have a lot of friends who like to play and will be happy to join. Buy three or four sets just so you can have a few for emergencies.
You can also buy inexpensive used Scrabble® dictionaries on eBay. Some Scrabble® players prefer to use “tournament rules” at all times, which means that they should not use dictionaries. Others prefer relaxed rules: they use dictionaries during regular club meetings, but when a club holds a tournament, no dictionaries are used. You also download two sheets called Cool Words from the Scrabble® Association website (do a Google search on “Cool Words for Scrabble®” to find the site). This is a very useful resource: it lists 2-letter words, 3-letter words, Q words that don’t need a U, short X and J words, and “vowel dumps.”
Buy a large supply of notepads and pens to keep track.
Buy bulk candy and bottles of water to have at every club meeting.
Next, decide what day you want to have your club meetings and at what time. Depending on whether you are looking for strictly retirees or members of all ages, you could hold your meetings during the day or at night. If you have withdrawn during the day this is usually the best time, if you are targeting a variety of age groups, hold the meeting in the evening.
If your library has meeting rooms, reserve one of them on the same day and at the same time for four to five weeks. It is generally better to meet in a library or restaurant rather than in your own home, until you get to know its members.
Next, print out some promotional brochures for your club. Provide your phone number and a list of club meeting dates, times, and rooms. Specify whether you are looking for people of all ages or just older people. Arrange to post them on your library’s community bulletin board. If you’ve used bookstores or magazine stores in town, stop by and ask if you can put up the flyers. (Typically, major chains like Barnes & Noble don’t allow you to post brochures, but used bookstores and coffee shops will.)
Depending on the number of Scrabble® boards you purchase, you can carry them to and from your Scrabble® meetings in a suitcase.
Take a book with you during the first meeting and wait to see who shows up. If no one does, don’t despair. Do a little more networking. Post your Scrabble® club details on your local Craigslist. Talk to the information person at your library and ask him to tell people about the Scrabble club. If there is a Welcome Wagon organization in your city or neighborhood, place an ad in your newsletter.
After about five weeks, you will have at least a couple of members. Keep working on membership creation, and after a few months you will have at least ten or fifteen to play with.