Statement of Purpose:

   Unbeknownst to most of the world, there is a fairly large subculture of the population who compete in competititve Scrabble. This subculture ranges from those who play casually, to those that memorize the 200,000 words that are acceptable in tournament games. Recently popularity of the game has increased due partly to the book "Word Freak", two documentaries (Scrabylon and Word Wars) and the airing of national competitions on ESPN. 

   Our club would aim to increase the awareness of competitive Scrabble at MIT by holding weekly club playing/teaching sessions, organizing trips to National Scrabble Association (NSA)-sanctioned tournaments in the area, and possibly organizing an informal annual institute-wide championship.

   Many moons back there was a Scrabble club that met in Cambridge, but they lost their meeting place, and as so disbanded. If, in addition to hosting an informal student events, we were to house the Cambridge club as well, we would have access to their equipment (boards, tiles, clocks etc.) -- several hundred dollars worth.


Uniqueness:

	As far as I know there is no student group associated with Scrabble, and in fact there is none associated with any kind of word game. Despite this, we have met many students who are zealous players of the Scrabble game with appreciable skill and desire to improve.

Need recognition:

	A room to host meetings (i.e. Scrabble games) is necessary to ensure group growth. Official recognition would be helpful in attracting new members. In addition, we would like to attempt to host several events including, perhaps, an MIT Scrabble tournament. 

Funding:
    If club attendance grows to beyond five to six players per meeting, we can look into ways to gain access to more equipment like boards. If we host the Cambridge Club, we would be provided with all the equipment that we need to host more players, along with an influx of skilled Scrabblers from around Cambridge. Student tournaments can be supported by modest entry fees.

Meeting types:
    Ideally we would hold weekly meetings in which students play friendly or competitive games of scrabble, while perhaps members of the NSA who used to play in the Cambridge club could play the competitive games they are fond of. In addition, we, the founders and officers, will do everything possible to help out less experienced players to learn advanced Scrabble strategy and the obscure words that are important at the top echelons of Scrabble game play.

	Current club meetings are informally announced through email and consist of three NSA members (Jason Katz-Brown, Aaron Bader, and Jeff Walden) and a few more MIT students setting up a board on a table in the Student Center. We play two-on-one or two-on two games, and the expert players guide the others through the thought processes behind plays and otherwise assist the other players. Jason is ranked in the top 50 players in the world, and Aaron is rapidly approaching an Expert ranking.

Intended Audience:

    Anyone who wants to play is welcome. Scrabble is both a word game and a math game, as the depth of strategy is comparable to that of chess, and at the same time one gets to use lots of cool words. Additionally, unlike chess, the element of randomness in drawing tiles in Scrabble means that no game is a guaranteed win for one player or the other.

Recruitment:

    Our original recruitment began by placing fliers in various locations, and playing each other in public places (i.e. student center). So far we have attracted about 6 students who are interested in the game to our meetings. Once we have access to a room for meetings, we can begin to recruit more members in earnest. There are many people out there who enjoy playing. We have heard there are even one or two more who are registered in the NSA, and if we publicize enough, we should find them.

Size:
   Members of the Cambridge Club who would come would probably number around 10 or so. Student size is much more difficult to gauge, but ideally would also rise to around ten. Increased size would require us to find a larger meeting place, but beyond that should not affect our general needs.

Accomplished:

We have met on a semi-weekly basis throughout this school year. We have gathered names of interested people who have played with us or observed us playing in the student center. During the last semester we have publicized two informal meetings on sundays, and had several eager people join us to play.

We (Jason, Aaron, and Jeff) have also traveled to several NSA tournaments this year in Cape Cod and Danbury, CT, and proudly told as many people as possible where we go to school and spread school spirit. We hope to be able to attract more MIT students to the competitive side of the game.

(MIT already has by far the most talented collegiate Scrabble group in the world, composed entirely of first-year students.)