How do you host a game night?

Being in the retail business most of my adult life (and being the son of a merchant as well), it has been traditionally difficult to have a regular schedule. Merchant's typically work when the customers shop (afternoons through evening), and especially on weekends. The schedule is frequently erratic, in a sense being on call 24 hours a day (alarm calls, unannounced store visits, other random events). For the past 11 years, I've also moved (changed residences) 13 times (!) which has tied up a lot of time.

Tammy and I are now settling in a bit up at Clarks Summit, and work is getting easier with my veteran crew in place in my store. We've been here over a year now, and it looks as if we may be here for the long haul. With that in mind, it has me thinking about:

How do you host a Game Night?

Some in our congregation play basketball every Monday night (and have for years). Others play wallyball (volleyball in a racquetball court) every Friday night. Some golf every week. Homeschoolers meet every Wednesday. Could a once weekly or monthly game night be possible?

It seems that weekends would be good as most are off work (except retailers like me), but often folks have various (and important) family or congregational events planned. Weekend events mean leaving a wife/family behind, or putting off something important at home. Weekday evenings are often devoid of serious activitiy (usually rest?).

Does that mean a monthly, or bi-weekly game night might be possible in the middle of the week?

Assuming that it could be arranged, what are some other things to consider? An excellent forum article on the 'Geek was posted by a regular, with some suggestions if found interesting:

"CONSISTENCY: Pick a date and time and stick to it like a glue, so everyone automatically knows when it is. For busy working adults, weeknights are probably best, since most people usually have family commitments or social/getaway plans on the weekends.

The gaming activities should also be run in a consistent manner. Non-gamers in particular, might be a little intimidated by games because they don't know how to play them, or they may think they are bad at games. If they at least know what the routine is every week, it will help to put them at ease.

COMMUNICATION: A weekly email inviting everyone to the game night is extremely helpful. You can also include a short summary of what happened last week, and even announce what will be played this week.

GAME SELECTION: Depending on your style of hosting, you may or may not want to have control over which games are played. 99% of the games we play are owned by me, mostly because the non-gamers don't really have any games, and because my collection just happens to be quite large. But just because I own the games, doesn't mean I pick them.

Each week we have a "main game". The player who won last week's main game gets to pick this week's main game. This has turned out to be a really great method of game selection, since it gives everyone a chance to express their gaming preferences and provides a small reward for winning. I email a list of my games to the winner, including links to the Geek, and have them make their pick ahead of time so I can announce the selection in my weekly email.

As for the other games that we play, I usually pick a quick opening game to start the evening, and any other games we play are picked "randomcratically" (everyone picks the game they want to play, and we a use a die roll to make the final selection).

STATS: I keep stats for my group, not because I'm a stat-geek, but because stats provide continuity and a fun metagaming component that everyone seems to enjoy. You don't have to get fancy, just track how many wins everyone has, for example. Most people in my group could care less about the stats, yet everyone seems to enjoying talking about them from time to time."

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