volunteering

Keeping moving ahead and always trying to improve can be great for creating successes, but I am also a firm believer in taking pause to review where we've come - the end of the year and other anniversaries are good for this.

2014 in Review

In the first quarter (Q1) we were finalizing details of our lease and Kickstarter launch including interviews with folks who had run several successful Kickstarter projects and non-profit community centers of their own. The most important decision we made was to tie the signing of the lease to the Kickstarter itself. If the public didn't support our idea enough to fund it, then we wouldn't move forward. *Spoiler alert* We're so glad you did support us! :-)

In Q2 we launched this Kickstarter project with great trepidation and excitement. The wonderful support from Omaha Code School for using their space for public game nights, the press, and word of mouth helped us be successful in raising much-needed startup funds! It was the first time that I got to be the public face and meet with the public about the project we had been working on for a couple of years. We signed the lease before the end of the Kickstarter and quickly moved forward with construction/remodeling.

Hundreds of hours of hard work from our amazing volunteers went into to cleaning and prepping our space in the summer of 2014.

My name is Michael Fryda and I am the Teacher Outreach Coordinator for the organization. I'll be maintaining this blog to help you, the reader, understand what Spielbound has to offer you. I am also the contact for teachers in the Metro area who are interested in finding ways to bring board games into their curricula and after school clubs.

Why me? I'm a twelve-year veteran high school teacher and an adjunct professor of Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. I teach science at Westside High School in Omaha and I've been involved in creating staff development programs and mentoring first year teachers my entire career.

I've also been sponsoring an after school game club at Westside High School since 2003. A colleague splits the duties with me. Between the two us, we reach over 100 students every Tuesday. When I started the club, I set a series of educative goals for our students. We knew a decade ago, just as we do now that games have strong capacity for teaching critical thinking, strategic thinking, and cost-benefit analysis. All of these thinking modalities are taught in school curricula. We also wanted to be sure that students had a safe, inclusive environment to be at after school. Finally, we wanted to model a positive sporting spirit with our students.

Construction update

The main floor construction is mostly complete including all of the ADA improvements. The exterior fixes are mostly done, too, even with our new sign (just waiting on the black overhang to be installed). Now we're awaiting approval from various city inspections and some additional work in the basement. Once we get the approval, we'll start moving in the games.

Our new sign!

Having a library of over a thousand board games is impressive and takes up a LOT of space. Cataloging 1000 games is a whole other adventure. Since last June, folks who have asked to help volunteer for Spielbound have been gathering around twice a month to catalog games. This is not a simple task as several steps are needed to get an unopened game readied for members and patrons to play at our board game cafe.

Nate Kramer comes to Spielbound via the internet; a place strewn with board games from every age, country, and classification. Fortunately, as our new Communications Intern, Nate will be dealing with board games he can actually touch, feel and sometimes taste. Nate will be informing the masses (you) of weekly happenings about and often at Spielbound as it opens in the early summer of 2014.