Running a club: Ideas?

xxriverduckyxx

xxriverduckyxx

New member
Hello everyone!

I'm new to this and testing it out.

I am currently the President of my University's billiards club. We've been an established club since 2008, and although we've done a lot in such a short time (hosted tournaments, traveled to tournaments, contributed to the refinishing of 11 pool tables, etc.), I know we have a lot more potential for growth.

I would love some input. Do you have any advice for running a billiards club (I'm not clueless, just open to ideas.)? Do you have any tournament or activity advice/ideas? I'd love to find contributions (visitors, donations, etc.) from the billiards community - pros, suppliers, pool halls, the public, anyone. Do you have any suggestions for where I should look?

I want to gain support and interest from anywhere it can be found, for our club and, of course, for the sport. Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

Thank you!
Beth
 
welcome to the forum beth!

generating revenue will be very difficult. look up cuemakers and billiard supply in your area, you could get lucky. your best weapon is going to be hard work and creativity..... it's not an easy sport to raise money in.

as far as the tournament schedule and stuff like that, i have all sorts of ideas on how to promote good pool playing. you can stay in contact with me via pm if you'd like. but to start, have at least one or two weekly tournaments, don't handicap them, and don't form anything resembling a pool league. just straight tournaments, with hopefully cash prizes (this motivates people to play better) and maybe a system to give say the highest c or b player some cash too. inbetween tournaments let the players practice for free, and try to let them know the more practice the better. lastly, go to accustats.com..... buy a bunch of matches... maybe 50 (im sure you could get a discount), and the students have the ability to then rent them out and learn from them.

thats just a tad of info, but good luck!!
 
Blind-draw and Scotch dbls keep more involved and players get to share
ideas,along with success,or failure.
Have a open session for nonmembers and university staff.Members run it-
basic lessons-equipment care-basic rules/object of diff games.
Maybe some trick shots,simple physics ie throw-jump-draw-?.
Good luck and let us know how it goes.
Also let students of photography,physics,and animal science know
they are welcome to share/explore your world!
 
Be open to suggestions from within your group. There is some controversy about that on other threads. Some people aren't open to suggestions or downright refuse to take suggestions.

Meeting people on campus through pool is great.

Usually there are two groups the ultra technical people and the let's just do it to have fun people. When the two participate in activities personalities collide. Be prepared for confrontational situations.
 
Last edited:
enzo,

Thanks for your thoughts. I wish we could run that many tournaments, but it's unrealistic considering we're a university club. Trying to find ONE day each week for club members to meet, when they're not busy with classes or other extracurriculars, is difficult. We do host some large tournaments though, that tie in with larger university events. I'm considering adding some more tournaments in or changing the layout of some of the current tournaments we host.

I've not yet come accross any close by cuemakers or billiards suppliers, but I will do some research. Thanks for that idea!
 
alphadog said:
Blind-draw and Scotch dbls keep more involved and players get to share
ideas,along with success,or failure.
Have a open session for nonmembers and university staff.Members run it-
basic lessons-equipment care-basic rules/object of diff games.
Maybe some trick shots,simple physics ie throw-jump-draw-?.
Good luck and let us know how it goes.
Also let students of photography,physics,and animal science know
they are welcome to share/explore your world!
Click to expand...

alphadog,

All of our tournaments are blind draw. It has worked out well every year. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don't, BUT that keeps things interesting and fair. You don't want players getting too comfortable either. Scotch doubles is great too. We host a couple of scotch doubles tournaments each year.

I like the open session idea. We do have some interest coming from nonmembers (students who aren't sure if they want to join) and some staff members. Great idea.

Dr. Cue made an appearance a couple years ago. Wow! I would love to have a guest like him visit us again.

Great idea to incorporate outside students. We had a group of students studying exercise physiology visit one of our meetings. Good stuff. I will definitely try to incorporate more students from different areas this year.

Thanks so much!
 
Beth...Check your PM's.

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com

xxriverduckyxx said:
Hello everyone!

I'm new to this and testing it out.

I am currently the President of my University's billiards club. We've been an established club since 2008, and although we've done a lot in such a short time (hosted tournaments, traveled to tournaments, contributed to the refinishing of 11 pool tables, etc.), I know we have a lot more potential for growth.

I would love some input. Do you have any advice for running a billiards club (I'm not clueless, just open to ideas.)? Do you have any tournament or activity advice/ideas? I'd love to find contributions (visitors, donations, etc.) from the billiards community - pros, suppliers, pool halls, the public, anyone. Do you have any suggestions for where I should look?

I want to gain support and interest from anywhere it can be found, for our club and, of course, for the sport. Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

Thank you!
Beth
Click to expand...
 
justnum said:
Be open to suggestions from within your group. There is some controversy about that on other threads. Some people aren't open to suggestions or downright refuse to take suggestions.

Meeting people on campus through pool is great.

Usually there are two groups the ultra technical people and the let's just do it to have fun people. When the two participate in activities personalities collide. Be prepared for confrontational situations.
Click to expand...

I agree! I've said from the start that I want the club to be about the people in the club, not just about me or the other officers. And I think that's the way it should be. Of course, we have officers for a reason. There is a limit to what club members can do, BUT I want them to come to me with ANY ideas they have.

We've been pretty lucky with the members we've had. Yes, there are many differences between them all, from their personalities to how they shoot pool. Considering the confrontation potential there is, we've been a great club. Nothing has ever gotten too out of hand.

One problem I'm seeing is the different ideas about what the club's primary focus should be. I want it to be a learning experience - basics about playing the game, the game's history, drills, etc. Some are more about the competition. Yes, there will be competition (that's why we have tournaments and travel to tournaments), but we are not a professional league, we are a university club.

I'm glad to see we're on the same page about suggestions. Thanks for yours! ;-)
 
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