"Recruiting New Members" Topic

As a follow on to some of the points raised in the 'Mediocre attendance at Crusade Wargame Show' specifically new members, do clubs in the UK find it difficult to introduce new members to historical gaming. I'm thinking mainly of those potential members under 18 and the issue of CRB checks for anyone who has contact with children or vulnerable adults.

I do know of odd clubs who have CRB checks for their adult members, but my current club and the one before that had a no under 18's rule. Is this common in the UK or just a regional anomaly. Will this lead to the death of the wargames club as we know it, my current club has I believe one member in their twenties, the rest of us are old fogies.

We also have the Jimmy Saville legacy with the cops picking up any celebrity on decades old allegations of child abuse to contend with. It seems to good old days when you could just pop down to the local wargames club when you were still at school and join up ,are a distant memory.

Wow! Here in the USA, I'd been vaguely aware of the Jimmy Saville thing, though I hadn't paid much attention, since I'd never seen his show, unlike Benny Hill or Monty Python. I certainly hadn't thought about fall out from the affair impacting wargaming.

CRB=Criminal Records Bureau check for game club members? Perhaps I'm naive, but I'd never thought about something like that. Of course, we game at a local store, so it isn't like any of us have the opportunity to detain an under 18 gamer at our houses. We do have laws about convicted child molestors.

OK, I have to go away and think about this one.

It's a disturbing topic, but thank you for bringing it up.

Grelber

There is no legal requirement for wargame club members or even club officers to have CRB checks. The requirement was about to become law when the Labour Government lost the General Election – cancelling that piece of appallingly bad legislation was about the first thing that the Coalition did in office. It was much-dicussed here at the time.

I believe Games Workshop staff here in Britain all have to be CRB checked.

Anyone who works in a school has to be CRB checked, even if they are just a 'guest speaker' or something and only there for the day.

The CRB legislation is so badly worded that organisations prefer to cover themselves by insisting that ANYONE coming into contact with children has a CRB check!

"on decades old allegations of child abuse"

YOu make it sound like it is just old news dredged up. Lets be clear: Savile and others were having sex with, abusing and torturing small children. Perhaps you should read the papers a bit more – there is more to Savile and co than a few old allegations. It's precisely the flippant attitude of the British public that allows it to go on for years without anyone being challenged. Search for "Elm Guest House".

I don't see that as something inconveniently getting in the way of a few kids gaming personally.

To get back to your gaming question, our club has 50 odd members and most are under 18-50.

Jaz
6sided.net

GCN membership requires the committee members to be CRB checked. We meet in a pub so also have a no-kids rule; but we find it difficult to recruit any new gamers of any age. Geographically, from Exmouth the South is sea and the West is an estuary you have to travel round so we're a bit limited; but the appetite for club gaming seems to be dropping off.

"Anyone who works in a school has to be CRB checked, even if they are just a 'guest speaker' or something and only there for the day."

Not true – only if they have unsupervised access to children under 18, if they are chaperoned they don't need a CRB check.

My club has an average attendance of about 8 and I am the youngest and i am now in my mid thirties. We spoke about this awhile ago about how to get new members either young or old, but there was no enthusiasm to do anything about it.

The club has younger members who attend now and again, they play warhammer both variations and very occasionally if only one turns up they will join in a game with us.

I know that I have a CRB, and I believe that others due to the nature of there job will have one too, however no one has a CRB relating to the club.

jon

As Ben says – there is absolutely no requirement for CRB checks if there is supervised contact or only occasional contact. CRB checks are only required for regular, organised activity or overnight residential activity with children.

Since the change in government, the law has also changed to allow organisations to accept CRB clearances done for other organisations, so if you are CRB'd in your job, the wargames club can choose to accept that as a CRB (not that a wargames club requires you to have one, unless you are organising a club specifically or primarily for children).

According to the Memsahib, who does this for a living, the Government is also threatening companies and organisations with prosecution if they demand unnecessary and excessive CRB checking (e.g. for plumbers occasionally working in schools or for guest speakers or for members of the PTA), which can only be a god thing.

CRB is a joke and I'll pass on the anecdotes and the rant… but Scout leaders must be CRB checked and this is rigorously enforced by the Scout Movement, youth football teams in the UK must have a Welfare officer who must be CRB checked, this is enforced by the Football League.
I would imagine that any organisation that encourages under 18's to attend would need someone to be CRB checked and in attendance when u18's are present. Without a National Governing body to enforce CRB on wargames clubs, you can take your chances and everything will be fine, until something goes wrong. Going wrong may be something as simple as an overzealous busy body finding out grown men are encouraging kids to "play war" and making trouble.
Until we (actually you as I have absolutely no interest in playing a game with an over enthusiastic 12 year old strung out on the sugar rush from 2 cans of Coke and a Mars Bar) get a Governing Body (LOL) it will be up to the individual clubs to arrange their CRB's/Welfare Officer and it's probably a good idea to have it written into your constitution (constitution, say what?)
CRB checks have always been universal, you have never needed multiple checks but they need renewing every 2 years.
Wargames Governing Body LOL….
Sorry.
LOL

CRB checks have always been universal, you have never needed multiple checks

Sadly, simply not true: what you need is whatever body/company/oranisation says you need.

Which – up until recently – has often meant multiple CRB checks.

In my experience…

John T

I can back John up on that my friend is a teacher so has a compulsory CRB check but also helps out with the local junior Golf and Cricket teams so needed 2 more checks which he had to pay for.

Same here – separate checks to help out at Cubs and listen to children read when my sons were in primary school (back in the early 2000s,* mind).

* That's the year, not my age, before any smart harses chip in…..

Our group of 13 has various ages from 67 down to mid 30's.
I'm 54. We sometimes have neighbors children play with us, some of us have kids. However our group has 4 ex-policemen and one serving along with a CBSA supervisor.

Okay, I should have used the word transferable and not universal.

John is also right when he said "what you need is whatever body/company/organisation says you need."

If the body/company/organisation was happy to take for example a teacher's CRB check, as my sons football league was, that complied with legislation, however many bodies/companies/organisations insisted on a new check, which was entirely within their rights.

Youngsters these days, and I am generalising, have a very different attitude to hobbies and interests, far different from my generation (I'm 50). Most want instant gratification and the internet, on-line gaming,etc are their norm. Wargaming is only one of many pastimes suffering from a dearth of under 18's forming an orderly queue to participate in. Our hobby requires a degree of effort over an extended period, something most kids are not willing to invest in. The education system does not help with many teenagers simply unaware of their own history. It's scary how many are ignorant of even relatively recent events such as WW1 and WW2.

As a teacher I can't transfer my CRB to another school in the same county/LEA and all it does is state that I'm not a pedophile in that organisation at the time of the check.

I didn't realize that CRB's for things like clubs are no longer valid or a pre existing one, such as a mine, could be accepted. If someone could point me into the right direction of some legal documentation then that would be great.

My club is adamant that people under the age of 18 can't join but are desperately seeking new members. The big reason for this is that they don't want young people in the club. My wife has been a member for two years and a fair few have found this difficult because she's a women.

It's a shame really as our club is celebrating it's 50th anniversary this year but I think its beliefs are stuck 50 years ago.

We have tried to attract members from local shows and the larger ones in the South East by hosting display games but to no avail. We had a small surge due to new people moving to the area and also a local gaming company showing an interest (which went sour).

I also think that the view of war gaming from the eyes of young people is poor, or certainly has been in my experience. For many teenagers gamers are seen as weird old gits and for younger kids (11+) its just a bit lame.

As much as I like warhammer, I really don't think the Games Workshop stores have helped foster a positive image.

And I really don't mean this with any offence what so ever but my father and I (who is a live long modeller)commented that it was actually socially more acceptable to be gay than a wargamer. Whilst this is clearly not true people do pull funny faces when you tell about your hobby!

link

Until a change of legislation 2010, CRB checks were not 'portable'. Each change of role or organisation required a new CRB check, regardless of how many the individual already had. That then changed and it is now perfectly legal for an organisation to accept a CRB check done elsewhere. However, many don't and still insist on a fresh check being done.

The length of time between re-checks is not legislated – that is entirely for the company/organisation to decide. My own organisation specifies that re-checks be done every three years.

The years from 20-30 tend to be a fallow period in a man's life, hobby wise. Women, further education, job/career path, getting onto the property ladder, and – most of all – having children, all tend to get in the way of such stuff (and rightly so, being serious about it).

I do think most clubs go about recruiting the wrong way. Demo games at shows are just going to be preaching to the choir, as almost everyone who strolls past will be there because they are already wargamers. Very few people who aren't gamers go there alone; they will invariably be with an existing hobbyist who will also generally be their first opponent.

I am surprised that so few clubs bother to contact the history departments of local schools (especially private/independent schools, which will tend to have more extra-curricular activities and higher spending power); there are good opportunities there to put on demo games that will impress the youngsters. If one club member is also a trader, this gives an opportunity to launch a small class-based project which the club can sponsor, or keep an eye on. Ditto the history departments and (war)gaming societies of local universities (most seem to have one).

W.A.R. holds it club nights in a village hall and one thing we do is put on a Demo Game at the local village fate. With over 1000 non wargames through the door it dose help to pull in new members . You do get the I used to wargame or I did not know you had a club hear .I would say 10 to 15% of club member have join through this event over the years.