Help Wanted

A note from the director

As the club grows, so do the cool ideas people contribute for how to make the club better. My co-director Melissa made a good life decision to move to NYC and take a job there. I’m so happy for her, but she left a big void behind.

No one person can do everything the club needs. Besides, it’s more fun to collaborate with others.

So I’m asking: if you love backgammon, do you have any free time you could dedicate to the club?

Below are the top three tasks we need help with right now. If you want to help with any of them - first of all, THANK YOU! Please proceed to the Contact page, choose “I want to help”, choose “Other” and then include a note telling me what you have in mind. Include a phone number where I can text or call.

I’ll contact you by text and schedule a phone call to talk through your ideas and decide if it feels like a good fit.

Sadly, I can’t afford to you pay you anything (yet) but there are other ways to compensate, such as

• Your name and photo on the About Us page
• Free entries to SC tournaments
• Free SC swag
• Free lessons, if you are just starting your backgammon career

Merch Director

You will have access to funds (details TBD) and authorization to buy T-shirts, coffee mugs, whatever else you think club members would want to buy. You get to set the prices and manage the merch. You’ll need to be available whenever we run a somewhat large tournament. Other times by arrangement.

Eventually we might want you to manage an online store too. That’s way in the future right now.

Bonus points if you kind of like the products!

Social Media Coordinator

Let’s face it, I know about websites and backgammon, but I suck at Instagram. Gen Z don’t use websites, they use Instagram and (horrors) Tik Tok. These are the new players we would love to have join us at events.

You will have full access to the Steel City Instagram and Facebook accounts. You will have full creative license and I will act as reviewer at first, eventually turning it over to you completely.

You need to be available via Slack or WhatsApp or some other way to keep up on the Director’s event ideas.

Bonus points if you are Gen Z yourself! (or close) and love and use social media regularly.

Local Venue Leaders

Pittsburgh, as you know, is a hub-and-spoke city. We haven’t been able to find the one-and-only venue that works for everyone, probably because that venue doesn’t exist.

So let’s follow the lead of clubs like Twin Cities in Minneapolis and NYC Backgammon in NYC. Steel City can be a loose federation of smaller local groups run by local leaders.

You would have free reign to choose a venue, interface with managers there, create flyers, cards, and other marketing materials, and (at least at first) show up in person for events there. You’ll have access to funds (details TBD) for purchasing marketing materials.

You’ll need to be willing and able to handle funds if you schedule tournaments with entry fees. I will help you with everything at first.

Here are some ideas people have suggested:

• Lawrenceville - Walkable and bikeable, nice eateries. Great for a group if you live there, terrible if you don’t because there’s nowhere to park.
• East Liberty - same. New players we want to join us probably live here! But access for non-locals is hard.
• Cranberry - lots of great venues have been suggested, but the commute is bad for people like me who live in the South Hills.
• South Hills - same. I have found a sports bar called Rival that would be a great venue because it’s free and has a full food and drink menu. But the commute is bad for people who live north.
• And so on. Where do you live and what would be a great venue?