WELCOME!

Welcome to the first edition of the NASPA Tournament SCRABBLE Newsletter! This online newsletter will be available to members on a monthly basis, and contributions and suggestions are welcome. This first edition was prepared completely by volunteers. We are hoping that advertising sales will help cover future costs, so vendors, please consider running ads in the Tournament SCRABBLE Newsletter.

There are many exciting features and columns in the Newsletter, and the electronic medium allows us to include links to other web sites and videos. This month’s Newsletter includes a feature on Wendell Smith, a long-time SCRABBLE tournament director and player; an article on families who play SCRABBLE; the introduction of “The Tile Bag,” where readers’ questions are answered; a game analysis by three-time National Champion Joe Edley; a look at the successful Jerusalem Club; and much, much more. Next month we will be exploring SCRABBLE and travel, with articles on SCRABBLE travel options and advice on how to play in a foreign tournament. Players who would like to contribute their stories are welcome to contact me by email (CorneliaSGuest@gmail.com).

Each Newsletter will include links to SCRABBLE news stories, interesting articles, and SCRABBLE study tools. There will be sections for member news and club news, so please contact me if you have such news. We will also have a “members classified” section where members can post short notes (looking for a roommate for a tournament, etc.) Letters to the editor are welcome—as are comments and suggestions. Our hope is to have a Newsletter that is by the members and for the members—reflecting the wide interests of the many NASPA players.

While we hope to include stories about tournaments, we will not be having a tournament calendar and posting tournament results. Instead, we will be referring members to cross-tables.com, which does a superb job of supplying the most current tournament information. However, directors are still encouraged to submit write-ups of tournaments, with photographs if possible.

We will also be awarding a set of tiles each month to the reader who sends us the best SCRABBLE-related photograph. All photographs submitted may be published in future Newsletters, so do not send photos that are not available for this purpose.

Please let us know how you liked this first Newsletter—and what you would like to see in future Newsletters. A huge thanks to the many contributors to the Newsletter, particularly Aaron Daly, who designed and created the interactive web site.

-Cornelia Guest, Editor