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Becky Saeger, president of the North
American Simulation and Gaming Association, 2004, describes her
experiences with Junkyard Golf at the 2004 NASAGA conference.
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"I got some volunteers to set up 4 holes before the session and
we invited people to play as they came into the room. Each
volunteer manned a hole and explained how to play. Most people
got to play a couple of holes before we started, but they were
so intrigued that we got off to a late start.
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 Next I explained the concept of Junkyard Sports and
plugged your book. :) They described the most salient elements
of golf: a ball, and hole, and an object to move one into another
(although frustration and alcohol were also mentioned as keys
to the game.) Then I invited them to form teams for 5-7. Each
team sent a member to the front of the room to pick up a "flag" (a
big number printed on a colored piece of paper.) Each team
was to create at least one hole. They could do a second one
if they had time. The goal was to design a creative 18-hole
golf-course with the junk I had provided or anything else they
could find in the room.
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1. Yes.
Always plug my book.
2. Don't
forget the tee - many a bizarre golf club apparatus owes
its success to a good tee
3. Flags!
But of course! How could we forget the flags?
4. Yes
again - anything else they can find.
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They dove right in! I gave them 15 minutes for hole design. We had a
slingshot made of panty hose to shoot a ball from the tabletop
into a box 6 feet away. We had an elaborate system of ramps
to drop the ball into a hidden hole between the stairs and
the stage. There was a orange juice hazard on one. Candy traps
on another, and a very tough plastic wrap hill built over an
overturned chair. I asked teams to record the par on each of
their flags.
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Then some of the players on each team took about 10 minutes to play
as many holes as they could. Others of their team remained
behind to coach new players. After 10 minutes they switched
so that every one had a chance to play and to coach.
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1. 10
minutes for 18 holes! What a challenge!
2. On
the other hand, the coaches could have just quit and joined
the fray.
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We debriefed to talk about the different elements they added to create
fun for one another (ensuring the hole was really achievable,
adding complexity and the unexpected, etc.) We also started
getting into an interesting discussion about working as a team,
and limited resources leading to greater creativity. Frankly,
we probably needed another 20-30 minutes to fully debrief!
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Debriefing points:
- What
did you do to make it fun?
- How
hard did you make it? Why?
- Do
limited resources lead to greater creativity?
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Anyway, they loved it! It was a great way to get people up and
talking and working together first thing in the morning. I
think it would also be an awesome session right after lunch
at any conference. It was very easy to implement. Golf was
also a great game for a large ballroom--it worked well for
the space we had.
p.s.:
don't forget the cameras! |
1. In
a conference, you should play Junkyard Golf first thing in
the morning or after lunch.
2. Golf
is great for a large ballroom (and also hallways, and stairs,
and escalators)
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 By the way, we ran a scavenger hunt through out the
conference. Two of the items on their scavenger list were to
create a NASAGA golf team fight song and a golf team mascot.
There were some very creative entries!! Also, Kevin
Eikenberry gathered up all the golf clubs and put them together in one
shopping bag. Saturday night he auctioned off the "golf
bag and a custom set of clubs" as the last item in the
auction. The $25 he sold it for put us over the $3000 mark
for funds raised."
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1. Scavenger
hunt. How perfectly junkly!
2. Golf
team fight song and mascot! What can I say?
3. A
really good junk-made golf club (or ball-launcher) is hard
to find.
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And I comment
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