My name is Rich, aka "Doc" and I'm the organizer of the Elgin Gamers meetup, formerly known as the Elgin RPG Groups

As you may or may not be aware, I've taken over ownership of this meetup late last summer, after the previous organizers stepped down. They, in turn, took it over when the original owners stepped down. For the past several months, I've been funding the meetup to keep it going while considering what I wanted to do with the group, if anything. Seeing the influx of new gamers to the Meetup, and thinking about what having an Elgin Gaming Meetup would mean to me, I've made a decision. 

I've decided that I think it's important that the Elgin area have it's own gaming community and that I think I'd like to ensure that community survives and flourishes if possible. This Meetup, however, was started mainly as a D&D meetup for someone's personal gaming group. It's outgrown those humble origins, and through the past leadership from The Gaming Goat as well as the efforts of Jack Kessler, has encompassed a number of games well beyond that. This is, in my opinion, a very good thing.

A little about me; I'm a gamer. I'm not, specifically, a D&D player, although I did get my start with the "BECMI" Basic Set in 1982. Don't get me wrong, I'll happily play D&D if it's offered and the campaign interests me, but I don't have any particular allegiance to that, or any other single game. Rather, I'm a GAMER, and that means I play lots and lots of games; sure, I have my favorites like anyone else, but whether it's playing a tense game of Horus Heresy, a fun little game of Zombie Fluxx or Kill Doctor Lucky, running my latest tabletop RPG campaign for a group of hardcore role players, talking about the great story and character choices in an awesome CRPG, or playing the latest co-op shooter or MMO with some friends - I just love games, and have for over 30 years. And that's what I want this group to represent; the spectrum of hobby games and those who have a passion for them.

So for those of you who can't get enough of the same campaign you've played for 20 years to those of you interested in trying the latest indie game darling, and everyone in between, you're all welcome here. We have room in our community for hobby gamers of all kinds. 

To start branding the group in line with this vision, and hopefully to start breathing new life into it, I'm in the process of making a few changes; first, I've changed the name of the group from "The Elgin RPG Groups" to "Elgin Gamers", and brought the URL and mailing list in line with these changes. I'll be making some other changes in the coming days and weeks as well, including an overhaul to the message board area, to make it easier to navigate and find messages you're interested in, and perhaps even some new meetup ideas! 

Some things won't be changing; Jack will remain a co-organizer for as long as he wants the job. I have no intention to remove Clyde as an Event Organizer at this time, either. In fact, I would like more event organizers. If you'd like to organize regular events for members of this group, contact me and we will talk about it. 

All of that said, there's one thing I really need to make this meetup a success; I need YOU. That means I need you all to share with me what you'd like to see in the group. I'll send out some polls from time to time to try and get everyone's pulse on various topics, but really, this group is meant to be a community, and no community works without your participation. So start a thread on the message boards, or drop a line. 

Thank you all for reading this, and thank you for your participation in Elgin Gamers. I'm looking forward to showing everyone, with your help, that Elgin has a live, vibrant gaming community.

Sincerely,

Rich "Doc" Canino