Scrabble enthusiasts form new club, hope to expand next year

Joshua Riggins, Yun Zeng and Tom Morse entered the Teter Formal Lounge with three different Scrabble boxes, closely resembling a Scrabble team version of “Charlie’s Angels.”\nBut their mission? Just to \nplay Scrabble.\n“This club started so we had an excuse to play Scrabble,” Morse said in the beginning of the call-out meeting Thursday evening for the newly formed IU Scrabble Club. \nMorse, a senior majoring in East Asian studies and anthropology, said he started playing the board game with his grandma when he \nwas younger. \n“Over the summer when I was abroad in China with (Yun) Zeng, we would play Scrabble two or three times a day,” Morse said. \nZeng, the club’s president, came to the meeting prepared with an outline of major points she wanted to discuss during the meeting. \n“We are serious about the club,” Zeng said, “but at the same time it’s just for fun, and anyone can join.”\nAmy Yonts, a junior majoring in history, was one of two students who showed up for the call-out meeting. Yonts found out about the meeting through Facebook and said she was thrilled to hear about it.\n“It’s pretty cool. It’s fun. Not anything serious,” Yonts said. “Hang out, listen to music and play Scrabble.”\nThe call-out meeting will be the only meeting of the IU Scrabble Club this semester. By next semester, Riggins and Zeng plan on charging each member $5 for a year or $3 for the semester to participate in the club. “The dues will be to pay for boards and to pay the dues for the National Scrabble Association,” Zeng said.\nThe National Scrabble Association allows any Scrabble club to participate in competitions for $20 a year. By the fall semester, Riggins and Zeng plan to bring regional Scrabble competitors to speak to the club as well as to get the community involved. \n“The club is open to the Bloomington community as long as 51 percent of the club are IU students,” Zeng said.\nMorse mentioned the club was looking to get local businesses involved. They hope the local shops will donate prizes to the club member who has the highest score during the game. \nBy the end of next year, Zeng said she hopes the club will be competing in tournaments against other schools such as Ohio State University. \n“If we can get a team to play Ohio State, and we win,” Zeng said, “that would be awesome.”\n“We’ll be the envy of every Scrabble team,” Riggins said as he laughed and packed up the Scrabble boards at the end of the meeting.