The Niles North Table Top Games Club had their first official meet on Jan. 16, hoping to bring in anyone and everyone who was interested. The club meets every other Tuesday (their next meeting is on March 11) and offers fun games to play including UNO, Hedbanz, Sorry!, Connect 4, and Jenga.
(Kara Mielke, Aaqib Shareef, Ahmed Imran)
Although Table Top Games is not an official club (not part of NN’s Student Activities), it continues to have biweekly meetings consisting of around 6 members on average. The club, focused on promoting their games, has an extremely social and inclusive atmosphere behind the door of Room 1060. The club’s members come from all sorts of backgrounds and subsections of the school; the club, despite only having about a dozen student members total, consists of students with an Individualized Learning Plan (ILP) and even ones part of the school’s Special Education Department. The club members, from these unique backgrounds or not, are very talkative throughout the hour they have together every two weeks and are accepting of any new members from any kind of background, scholastic or otherwise.
“[I joined because] I wasn’t in that many clubs and I love me some tabletop games,” Senior and club member Nosson Arnold said. “They’re just really chill people and it’s really easy to include yourself in them. They let you just hang out with them and treat you like they’ve known you for a long time, even if you’ve just met. [We need] more games, more people. If you’re reading this right now, join it. It’s a gay old time. You’re going to get something out of it; you’re going to learn the meanings of games and the meanings of friendship.”
The club, being in its first year, is rather small and doesn’t have much equipment or support. To counteract this, club members do their best to gain more membership and spread recognition. This includes putting up posters, encouraging people to bring their, and simple word of mouth. The club is also on the lookout for more games to play at their meeting, asking new potential members to bring their own games to play at the meetings.
“[This club] came to fruition in my homeroom,” business teacher and club sponsor Kara Mielke said. “The original founders spent every homeroom playing card games every day. They were really passionate and in their junior year they decided to put together the club as a whole. We enjoy the ability for students to be off their devices; a lot of younger people these days have a really hard time pulling away from their phones and hanging out with their friends. I’m excited to, hopefully, continue to grow and invest in a couple more games…we’ll grow out of this.”
Table Top Games Club is just one of several new clubs that popped up this year, and like any club, need all the help they can get to ensure the club’s longevity. Inviting anyone and everyone, they showcase an extremely social and unfazed speaking environment unmatched by almost any other club here at North. For those looking to take some time away from their devices and looking for a place to let out their social side outside of their friend groups, Table Top Club in Room 1060 looks to be the perfect place to go.
