Our welcome statement summarizes what we are about:

"Welcome
We play games. Our main goal is to have fun. We welcome all gamers from novice to experienced. We play games of all kinds, but mostly board games and card games. We all very flexible and easy to get along with. We have members of all ages and from various gaming and non-gaming backgrounds. We promote a positive mental attitude, good sportsmanship, fair play, flexibility, open mindedness, patience and communication. We provide many games, but also ask that members bring their favorites to share with the group. We are always willing to teach and learn new games."

We affectionatly refer to Games Club of Maryland as GCOM for short.

Copied from our bylaws, our stated purposes will also give you a good idea of what we are about.

"The purpose of GCOM shall be:

1. To have fun, learn, share, grow, and play.
2. To provide open gaming environments for the general public throughout the State of Maryland and beyond.
3. To provide services for and to promote the playing of games of all kinds, including but not limited to the following: board games, card games, role-playing games, and miniatures games.
4. To promote the games hobby by providing a communication network for gaming enthusiasts, sponsoring and supporting events, and raising public awareness of the hobby."

[top | General Questions About GCOM]

Some Hosts do not mind if you show up unannounced, but it is always best to make contact with the host beforehand. This is also a good way to find out what games they might be playing in advance.

[top | General Questions About GCOM]

[top | General Questions About GCOM]

To become a GCOM Associate Member (FREE membership):

• Attend Three Games Club of Maryland sessions at a recognized site within one year's time (See the locations page for current GCOM locations).
• Give the following information to your GCOM host and to Keith Levy at gcom@gamesclubofmd.org:
  • full name
  • snail mail address
  • e-mail address*
  • home phone
  • approximate date of first GCOM session attendance.

You're a member for life. Some of the member benefits are:

1. Getting gamers together across the state of Maryland and beyond.
2. Twenty-nine locations
3. Member recognition
4. Open gaming space
5. Use of games and gaming equipment
6. Invitations to special events
7. Convention Information
8. Game Reviews
9. Club Flyer and bulletin board
10. Web page (discussion group/billboard use available)
11. Biweekly GCOM scheduling updates and gaming news via e-mail
12. Personalized membership business cards
13. Games Club of Maryland Products

• Associate membership is free.
• Supporting membership is $20.00 for one calendar year.
• For those seventeen and under Supporting membership is $10 for one full year.
• Patron membership is $100 for one full year.

[top | General Questions About GCOM]

• Thirteen locations are in the home of the Host listed for that location. These locations are:
  1. Aberdeen
  2. Bel Air
  3. Elkridge
  4. Fairfax City
  5. Frederick
  6. Herndon
  7. Hillendale
  8. Laurel
  9. Middletown
  10. Reisterstown
  11. Reisterstown II
  12. Silver Spring, Downtown
  13. Sparks
  
  
• Six locations are in retail game stores. These locations are:
  1. Chantilly: Game Parlor, Sully Place Shopping Center
  2. Glen Burnie: Games and Stuff
  3. Newark: Days of Knights
  4. Rockville South: Dream Wizards
  5. Salisbury: Illusions Games & Comics
  6. West Chester: The Games Keep
  
  
• Six locations are in community centers:
  1. Beltsville is in the Beltsville Community Center
  2. Damascus is in the Damascus Community Center
  3. Laurel Lakes is in the Laurel Community Center
  4. Potomac is in the Potomac Community Center
  5. Rockville  East is in the Pump House Community Center
  6. Silver Spring, Long Branch in the Long Branch Community Center
  
  
• Two locations are in churches:
  1. Annapolis in Bay Ridge Christian Church
  2. Westminster is in the Jerusalem Lutheran Church
  
  
• The five other locations are:
  1. Alphabet Soup is in the Baltimore Science Fiction Society Building
  2. Brunswick in Beans In the Belfry Coffeehouse
  3. Cyberspace is on-line gaming in Cyberspace
  4. Germantown is in the Borders Book Store
  5. Shrewsbury is in Ship To Shore Coffee
  
  

[top | General Questions About GCOM]

[top | General Questions About GCOM]

1. Login to the web site.
2. Under the Member menu that should now be on the right-hand area of the browser, click on “Add a Game Review”
3. Type in the first few letters of the game you want to review. For example, if you want to review Traumfabrik, type in “Traum” (without the quotes).
4. Click on the NEXT STEP button. A search is made for any game name (or alternate name) that contains the phrase you typed.
5. In this case, there should only be one match, Traumfabrik, so that should be the only possible selection in the drop-down list displayed. If you had typed just “tra”, you would’ve gotten a list of about fifty games.
6. Copy the text of your review into the big text box indicated. Due to database constraints, the reviews are limited to 8000 characters or less, which is approximately four pages of normal-spaced typed text. There is a counter just below the big textbox which tells you exactly how many characters are left.
7. If you want to add a short comment that would appear to the right of your name when the review is posted, add that where indicated. It’s intended for either a person’s nickname, screen name, website link or their gaming affiliation.
8. Click on the SUBMIT REVIEW button.
9. You should receive a message stating that the review was posted and see a couple links to what you can do now (add another review, read this review). I would suggest then going to the reviews area via the left-hand menu and finding your review that way. Why? Because if you’re still logged in, when you get to the page that actually shows your review text, you should see a link under the “Views” count that says “Edit Review”. It does that because the system knows it’s you and you posted the review you’re looking at. Only you and the website "superusers" can edit your review.
10. I know this sounds like a lot, but it’s not. I’m just detailing every piddling step, some very obvious. Once you’ve done it, you’ll see it’s not that difficult.

If you do know your login, follow these steps:

1. Click on the "Login/Password" link on the left-hand menu.
2. Click on the "Forgotten Password" button.
3. Enter your login (user id) in the text box provided.
4. Then click on the SUBMIT button (I'll bet you knew that one was coming).

An email will be generated immediately and sent to the email address you provided. Exactly how long it takes to get there varies somewhat depending upon the current load on the website's (and your) mailservers (which is a good bit lately considering all of the email worms travelling about these days).

Since all user passwords are now stored in encrypted form in the database, this is the only way to retrieve passwords.

ONE FINAL NOTE: If you didn't provide an email address when you joined, then you won't be able to use the Forgotten Password procedure. Your login then is usually your first initial and last name...but not always...

Every once in a while, something “cycles” on the server on which our website is located. While it's doing that, even if you provide the correct uid/pwd, you end up back at the login page. Since our current ISP -- iHost/enom -- has yet to address this issue, we just have to grin and bear it. The best thing to do is if that keeps happening, just wait about half an hour and try again.

If you're even slightly unsure that you're not providing the correct userid and password, there is a way you can check. Follow these steps:

1. Close the browser window you're using to login.
2. Open it a new one and navigate to the GCOM login page.
3. Trying logging in again.
4. Right-click on the login page and select "View Source" (how you do this varies from browser to browser, but that's how you view source using Internet Explorer).
5. Look for a line of HTML that looks like this:
   <INPUT TYPE="HIDDEN" NAME="Failure" VALUE="0">
6. If the VALUE property is 1 or greater, then you're definitely NOT using a correct userid/password combination. If the VALUE property is 0 as pictured, then you are, but the aforementioned server process must be cycling.