Magic clubs have long been the proving grounds for many budding magicians. The camaraderie and fellowship among magicians is to be commended. There is something special about a meeting of magi. Many times the best magic is learned in the small huddled groups at a local gathering – the information usually far surpassing DVDs and books.

But what happens when things change… when things become more political than magic? When things become “in crowds” and “out crowds”? How does a magic group function when there is division among the masses?

A magic club should be about one thing – bringing members together to share magic and foster each other in the growth of magic. It shouldn’t be focused more on competitions, awards, and stashing club funds away and not spending them to enrich the magic of the members - all at the hinderance of fostering magic.

I would like to know the community’s thoughts on this.

What is your idea of a good club?

How do you feel club funds should be spent?

What’s more important – competitions or teaching/sessions?

What is the most important thing to you about a club?

Those in clubs, what are some things you dislike? and like?

I would really like to see a good response to this post - I am wokring on putting together an article on magic clubs and the value they offer, as well as the obstacles people encounter with them.

Thanks!

What is your idea of a good club? A Magic club must focus on the needs and desires of the majority. This will differ from club to club. Some members may want their focus on the competitions, awards, recognition...others may relish the social and nurturing qualities...still others may choose to focus entirely on specific advanced skills, professional advancement, business enrichment or community service. Only the active and supportive members have the right to dictate what avenues a club may take.

How do you feel club funds should be spent? Again, this depends upon the members of the club. It is their money. If the members feel that the leadership is managing the treasury wisely, then journey on. If the majority feel that the leadership is being foolish, then a change is called for. If those who oppose the management are in the minority they can accept it, campaign to change it or resign.

What’s more important – competitions or teaching/sessions? Depends on the stated objectives of the club. I don't care for competitions. I joined a club that is focused on social networking. South of us, there is a club that emphasizes competition and perfection in the art. It attracts those of that mindset.

What is the most important thing to you about a club? I personally prefer the social network with the open opportunity for mini-groups within the club to explore specific interests. For example, I don't care for knuckle-busting card tricks...but many of our members do. Great! After the general session, if the card men want to move to a corner to discuss card flourishes while my kidshow peers move to another to discuss routines or scripts...perfect! Open exchanges! Mutual respect!

Bottom line: Any club serves the needs and interests of the members. Clubs that fail to do this will eventually cease to exist or prosper.

Our Ring (362) is not even three years old. I feel that we have been very fortunate. Many of our members have had previous bad experiences with magic clubs, and a number of them were determined not to repeat those experiences in our new Ring.

I agree completely with Skip that the magic club serves the needs and interests of the active members. My biggest interest in forming a Ring was staging large public shows. We have staged several. They have been tremendous fun, and have been a real learning opportunity for some of our less experienced members. The grizzled veterans have had the opportunity to work with other performers in a way that they never could if each of us was performing for our regular fee.

I have been surprised by the popularity of our contests. Something about our contests appears to bring out the best from everyone. It could be the presence of the public, perhaps it is bragging rights, I don't know. Our members love the three contests that we have each year, so the Ring has put a fair amount of energy into them.

We have had quite a number of Teaching Tables at Ring meetings, and of course, as people get to know each other, there is a fair amount of one-on-one teaching that occurs informally. Our Ring has also taken part in teaching magic classes in a local arts program. We have been very pleased with the results. We look at this, in part, as building the audience for magic. One of the students from this program performed in a Ring show. You can see this year's students perform here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqyZU9BEicg

Club funds are spent to support communication (newsletter and website), to support public shows and contests, and to pay outside lecturers (we had our first this year). You can see the complete breakdown of our finances in the archive on the website for I.B.M. Ring 362.

What's not to like about a magic club? It is hard to be fond of people who complain a lot but don't take an active role in improving the things that they are griping about. That applies outside the Ring, as well.

Skip is right: the officers of a magic club have to listen carefully to the members, responding to their needs and interests. A club should try a number of activities, then put more energy into the ones that prove popular.

Yours,

Paul

I've been a member of two rings that were excellent. The Dallas Magic Club(Willard the Wizzard Ring) and the Lubbock Ring, now defunct, (Wizzards of West Texas Ring). Both enjoyed excellent camaraderie, lots of teaching, forms of reasonable competition (like the Dallas Magic Clubs annual Magician of the Year Award which is based on points for doing things at club meetings like "teach a trick" , performing for club meetings, etc. A competition that is based on volunteering to be active in the club)

Money-wise, both rings focused on putting the money into club programs. Dallas Magic Club has a good number of lecturers in every year. Lubbock never had a lot of money, but we did have the occasional lecture, money was for bringing in teaching, etc. not for officers expenses, or programs that didn't apply to the whole club.

Since moving to El Paso, I unfortunately discovered that the alleged Ring here actually does not exist. Someone keeps assuring the IBM that it does, but it doesn't and it doesn't meet. They got into arguments over money, how to use it, were not into sharing between members, etc. Or so the local magi tell me. Several attempts have been made to restart some sort of magic club here, but have not been successful yet, largely due to a very bad feeling among the locals over the last club. Sad, but it happens.

Part of the problem is that while everyone enjoys a magic clubs camaraderie, the teaching, the sharing, few want to take the responsibility of doing all the mundane tasks needed to keep the club open and going, such as recruiting programs, and taking care of business matters. In the clubs I've seen fail, generally the folks who turned it sour were put into office by the rest who simply didn't want to be bothered with the detail work and responsibility. They were willing to let others deal with it, even if the others did not have the clubs best interests at heart.

Key it any successful magic club is people willing to take responsibilities, do the mundane work and do it all for the best interest and betterment of the club. I assure you that Chuck Lehr and his wife are the fuel behind the current success of the Dallas Magic Clubs and their fire has managed to stir up interest by others to helping with the whole operation. The result has been a very successful club. Just wish I lived closer.

About competitions or teaching sessions - do both. We normally start out ring meetings with a mini-lecture where someone teaches something, then do a competition. The competition is for a tiny prize - a pen, or this year a pin. It works well - the competition isn't about winning, though that's cool, but folks come to see magic and having the competition helps there be magic to see. We pick a theme, and folks perform routines to the theme. Afterwards we have general magic and you can perform anything you want. It works well for us.

The important thing to me is the social aspect - we all come to enjoy the evening, some come for the minilecture and some skip it to just hang out and watch the magic being performed. But what keeps people coming back in the end (I believe) is the friendships they form. If that doesn't get fostered then the rest gets more difficult. All the rest is optional - try something and see if folks like it!

I also agree with Skip and Dr Wilson (both of whom are involved in top organizations); the officers are servants of the organization. The programs That we find successful are the ones that involve the membership in their planning and in their execution. We vary the events from teaching to performing to our big gala show each year with a one day convention. We strive to get people to accept the burden of a small piece of the pie when it comes to work and we give them ownership of their piece. We give lots of praise when the job is done and encouragement when it's needed (Always).

As far as Money; money issues will break apart an organization in a matter of minutes. We have a very specific spending guide for our treasury. We provide no-cost or low-cost lectures throughout the year. We provide give-a-ways at the holiday party and prizes for our contests. We also work hard to make sure that our treasury grows and is sustainable. Our goal is to be able to establish an endowment for the Ring and see it prosper so we don't have to charge dues. (long term goal)

Michael Taggert
IBM Ring 50