November 2011 Chapter Meeting

Okay... here are the things I had Derek cover at the Nov. 2011

1. 34 members promoted to Corporal in Oct. Corporal is the 3 month membership rank. (Congratulate those at the meeting after reading promotion list.) Those promoted were:

Brandon Smith, Toby Chapman, Lora Lunsford, Ronald Burke, P.F. Burns, Craig Corlis, Julie Doble, Dean Dryer, Monique V. Correia, Jim Einsmann, Sean Foster, Michael Icca, Jack Faber, Jeff Jones, James Miller, Eloy Lasanta, Richard Logue, Chris Mobberley, James Roysdon, Ryk Stanton, Tery Tucker, Michelle Valentonis, Frank Frey, Kathy Lynne Wilson, Richard Lee Byers, Tammy Mangrum, Ann Morris, Damien (Mad Brew), Joe Mangrum, George Wilson, III, Jillian Burdsall, Austin VanHout, John VanHout, John Walker

2. November promotions will be announced on the Dec. blog and both Nov. & Dec. promotions will be read at the Jan. meeting.

3. The next chapter meeting will be Jan. 21st 2012

4. We had 26 new members join at or related to Necro brining the total membership to 74. The Special Necro 2011 Ogre Badge graphic will be finished and applied to wikia profiles before Dec.

5. Speaking of badges... The TB Ogre's request for a special game designer/writer badge has been approved by Hooper the founder of OGRE.

6. Speaking of Hooper... after I requested that a special Game Designer / Writer Badge be created, he said he will be adopting both the designer badge and con badges on the National level.

7. A request for special badges to be made for individual gaming groups has been made. However, the TB Ogres is not going to grant the request. The goal of the TB Ogres is to unite gamers regardless of the gaming groups they belong to. I feel that if we start creating individual gaming group badges that this will undermine the goal of TB Ogre. Badges for single game day type events will also not be created unless they are for a special educational or charity related gaming day. However badges for conventions are the exception because conventions are multi-day events that gamers pay someone else -usually a 3rd party- to attend and any anyone from anywhere throughout the country (or world) may attend the convention. For example. If Hooper makes a GenCon 2012 badge, then any Ogre who attends GenCon would be eligible to receive the badge regardless of the chapter they belong to. If anyone has any questions or would like to discuss why or what badges will be made, please contact me.

8. Hooper has also informed me that the TB Chapter looks like it will be the Chapter of the Year... yey us!

9. We have 3 additional gaming groups that will be listed on the Wikia Roster. If anyone wants to add their gaming group -any game!- to the roster, send an email to me with the gaming group name, location (Tampa, St. Pete, Online, etc.), and the names of any group members who need to be added to the Ogre roster. By belonging to an Ogre related gaming group, the gamers in the group become automatic active members of Ogre unless they request otherwise. The more local gaming groups we have listed, the easier it will be for out of town Ogres to find a game when they visit!

10. Upcoming conventions - Aside from MegaCon & Oasis, which other Cons should the Ogre's be involved in? We need feedback so feel free to leave a reply to this post or send me an email.

11. Speaking of MegaCon... I will be assisting Dominick in the RPG room again this year and I expect things to run smoothly like they did last year. I is looking for any TB Ogre who may be attending MegaCon that might have some time to volunteer and help promote OGRE outside of the gaming room. If any TB Ogre swag is sold between now and MegaCon, the money will be spent on OGRE buttons to hand out at the Con. If anyone can volunteer who is already planning to attend MegaCon, please contact me and I can tell you what all would be involved.

12. Speaking of volunteers - I will also be looking for a volunteer to post Ogre related events (hosted or participating) on the various forums and mailing lists that allow cross-posting. I would like someone who is already familiar with the various sites and mailing lists if possible. Contact me for more info if you are interested or have questions. This will be a chapter amended office position.

13. Free Gaming day - We want to host a free gaming day in Feb or March but we do not want to conflict with any other game day or con. We would like suggestions on dates and locations that may enable us to do this. We need your feedback!

14. Are there any other upcoming events planed that anyone would like Ogre help or participation with?

I look forward to your feedback and hope to see everyone at the Jan. chapter meeting!

October 2011 Promotions!

I just wanted to announce the following promotions as of Oct. 2011 for the TB Ogres! Congratz!

Promoted to Secretary:
Derek Mitchell

The following Ogres are promoted to Corporal which is the 3 month membership rank:
Brandon Smith
Toby Chapman
Lora Lunsford
Ronald Burke
P.F. Burns
Craig Corlis
Monique V. Correia
Julie Doble
Dean Dryer
Jim Einsmann
Jack Faber
Sean Foster
Michael Icca
Jeff Jones
Eloy Lasanta
Richard Logue
James Miller
Chris Mobberley
James Roysdon
Ryk Stanton
Tery Tucker
Michelle Valentonis
Frank Frey
Kathy Lynne Wilson
Richard Lee Byers
Tammy Mangrum
Ann Morris
Joe Mangrum
George Wilson, III
Damien (Mad Brew)
Jillian Burdsall
Austin VanHout
John VanHout
John Walker

Hope to see you all at the next chapter meeting on Nov. 12th!

Necronomicon 2011!

What a great time we all had at Necro in St. Petersburg Florida! The gaming room was full from the moment the doors opened at 9 am to when they closed in the weeee hours of the morning! Sadly, I was unable to spend much time in there and due to family emergencies, our Game Master and my assistant were unable to attend the con. But, on the few walk throughs I was able to do, the room was packed and I saw many different games being played. It was refreshing to see something other than Pathfinder & LFR being played.

The OGRE sign-up sheet brought 22 new members into our gaming family – Welcome to the Ogres! – and we actually ran out of business cards (started around 200)!

All of the new members and Ogres who attended the con will be receiving the unique Ogre Necro 2011 badge for their wikia profile. So if you were at Necro, look for your special badge on your profile soon. If you don’t have a wikia profile yet, why not make one to show your bragging rights and let your fellow Ogres know more about you?

A special thanks to the following Ogres:
Ann Morris – For organizing another great Necro Con – Happy 30th Necro!
Dean & Heather Dryer – Our Necro Gaming Ogres – For organizing the 100+ games at the Con. Great job guys!
Richard Lee Byers – Our resident celebrity – for the awesome panels on writing and for just being a great guy!
Eloy Lasanta – One of our game designers – Thanks for letting me bail on Wu-Xing so I didn’t fall asleep at the table! I promise to be awake to play the whole game next time!
Min Nemoy – Our SHAG Ogre – For spreading the word that there is now gaming in the Spring Hill area!
Frank Fray – Our Suncoast Skirmishers Ogre – For running games at the Con.
John Gunter – Our meet-up Ogre – For wearing an Ogre shirt to spread the word, running games at the Con & keeping me company on Sunday!

Our next Ogre meeting will be held Nov. 12th at the Jimmie B. Keel library in North Tampa. I hope many of you will attend as we will be discussing alternative meeting locations (so everyone doesn’t have to come to N. Tampa all the time!) and an Ogre sponsored gaming date in Jan. Come out and give us your feedback! You can RSVP through our Facebook group but it is not required! Hope to see you all there!

We are Growing!

The Ogre tribe in Tampa Bay is growing! 


Only twelve days into the new chapter and we are rapidly expanding to network the Tampa Bay area gamers!


Our Facebook group is 35 strong and our "Officially Registered" member count is 25 and I am sure once the Facebook group members get the change, they will become 'official.'


We will be making an "unofficial" appearance at the Suncoast Skirmishes event on Aug. 27th and hope to make some more great friends while we try to catch a game! For more info, check out their FB Event Listing!

Florida's 1st O.G.R.E. Chapter - The Tampa Bay Ogres!

Greetings & Salutations Fellow Gamers!

Welcome to the Tampa Bay Ogres blog. We are proud (and extremely excited, jumping around like small children actually!) to be the first chapter of O.G.R.E. in Florida!

Tampa Bay Ogres has hit the ground running by not only having a web presence under the National Organization (*waves to Hooper!*) but also on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Groups. We also have our swag store up and running so if you want to show your Tampa Bay Ogre pride, stop by there and pick up something!

Now that we have our web presence established, we can start on the FUN of bringing gamers & roleplayers together in the Tampa Bay area! Our first official chapter meeting is on  Sat. Sept. 10th @ 1pm. RSVP not required but if you would like to tell your fellow gamers you are coming or just see who else you might know that will be there, check in on our Facebook Event Announcement!

Check back often for updates on what your Tampa Bay Ogres are up to and don't be shy, come to our meeting!