Product Code Database
NASPA Games, formerly known as North American Scrabble Players Association ( NASPA), is a nonprofit organization founded in 2009 to administer competitive Scrabble tournaments and clubs in North America. It officially took over these activities from the National Scrabble Association (NSA) on July 1, 2009. As of July 31, 2021, the organization is no longer associated with the North American owner of the SCRABBLE® trademarks, Hasbro.
Its committees and officers perform a number of tasks, including:
A meeting arranged by the NSA and Hasbro executives was held at Hasbro headquarters in suburban Springfield, Massachusetts in December 2008. It was attended by prominent Scrabble players, club and tournament directors, and others from across the continent, including John Chew, Chris Cree, Joe Edley, Ira Freehof, Matt Hopkins, Robert Kahn, Katya Lezin, Seth Lipkin, Mad Palazzo, Steve Pellinen, Mary Rhoades, John Robertson, Sherrie Saint John, Debbie Stegman, Alan Stern, and David Weiss.
The attendees were offered the opportunity to form a new organization to preserve competitive adult Scrabble in North America, and encouraged to do so with Hasbro's blessing but without any funding. The NSA would continue to exist, but would largely focus on its school Scrabble program and promoting recreational play. (It ceased operations on July 1, 2013.)
Most of the attendees accepted Hasbro's challenge and formed the nucleus of the steering committee. An email vote by the steering committee's members determined the new organization's name: North American Scrabble Players Association (NASPA). NASPA was registered in Texas as a not-for-profit corporation and headquartered in Dallas. Chris Cree of Dallas and John Chew of Toronto emerged as co-presidents. Hasbro gave NASPA until the end of 2009 to establish control of the competitive tournament scene, but it was ready for the transition six months early. Accordingly, the first NASPA tournament games were played on July 1, 2009, in three different cities.
As of July 1, 2009, NASPA became the only group in North America permitted to use Hasbro's SCRABBLE trademarks in adult club and tournament play. Other organizations such as the Word Game Players' Organization have existed since 2010 and run their own tournaments, but have been careful to use the Scrabble name only nominatively and thus not to infringe on Hasbro's trademarks.
NASPA later adopted a stricter Code of Conduct, with the goal of improving players' and officials' deportment at Scrabble events. Punishments for misbehavior and cheating at tournaments and clubs have been much swifter and harsher than in the past.
Though it valued its status as Hasbro's officially licensed organization for tournament and club play, NASPA received no operational funding from Hasbro, relying on membership fees, as well as "participation fees" collected by tournament directors, calculated at a fixed rate based on the number of tournament games played.
On July 9, 2020, after some debate and a non-binding survey of members, the organization decided to remove 259 “personally applicable offensive slurs” from its tournament and club lexicon, echoing Hasbro's public position. The NASPA Word List, published for members only, continues to differ from the public Official Scrabble Players Dictionary in including other offensive words, generic trademarks, and longer words (up to 15 letters).
On July 22, 2021, Chew (now the lone CEO of NASPA, following Cree's decision in 2019 to step back as co-president to become CFO) announced to the membership that NASPA's right to use Hasbro's SCRABBLE trademarks would be terminated as of July 31, 2021. This resulted in a number of organizational changes, including a name change to NASPA Games. The organization intends to continue operations as before, including its annual North American championship, without Hasbro's endorsement. Its new legal disclaimer reads, "SCRABBLE is a trademark of Hasbro, Inc. in the USA and Canada, and of Mattel, Inc. elsewhere. NASPA and its activities are neither endorsed by nor affiliated with Hasbro or Mattel."
As of June 2013, NASPA had more than 2,500 dues-paid members.
As North American Scrabble Championship:
As Scrabble Players Championship:
The 2020 and 2021 events, both scheduled for Baltimore, were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
|
|
