As the temperature begins to plummet and the sky turns grey, the torch of the 3rd Annual Facilitator & Friends Olympics has been extinguished and the infamous Gold, Silver and Bronze carabiners have all been awarded!!!

This year featured 5 extraordinary team and individual challenges including some games that are fresh from the minds of our exquisite board members, as well as a classic from olympics past!!! Additionally, this year we were introduced to theme music for every event, the anxious time leading up to the event……lunch time……..down time…..transition time……and OH WHAT A GOOD TIME!!!!

So whats left now……
Ahh….. thats right, immortalizing the triumphs of the victors for the entire world to see!!! (at least for the next 12 months on the CCCP site)
Without further adeau, the medal winners from the Third Annual Facilitator & Friends Olympics are as follows:

THE WORLDS LARGEST LAWN DARTS

Gold Medals: Diana Bosch & Joe Groves
Silver Medals: Kasey Groves & Peter Warren
Bronze Medals: Mike Gessford & Jay Potter

CUP STACK

Gold Medal: Jay Potter
Silver Medal: Diana Bosch
Bronze Medal: Stacy Snyder

KNIFE THROWING:

Gold Medals: Stacy Snyder
Silver Medals: Pete Bartkoski
Bronze Medals: Mike Gessford

LASER TAG:

Gold Medals: The team that won the event…

TEAM SPEED SCRABBLE

Gold Medals: Brian Bosch & Peter Warren
Silver Medals:
Bronze Medals:

Thanks to Mike Gessford for providing inspirational musical content during the entire event, via the Gessophonypod (patent pending). The 2008 CCCP Olympics soundtrack is available from Mike for $649 plus S&H.

We want to thank everyone who participated and give a special thanks to the all of the CCCP Board Members for their contributions in the overwhelming success of this Annual Event!!! We will see you Fall of 2008 for the 4th Annual Facilitator & Friends Olympics!!!

BONUS ACTIVITY WRITE UP:

PLAYERS: Suggested 4 players per team with at least four teams. (It simply doesn’t work with fewer than 4 teams, and more than 6 gets very awkward unless you add a second set of tiles).

TIME: Each game tends to be 5 to 8 minutes, however, the game is addictive and sessions of many hours are not unusual! Obviously, the game goes quicker with 6 teams. Three team games can last 20 minutes!!

SETUP: Make extra large tiles reflective of a standard Scrabble® set (100 tiles in English); you don’t use the board. Spread the tiles upside-down in the center of the playing area; make certain that each team has plenty of room to work. Each team chooses 16 tiles and leaves them upside down in front of them.

Players should lay out their 16 tiles with eight in front of the group and the other eight a distance of about 15 feet away.

BEGIN: The facilitator is the first FLIP SAYER. (This is important!)

THE PLAY: When the FLIP SAYER says FLIP! all players turn over the teams first 8 tiles (the ones right in front of them) and begin making words, attempting to use all of their letters in a single crossword layout. The different teams boards DO NOT interact in any way. When one team has used all of their letters in words that cross each other, with no letters left over (see example) that team calls out FLIP!

A FLIP!: When a team calls FLIP!, ONE MEMBER OF EACH TEAM runs over to their tile pile (about 10 to 15 feet away), takes another tile back to the group, and continues working.
This means that at all times, all teams should have the same number of tiles in play. If two teams call FLIP! simultaneously it is treated as only one FLIP!.

WINNING: When all the letters are gone, the next team to call FLIP! is the winner of that round!!!
Usually at this point everyone compares words and looks for “style points” (really cool words). You also check to make certain that the winning board is legal. Most teams become fanatical about finishing their board…..which is ok as well.

RULES: Same as in regular Scrabble®: only English words are allowed, no proper nouns, no slang, no abbreviations. If there is a word that is in question, the team should check with the facilitator on whether it is allowed. Teams often ask the facilitators about spellings too, but if a dictionary needs to be consulted (which the facilitator will have on hand) precious time may be lost to that group.

NOTES: Teams can rearrange your words at any time if they feel it will be useful.
There are 100 tiles in a full set, so with 6 teams, 96 of the 100 tiles are in use.
If after an extended period it becomes clear that NONE of the teams can use all their tiles to complete a board the facilitator will yell FLIP and each team will get to retrieve an additional tile. (This almost NEVER happens with unless you have only 2 or 3 teams.)
Blanks are wild cards that can be any letter, but they must represent the same letter in every word they are in. In the example below, the words could be TOCK and BOX, but not TACK and BOX.

There are only two blanks in a set.