How to Organize a Billiard League in a Retirement Home

Coming up with activity ideas for a retirement home can often be a stressful job for event planners. However, if a retirement home has a pool table in a common events area, residents can enjoy the benefits of playing billiards. One of the best ways to get residents to find value in a pool table is to create a billiard league. Creating a billiard league for a retirement home will provide residents with a way to interact with other residents, keep active and have fun.

Instructions

1

Ask the residents of the retirement home community if they are interested in a billiards league. Talk with a handful of residents to gauge their interests. Send around an informal survey to each resident asking him if he is interested in a billiards league. Ask residents what times would work best for them, as well as how high their interest is. Collect the surveys and review them to see if there is interest.

2

Ask residents to sign up for the billiards league. Pass around a sign-up sheet. Ask residents to include their name and signature.

3

Meet with the residents at an initial meeting to ask for copies of their schedule, and what times would work best. Devise a list of playing rules for the league at the meeting. Ask residents for their ideas on the rules. List rules about play, scoring and how fouls will be taken care of.

4

Review the sign-up sheet and the times that work best for the majority of members, and create a schedule. Open a file in Microsoft Word and type in the times of day that the billiards league will meet. Schedule a tournament by splitting the league members into two or four equal teams.

5

Design brackets for team members to compete in separate games with each other. Schedule these games under the times you meet in your Word file. Print a copy of the schedule for each participating resident. Post a copy on the community bulletin board. Print copies of the rules for each resident.

6

Hold another meeting before beginning the league tournament play to distribute rules and schedules and answer any last-minute questions before tournament play begins.

7

Observe the billiards league during times when they are scheduled to meet. Keep track of the scoring of each match on the schedule sheet. After all first-round matches have been played, create a handout that lists the current standings. Distribute copies to all members in the league. Continue until all rounds have been played.

8

Hold a winning ceremony for the winner and runners-up. Review what went well for the league, and what can be improved upon. Gauge interest to see if you should continue the billiards league. If so, repeat the process.