I went out to an event for Flood the System last night in New York City. Flood the System is a decentralized group of activist organizations that are seeking to form action councils to coordinate actions across the world.

You can check out this presentation that was shared last night.

I want to talk about an awesome game that was played at the beginning of the event called Rebel Beach Bingo.

So this game was a great way to introduce people to each other and learn a little bit about what people are passionate about. I got to share with a number of people that I played and instrument and that I’ve written the NLG (National Lawyer Guild) number on my arm.

It was also a great way to manage the late comers. People would file in late and enter a high energy space where everyone is playing a fun game.

Then someone yelled bingo! The facilitators took over and had everyone circle up. Where we then did a game called allies where people step into a circle when they agree or align with a certain statement.

In this context the person who got bingo read each question and said who signed their bingo card, then the signee stepped into the circle followed by anyone else who identified with the question. For instance, the first bingo item was Born and raised in NY, so everyone who was born and raised in NY stepped into the circle.

This game functioned to do a number of useful things:

• Helped break the ice and introduce people to each other
• Eliminated the need for a lengthy introduction go around
• Created a buffer for late comers
• The allies game allowed us to get a sense of who was in the room with us

By using both serious (“Has taken an anti-oppression workshop”) and silly (“Will do the funky chicken dance with you”) question they were able to expose certain truths about the group without making the whole process too heavy.