A new game retailers’ organization, the Professional Game Store Association, was formed at a meeting of fourteen retailers at Gen Con.  The new organization is open to any brick and mortar hobby game retailer. 

A charter was agreed upon by the founding members.  It reads:

“The Professional Game Store Association (PGSA) is created with the mission to promote and strengthen the business of hobby Game retail Stores by partnering with manufacturers, publishers, and distributors and taking a leadership role in support of the hobby game industry.”

A timetable for further organizational steps was established at the meeting.  Retailers interested in being Charter Members can sign up through the Website by September 15th.  The organization hopes to vote on initial bylaws at the Alliance Summit in Fort Wayne in October.   

We asked Jim Crocker of Modern Myths, LLC in Northampton, Massachusetts, one of the founding members, why the group saw the need for a new organization separate from GAMA (which has a Retailer Division but does not allow retailers to vote).  “At least for myself, we want an organization where we put the resources into it and we can do what we want with those resources and we don’t have to get the approval of the people we’re getting the money from in order to do what we want to do with it,” he said.  “Also, there may be certain times when the positions we’re taking might be more adversarial, and the freedom to do that is a big plus for having an independent organization.”