Top Poker Sites

William Glasser Endorses CONNECTIONS board game

Internationally recognized psychiatrist, William Glasser, MD, has formally endorsed the CONNECTIONS™ board game, invented by Morganton resident Ronnie Mace. In a letter to Mace, Dr. Glasser wrote, “Playing this game as directed can help you become more aware of the importance of good relationships in your life and behaviors you can choose to achieve those relationships.”

Internationally recognized psychiatrist, William Glasser, MD, has formally endorsed the CONNECTIONS™ board game, invented by Morganton resident Ronnie Mace. Dr. Glasser"s endorsement is yet another in a series of success milestones that Mace has enjoyed since he launched CONNECTIONS™ in November 2003.

In a letter to Mace, Dr. Glasser wrote, “Playing this game as directed can help you become more aware of the importance of good relationships in your life and behaviors you can choose to achieve those relationships.”

Glasser is founder and president of The William Glasser Institute in Chatsworth, CA. The Institute is an international training organization devoted to teaching his ideas in countries across the world. Over 45,000 people have received training in Choice Theory and Reality Therapy from The William Glasser Institute since it"s inception in 1967.

Hundreds of thousands of individuals have studied Dr. Glasser"s theories since his ideas first appeared in college curriculums internationally over 20 years ago. He perhaps is best known as the author of the books, Reality Therapy and Choice Theory – A New Psychology of Personal Freedom. He has written over 20 books

Mace designed CONNECTIONS™ around Dr. Glasser"s theories. Since its formal launch in November, CONNECTIONS™ has emerged as a powerful relationship-management tool in a wide variety of environments – schools, businesses, prisons, churches and the family room.

“Dr. Glasser"s endorsement is a tremendous message of authenticity,” Mace said. “It implies that CONNECTIONS™ is indeed a powerful tool for enabling participants to improve their lives through relationship awareness and management.

Other milestones Mace has recently enjoyed include significant orders from the Johnston County (NC) school system in which CONNECTIONS™ is being placed in most of its schools. He has also received orders from many Burke County (NC) public schools. CONNECTIONS™ is now being played in 13 prisons in the North Carolina Department of Corrections program, and will soon be used in five Youth and Development Centers that are part of the state"s Department of Juvenile Justice.

“Slowly but steadily, more and more people from all walks of life are being exposed to CONNECTIONS™,” Mace said. “They are seeing the value of it and how much fun they have playing the game.

Mace is Reality Therapy certified. He recognized a void in easy, fun, instructive board games that were designed to strengthen personal relationships of all kinds. He invented CONNECTIONS™, an entertaining, dialogue-enriched game that directs players to paths leading to success.

Its design promotes open, candid dialogue leading to resolution of conflicts. These are frequently the source of tension within relationships – employee and supervisor, student and teacher, friend and neighbor, and sister and brother.

Mace has taken what is a complex relationship-based theory largely confined to psychological clinical circles, and through an ingeniously simple and engaging design, created a family, institutional and corporate game that enables players to benefit from the core of the theory while having fun doing it.

“You will emerge from several rounds of playing CONNECTIONS™ more in tune with how you communicate and interact with others and how others communicate with you,” Mace said. “You will become a better communicator, a better boss, a better employee, a better teacher, a better friend, a better parent and a better mate.”

“CONNECTIONS™ is a simple and fun game,” he said. “You will be astounded what you learn about your opponents. You will be astonished what you will learn about yourself.”

It is a game that is designed to be played repeatedly, with participants tracking and scoring progress during the playing period. Support materials – CONNECTIONS™ Relationship Survey, CONNECTIONS™ Individualized Action Plan and the CONNECTIONS™ Journal – enhance the impact of the game by providing tools to record and track scores and progress.

The game and support materials are currently sold directly through Connections Worldwide, Inc., based in Morganton, NC. Game orders and other purchase orders can be submitted through the Internet, telephone, fax and mail. Additional details are available on the web site, www.theconnectionsgame.com.

Mace investigated and developed CONNECTIONS™ for two years, during which he created prototypes and supportive materials. He shared the concept with a circle of advisors and friends, who explored its merit through their own professional connections in the educational and psychological industries.

CONNECTIONS™ was developed with thorough field-testing using a variety of players, including middle school students, teachers, families, office workers and family crisis participants and employees.

What emerged is a complete gaming concept that is visually designed to portray connecting and disconnecting habits with an underlying goal of helping participants become the best person they can be.

“It"s the only time in my life that I"ve seen an interactive game that has the potential to change people to be more positive in their relationships or their behaviors,” said Robert Patton, principal of East Burke Middle School.

“You become your own counselor through playing the game and the changes that it creates are ones that are self-imposed decisions arrived at by each individual through playing the game,” he said. “It has the ability to cause me and each of us who play the game to try hard to be better in our relationships with everyone else.”

Mace was awarded the Purple Heart for wounds received in action during the Vietnam War, experiences that helped shape the person he is today; a person who has overcome many of life"s pitfalls and made a positive contribution helping others do the same.