The Meetings:
We get together twice a month, alternating between two locations:
- Tualatin – Our original location. Meets at the Winona Grange Hall in Tualatin, The Tualatin schedule rotates among third Sundays, third Mondays, and third Fridays to accommodate the most people — see When and Where page for schedule.
- NE Portland – Our newest location. Meets at the Matt Dishman Community Center in NE Portland on the first Saturday of the month from 11 am – 1 pm— see When and Where page for schedule.
Feel free to participate at either (or both) locations. You are more than welcome to check out puzzles at one location and return them to another.
What Are the Meetings Like:
We are very informal. And while puzzles are obviously the thing that brought us all together, we have a grand time visiting with our friends, old and new alike. We don’t work puzzles at the meetings; we just swap puzzles.
Our puzzling community is very important to us. The Exchanges work because of your generosity in donating puzzles, being able to choose new ones, and return them when finished. We strive to make the Exchanges a safe space to trade puzzles. To preserve a safe environment, the Portland Puzzle Exchange reserves the right to refuse entry to anyone who appears to be taking advantage of the community or who is disruptive in any way.
How Does Trading Work:
The Exchanges are pretty simple. As the name implies, you bring puzzles you’ve completed and exchange them for others brought by fellow puzzlers. When you complete a puzzle, bring it back and exchange it again.
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- Drop off “First-time puzzles” at the front table to allow our hosts and volunteers to check them in. First-time puzzles are those which have never been to a Portland Puzzle Exchange before. Check-in means we put a label on the bottom of the box, bag up puzzles with loose pieces, then set them out on the trading tables.
- “Returning puzzles” can be dropped off directly onto any of the trading tables. Returning puzzles are those with pieces in ziploc-style bags, log sheets in the box, and Portland Puzzle Exchange stickers on the bottom of the box.
Now you can wander! You’ll find a wide variety of puzzles on the tables — all sizes, piece counts, shapes, styles, and degrees of difficulty.
There will be puzzles set out when you get there, but people are constantly coming in with more, so it pays to stick around a while.
Preventing Escapees:
We found that the more we move puzzles around, coming to and from meetings, the more pieces we seem to have escaping from their boxes. The solution we all agreed upon is to use ziplock-style baggies. When you are ready to put the puzzle back in the box, put the pieces into a ziplock bag first, then in the box. The gallon size easily holds the pieces for most puzzles, and the investment of about a dime per puzzle significantly increases the life of a puzzle. Please don’t tape the box shut!
Missing Pieces? Most people don’t like to work puzzles with missing pieces, and we already have soooo many puzzles to store, that we have decided to ask that if you work a puzzle and discover that it has missing pieces please do not bring it in for exchange.
So, what to do when you find puzzles with missing pieces?
If the puzzle is missing 2 or less pieces. Write that information in black sharpie on the back of the box. If you know where the pieces are missing from, circle these areas on the puzzle image. Then, donate the puzzle to an organization that could use puzzles, pre-school art projects, or donate to a local thrift store, etc.
If the puzzle is missing more than 2 pieces. Get rid of it! Some puzzlers use the pieces for craft projects or compost in their garden. Or recycle it — empty the pieces from the zippy bag, tape the box with brown tape, and throw it in your recycle bin (loose puzzle pieces jam up the recycling equipment.)
Puzzle Tracking Sheets
We have developed a puzzle history sheet that we include in the box with each puzzle. As each person completes a given puzzle, they can date it, give the state of the puzzle (intact, missing pieces, etc.) and add any comments they want to share about that puzzle. It’s Puzzle Feedback, and is appreciated by many of us.
If a Puzzle Tracking Sheet is not in your puzzle box and your would like to add one, you can open and print at home via this link:
Puzzle Tracking Sheet Download Link
Donations:
Currently, each location requests an $10 annual donation per household to cover the meeting rental, storage, and miscellaneous supplies. If you attend meetings at only one location, donate to that location; if you attend meetings at both locations, donate separately to each location. We use the honor system and don’t keep records on who gives how much and when. The Donation Can will be out at the meetings.
The Email List:
We maintain an “anonymous” email distribution list for sending out meeting reminders and group up-dates. We have decided to use an “Undisclosed Recipients” mode of messaging in order to further protect your privacy. We don’t share or disclose our email list with anyone else, as we value your privacy as highly as we do our own. If you wish to be either added or removed from the mailing list, please DO NOT FLAG US AS SPAM! Just drop us a note at info@portlandpuzzles.org and we will remove you from the list before the next mailing.
Our group has grown quite a bit over the past couple of years and Gmail was beginning to complain about our use of a personal email address for bulk mailings. You’ll notice that messages now come from info@portlandpuzzles.org — this will be our one, single email address for all group member communications. Unfortunately, sometimes email programs don’t always play nice with each other, and while this is a good solution in many ways, it may cause unforeseen issues in other ways. If you have received email newsletters from us without issue in the past and find you are no longer receiving them please first check your spam folder, and if it’s not there add info@portlandpuzzles.org to your safe senders list. If all else fails, check the website for upcoming Exchanges and read the latest newsletter on the site.