A Mission, Kansas parks department offers its beginner class nine different ways this fall

In Mission, Kansas, a beginner who wants to learn American Mahjong in the fall of 2026 has nine starting points to choose from. Mission Parks and Recreation runs a course called Learn to Play Mahjongg at the Powell Community Center, and the department's fall schedule lists three four-week sessions on Mondays, each one offered at three different times of day. Between Monday, September 14 and Monday, November 30, that adds up to nine separate ways into the same class.

The teacher is Charlotte Hatfield, who is named as the instructor both on the fall schedule and on the department's registration listing. The course teaches the American game, the one played from the National Mah Jongg League's card. The listing describes four players working to build a winning hand that matches one of the League's dozens of printed hands, and calls the game a blend of skill, strategy and luck.

Nine ways in

According to the fall schedule, the three sessions run September 14 to October 5, October 12 to November 2, and November 9 to November 30. Every session meets on Mondays in three time slots: 10 a.m. to noon, 1 to 3 p.m., and 6 to 8 p.m. A student chooses a month and a time of day separately, so someone who works days can take the evening section, and someone who cannot start until October has not missed the season.

The class meets in the Party Room at the Powell Community Center, according to the registration listing, and the center's own page gives its address as 6090 Woodson Street in Mission. The listing opens the course to ages 16 and up and sets the fee at $80 a person, the same for residents and non-residents.

“This game of skill, strategy and luck will keep your brain active and bring together new friends and old.”Mission Parks and Recreation, describing Learn to Play Mahjongg

A class with a track record

The fall lineup is not a first attempt. Copies of the registration listing saved by the Internet Archive show the course running in four-week Monday blocks through the first half of 2026. In the February copy, the listing carried morning and afternoon sections for February, with the February morning section marked canceled, and morning, afternoon and evening sections for March, at $75 each.

By the April 4 copy, the April morning and afternoon sections were both marked full. In the June 6 copy, the listing showed June and July sections in all three time slots at $80, and the July evening section was already marked full, a month before its first class on July 6.

How to take part

Registration runs through Mission Parks and Recreation. The department lists its offices at 6200 Martway Street and its phone number as (913) 722-8200, and anyone weighing one session against another can call to ask which sections still have room. As of this writing, the fall schedule lists all nine sections, three sessions at three times each.

Prim's view

I keep coming back to the 6 p.m. section. A great many beginner classes meet in the middle of a weekday, and that quietly decides who gets to learn: the retired, the flexible, the lucky. A Monday evening class opens the door to the nurse coming off a shift and the teacher who has just finished grading. Mission is opening that door three times in one season, and an archived listing with a July evening section full by early June tells me people are walking through it.

I also like the shape of a four-week block. It is long enough to learn the tiles and the rhythm of a turn, and short enough that missing September does not mean waiting until next year. If you live near Mission and have been meaning to learn, pick your Monday and your hour, and let Charlotte Hatfield take it from there.