Smack the pack prior to making a starter?

After a few underwhelming fermentations when pitching the smack pack directly into the primary, I've decided I should start making starters. Here's my question, though ... do I still have to smack the Wyeast pack a few hours prior to pitching into my starter or can I just open the bag and dump it right into the starter. Seems a bit redundant to get the yeast started prior to a 10-18 hour "starting".

I'd go ahead and smack it first. It can't hurt, and smack packs tend to go active pretty quickly. Perhaps try activating the smack pack before work in the morning, pitch the results (swelled or not) into your starter that evening. Brew 2-7 days later.

Smack it first, if for no other reason than to verify that your yeast is still alive prior to pitching it into your bigger starter. If the pack doesn't swell after smacking, you can return it to the LHBS.

Really? 2-7 days? Man, I was only going to wait about 15 hours. The Mr. Malty site makes it out like there's a 12-18 hour window for prime pitching. Is 12-18 way too short? My concern is this, I'd like to get a batch going before I leave town on Wednesday night. Otherwise I won't be brewing until next week. Am I rushing a starter?

I think you'll be fine, but I'd get the starter going tonight. By smacking the pack, you start fermentation. When you pitch it into a starter, you keep it active and "step it up." Stepping up a starter is a common practice to keep the yeast as active as possible. All that's involved is adding more fermentables to the mix. I usually step mine up with fresh wort at least once, if not three to five times in order to get a very active high cell count starter. Each time the krausen subsides, I allow the yeast to settle for a few hours, pour off any clear liquid, and add some more fresh wort. I usually double the volume each time until I have 1-2 quarts.

In short, smack the pack now, and pitch it into the starter in the morning. Step it up tomorrow afternoon, and brew Wednesday.

Smack it right now and get your starter running in the AM.

I'm sure there are many reasonable methods. The last two starters I made worked great by doing it this way:

a) smack the pack before I go to work the day before brew day.
b) sometime later that evening after supper, make 1500 ml of wort from 150 grams of DME and water, boil 10 minutes, cool in ice water bath, pitch the swollen smack pack.
c) swirl next morning and every couple of hours to stir up the yeast.
d) brew in the afternoon, pitch starter in the evening

This is pretty simple, but it seems to work fine. I get a lot of yeast growth in the roughly 20 hours the starter is doing its thing until I pitch it in my wort.

I just brewed this weekend, and used wyeast 1056. Smack pag bulged nicely, and went into a starter for 24 hours before pitching. Everything looked great.
It has now been 36 hours, and I am not getting much activity. Only a few bubbles every 2-3 minutes. It is fermenting at 63 deg.
Am I being paranoid about it being stuck? If it is stuck, all I have on hand is Nottingham dry yeast, would this be ok to use to jump start it?

Assuming you have a "normal" SG. How does the beer look? Do you have any krausen or any remnants? If you see a dried krausen ring around the edge of your fermentation container you may be nearly done with fermentation. If you really have no activity and you don't see any indications of previous fermentation take a gravity reading. If you still have a very high SG rouse the yeast off the bottom with a sanitized mixing spoon. If you still have high gravity 24 hours after rousing the yeast re-pitch.

If you re-pitch with nottinghan you'll have nottingham characters in your beer, if you still want 1056 character re-pitch with 1056.