Noisy room - upstairs at University Arms

As we all know, the room upstairs is a bit noisy on a Tuesday evening, due to the number of people in there. I had a few ideas about this which I would like people to comment on -

1) Mention it to the pub, they might be able to put drapes up or noise dampeners which might help. Soft furnishings and large curtains help. We would need to speak to the pub to see if this is feasable.

2) Noise cancelling barriers - you can get stand up barriers which are covered in a soft cloth these can be placed in between the tables to absorb noise - again would need to meet the pubs approval.

3) Sometimes downstairs is dead, there's only a couple of people in so grab a table downstairs. Please check with the staff first to make sure this is OK.

4) Book the other smaller room on the forum

5) Remember we have monthly Sunday sessions at the Red Deer in their upstairs room, it is much quieter there.

6) Organise meeting days other than Tuesdays, again please check with the pubs first.

7) Organise meetings at people's houses, if you are happy to host and you want to play particular games, use the forums to set up game days at home and volunteer to host. Club members will always respect your property and act responsibly.

I hope this goes some way to addressing the problem, any more suggestions?

I definitely agree we have a problem background noise can be a problem - I know at least a few people that have been turned off by how crowded it is, and the level of ambient noise at the club. I certainly struggle following rules descriptions at times with the level of background noise.

Here are my thoughts on your ideas Rik. Wish I had some more of my own to offer but you've covered all the stuff I had in mind already

1) I suspect the pub won't be desperately interested in making significant changes - after all they already give us the space for free so unless lots of other people are complaining as well...

2) Much the same as 1) - plus that room already gets crowded and hard to navigate when busy! Plus setting up, taking down and storing them would be a pain - as Aneurin has already mentioned it's hard enough getting folk to put boards away at the end of the night and these things can be quite heavy and awkward (used to have to move them around a lot in a previous job).

3) No comment here, agree totally

4) Two potential issues here: 1) I don't think we have that room booked each week, we just grab it if we can (although I seem to recall someone (Aneurin maybe?) was going to ask about adding that to our booking) and 2) a lot of people don't actually use the forum (although you could argue that's an argument that people *should* be using it!)

5) The one thing I'd note is the few times I've been along to the Red Deer on a Sunday it's typically not far off capacity already.

6) There was talk of adding a regular extra day at the Uni Arms. Not sure where if anywhere that went...

7) Yep, absolutely the case.

EDIT: Poor choice of words

I'm afraid this is the nature of being popular. It's us that is creating the noise and one way to deal
With this is to get people to tone it down a little.

I'm with Dave - asking the pub to drape the walls is a little cheeky given we get the space for free and only use it 1 day per week.

As for noise cancelling barriers - I would have thought this would be even more off putting for new comers if we are all boxed in little private games.

We cannot directly book the small room - they like to keep it available for other groups. Of course if available we can use it.

We are looking at asking for another evening at the Uni arms. scott will be leading this. I will keep people posted here.

Im still up for doing this, initially I think one additional Thursday? a month, aimed more at new members, but of course everyone is welcome...

Scott_Fryer wrote:Im still up for doing this, initially I think one additional Thursday? a month, aimed more at new members, but of course everyone is welcome...

Thursdays would actually suit me better than Tuesdays...

How about we all wear wireless headphones that connect us to only the other people playing the same game as us?

DaveB wrote:

Scott_Fryer wrote:Im still up for doing this, initially I think one additional Thursday? a month, aimed more at new members, but of course everyone is welcome...

Thursdays would actually suit me better than Tuesdays...

I am liking this thursday idea too!