Thursday Intro Sessions - Start Thursday 28th September

There has been significant chatter on this forum of late wondering how we can make the club more welcoming. I have also seen threads about how busy the standard Tuesday meetings are/have become of late; with the associated increased noise levels making concentration difficult and somewhat off-putting for people. Many have mentioned that both old and new-comers alike are being put off coming by this.

As such we are looking at starting a regular meeting at the University Arms on a Thursday evening. Designed specifically for new-comers; but members preferring a quieter approach to their gaming can also benefit. Scott Fryer has kindly agreed to lead on this. It is hoped that the extra meeting will help dilute numbers on a Tuesday night, give people more choice and enable new-comers to feel less intimidated by a massive group.

In the first instance we plan to run this meeting every four weeks with the following dates in the diary so far...

28th September
26th October
23rd November
21st December

In the new year we will re-address this extra meet - looking at numbers attending, impact on the main meetings etc. We hope that we can push this to becoming a fortnightly event and then when popularity sees - weekly to rival our Tuesday sessions. The hobby is expanding rapidly so this will more than likely happen...

But...

Please note that the University Arms are not offering exclusive use of the room on a Thursday night - they offer us use of the venue for free and we need to prove to them that we are a good group to have around - putting money behind the bar (in either food or drink), being friendly, cleaning up the space afterwards etc. If we can do this we might be able to get exclusive use for this extra evening.

So for now - please help support this extra session and lets plan what will be happening on the 28th September... perhaps less prescribed games and more intro-gateways?

Any new members got some fun ideas?

Firstly, thanks for sorting the room, tis much appreciated... happy to take suggestions and ideas for this evening, and Aneurin has covered something I wanted to say, and that was less prescribed gaming, and more gateway games.. if any new members feel the need , feel free to drop me a message, and Im happy to meet at the bar, handle introductions ( if necessary... ) and try and organise games a bit more fluidly.. I'll also make myself fairly obvious, so feel free to approach me first if you want.. I'll be the chap, looking like he's escaped from a hockey game, my #31 jersey usually stands out...

Scott_Fryer wrote:Firstly, thanks for sorting the room, tis much appreciated... happy to take suggestions and ideas for this evening, and Aneurin has covered something I wanted to say, and that was less prescribed gaming, and more gateway games.. if any new members feel the need , feel free to drop me a message, and Im happy to meet at the bar, handle introductions ( if necessary... ) and try and organise games a bit more fluidly.. I'll also make myself fairly obvious, so feel free to approach me first if you want.. I'll be the chap, looking like he's escaped from a hockey game, my #31 jersey usually stands out...

Thanks Scott and Aneurin for organising this, maybe when you advertise this you could put a short list of available games and a quick summary, player count etc. That way people don't have to worry about organising and bringing games, for example this week we will be playing Pandemic, game x, and game y, it will take this long, we will teach you if you don't know how to play etc.

Of people of course can bring and play their own games but make it a bit more structured.

Good idea Rick, when I get a few moments, I'll do something along those lines... Im sure I have one or two suitable games around the house, in addition to the club library

Yes I would expect this kind of session to use more of the club games... but making people aware that they don't really need to bring their own stuff (but can if they want) is a must.

I will probably only make the first session (I can't commit to more than a Tuesday really) and would expect to break open classics like TTR, Pandemic, Carcassonne etc... but I would like to see the games played evolve in a dynamic/fluid way. i.e. Meet people, chat and then see what the newest person in that group would like to play - with a few pointers if they are shy etc. I wouldn't want to see tables of experienced gamers and leaving all the new comers to play something alone with out a old timer who knows the rules...

I'm waffling.

Perhaps this meet needs a funky name... Fresh Thursdays? Thoughtless Thursdays?

Aneurin wrote:Perhaps this meet needs a funky name... Fresh Thursdays? Thoughtless Thursdays?

Scott and Aneurin's Thirsty Thursday Session?

First-time Fursday?

Aneurin wrote:First-time Fursday?

May attract the wrong crowd.