Sheffield Club Survey

If you haven't done so already, could you possibly complete our Club survey? It will take 2 minutes and you don't need to register or provide any personal details. Thanks!

Sheffield Board Gamers Survey

Once we have got enough replies I will post the answers here.

Here's a link to the results

Link to Survey Monkey

Pretty much what we expected really but some interesting figures -

Most people prefer to attend the Tuesday session but 37.5% attend Tuesday and Sunday.

18.75% of people weren't greeted when they arrived at the club.

18.75% of people found it difficult to find a game to play.

100% of people who played a game enjoyed it! Yay!

87.5% rated us 'Excellent' or 'Very Good'.

68.75% use the forum 'Occasionally' or 'Never'.

Comments -
I've always found everyone to be very friendly and welcoming. Perhaps this could be made even better if there was a clearly identifiable allocated person to meet and greet new/potential members (perhaps even with a name tag?)

Long time member. I think that others did well to involve many new attendees into games at recent (July 2018) sessions.

Use the little "player wanted" signs more. It is difficult to tell if people wait for specific person to start a game that they prearranged in the forum.

It's very difficult and awkward when you arrive and everyone is already in a game - most people avoid eye contact. Lots of people are obviously there for a long game and serious gaming experience. It's hard when you want to keep it 'light' to know who to approach. I walked into the room and straight back out once because of this.

I am really only interested in playing games that are pre-arranged via the forum. I wish more people would use the forum.

It can be a little difficult to find a game as sometimes people have already formed groups and are 'full' - it can be a little nerve wracking asking people to play with you or if you can join if you don't know anyone. I don't use the forum much as I'm not usually wanting to sign up for a game - I'm new to board games and don't want to take a place of someone that might be better or really keen to play that one, also without researching each one, I likely wouldn't know what it was. I usually just have a look to make sure the night is still running, Facebook would be easier for this. It's generally really enjoyable when I've got in on a table, just the initial bit which is a bit daunting.

Loved it once I felt more accepted and knew people harder at first as many people were very established.

I think the club is brilliant and really enjoy it. having played a lot of board games, I found it easy to play something that I liked. It might be worth having someone nominated for each week to greet anyone new and help them find a game?

It's awkward to spontaneously turn up when a lot of people are in pre-arranged games.

So to act on some of the results -

a) Not many people use the forum
I have been making the Facebook page more active, posting Events and news etc. I have also been mentioning the forum on Facebook and asking people to visit.

b) Sometimes difficult to get into a game
I have been asking new people to speak to us when they arrive. Some people were walking into the room where we are playing, seeing everyone busy then walking straight back out. There's not much we can do about this unless we ask people to say hello when they arrive. We can then invariably find them a game to play.

Any other suggestions?

RikTheChief wrote:b) Sometimes difficult to get into a game
I have been asking new people to speak to us when they arrive. Some people were walking into the room where we are playing, seeing everyone busy then walking straight back out. There's not much we can do about this unless we ask people to say hello when they arrive.  We can then invariably find them a game to play.

Speaking as someone who can, and does, find it difficult to initiate conversation with people I don't know, I can relate to the feedback from people who say they find it difficult to get involved when they arrive. Some people will be happy to say hello etc, but (as the results and comments show) clearly not everyone has the confidence to do that. If people are arriving and finding it difficult to get into a game, especially if it's to the extent that they're leaving almost immediately, then I would say that actually we can do things to help.

I think from our point of view, we should be making sure that between us, we're always looking out for new/newer people arriving, so that even if (and especially if) we're already playing, we can still welcome them, introduce them to a few people and get them into a game. That way, if they are feeling a little nervous etc, then we've demonstrated that we are very happy to accommodate them even at the expense of breaking off our own games temporarily. For me, that would make us come across as very friendly and welcoming, which of course is what we're aiming to be. I don't think it's fair on the new/newer members if we're expecting every one of them to have the confidence to initiate a conversation/get into a game with people they don't know, especially if we're all already involved in games when they arrive.

Basically, for new/newer people arriving it works both ways - yes of course it helps if they try and engage with us, but equally we need to be aware that (as the survey shows) it doesn't happen all the time, so we need to make sure that we're also putting in effort to engage with them, particularly if they seem hesitant about engaging with us first.

Samuel_C wrote:

RikTheChief wrote:b) Sometimes difficult to get into a game
I have been asking new people to speak to us when they arrive. Some people were walking into the room where we are playing, seeing everyone busy then walking straight back out. There's not much we can do about this unless we ask people to say hello when they arrive.  We can then invariably find them a game to play.

Speaking as someone who can, and does, find it difficult to initiate conversation with people I don't know, I can relate to the feedback from people who say they find it difficult to get involved when they arrive. Some people will be happy to say hello etc, but (as the results and comments show) clearly not everyone has the confidence to do that. If people are arriving and finding it difficult to get into a game, especially if it's to the extent that they're leaving almost immediately, then I would say that actually we can do things to help.

I think from our point of view, we should be making sure that between us, we're always looking out for new/newer people arriving, so that even if (and especially if) we're already playing, we can still welcome them, introduce them to a few people and get them into a game. That way, if they are feeling a little nervous etc, then we've demonstrated that we are very happy to accommodate them even at the expense of breaking off our own games temporarily. For me, that would make us come across as very friendly and welcoming, which of course is what we're aiming to be. I don't think it's fair on the new/newer members if we're expecting every one of them to have the confidence to initiate a conversation/get into a game with people they don't know, especially if we're all already involved in games when they arrive.

Basically, for new/newer people arriving it works both ways - yes of course it helps if they try and engage with us, but equally we need to be aware that (as the survey shows) it doesn't happen all the time, so we need to make sure that we're also putting in effort to engage with them, particularly if they seem hesitant about engaging with us first.

I agree Samuel, it's a tricky one to get right and I think it is our main issue.

How about a 'welcome' poster or some kind of board we can put up outside the door at the start and take down at the end?  Maybe with a group photo or a photo of one of us to make it a bit more personal (I don't mind volunteering for this).  Some basic instructions so people know where to go and what to do.

Name tags? We can get cheap stickers from somewhere and use these?  Would be a good conversation starter/jumping in point for new people.

Use the Player Wanted signs more?  Are they still under the seats at the Uni Arms?

How many people engaged with the survey? Is this weighted by a low n?

Aneurin wrote:How many people engaged with the survey? Is this weighted by a low n?

There's a link to the survey results above. Only 16 replies, pretty poor to say we have 400+ followers. However as Samuel mentioned the people who did reply have valid points.

RikTheChief wrote:

Aneurin wrote:How many people engaged with the survey? Is this weighted by a low n?

There's a link to the survey results above.  Only 16 replies, pretty poor to say we have 400+ followers.  However as Samuel mentioned the people who did reply have valid points.

Lesson I learnt over the years of running this shindig- you cannot please everyone. If you try it will frustrate you a lot. This issue raises its head every few years or so... I know some members that quit coming because it got too busy/big - and that contradicts this whole thread about being more friendly to entice more people in and grow the club.

I think if the club wasn't welcoming it wouldn't have grown the way it did. Could it have grown/grow faster and bigger? Maybe/probably - but then that might impact on your playtime (welcoming tables have been thrown around in the past - I personally wouldn't want to sit and not play on the hope that week a new member will show up - it doesn't happen every day; equally that's the problem with table identifiers - if you don't need them for a few weeks - people get bored of using them). Think about what you want the club to be...

Admittedly perhaps things have stagnated or shrunk slightly recently - I think that in part is due to now many other similar offerings available - Tree House, Library club, etc. People have far more choice and I think SBGC USP is still its fairly cheap (£2 per year), we play in a local pub rather than a club house, and we have a helpful community on both the forum/Facebook/twitter.

I think where the club has let itself down recently - and I am very guilty of this - is lots and lots of pre-arranged games or many campaign games getting played where it is difficult for new people to join. I have IA, Seafall, Pandemic, Xwing... if each gets played once a month thats pretty much me never playing with any new people.

I also think the club needs a face - someone who is there all (most) the time and can explain things, welcome people and say 'hey I think that table needs a player'... or someone that plays a lot of variety games and few campaign games. It used to be me - and I've had to step away now I'm working in York. Who is now the face of the club? We need to work on making this their club.... I think that will help. Rick?

All valid points Aneurin. The recent warm spell has probably dissuaded people from attending and I'm sure these people will be back when the weather cools down a bit.

Its true that some people would prefer to play at the Treehouse (or other venues) however this I think is a different experience. I would imagine most people would go with some friends, play a game or two with these friends and not engage with other customers. With us it's a bit different.

I don't think we need to worry about people pre-arranging games, after all we can't stop them! There's always games going on in the main room and generally all regular members are pretty good at spotting new people and inviting them to play a game.

It's good to review these things every once in a while to make sure we are doing all we can to provide an open and welcoming experience. From the survey results 100% of people had fun when they played a game and 87% rated us Excellent or Very Good. I think that's something to be proud of.

To add an anecdote to this (and I know, the plural of anecdote isn't data)

I first attended on a Sunday and felt rather intimidated because it's an alien environment to someone who hasn't played games outside a living room. Thankfully I clocked Liz from the forum posts and Samuel, Christos and a couple of others coincidentally had a space. I can imagine if I didn't see Liz or there was no game space I would have discretely left and never returned.

I think having someone who is willing to be a meet and greeter would help, but the difficulty is getting Mr/Mrs Bloggs who walks in to know who that person is.

TBH, as almost everyone here is pretty friendly, it may be just having a couple of outspoken people yelling "Hello!" at people who walk in and getting them settled.