New Boards (and maybe Venue?)

More on the venue below:

Last night we had a great turn out. So much so we ran out of boards to play on and that was with most of the regulars missing. As such I have started a collection for funds to go towards getting another couple of boards. I'm hoping Evan will read this and pick us up some in his van .

Happy to accept donations to this cause - anything over and above the cost will go into the kitty for a) maintenance of the website and ads (which must be due soon) & b) the X-mas part prize!

If you would like to donate (and add you name to this illustrious list of benefactors) let me know below.

Tim £2
Steve £1
Laura £1
Tom £2
Coalan £2
Paul £2
Jon £1
Simon £2.25
John £1
Aneurin £3


There is also some musing about perhaps moving on. We are a democracy so cast your vote above. In short - is there enough space in the Redhouse now? We frequently run out of chairs! Are drinks quite expensive? Or am I getting old?

Kes is checking out new venues - but there are some important questions

Storage - We have to ensure that a new venue will hold the boards
Parking - We need a car park (free) close by for those that drive
Access - We need it to be close to the car park for disabled access
Sole use - We need sole use of the place?

Anyway - feel free to add in your thoughts below...

P.S. I haven't voted as I am still very undecided. I like the Redhouse for convenience and parking and they have been very good to us - they don't mind us bringing food and people don't get kicked out for not buying drinks. They don't take any money for using the place...

Stick me on the list - I'll happily give you a couple of quid for some new boards.

I don't actually think we need sole use as long as it's not busy with non-gamers.
The place I'm looking at should manage all these points and will be cheaper too. Hopefully I'll get a chance to go round today and see if it works.

We might have enough funds to felt them? Any interest?

Ooooh... Strokey....

Aneurin wrote:We might have enough funds to felt them? Any interest?

Yes to felt! Kes will embroider/appliqué the club logo onto them, right? ;-)

Storage of felt covered boards will be more difficult. Also it means no drinks on the boards.

Drinks on the boards is already frowned upon. Shouldn't be much of a departure.

First up, please put be down for a couple of quid, I'm certainly happy to contribute for some more boards.

As for location - I don't *want* to move on from the Red House - it's convenient to get to for me, its a friendly place and has already been observed, they've been very good to the club.

On the flipside space is most definitely an issue these days. I'm not sure what or where to suggest on this one. Put me down as 'Conflicted'

I'm going to check the place out at 5. I know the manager so I think they'll take care of us. I'm not sure how good the parking is but it's in a slightly more central location, nearer to trams

To be honest I would consider that a no-no then... parking is vital.

Aneurin wrote:To be honest I would consider that a no-no then... parking is vital.

Was about to say the same...

Agreed on parking - pretty much a requirement for a lot of us...

What is the name of the place? Is it Harrisons 1854? Ok not far from the Redhouse. Seems to have a University Car Park B opposite? Perhaps we should scope this out one Tuesday evening to see if the spaces are available.

Questions for the owner - space for boards? How busy is it on a Tuesday? Any other events planned/take priority? We don't want another Riverside! Google Street view - looks a bit run down. Is it busy enough other days? i.e. is it likely to stay open? Over the years the club has been the death knoll for a lot of bars... and that's bad because you can lose boards forever...
enough chairs/tables? Lighting conditions... difficult to judge in the summer?! Take pictures of the space to show everyone.

Don't mean to sound so down about it - just think it needs careful consideration.

Kes wrote:I don't actually think we need sole use as long as it's not busy with non-gamers.

Yes but - the riverside was the same... happy to accommodate us - but when people weren't buying drinks (which happens frequently) the manager started not reserving space as promised and it quickly fell apart. Other customers took priority.

The Riverside crew don't seem to mind... that's a good thing...

Yeah, I was gonna take pictures. Had all these questions ready, there's no point moving now unless we find somewhere better or we are simply forced to move due to lack of space.

I've just been down and definitely think it would be a good move.
They have a decent sized room that we could have exclusively.

Good points

• More space
  
• Enough chairs and tables
  
• Better lighting
  
• Separate sound system for the room we'd be using
  
• He's fine for us to take food in
  
• Centre of town location
  
• Cheaper drinks
  
• Space for board storage  
  
• Nice, friendly bar
  
• Manager happy to play with us, he plays DnD and is hoping for a game of Catan
  
• Exclusive use every Tuesday
  

Slight issues

• No direct parking, however he said the uni car park is not monitored at that time and he knows people that use it without issue
  
• Perhaps not enough space to grow. There's more than we have now but it might not last forever if we keep growing. That being said, there is another room we could maybe spread into but...
  
• ...Tuesday is quiz night. It's in a different room so it shouldn't affect us
  
• A band practice upstairs on Tuesday. Apparently not so loud as to be a problem
  

I'll post a pic in a bit

Also, I don't think we'd need more boards as they have some good sized tables we can use

Put me down for a couple of quid for the kitty.

As for the move, definitely conflicted. I like the Red House and Jeff and Danny have been good to us; it's convenient and not really that far from tram and bus stops, has good beer and does excellent pork scratchings!

However, the growth of the club since we've moved has, I guess, been unexpected and we do seem to have outgrown the pub.

Parking is going to be an issue for many.

I think the parking will be fine. It is closer for trams and busses.
To be honest, I think Geoff was good to us but nowadays I feel Danny just tolerates us.
I think the solution here might be a trial run. Having been down, I think it is better and well worth the move but maybe it will not work out.

I'm happy to try it, though the parking does bother me. I've fallen for the old "you can park there, they never monitor it" before...

Put me down for £3.

I think we definitely need to be thinking about moving on. We will outgrow the place in time and I don't like people being put off coming by busy weeks. I've had a look into venues before and couldn't find anywhere that would give us that much more space. I don't think it's a good idea to hop about, we need to find somewhere and stick to it so it needs to be big enough to accomodate us for a while.

CocoaCocoabo wrote:

I think we definitely need to be thinking about moving on. We will outgrow the place in time and I don't like people being put off coming by busy weeks. I've had a look into venues before and couldn't find anywhere that would give us that much more space. I don't think it's a good idea to hop about, we need to find somewhere and stick to it so it needs to be big enough to accomodate us for a while.  

I agree with Lizzy.

The Red House has been a nice little venue, but we definitely need somewhere bigger now. Preferably with access to parking. And cheaper drinks.

A rather contentious issue it would appear. Room/Space, cost and parking seem the 3 priority areas.

Sounds like we should trial Harrisons (perhaps in 2 weeks?) but from what Kes has said and what you all seem to be suggesting do we need to think bigger than Harrisons? Is there a pub with a bigger room (has to be free otherwise we would have to introduce fees again - I want to avoid this). What about a hall somewhere? Bring your own food and drink. I would personally prefer a bar - I like the idea we are the "guys (& girls) that play in the pub".

I'm on the fence a little here - I do think that we probably need more space but I agree with Lizzy that it should be somewhere that has quite a *lot* more space. I've been to Harrisons (a couple of years ago) and it definitely ticked the box of being quiet. I didn't go into the function room but looking at the photo on their website it doesn't look *that* big. Very difficult to judge from a photo, of course. Kes - how many boards / tables of games do you think it could accommodate?

Location of Harrisons is good, and personally I'd be ok with parking a short walk away if necessary (there's generally reasonable on-road parking availability within a few mins in the direction of the RedHouse). Perhaps it's worth a trial night there to check what any noise is like from the quiz & band?