David Fair: Change is Hard

Much of the gaming I do takes place in my home on Friday nights. That’s when I host the GCOM-Damascus chapter. I’ve been hosting gaming there since January of 2004. Wow, that seems like such a long time. In that time, we have had some great games, and some not so great games played, and we have had more than 50 different people play there.

This year, while I was out of town at Origins, we had 18 people attend. This is doubly remarkable as I had 2 other regulars with me. We have a great pool of about 25 or so people who come at least once a month. At our last session in January, we had 18 in attendance again.

At this point, I need to mention that I live in a townhouse. I have 3 tables suitable for gaming, and a total of about 16 chairs. When we have 18 people show up, there just isn’t much we can do to accommodate everyone.

I have to make a change. We can’t have that many people in my cramped little house every Friday. Luckily, the little town I live in just opened a Community Center, and it is just around the corner from my place, maybe a quarter mile as the crow flies. My wife works there sometimes, filling in for regular staff when needed, and in the summer she directs summer camps there. They have offered to host our gaming nights, and my wife can close up the place. we would not have to pay a rental fee and could stay as late as we like.

We would get access to big rooms with lots of tables and chairs, and plenty of lighting and a comfortable climate (my townhouse tends to heat up fast with 12 or more gamers in it, even in the dead of winter), there is even a small kitchen with an icemaker. We would get more two player games played, and more long games played, as there would be more room for both. We would have plenty of restroom facilities. We wouldn’t have to worry about what time to close up. No neighbors complaining of noise, no parking problems, and most importantly, there would be no financial cost. We could even use the pool tables, air hockey tables, foosball and ping pong tables, if we like. There is a chance that we would even get some new members thanks to a little more community exposure and the public venue.

So why am I so reluctant to move there?

The drawbacks as I see them are few: we would have to carry in our games, and our snacks and drinks, and we would have to clean up and return the tables and chairs to their resting places. That’s not that bad, right?

The Community Center Director has been offering to host us for about 3 months now, and I keep putting her off. The truth is, I *like* having game night in my house. That’s where the games are. I like being able to play any game at a moments notice. Some of the games in my collection would be hard to move over there on the off chance that we would want to play, Crokinole or Spinball, for example.

I have to bite the bullet and give it a try. There really is no other choice, as we are just out of room, and moving or buying the townhouse next door and knocking out a wall, are not really options at this point.

I plan to do a few things to make it easier.

I am going to print out my games owned list, and take it with us. My place is close enough that we can just pop back if there is something we find that we really want but didn’t bring. I hope we actually do that, and not just say that we will.

I am going to get a few of those largish Rubbermaid storage totes, to make carrying in the games somewhat easier than the LL Bean bags I normally use.

I am going to encourage more planning ahead for our game nights and more discussion on our private mail list. This should help us ensure that we bring the things that we want to play, and we play the things that we bring.

I am going to encourage more of our people to bring games from their own collections, so I am not the only one schlepping stuff back and forth.

I am nervous about making the change. What if people don’t like the center as much? What if attendance drops off? What if things just don’t feel right?

I am sure someone out there has had a similar situation occur, tell us how it went, what pitfalls you encountered, and how you overcame them.

© 2007 David Fair

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All I can say is make sure you spend the extra 2 bucks and get plastic tubs with wheels. It’ll really save your back. Dale Posted by Dale Yu on Feb 7, 2007 at 07:46 AM | #

Dave, Boy, can I relate.  The Columbus Area Boardgaming Society (CABS) is preparing to possibly move again.  This would be the 4th move in the 5 years I’ve been here.  CABS also started (about 10 years ago) as a small group of friends, and boy have we grown.  Now we average over 100 members per meeting.  There are some differences in meeting in a public place to consider.... 1) Some people who didn’t feel comfortable going to a stranger’s house (or the friend of a friend) might feel more comfortable going to a community room.  This could cause your numbers to swell. 2) If it really is a public place (and not a privately rented space), you might even gain some members that you aren’t crazy about.  Do you just avoid playing with them?  Or do you still feel that you have the right to kick someone out or disinvite someone?  Does anyone else have that right? 3) What happens when you and your wife are out of town or sick?  Is gaming cancelled?  Can someone else host at this public place?  Or would it have to revert to someone’s house?  Does that person get to decide who gets to show up? 4) Who is responsible for damages?  Accidents happen. I could go on and on.  One option if your numbers swell and you don’t want to have to move to a bigger place is to require that people RSVP (with first come first serve) and a limit based on the number of people that the location will hold.  Of course, you could do that and stay at your house, too.  But I have to admit that I am in a “the more the merrier” camp. Good luck! Valerie Posted by Valerie Putman on Feb 7, 2007 at 12:31 PM | #

There was a brief period when our group was so large that the hosts decided they couldn’t handle it if too many folks showed up.  So we adopted a hard limit of 12 attendees per home.  If more than that wanted to game (and that used to happen with some regularity), then we would split them between two hosts.  There were even a few weeks when folks would voluntarily drop out because attendance was going to be too large.  We still have the limit, but enough people have moved away that this hasn’t been a problem for quite a while. Posted by Larry Levy on Feb 7, 2007 at 03:39 PM | #

I suppose limiting attendance is an option, but like Valerie, I fall firmly into “the more the merrier” camp. The more people present at a given gathering, the better the chance that we will find the right combinations of games and gamers and no one be left out or stuck playing a game they would like to avoid. I am hopeful that the new venue will make anyone who would be reluctant feel more welcome. Thats a good thing in my book. So far, even having my game nights open to the public, we haven’t had any gamers there that I don’t welcome having there. There are a few local gamers I know that I am happy haven’t made it to my place for gaming. I hope they don’t and that we simply continue to grow with more people I enjoy hanging out with and playing with, but eventually someone will show up that is not worth having around. When I played RPG’s for years and years we tried many methods of dealing with problem people, and I have learned that the direct method is the best. I have no problem saying that a person is not welcome back unless their behavior changes, and further telling them not to return if they don’t change. Still, I am very democratic, and any thought of a decision like this would be taken up with the longest-standing members of the group. As to the other points Valerie raises, the game night is usually canceled when we can’t host, and since it must be my wife who closes up the new venue, we have to be there. However, the group usually gets together at someone place when they have to. We can’t let a week go by with no gaming! We have a mailing list to coordinate this. Thanks for all the advice. I will write after a couple of sessions in the new venue, and let you know how things are progressing. Posted by David Fair on Feb 7, 2007 at 08:18 PM | #

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