I have a vision… of a bunch of us getting together in a well-ventilated room to play games.
Original post, now largely obsolete
I can hire a room in the local library (at Bourne End, a bit west of London) that will take 20-30 of us. I’ve used it for boardgames before. There’s parking on site; a railway station, supermarkets and restaurants nearby; and hotels are not too far away (though not really walkable).
After a quick poll of long-term site members, the feeling seemed to be that (given how far some people would be coming) this should be an all-weekend event. Of course if you can only make one day you’re still welcome.
I don’t want to commit to a formal COVID policy yet but I am a lot more paranoid than the UK’s government and I would expect it to be something like “test beforehand, masks all the time, step aside to eat or drink, windows open as much as possible”. This will depend on infection rates closer to the time. Unlike a hotel event, nobody else should need to come into the room while we’re using it.
Cost to be determined, but this is not intended to be a profit-making exercise. I’d expect something like £10-£15 for each day depending on numbers. Any surplus will go to the site costs fund.
Please let me know the best dates so that I can set up a room booking.
Everything is confirmed. We have the room from 9am-11pm on Saturday and 9am-6pm on Sunday.
Wakeman Road
Bourne End
Buckinghamshire
SL8 5SX
51.57939 -0.71056
The library will be open to the public between 10am and 1pm on Saturday - outside those times I’ll need to let you in. If you don’t already have my number, PM me.
(if I need to let you in it’ll be the small door off to the left; if you need a flat access I’ll be able to open the front doors, but apparently this takes a while)
Can somebody please bring a stuffed teddy bear or a small toy beaver or a moose or something, place it on a chair at the table, and have it lose all the games it plays because it always goes for the joke/laugh play rather than being super serious?
Throw in a few dad-caliber jokes and it will be just like I’m there in person.
If you put a second one in a chair and pretend to ignore it as it drones on and on about pre-dreadnoughts, armored fighting vehicle development, Century Series jets, and WW1 zeppelin raids, it will be exactly like I am there as well!
This post from bgg seems pertinent, a little reminder for myself of why I’m totally on board with @RogerBW 's suggestions for cautious rules above and beyond the basic guidelines.
The room is booked! (9-11 on Saturday, 9-6 on Sunday, which will have to include final clean-up before we leave.)
In a spirit of openness, I’ll say that the total cost is £339.02. With 10-ish people that suggests about £34 per person. But I’m not going to sell tickets – I’m going to say that that is a suggested donation, and if you want to put in more that’s most welcome, while if that’s not affordable for you I don’t want you to let it keep you away. Donation in advance, cash on the day, whatever works for you.
(Any surplus will go towards the general tekeli.li hosting costs fund; any shortfall I’ll make up out of my own pocket.)
That said I’d appreciate it if you can let me know whether you’ll be coming. I’ll probably print up name labels…
The names thing will be weird- i’ve done one forum meet up and it’s a dissonance between using these weird internet names with real humans. “hello I’m swirl” or “oh hi swirl it’s crayon”.
