A minor irritation gets less minor
OK, I've calmed down now.
No really, I'm fine. I might be in a bad mood for the rest of the day, but I no longer have the urge to commit violent crime towards whoever makes the decisions about who gets the use of the larger of our indoor venues, and who gets the short end of the stick.
You see, I had a phone call from the nice lady who looks after the hall bookings to say that we weren't going to be able to use the larger venue, and, instead, we were going to be shoehorned into the smaller hall.
I don't want to seem wholly ungrateful - it's great to be offered an alternative venue for when the larger venue is being used for other events which take precidence over a mere sports club's practice night. The venue is, as you've probably guessed, a secondary school, which I'm not going to name for obvious reasons, and they are bound to have events during the course of the year, which will require the use of their assembly hall, which we hire when they're not using it, and a smaller hall round the corner when they are.
They own both halls. They get to say who uses them, and when. I can cope with that concept. It's something that we, as a club, have operated under since before I was even a member. Fine. No problem. At all.
It's all about communication. The school wants to have an event in the hall; they put it in the calendar; the nice lettings lady calls us, and we go where they have space for us. Give us plenty of notice, and we can let all our members know in advance, and if we get any calls from prospective members, we can say for definite where they're likely to find us. A month beforehand would be fabulous; even a week before would be great, so we can advise our members verbally at the club meeting prior to the venue change. A day or so beforehand is OK too, as we can put a notice on our website and email everyone to let them know.
However my patience is running out. This is the second time in two weeks that I've been rung up with less than nine hours until we're actually due to cross the threshold for our regular Wednesday night club shooting night. Just how are we meant to let all our club members and prospective members know in that timespan? And this happens with almost monotonous regularity, and I'm fairly sure it's losing us members fed up with being shoved from pillar to post at literally a moment's notice.
We could, of course, complain to the headmaster or someone in the Education Department. However, I have it on good authority that if we did, we'd lose the ability to shoot there altogether. It's a school. They don't need the money from the rent of the hall - it's secondary, if you'll excuse the pun, to their educational objectives. Probably not even secondary.
So if that's the case, why don't we just go elsewhere? Well, with everywhere else sensibly big enough to shoot safely under Local Authority control and geared towards clubs with a vast membership (like football clubs), renta prices just aren't sustainably affordable to minor clubs with smaller memberships such as ourselves.
However, I think it's time for a change, even if we have to raise our weekly 'target fee' slightly. We've almost reached 'critical mass' for sustainably renting the Sports Hall, and, with a word in the right ears, we might be able to make it even more affordable. With luck, we may be able to tempt back some previous members with a change of venue with all the bones of contention removed and, possibly, change of weeknight.
It's make or break. I hope we're doing the right thing...
