Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Folks,

it struck me today, that there is no all-inclusive gaming club in my area. There is a decent Games Workshop in the nearest City, as well as a University club that caters to the Historicals crowd, but not anywhere you can get a game of Infinity, Dust, X-wing, Warmachine and all that stuff. I'm toying with the idea of starting something up, and thought I'd ask Dakka for their experiences, good and bad. Any good ideas? Anything best avoided?

What I'm thinking at the moment is; there's a local public hall I can get extremely cheaply (i.e. almost free). Its in a decent sized town, surrounded by other satellite towns and villages, within easy travelling distance of the main city. It has good parking, and plenty space. I have a few friends that would probably get involved to get it started.

I thought some ideas would be - limiting members to 16+ (to avoid any issues around child supervision laws etc, and hopefully minimise tantrums!)
Rotating games played every week, with a minimum of three choices? Maybe have a couple of versatile mats available that folks can use for Warmachine, WHFB & 40k all the time, with stuff like necromunda, infinity, x wing etc being rotated.

If/when membership is at a decent level, organising campaigns, leagues etc, and maybe a small annual event.

I'd love to hear folks experiences of attempting similar?

Don't try and organise people's gaming would be my first reaction to what you've written. Just provide a forum for people to come and play, let them decide amongst themselves what they want to do week to week, otherwise you'll find people drifting away if they don't like/don't want to play one of the games in rotation. This also has the added bonus of reducing administration for you, which is a good thing.

We're just about to hit our 2nd birthday at my club, and the largest issue we've had has been with venues. Long term stability can be an issue. We started in a pub, but thanks to a committee member falling out with the landlord had to move (not an issue everyone will have - and as a result of those actions, one we don't have anymore.) Subsequently moved in to a much better, larger hall which has been brilliant until recently, but thanks to the hall committee putting financial pressure on us due to their own problems, has been a little uncertain for a few weeks, although that looks to be resolved now.

The other thing is, unless you're lucky and a load of people turn up and keep turning up, building and maintaining a membership requires work - lives get in the way, people's jobs and family circumstances change and you lose them, even if they love coming, so keeping reaching out to the wider community is very important.

You'd be surprised how people can miss you, even if you go to great pains to make yourself as visible as possible. Reach out to local retailers, other nearby gaming groups, anything you can think of. We use a FB page as the main means of contact and communication, which generally seems to work well. I unofficially manage it, and have the Manager app on my phone and tablet, so if anyone gets in touch I know instantly and can respond in a timely manner, which helps to give a good impression versus them waiting for days for a response - it makes the club look busy and active from the get go.

We don't get support from our local GW (the only LGS for some 40 miles in any direction) because we play non-GW games (in addition to 40K and Fantasy) What I do however, is monitor their page, and if any likely candidates post there, send them a message making them aware we exist. This has been very successful for bringing in new members (I contacted one guy whose post was "can I get a game against an adult or shall I just sell all my models?" It had been 48 hours without a response, he is now a very enthusiastic regular with his blood Angels)

Set up a separate bank account for the club, this will make admin easier and ensure everything is above board.

Hope this helps!

Also a constitution or set of rules people have to agree.to, things such as personal hygiene and good behavior, sounds silly maybe but it helps make sure.people stick to to

1st - see if you might be able to get it free - or on bond - to start with, as you try to feel out a regular crowd. Do not get too financially burdened trying this on your own. This is very explicitly point number one - never get in debt to start a hobby group for others, it's work and you'll probably never get it back again.

Invite all comers for gaming, all games - including board games like zombiecide if needs be. Restricting it to just game A one week and Game B the next means that you have reduced crowds because some people will wait for their game to get played. When starting out, big thing is to get bodies in the door.

If you play 2 or three systems, pick up the slack with whatever system needs an extra player that week. People who come along and don't get games are not going to be around long, so that can mean having to play something while itching to play another game that week. Live with it, if your club expands, you'll not need to worry about it as much later. Just try to make sure everyone has fun is what I'm saying

Do not let RPGs happen, however. RPGs take a bunch of people, and involve them in a corner of the room every week, not getting games with everyone else. Make sure people leave them for other nights. People can show and tell them, but no weekly games.

Limiting it to 16+ is a great idea, so you're not seen as cheap childcare. We've done the same by being in a pub (18+).

Events, and advertising do work to an extent. If you're motivated, you can get a fair few people in, and keep them in. I'd suggest a 40k event to start with, unless you find a big group for another system in the area, it's often the game "everyone has", especially in Brittan IIRC. Small and fun is the way to organize early events - round robins and such.

Terrain and organizing boards is a chore. If you have a lot of terrain, that's excellent, but remember that it will be used and abused - not deliberately, but wear does happen. Have sturdy pieces if you can get them (aquarium stuff seems to work well for myself, though it's heavy), and proper boxing/packing and organizing is important.

Battle mats are brilliant if you can get some, but some nice flowing cloth (nothing that crumples!) in the right colors (green, brown or even white for ice) cut to about 4.5 ft wide/8ft long, and flowed over a couple of plastic folding tables will work in a pinch - and is a cheap way of expanding early on.

Start a facebook group. See if you can get Games Workshop to put a message up in their shop by saying you're a "40k/fantasy" group early on. Advertise where ever else you can (all sites you use the forums on, other stores, ect). 90% of the membership in our first 2 years was from me being a regular forum poster - use that, get your name out wherever you can, and definitely in your Sig.

Be excellent tenants. Pack everything away, leave no rubbish, break nothing, make sure everyone knows that bad behavior will NOT be tolerated. Very important to stay on the good side of the venue.

If possible, organize a core group to help with running the place early on. Collecting the "tax" to pay the room, storing and helping make Terrain, organizing events and filling in where people are looking for a game and can't find another opponent. These things are important.

Don't have massive expectations, but hope for the best.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. Good luck

Main issue we had when we created our gaming club was lack of terrain, i literally spent 2-3 months knocking up as much terrain as possible.
As you are uk based, it is worthwhile approaching the GCN as they can help with the basis for formulating club rules, child protection policy etc.

Staying on the good side of a venue is critical, and you can get a ton of mileage out of doing more than would be expected. Leave it cleaner than you found it, every time. If that means you have to pick up a broom or take out the trash, do it.

You want the folks who own/manage the venue to think of how nice it is to have your group around when they are dealing with annoying people. You want them wishing everyone was as easy and helpful as your group.

Give them money and require nothing of them to get it from you. If the venue loves having you around your life will be infinitely easier.

That said, sometimes people are just dicks and you have to deal with venues that are operated by annoying people that are incredibly tough to deal with. If you find this to be the case, stay on the lookout for a new place. You don't always have a ton of options, but it is better to be somewhere that you have a good relationship with than somewhere nicer where you don't.

Just don't ever give anyone an excuse to be upset with your club. You want your venue thinking that if you weren't around, they'd be working harder and/or making less money.

Thanks folks. Some great points there. The thinking behind the rotation of games was purely to try and factor in loads of games, but you are right - I wouldn't want to be told what to play.

Also a great point about rpg's - I'd considered throwing them into the mix despite not partaking myself!

 manrogue wrote:
Main issue we had when we created our gaming club was lack of terrain, i literally spent 2-3 months knocking up as much terrain as possible.
As you are uk based, it is worthwhile approaching the GCN as they can help with the basis for formulating club rules, child protection policy etc.

We've found the GCN to be too bureaucratic to be worthwhile. Largely because their focus is to include school and child friendly clubs, they have policies such as needing public liability insurance, which is fair, but wouldn't accept that our venue had it and that it protected us when we were using the facilities, insisting we needed separate cover, which wasn't really a goer financially.

Terrain is something that needs addressing though. When we started, we had a policy that you could make and donate terrain in lieu of subs (agreeing a value on the terrain in terms of weeks membership) which helped boost, but where we are really lucky is we have a member who is both enthusiastic, talented and quick and thanks to him and one or two others, we have literally boxes of the stuff! Remember you'll need storage at the venue or a means to transport it to and from if that isn't possible.

Or just play loads of X Wing!

weeble1000 wrote:
Staying on the good side of a venue is critical, and you can get a ton of mileage out of doing more than would be expected. Leave it cleaner than you found it, every time. If that means you have to pick up a broom or take out the trash, do it.

You want the folks who own/manage the venue to think of how nice it is to have your group around when they are dealing with annoying people. You want them wishing everyone was as easy and helpful as your group.

Give them money and require nothing of them to get it from you. If the venue loves having you around your life will be infinitely easier.

That said, sometimes people are just dicks and you have to deal with venues that are operated by annoying people that are incredibly tough to deal with. If you find this to be the case, stay on the lookout for a new place. You don't always have a ton of options, but it is better to be somewhere that you have a good relationship with than somewhere nicer where you don't.

Just don't ever give anyone an excuse to be upset with your club. You want your venue thinking that if you weren't around, they'd be working harder and/or making less money.

I'll just double down on this again. I know all the staff at the pub we're at, many by name, and they love us. We're good clean patrons, pack up the room fully at the end, bring all the cups/glasses out to them (leave nothing they have to clean), and so on. They've considered putting up our rates 3 times (we get the room for far less than it's normally hired for), and have been passed over for it every time. The staff like us, and we cost them nothing but a rarely hired room for a Sunday, but give them money and customers. A community hall is obviously going to be different... but be good tenants, and go from there.

Good communication is important too, in case a meet has to be cancelled unexpectedly or something. Let them know as far in advance as possible, or even just let them know if it's a possibility.

 Eggs wrote:
Thanks folks. Some great points there. The thinking behind the rotation of games was purely to try and factor in loads of games, but you are right - I wouldn't want to be told what to play.

Also a great point about rpg's - I'd considered throwing them into the mix despite not partaking myself!

We do organise events, we have an events coordinator on the committee, and they often have really good support. The key is to make it purely voluntary.

For instance, our slow grow league that started in Jan as we had a number of new guys start coming towards the end of last year. You only need one game at each point level, so that's once every 3 weeks. If you play more, then that gives you extra points towards your league position. That means people who can't make it every week or (like myself) want to play games other than 40K every time, can still participate without having to commit huge chunks of game time (my only actual gaming time is at the club once a week, so I like some variety) This resulted in some record turn outs and numbers of games of 40K being played, but still allowed for those wanting to play Warmachine, Infinity or whatever to get a game in too.

As others had said, terrain and the storage of it are important. Luckily, when I was involved in chairing a club it was in the days of DIY terrain so,apart from the emotional investment in converting cardboard to bunkers, we were okay with the stuff being stored in an unlocked spare cupboard. If it is bought terrain, you may want secure storage or its a weekly shuttle. As your intended venue has good parking, the weekly terrain shuttle could be a viable option if a bit tedious after a couple of months..

alphaecho wrote:
As others had said, terrain and the storage of it are important. Luckily, when I was involved in chairing a club it was in the days of DIY terrain so,apart from the emotional investment in converting cardboard to bunkers, we were okay with the stuff being stored in an unlocked spare cupboard. If it is bought terrain, you may want secure storage or its a weekly shuttle. As your intended venue has good parking, the weekly terrain shuttle could be a viable option if a bit tedious after a couple of months..

I hiked 4 large boxes of terrain back and forth for nearly 3 years I think. Luckily I had a large Tarago van at the time, and could do that even while giving lifts to a few club friends. These days, I'm in a much smaller car with a baby seat, so no dice there, but many hands make light work, and we've spread the load around.

Build it and they shall come.....

I would make it 18+, not as inclusive but you really don't want to be responsible for minors (CRB checks etc). It may also be needed if the hall has a bar.

16 is classed as an adult. That was my thinking - no disclosures etc required.

 Maddermax wrote:

alphaecho wrote:
As others had said, terrain and the storage of it are important. Luckily, when I was involved in chairing a club it was in the days of DIY terrain so,apart from the emotional investment in converting cardboard to bunkers, we were okay with the stuff being stored in an unlocked spare cupboard. If it is bought terrain, you may want secure storage or its a weekly shuttle. As your intended venue has good parking, the weekly terrain shuttle could be a viable option if a bit tedious after a couple of months..

I hiked 4 large boxes of terrain back and forth for nearly 3 years I think. Luckily I had a large Tarago van at the time, and could do that even while giving lifts to a few club friends. These days, I'm in a much smaller car with a baby seat, so no dice there, but many hands make light work, and we've spread the load around.

As you say, you'd like to think the members would view the club as something they contribute to rather than just turn up and enjoy what others have put together for them.

I enjoyed it for the 18 months it lasted. Free use of a upstairs room at a pub (I think the amount we spent downstairs voided any attempt to charge for the space) and four hours gaming in a pleasant environment.

Plus one of the members knocked me up a huge badge (bordering on billboard) with 'El Presidente' on it. Priceless.

alphaecho wrote:


As you say, you'd like to think the members would view the club as something they contribute to rather than just turn up and enjoy what others have put together for them.

Yeah, like to think, but don't take it for granted. It tends to be a symptom of some of the younger guys (late teens, early twenties) that they seem to expect everything to magically happen without any input from themselves. Unfortunately for them, I'm a large, older man, used to being In charge of things and not afraid of tearing a strip off, so if the apathy starts to cross into taking the piss, I tend to have a "quiet word." Not something I've had to do often, as they're generally pretty cool chaps, but being taken for granted is a real problem, and needs to be nipped in the bud.

I'd suggest bringing in some cheap and easy-to-learn board games each week. If somebody can't find a game, their partner is a no-show, or if they're entirely new to gaming and don't have an army yet, that gives an easy recourse.

I wish I had a local gaming club. I'm young but I work, could contribute, am respectful, could help build terrain as I'm pretty good at it, etc. I have no real advice to offer you since I have zero experience with independent gaming circles.

Good luck on whatever you decide to do.

 azreal13 wrote:

alphaecho wrote:


As you say, you'd like to think the members would view the club as something they contribute to rather than just turn up and enjoy what others have put together for them.

Yeah, like to think, but don't take it for granted. It tends to be a symptom of some of the younger guys (late teens, early twenties) that they seem to expect everything to magically happen without any input from themselves. Unfortunately for them, I'm a large, older man, used to being In charge of things and not afraid of tearing a strip off, so if the apathy starts to cross into taking the piss, I tend to have a "quiet word." Not something I've had to do often, as they're generally pretty cool chaps, but being taken for granted is a real problem, and needs to be nipped in the bud.

Could you have build scenery nights and anyone who contributes gets to use it. Everyone else has to play on a bowling green

 Flashman wrote:

 azreal13 wrote:

alphaecho wrote:


As you say, you'd like to think the members would view the club as something they contribute to rather than just turn up and enjoy what others have put together for them.

Yeah, like to think, but don't take it for granted. It tends to be a symptom of some of the younger guys (late teens, early twenties) that they seem to expect everything to magically happen without any input from themselves. Unfortunately for them, I'm a large, older man, used to being In charge of things and not afraid of tearing a strip off, so if the apathy starts to cross into taking the piss, I tend to have a "quiet word." Not something I've had to do often, as they're generally pretty cool chaps, but being taken for granted is a real problem, and needs to be nipped in the bud.

Could you have build scenery nights and anyone who contributes gets to use it. Everyone else has to play on a bowling green

I like build terrain nights where everybody who participates gets pizza and beer! Still, I find all comers terrain build projects to be rather inefficient. I find it more efficient to get a small group of people organized for a project, divvy out specific tasks, and try to get as much done before you're too tipsy to paint straight.

I am also a huge fan of child labor. If folks in your group have younger kids, it is a win win to find something sloppy that requires little skill to do, like base coating or dry brushing. Makes the kids happy, you get points from the spouse for entertaining the little ones, and you've got a labor force for boring stuff.

Weeble wrote:
I am also a huge fan of child labor. If folks in your group have younger kids, it is a win win to find something sloppy that requires little skill to do, like base coating or dry brushing. Makes the kids happy, you get points from the spouse for entertaining the little ones, and you've got a labor force for boring stuff.

I like this suggestion.

Some good ideas folks. Terrain is the biggest single thing I'd have to deal with if I go ahead with it. I'm sorted for x wing , and have enough tiles for two infinity boards coming from a kickstarter, but I'd need to populate those (waiting for antenociti's kickstarter for that!)

I'm pretty resourceful, so I think I could generate a decent amount of scatter terrain (hills, forests etc) pretty quickly, but it's always more fun doing that kind of stuff with friends. I'll maybe start with an eye to launching in 2015 - get a decent pile of stuff together first.

 Flashman wrote:

 azreal13 wrote:

alphaecho wrote:


As you say, you'd like to think the members would view the club as something they contribute to rather than just turn up and enjoy what others have put together for them.

Yeah, like to think, but don't take it for granted. It tends to be a symptom of some of the younger guys (late teens, early twenties) that they seem to expect everything to magically happen without any input from themselves. Unfortunately for them, I'm a large, older man, used to being In charge of things and not afraid of tearing a strip off, so if the apathy starts to cross into taking the piss, I tend to have a "quiet word." Not something I've had to do often, as they're generally pretty cool chaps, but being taken for granted is a real problem, and needs to be nipped in the bud.

Could you have build scenery nights and anyone who contributes gets to use it. Everyone else has to play on a bowling green

Most of my club's stuff was home built. As it was mid 90s apart from the card/ Necromunda bulkhead Firebase or Bastion sets, that was the way it was done. Finding out the polystyrene top layer of the tumble dryer's packaging had ready made trenches in it and space for the Firebase in the middle was like manna from heaven.

I started up a club a while back and it's going great.

Our secret was that we found a venue that was cheap enough that the four core people who founded the club could pay for the venue each month even if no one else showed up.

I also got everyone's email so a monthly reminder goes out. I didn't start a facebook group or anything like that, but instead, we post about what we are doing at the club across many facebook groups for various games. Like on the local X-Wing group or on the local Warmachine/Hordes group.

While people may have the instinct that a club forum or group will help with organize games and giving a community feel, it's often less of a good idea than just talking about the games in their already existing local discussion groups. If I only ever talked about Warmachine/Hordes with other club members, how would other local players find out about it?

Second or third club I was a part of began with about three or four of us. me and couple of guys met up at the game store and just started playing. The store was cool at the time, and we could play there in the back without being messed with. Soon a couple of others joined up and we all just started an unofficial type of thing, where it was pretty much play and game, and build terraign, buy stuff, make stuff, etc....

We had a few ongoing "No assclownd allowed, or some such. They would show up once in awhile, but then if they started being smacktard, we would decide by committee/ across the board, assclown/ no assclown, but that was only two or three cases. The store was a mecca for the games, we just would show up, play a few, and keep the rotation of people going by bringing in new members/ customers as well who wanted to game...

Place grew quite a bit with that going on, and I learned quite a bit about the "Industry" from the inside and outside.

First and foremost, don't get to be a jackass and try to push people around. IF you want to game, game. Don't get wrapped around trying to push the whole group. Have fun, try a few new games, give a good review to the rest of the group, or write up a small recommend/ critique on the game, and give the feedback.

The $$ and stuff comes. First you just need a steady group. Steady comes with consistancy.

If its going to be Friday at eight, don't come in at Nine. if your not there, have a back up, or someone else, as well.


lastly, its about having fun. DOn't ever forget that, no matter how many people show up. 1-a million, it doesn't matter.

Rule number 1 is always in effect.

Don't be a ... jerk.

civility is a good thing, and playing the games and having fun is what the deal is about.

Outside interference, distractions, bringing in outsiders with distractions is a no no. ( T and A is another night. not for game night. Have your priorities straight.)

If someone doesn't work out, they just don't work out. Don't rank them out, just break it to them and call it a day. they can find the door.


Just a few rough ones off the top of my head.

 Eggs wrote:
Some good ideas folks. Terrain is the biggest single thing I'd have to deal with if I go ahead with it. I'm sorted for x wing , and have enough tiles for two infinity boards coming from a kickstarter, but I'd need to populate those (waiting for antenociti's kickstarter for that!)

I'm pretty resourceful, so I think I could generate a decent amount of scatter terrain (hills, forests etc) pretty quickly, but it's always more fun doing that kind of stuff with friends. I'll maybe start with an eye to launching in 2015 - get a decent pile of stuff together first.

Smash up old printers. I forget exactly where I saw the tutorial, but you can make very reasonable-looking terrain by smashing up electronics that have a plastic housing and preferably lots of internal plastic components. Take out the best-looking pieces, glue them down to bases, give 'em a quick paint job (possibly with some texture spray paint), and glue on some sand.

I call it "ambiguously scaled sci-fi ruins." It works great for all sorts of scales.

weeble1000 wrote:

 Eggs wrote:
Some good ideas folks. Terrain is the biggest single thing I'd have to deal with if I go ahead with it. I'm sorted for x wing , and have enough tiles for two infinity boards coming from a kickstarter, but I'd need to populate those (waiting for antenociti's kickstarter for that!)

I'm pretty resourceful, so I think I could generate a decent amount of scatter terrain (hills, forests etc) pretty quickly, but it's always more fun doing that kind of stuff with friends. I'll maybe start with an eye to launching in 2015 - get a decent pile of stuff together first.

Smash up old printers. I forget exactly where I saw the tutorial, but you can make very reasonable-looking terrain by smashing up electronics that have a plastic housing and preferably lots of internal plastic components. Take out the best-looking pieces, glue them down to bases, give 'em a quick paint job (possibly with some texture spray paint), and glue on some sand.

I call it "ambiguously scaled sci-fi ruins." It works great for all sorts of scales.

Sounds good! I may have to try that. I've a bunch of old electronics in the shed!

 Eggs wrote:

weeble1000 wrote:

 Eggs wrote:
Some good ideas folks. Terrain is the biggest single thing I'd have to deal with if I go ahead with it. I'm sorted for x wing , and have enough tiles for two infinity boards coming from a kickstarter, but I'd need to populate those (waiting for antenociti's kickstarter for that!)

I'm pretty resourceful, so I think I could generate a decent amount of scatter terrain (hills, forests etc) pretty quickly, but it's always more fun doing that kind of stuff with friends. I'll maybe start with an eye to launching in 2015 - get a decent pile of stuff together first.

Smash up old printers. I forget exactly where I saw the tutorial, but you can make very reasonable-looking terrain by smashing up electronics that have a plastic housing and preferably lots of internal plastic components. Take out the best-looking pieces, glue them down to bases, give 'em a quick paint job (possibly with some texture spray paint), and glue on some sand.

I call it "ambiguously scaled sci-fi ruins." It works great for all sorts of scales.

Sounds good! I may have to try that. I've a bunch of old electronics in the shed!

Later this week I'll post a couple of pictures of my smashed printer terrain pieces.

My club (kapiti wargames club) is very successful and I was there a few years after it started till now. How it started and what it does now I will explain:

So 3 guys talked to the town council about using their hall for gaming, explaining what it is and so forth, they managed to get a discount and once a week they got the smallest room and used their tables. At that time it was a gold coin donation to get in.

The first focus was getting terrain, at first they bought their own but they started spending their money ad time making terrain for the club. Its got bigger and bigger and it got to the point where a gold coin donation was not enough for the fee to be paid (as they had to go to a larger room) and for terrain to be purchased.

So a committee was formed and at the same time everyone decided on a set price and a yearly fee. The set price (is really cheap) for each night is $4, and we always have enough people to ensure this covers the rental fee, anything more is a bonus and gets put in the club account. The yearly fee is 30 dollars and that goes towards terrain.

Although it now costs more, the club is better than ever. We dont charge for the first month and every so often we have a huge hole day event (like a giant swap meet, golden demon or play a non 40k game day) and that (if properly advertised) brings in people from hours away.

After a while everyone gets to know each other and your local "meta" changes to a style most people are happy with and as long as people keep coming its happy sailing.

Our club has nearly 60 members on paper, it grows but we dont see all of them come in very often.

The trick is to be organised about everything EXCEPT games. Let people arrange their own games and so on. But if I wanted to run a roleplay, ill tell the guy who "arranges them" to right it down and help let people know so that they can come prepared for it, events we call things like that (anything thats a campaign).

As to terrain, most of first terrain was just cardboard and Popsicle sticks put together by a huge ork fan into a orkish city, so dont stress people wont mind what terrain you use until it costs them money. We store fantasy and 40k style terrain because whenever someone brings flames of war (we are about to stock it because its popular) or x wing they generally have their own terrain so we prepare for the popular ones.

Make it a community, make sure everybody has a say in whats going and so forth.

A trusted committee is vital, you need people there to open, close, watch money, watch kids and help maintain order. Its not a one man job. Come up with a committee and change that committee once a year or once every six months... its a hard job.

Its not easy, I have only done a year in the committee and wow, takes commitment i can only imagine how hard it will be to start one.

So advertise, be flexible and get organised. You will soon have a grand club and lots of friends.

Again, lots of food for thought. Thanks folks. I'm lucky in that the venue I'm looking at is a community hall, owned by the local council, but run by a community group, so rent is extremely low. It also has small rooms and larger ones, so we could expand without changing location! Still, a lot of groundwork to be done before I decide to commit or not, but this thread is proving a great source of knowledge, so thanks for the contributions.