Hello fellow pinheads! I have a small announcement that I would like to share with you all.
A few weeks ago I’ve decided to give it a try with a new idea. New for me, old for others. The suggestion came from quite a few forum members. After being at Pinfest for the first time and enjoying it a lot, I’ve decided to give it a try. As I guess you already know (the title gives it away) the idea would be to open a new pinball club.
I have a small pinball collection that I keep at my office (to play them while I’m not in the mood to do any work - about 6 hours/day out of 8). At present I have a few over 30 pinball machines set up here. If in the following months I will see that there is interest, I can extend the collection to 50-60 machines.
So, to make this as short as possible I was thinking to open it up only for Pinballinfo forum members till the end of the year. If I’m moving fast with getting everything ready for your visit, I guess that I will be able to open it in about 2-3 weeks (by the end of November).
I was thinking probably a 4 hour long session Saturday and if people like it probably another session on Friday evening or Sunday.
The club will be located in Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire right on the border with Essex (30 miles from London). We have a large car park (over 100 spaces) that I will be able to use for the club so everyone will have a guaranteed parking space. The parking will be always free providing that you will register your car on arrival. Failing to do so, will end up in a £85 fine being sent to your address. As we don’t want that, please remember to register your car. Probably I will add a section on the website (that is being built right now) that will ask you to fill up your car reg number when booking your spot.
Because the office isn’t very large, I was thinking to limit the amount of players/session to 30 people just to test and see how it will work. Honestly I never had more than 9 people at once in the office so we will have to test this to get a feel about an ideal number of players. I’m sure that your feedback will help a lot. All this of course provided that you will show up. If nobody will show up, I will just play the pins with my kids like I always do.
As I said before, the sessions that I will run this year will be exclusive for the forum members. I was discussing about the entry fee with a few members from the forum, and we got to the conclusion that £10/person would be a fair price for a 4 hour session with the parking space included. This year, I don’t want any of your money so everything will go to Charity. I will even provide free tea (a selection of over 15), coffees (ristretto, espresso, americano, caffe barista, macchiato, flat white, cafe au lait, cappuccino, latte macchiato… you name it) non alcoholic drinks (Coca Cola, Diet Coke, Pepsi, Pepsi Max, Fanta, Sprite, 7UP, Dr Pepper, San Pellegrino, Water etc)
Considering that my grandfather introduced me to pinball when I was around 6, and when he passed away he was suffering with Alzheimer, I thought that the best charity to choose would be The Alzheimer’s Society. I remember the good old times when he was taking me to play pinball and he was having a bear or two or even three while I was playing. So in the end everyone was happy. Some more than others…
Now leaving memories aside, let’s get back to the club. On site, we have two places where you can have breakfast/lunch, we will have a seating area where we can chat, gents and ladies toilets, the building is literally next to Sawbridgeworth train station, so you can come and leave by train as well.
In the end, I would like to ask everyone to come up with ideas, suggestions, and as much constructive feedback as possible. Please be kind and keep in mind that I’m doing this alone, without any friends or partners or any other help (except from my amazing wife).
I hope that I will see many of you here during the weekends.
I’m sure that I forgot about many other important details but we have time to sort all of them till the end of the month. If you have any questions please post them here or PM me.
Regards,
Chris
A few weeks ago I’ve decided to give it a try with a new idea. New for me, old for others. The suggestion came from quite a few forum members. After being at Pinfest for the first time and enjoying it a lot, I’ve decided to give it a try. As I guess you already know (the title gives it away) the idea would be to open a new pinball club.
I have a small pinball collection that I keep at my office (to play them while I’m not in the mood to do any work - about 6 hours/day out of 8). At present I have a few over 30 pinball machines set up here. If in the following months I will see that there is interest, I can extend the collection to 50-60 machines.
So, to make this as short as possible I was thinking to open it up only for Pinballinfo forum members till the end of the year. If I’m moving fast with getting everything ready for your visit, I guess that I will be able to open it in about 2-3 weeks (by the end of November).
I was thinking probably a 4 hour long session Saturday and if people like it probably another session on Friday evening or Sunday.
The club will be located in Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire right on the border with Essex (30 miles from London). We have a large car park (over 100 spaces) that I will be able to use for the club so everyone will have a guaranteed parking space. The parking will be always free providing that you will register your car on arrival. Failing to do so, will end up in a £85 fine being sent to your address. As we don’t want that, please remember to register your car. Probably I will add a section on the website (that is being built right now) that will ask you to fill up your car reg number when booking your spot.
Because the office isn’t very large, I was thinking to limit the amount of players/session to 30 people just to test and see how it will work. Honestly I never had more than 9 people at once in the office so we will have to test this to get a feel about an ideal number of players. I’m sure that your feedback will help a lot. All this of course provided that you will show up. If nobody will show up, I will just play the pins with my kids like I always do.
As I said before, the sessions that I will run this year will be exclusive for the forum members. I was discussing about the entry fee with a few members from the forum, and we got to the conclusion that £10/person would be a fair price for a 4 hour session with the parking space included. This year, I don’t want any of your money so everything will go to Charity. I will even provide free tea (a selection of over 15), coffees (ristretto, espresso, americano, caffe barista, macchiato, flat white, cafe au lait, cappuccino, latte macchiato… you name it) non alcoholic drinks (Coca Cola, Diet Coke, Pepsi, Pepsi Max, Fanta, Sprite, 7UP, Dr Pepper, San Pellegrino, Water etc)
Considering that my grandfather introduced me to pinball when I was around 6, and when he passed away he was suffering with Alzheimer, I thought that the best charity to choose would be The Alzheimer’s Society. I remember the good old times when he was taking me to play pinball and he was having a bear or two or even three while I was playing. So in the end everyone was happy. Some more than others…
Now leaving memories aside, let’s get back to the club. On site, we have two places where you can have breakfast/lunch, we will have a seating area where we can chat, gents and ladies toilets, the building is literally next to Sawbridgeworth train station, so you can come and leave by train as well.
In the end, I would like to ask everyone to come up with ideas, suggestions, and as much constructive feedback as possible. Please be kind and keep in mind that I’m doing this alone, without any friends or partners or any other help (except from my amazing wife).
I hope that I will see many of you here during the weekends.
I’m sure that I forgot about many other important details but we have time to sort all of them till the end of the month. If you have any questions please post them here or PM me.
Regards,
Chris
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