Reply To: The finances of running a games club

[lordofuzkulak 6332xp 2]

I’d recommend keeping your reserve as enough to cover the next couple months’ rent just in case attendance takes a hit.

 

As for spending, I’d recommend prioritising things that the club can use such as the tables and mats you’ve mentioned, terrain for the mini gamers, etc.  If you don’t have on premisis storage facilities, then maybe negotiate being able to put up a cupboard and purchasing one to store your new stuff.

 

Beyond that, maybe subsidise a club trip; you could use the funds to part or completely cover the hire of a minibus to take you all to a convention/games expo/etc.

 

You could also use it to purchase prizes for a friendly tourney if your members are interested in one (or if you’re concerned about prizes bringing out competitiveness, you could have no prizes and just use it to cover the extra rent for the longer opening hours).

 

Speaking of longer opening hours you could do the odd longer session; my club holds long days on the first week of each month.  We started doing it every other month originally and move to every month when we were able to afford it.

 

Something else you could consider is maybe holding a raffle and using you excess funds to purchase the prize(s).  You could either charge a token ammount for tickets, or give one free with that night’s subs.

 

I know you said you don’t like the idea of free nights because you want to reinvest in the club, but how about compromising?  Instead of a blanket free night, maybe put some restriction on it? Eg if you were doing one free night per month, then people can’t show up only on those nights.  Not sure what criteria you’d use beyond that to decide who qualifies though.