what stops you from attending a social/ munch?

17 Jun 2010

The cost puts me off, well not the cost as such but if I think I am getting value for money. I don't mind paying for the dj but I don't want to pay much for a room when there are quite a few places to hire for free. I don't really want food because there are many things I can't eat. I certainly don't want to pay towards a raffel or prizes.
All of that is not my idea of a social when I am there to meet friends, old and new.
I'm not tight, I'm happy to pay £3/4 or put some money in a jar. I just don't want to line someones pocket or pay for crap I don't want so yes, cost does put me off.
Other than that, I have to consider how often we can leave the kids, will we need a hotel because its a long way, are there people I want to meet or even if good friends are also going.
I guess deciding on going to socials or munches for us, is a combination of things at the time confused

19 Jun 2010

Quote by Dawnie
The cost puts me off, well not the cost as such but if I think I am getting value for money. I don't mind paying for the dj but I don't want to pay much for a room when there are quite a few places to hire for free. I don't really want food because there are many things I can't eat. I certainly don't want to pay towards a raffel or prizes.
All of that is not my idea of a social when I am there to meet friends, old and new.
I'm not tight, I'm happy to pay £3/4 or put some money in a jar. I just don't want to line someones pocket or pay for crap I don't want so yes, cost does put me off.
Other than that, I have to consider how often we can leave the kids, will we need a hotel because its a long way, are there people I want to meet or even if good friends are also going.
I guess deciding on going to socials or munches for us, is a combination of things at the time

if you know of places to hire for free then please do tell, were trying to find an ideal venue in the south yorkshire area

19 Jun 2010

Quote by Trixie_D-Lish
The cost puts me off, well not the cost as such but if I think I am getting value for money. I don't mind paying for the dj but I don't want to pay much for a room when there are quite a few places to hire for free. I don't really want food because there are many things I can't eat. I certainly don't want to pay towards a raffel or prizes.
All of that is not my idea of a social when I am there to meet friends, old and new.
I'm not tight, I'm happy to pay £3/4 or put some money in a jar. I just don't want to line someones pocket or pay for crap I don't want so yes, cost does put me off.
Other than that, I have to consider how often we can leave the kids, will we need a hotel because its a long way, are there people I want to meet or even if good friends are also going.
I guess deciding on going to socials or munches for us, is a combination of things at the time

if you know of places to hire for free then please do tell, were trying to find an ideal venue in the south yorkshire area
I thought the same biggrin

I certainly have not found one free place in Bristol well there is one you could hold a small social there as I have done but its no way big enough for a munch. Out of town free places maybe but near town centre? I highly doubt it. I think the place I got was a bargain and for the entire venue even more so. Some venues I contacted wanted £5000 yes 5 grand for the venue for the night. I wanted to hold it near the town centre as I know some attendees like to carry on afterwards and I wanted a license extension which is easier near town centres. We havent 100% got a license extension yet but looks promising.

19 Jun 2010

Quote by Trixie_D-Lish
if you know of places to hire for free then please do tell, were trying to find an ideal venue in the south yorkshire area

I haven't even been to south yorkshire let alone know any venues :lol2:

Quote by tweeky
I thought the same I certainly have not found one free place in Bristol well there is one you could hold a small social there as I have done but its no way big enough for a munch. Out of town free places maybe but near town centre? I highly doubt it. I think the place I got was a bargain and for the entire venue even more so. Some venues I contacted wanted £5000 yes 5 grand for the venue for the night. I wanted to hold it near the town centre as I know some attendees like to carry on afterwards and I wanted a license extension which is easier near town centres. We havent 100% got a license extension yet but looks promising.

I know Bristol is costly, I remember anais mentioning it to me once. So I do recognise how much effort you have been putting in tweeky :thumbup:
We are hiring a place for work in a few weeks for 50/60 people, a bar, BBQ hut and grounds to play footy in and its £150. I wonder if it is just an area thing that makes such a difference?
Seems really unfair to me sad

19 Jun 2010

Quote by Dawnie
if you know of places to hire for free then please do tell, were trying to find an ideal venue in the south yorkshire area

I haven't even been to south yorkshire let alone know any venues :lol2:

Quote by tweeky
I thought the same I certainly have not found one free place in Bristol well there is one you could hold a small social there as I have done but its no way big enough for a munch. Out of town free places maybe but near town centre? I highly doubt it. I think the place I got was a bargain and for the entire venue even more so. Some venues I contacted wanted £5000 yes 5 grand for the venue for the night. I wanted to hold it near the town centre as I know some attendees like to carry on afterwards and I wanted a license extension which is easier near town centres. We havent 100% got a license extension yet but looks promising.

Thanks for the comments :D As we are not charging for the event though I guess the cost to everyone else means nothing which is the main thing :D

19 Jun 2010

Costs for venues can be really expensive, and it seems in most parts of the country, not just the south. However, when you add up how much the venue must make in a night with drinks, even if they take out the wages of bar staff, running the building etc, they are still making one hell of a good profit. For example, 100 people who spend on average £20 each at the munch, gives them £2000 and I bet most people spend well over that amount. However, with a bit of work it is possible to find places who are either free or very cheap, but it can take a lot of negotiating and discussions with the venue owners first, and it always pays to be honest with them about who will be attending (for goodness sake dont tell them you are a church group as you can guarantee that a couple of drunken munch attendees will be very pleased to tell they they are swingers).
Costs do put us off going to some events, especially when you can see that the organisers are doing it make money out of people rather than for the fun of organising it, but I also hate the idea of organisers being out of pocket. Finding the balance between making too much money and covering costs is not easy, and I dont envy anyone organising their first social or Munch, it can be a right old pain in the arse (but it is always a fantastic night) wink

19 Jun 2010

Quote by Naughty Wigan Couple
Costs for venues can be really expensive, and it seems in most parts of the country, not just the south. However, when you add up how much the venue must make in a night with drinks, even if they take out the wages of bar staff, running the building etc, they are still making one hell of a good profit. For example, 100 people who spend on average £20 each at the munch, gives them £2000 and I bet most people spend well over that amount. However, with a bit of work it is possible to find places who are either free or very cheap, but it can take a lot of negotiating and discussions with the venue owners first, and it always pays to be honest with them about who will be attending (for goodness sake dont tell them you are a church group as you can guarantee that a couple of drunken munch attendees will be very pleased to tell they they are swingers).
Costs do put us off going to some events, especially when you can see that the organisers are doing it make money out of people rather than for the fun of organising it, but I also hate the idea of organisers being out of pocket. Finding the balance between making too much money and covering costs is not easy, and I dont envy anyone organising their first social or Munch, it can be a right old pain in the arse (but it is always a fantastic night)

Just to be factual, I was stood with our venue manager when he worked out the costs. All he has charged us for is the wages of bar staff for the evening. Besides that there is a minimum amount of attendees required to secure either the entire pub or the private room. I guess they think they will just make the money from the booze sales.
As a side note I mentioned above one venue asked for £5000. We passed that venue when out late the other night at 11pm. The place was packed to the rafters even the outside tables were full. In retrospect Nimbus and I visited the venue we have hired at one weekend evening. They had an amateur looking DJ set on but there were not more than 5 people in the bar. OK it was fairly early but I couldn't see it getting that much busier. To be honest the venue is probably just far enough from the town centre to make it not part of the town centre scene. They seem to make money from events they hold, mostly DJ's and prepaid tickets better than the one we saw lol

So, maybe look for venues that are not so busy and maybe look for ones that make £ from events rather than day to day trade.

20 Jun 2010

yeah we are looking at a couple of venues at the moment, but free ones are not easy to find and it is a lot of work just staking them out lol
mind for future reference a friend advised approaching local rugby clubs during the closed season as they might be willing to let us use the venue as they not using it

20 Jun 2010

Some of the best events I've been to (and I don't just mean Munches, works dos and charity nights etc) have been at sports clubs: cricket, rugby and football mostly.
For a Munch or social to be successful I don't necessarily think it has to be a flash city/town centre venue. In fact in many respects I think out-of-town has the edge for people who are concerned about discretion and links with the whole swinging thing. Same goes especially if it's fancy dress! :lol2:

20 Jun 2010

Quote by Trixie_D-Lish
yeah we are looking at a couple of venues at the moment, but free ones are not easy to find and it is a lot of work just staking them out lol
mind for future reference a friend advised approaching local rugby clubs during the closed season as they might be willing to let us use the venue as they not using it

Quote by noladreams
Some of the best events I've been to (and I don't just mean Munches, works dos and charity nights etc) have been at sports clubs: cricket, rugby and football mostly.
For a Munch or social to be successful I don't necessarily think it has to be a flash city/town centre venue. In fact in many respects I think out-of-town has the edge for people who are concerned about discretion and links with the whole swinging thing. Same goes especially if it's fancy dress! :lol2:

More good points from both. We looked at one rugby club but sadly like you say our event is just one week into the season so we could not have the bigger room.
There is the saying beggars cant be choosers lol

Must say though I looked harder for a near city centre location. Gives folks the chance to party on should they wish. We have been to one social and one munch where we were in the party mood after and there was nothing else in the area at all so had no choice but to go back to the hotel. Paying for yet more taxi journeys was not an option.
Where we are dont think discretion will be an issue at all. We are not in the town centre merely close enough to be accessible. The pub is pretty much stand alone its not surrounded by other pubs or venues although it is in a very nice area of Bristol.