I would like to make the following suggestions for improvements to the union:
1. A large sign on the front door explaining the rules for signing in guests. I would preferably like these rules changed but a sign explaining the current rules would suffice.
2. A rope barrier for the Bop queue on busy Friday nights to prevent the chaos of queue jumping etc.
3. The raised metal seating area in Venue 1 is nice but it looks somewhat scruffy as it is bare plywood. A lick of paint would be far more professional and would cost under a tenner. I'll do it for free if need be.
4. The draped green plastic in Venue 1 really looks terrible. I understand that Venue 1 must be multifunctional but could more appropriate covers be found? I would suggest buying a few boards, taking them to glasgow and getting a graffiti artist to spray some tasteful stuff on them. If you offer to buy their paints and give them a few quid beer money, they'll be more than happy.
5. The new policy for Thursday and Saturday nights of keeping the Venue 1 doors closed is understandable, but not allowing staff to let people look inside through the doors or tell customers whether the event is busy or not. This is a terrible policy.
6. Instead of making a Thursday night bop free before a certain time, why not charge the standard rate and offer a free drink or two? This would commit people to staying in there as they have paid money.
I have many suggestions but these are ones which I think are easily and cheaply instigated.
I think that the fundamental problem with the union is that there is a lack of professionality about the place, it has been run with the worst features of a youth club and a business.
These suggestions having been made, I have seen some notable improvements over the past few weeks and wish to congratulate the Sabs on some excellent changes.
Alex
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Re:
by andrewdalgleish on Tue Oct 21, 2003 7:43 pm
excellent ideas Alex, if only the union listen to them...
also with regards to the smoking issue, i would agree wholeheartedly (being a smoker) but i do know people who would be quite upset at this, so how about reducing the size of the smoking section. making the games room no smoking would be fantastic too.
andy.
also with regards to the smoking issue, i would agree wholeheartedly (being a smoker) but i do know people who would be quite upset at this, so how about reducing the size of the smoking section. making the games room no smoking would be fantastic too.
andy.
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andrewdalgleish
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Re:
by iohannes on Mon Oct 27, 2003 9:27 pm
Tennents will stay on draught so long as Tennents provide the beer instead of Carlsberg which they started doing beginning of last year (I believe) or it may have been the year before.
That is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
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iohannes
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Re:
by Mr Comedy on Tue Oct 28, 2003 12:11 am
Alex, I'll try to answer as best as I can.
1. A large sign on the front door explaining the rules for signing in guests. I would preferably like these rules changed but a sign explaining the current rules would suffice.
There shouldn't be any problems with this, but most people know the rules. The question would be - is it worthwhile? It's something we'll look into, but it would be easier to email everyone on linkup, and considerably cheaper.
2. A rope barrier for the Bop queue on busy Friday nights to prevent the chaos of queue jumping etc.
The problem with this would be health and safety issues. The queueing for the bop is one of the limitations of the Marys place building. However, puttin up a rope barrier would be a health and safety obstacle.
3. The raised metal seating area in Venue 1 is nice but it looks somewhat scruffy as it is bare plywood. A lick of paint would be far more professional and would cost under a tenner. I'll do it for free if need be.
The reason that it is bare is that it is not a permanent fixture. It is made up of several nevos (stage blocks) that can create raised areas. Not only do we need these to be moveable, but the very nature of what they are means we cannot paint them. When the theatre season, starts, this area will dissapear for a while.
4. The draped green plastic in Venue 1 really looks terrible.
We are looking at getting matt black covers. Thsi we will hopefully have reasonably soon. This is some thing we have already considered.
5. The new policy for Thursday and Saturday ... is a terrible policy.
Why? Do you get to look inside a club before you choose to go in? Why should the Union be any different? If you want it to be more professional, accept that we will run it more like a club. The situation of 'the bop is empty, I won't go in' is crippling the bop. Instead if people chose to go much in the same way as you would if you were to go to a club, then it would be easier. It also better in terms of access for people to be queueing down the corridor.
6. Instead of making a Thursday night bop free before a certain time, why not charge the standard rate and offer a free drink or two? This would commit people to staying in there as they have paid money.
Because of the unique position of the Union, we offer both alcohol for sale, and also condone drunkeness, despite that we most of the Unions money from it.
As such, we cannot give away free alcohol. We are looking at 'bop only' drinks promos, which basically would make it more financially viable for you to goet drunk in the bop. However, offering free drinks could get us into murky legal territory.
I think that the fundamental problem with the union is that there is a lack of professionality about the place, it has been run with the worst features of a youth club and a business.
I agree, the Union is distinctly amateuristic. One of the problems is the yearly staff change-over, with each years new people having all these great ideas about how to improve the Union without actually thinking of how these would work, or knowing how the Union works.
Now I have a question.
It has been ascertained that the Union needs to become more professional if it is going to hold an audience, as it is under pressure that never existed before from Dundee and Edinburgh. So why have the Union decided to stop paying DJs? The quality of the music is one of the distinctions of a good atmosphere, and good DJs quitting the Union because they don't want to work for free is understandable. Why don't you pay the DJs, and then you could attract better ones, and avoid the problem that the Union DJing is only set to get worse, as complete amateurs are allowed to DJ. I think this is completely unacceptable, and in the long term will prove to be a disastrous policy change.
Sorry that one of the Sabbaticals didn't get around to answering your question, as they ought to respond to these questions. However, as a member of the Ents committee, I felt obliged to respond, and if you (or anyone else) has any more questions, email me on djv@st-and.ac.uk
Dave Vinton
DJ Convenor
1. A large sign on the front door explaining the rules for signing in guests. I would preferably like these rules changed but a sign explaining the current rules would suffice.
There shouldn't be any problems with this, but most people know the rules. The question would be - is it worthwhile? It's something we'll look into, but it would be easier to email everyone on linkup, and considerably cheaper.
2. A rope barrier for the Bop queue on busy Friday nights to prevent the chaos of queue jumping etc.
The problem with this would be health and safety issues. The queueing for the bop is one of the limitations of the Marys place building. However, puttin up a rope barrier would be a health and safety obstacle.
3. The raised metal seating area in Venue 1 is nice but it looks somewhat scruffy as it is bare plywood. A lick of paint would be far more professional and would cost under a tenner. I'll do it for free if need be.
The reason that it is bare is that it is not a permanent fixture. It is made up of several nevos (stage blocks) that can create raised areas. Not only do we need these to be moveable, but the very nature of what they are means we cannot paint them. When the theatre season, starts, this area will dissapear for a while.
4. The draped green plastic in Venue 1 really looks terrible.
We are looking at getting matt black covers. Thsi we will hopefully have reasonably soon. This is some thing we have already considered.
5. The new policy for Thursday and Saturday ... is a terrible policy.
Why? Do you get to look inside a club before you choose to go in? Why should the Union be any different? If you want it to be more professional, accept that we will run it more like a club. The situation of 'the bop is empty, I won't go in' is crippling the bop. Instead if people chose to go much in the same way as you would if you were to go to a club, then it would be easier. It also better in terms of access for people to be queueing down the corridor.
6. Instead of making a Thursday night bop free before a certain time, why not charge the standard rate and offer a free drink or two? This would commit people to staying in there as they have paid money.
Because of the unique position of the Union, we offer both alcohol for sale, and also condone drunkeness, despite that we most of the Unions money from it.
As such, we cannot give away free alcohol. We are looking at 'bop only' drinks promos, which basically would make it more financially viable for you to goet drunk in the bop. However, offering free drinks could get us into murky legal territory.
I think that the fundamental problem with the union is that there is a lack of professionality about the place, it has been run with the worst features of a youth club and a business.
I agree, the Union is distinctly amateuristic. One of the problems is the yearly staff change-over, with each years new people having all these great ideas about how to improve the Union without actually thinking of how these would work, or knowing how the Union works.
Now I have a question.
It has been ascertained that the Union needs to become more professional if it is going to hold an audience, as it is under pressure that never existed before from Dundee and Edinburgh. So why have the Union decided to stop paying DJs? The quality of the music is one of the distinctions of a good atmosphere, and good DJs quitting the Union because they don't want to work for free is understandable. Why don't you pay the DJs, and then you could attract better ones, and avoid the problem that the Union DJing is only set to get worse, as complete amateurs are allowed to DJ. I think this is completely unacceptable, and in the long term will prove to be a disastrous policy change.
Sorry that one of the Sabbaticals didn't get around to answering your question, as they ought to respond to these questions. However, as a member of the Ents committee, I felt obliged to respond, and if you (or anyone else) has any more questions, email me on djv@st-and.ac.uk
Dave Vinton
DJ Convenor
"I am in no way interested in immortality, but only in the taste of tea. " -Lu Tung
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Mr Comedy
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Re:
by Pilmour Boy on Tue Oct 28, 2003 8:42 pm
[s]Mr Comedy wrote on 00:11, 28th Oct 2003:
Because of the unique position of the Union, we offer both alcohol for sale, and also condone drunkeness, despite that we most of the Unions money from it.
Condone, or condemn?
If there aren't enough people going into the "bop" on Thursdays and Saturdays, perhaps it's time to start some incentives for going. Cheap entry to a Friday bop, if you still have on the band from the previous night?
Anybody else have any ideas?
Because of the unique position of the Union, we offer both alcohol for sale, and also condone drunkeness, despite that we most of the Unions money from it.
Condone, or condemn?
If there aren't enough people going into the "bop" on Thursdays and Saturdays, perhaps it's time to start some incentives for going. Cheap entry to a Friday bop, if you still have on the band from the previous night?
Anybody else have any ideas?
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Pilmour Boy
- Posts: 1226
- Joined: Wed Aug 28, 2002 4:31 am
Re:
by PurelySynthetic on Wed Oct 29, 2003 5:49 pm
yeh thats true - they often have painted women in bikinis giving out free shots of whatever alcopop they're trying to push for the night. plus they then give out tokens to get free drinks from the bar.
em anyway thats not a v helpful post so i'll shut up now
em anyway thats not a v helpful post so i'll shut up now
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PurelySynthetic
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Re:
by immunodiffusion on Thu Oct 30, 2003 9:44 pm
They sometimes have nights when you can get 2 free pints of Guinness in the Union, so I don't see why you wouldn't be able to give free drinks away in the Thursday bop
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immunodiffusion
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Re:
by Mr Comedy on Sat Nov 01, 2003 1:56 am
the distinction here is that we have a company who is pushing their own drinks, not us giving you free drinks. Subtle difference, but an important one.
"I am in no way interested in immortality, but only in the taste of tea. " -Lu Tung
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Mr Comedy
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Re:
by Guest on Sun Nov 02, 2003 3:31 pm
[s]Mr Comedy wrote on 00:11, 28th Oct 2003:
So why have the Union decided to stop paying DJs? The quality of the music is one of the distinctions of a good atmosphere, and good DJs quitting the Union because they don't want to work for free is understandable. Why don't you pay the DJs, and then you could attract better ones, and avoid the problem that the Union DJing is only set to get worse, as complete amateurs are allowed to DJ. I think this is completely unacceptable, and in the long term will prove to be a disastrous policy change.
now i may not have been at that particular meeting, but i have it from a reliable source that the idea to stop paying the DJs was yours, was it not Dave?
So why have the Union decided to stop paying DJs? The quality of the music is one of the distinctions of a good atmosphere, and good DJs quitting the Union because they don't want to work for free is understandable. Why don't you pay the DJs, and then you could attract better ones, and avoid the problem that the Union DJing is only set to get worse, as complete amateurs are allowed to DJ. I think this is completely unacceptable, and in the long term will prove to be a disastrous policy change.
now i may not have been at that particular meeting, but i have it from a reliable source that the idea to stop paying the DJs was yours, was it not Dave?
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Guest
Re:
by littlemissgiggle83 on Sun Nov 02, 2003 3:31 pm
I'm so glad to see that the sinner message boards haven't changed any, it's still the same good old crowd on here.
The union has cheap drink and that is all it really exists for, for when the students get broke, nasty but true!!
The union has cheap drink and that is all it really exists for, for when the students get broke, nasty but true!!
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littlemissgiggle83
Re:
by RichZ on Fri Nov 07, 2003 1:31 am
[s]Unregisted User wrote on 11:09, 1st Nov 2003:
ah i see - ok then well why not let them come on a thursday night and stick them in the bop? Actually come to think of it if they had any sense theyd say no coz noone goes to the bop then! Vicious circle i know.
Well it was quite busy tonight for a Thursday. See, it's good if people go, if everyone thinks, i'll go in later when it's busy, it'll never get busy.
ah i see - ok then well why not let them come on a thursday night and stick them in the bop? Actually come to think of it if they had any sense theyd say no coz noone goes to the bop then! Vicious circle i know.
Well it was quite busy tonight for a Thursday. See, it's good if people go, if everyone thinks, i'll go in later when it's busy, it'll never get busy.
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RichZ
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