[sclug] SCLUG meeting - Wednesday 9 March

[Mark De Souza-Wilson]

Thank you Ed.  I think you've summed it up well saying:

"What we do know is that BoB was successful, what we don't know is if
something closer to the station would be more successful."

You're also quite right in saying that some things we don't know/can't
control and also that simple surveys won't be truly reflective for one
reason or another.

And thank you to everyone else who has participated in the discussion
on email.  I have now counted 7 people who, by email, have indicated
that they disagree with moving/are agreeable to staying at Back of
Beyond.  Given that Stuart's Twitter poll only had 11 voters in total,
I suggest we go back to meeting at Back of Beyond from Wednesday 9
March.

I will certainly be around at Back of Beyond on Wednesday 9 March and I
look forward to seeing you all again in person.

Kind regards,

Mark

-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Neville via Sclug <sclug at sclug.org.uk>
Reply-To: Ed Neville <ed at s5h.net>
To: sclug at sclug.org.uk
Subject: Re: [sclug] Which pub for SCLUG
Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2022 08:13:59 +0000

On 2022-02-28 07:37+0000, Mark De Souza-Wilson via Sclug wrote:
> I intend to send out an unbiased survey shortly, so that SCLUG
> members 
> can can indicate which venues they feel would meet the needs of the 
> group.  I'm keen to achieve the right result for the group, and to 
> separate the choice of venue from political feelings linked to the 
> 2016 Brexit Referendum.

Something I have come to realise, there are things we can control and 
things we can't control. Changing the venue to diver profit from a 
Brexit backing organisation may be futile since we can't control which 
organisations are on tap elsewhere. Or even the inverse may be true, 
perhaps the micro breweries on tap at Back of Beyond (BoB) were 
anti-brexit. Who knows? What about the kitchen food supply, is that
from 
farmers who opposed brexit?

What we do know is that BoB was successful, what we don't know is if 
something closer to the station would be more successful.

I suspect a survey at this point may only collect values from people
who 
have at some point in the past been and have hung around on the mail 
because BoB is a known quantity, those who said "no way" may not be 
available to survey. Suggesting this doesn't help my personal bias.

Maybe the survey should be on the web page with a text area for people 
to submit their preference. We'd need some form of sign on to decrease 
duplicates... it's getting out of hand already!

In the end, I think BoB, although a little far from the station, is a 
weather spoons and, like Mc Donald's, people know what the food will be
like, so if they're unfamiliar with the area, they know what they'll be
served. On the surface, people may not like it, but they do know what
it 
is and that probably works in the venues favour.

Ed