Hey folks. Good news! We have confirmed with the UCSA that we have got regular bookings this year. From February 28th onwards, SAGA Inc. will be running its usual hours out of KH07 and KH08, in Kirkwood Village.
Feb 022012
Aug 252011
Sorry about the delay – winter sickness plus a busy period at work (combined with preparations for Chimera) doesn’t make for regular blog updates.
The AGM was held on the 23rd of August. I imagine the minutes will find their way out to the mailing list or the website soon. We also decided on a committee for next year:
- President: Rose Nichols
- Secretary: Kane McIntyre
- Treasurer: Alistair Steele
- Promotions: Jan-Yves Ruzicka
- Quartermaster: Bryan Burling-Claridge
Aug 242011
Hey folks. Bad news on the bookings front, I’m afraid.
Tuesdays
While it’s been good having the church on Tuesdays, it’s costing us quite a bit as a club, and we can’t guarantee that we’ll get any money from the UCSA for bookings. This means that you had best assume that bookings for the church on Tuesdays will NOT BE HAPPENING from this point forward.
Thursdays
I have just been talking with Grace, who runs Student Living, and she has specified that they will NOT be able to host us on Thursdays – this booking was just for Term 1. For groups who usually play on Thursdays, I’m sorry for the rather sudden notice – if anyone was hosting something regular on Thursdays and doesn’t have anywhere to go tomorrow, email me and I can probably arrange something.
In other words, SAGA Inc. currently has no regular meetings.
Where now?
I don’t think that SAGA should just stay dormant this year. You paid money for a functioning club, and you elected me to be president of a functioning club. However, research, combined with organisation of Buckets of Dice, means that I don’t have as much time as I’d like to work on this.
Our Tuesday booking is currently reliant on getting a grant from the UCSA. If we get this grant (and we’ll know by this coming Friday), we will continue our church booking until at least the end of Term 2. If not, we’ll just have to start looking for an alternative venue.
As I understand, Grace is currently trying to accommodate clubs who asked for a Term 2 booking, but will also be balancing these with the requirements of students who’ve paid a lot of money to live at Uni Hall. If we are unable to get this space, the committee will look into alternative venues.
Apr 032011
Ladies and gentlemen, anguish no more! SAGA Inc. will not be running out of abandoned warehouses or student flats! (Not that there’s anything wrong with student flats or abandoned warehouses.) We have a venue for both Tuesday and Thursday nights!
Tuesday Nights – Riccarton Baptist Church Hall
Thanks to the help of our very own Gareth Reynolds, we will be running SAGA Inc. in the Riccarton Baptist Church from 7pm until 10pm on Tuesday nights for at least the next three weeks. Since I’m in the city this week, I’ll be running something suitably one-off and easy to learn if people are interested this coming Tuesday; otherwise, I encourage GMs to host their games at the Church with the rest of us.
Thursday Nights – Popper Lounge, Uni Hall
Thanks to Student Living, we will be able to run a few events on Thursday nights at Uni Hall on Maidstone Road. I heard noises about board games occuring, so if you want to do some board gaming on Thursday, give us a yell on the mailing list (or on Facebook) and show up! Since I’ll be working on my thesis, shut in for the whole day, I think it’s going to be easy enough to persuade me to come and relax.
Mar 212011
Hey folks, it’s your president again. We’ve made some progress since the last post on here, and we have a couple of events to announce to you.
Clubs Day
Clubs Day will be happening on the 24th and 25th of March (that’s this coming Thursday and Friday) from 10am to 4pm in the UCSA carpark. If you haven’t signed up yet, now’s your chance.
Intro Night
We can confirm that we have booked the Big Top on Tuesday the 29th of March, for our usual intro night. Unfortunately, it looks like we’ll only have the one intro night this year. So, if you want to meet our committee and play some games, come along to the Big Top from 6pm onwards next Tuesday!
If you’re a SAGA regular, and have had some experience at GMing, it’d be awesome if you could run a game for us. We tend not to have enough GMs on intro nights, and I can’t guarantee that I’ll be there to run a game. Even if you don’t have something prepared, it’s the perfect chance to pick up something small and have a go at it.
Regular Nights
We still don’t have a venue for regular gaming nights, but we’re working at it. If we don’t have one by the time intro nights roll around, we may have to initiate Plan C. This means we may, as a club, be gaming at peoples’ houses for a bit.
If it gets to this, we’ll organise games through the SAGA facebook group and mailing lists. If you want to run something, post in either (or both) of these locations for people. If you have the space, but not the experience to run something, you can always advertise your house as a venue.
As we get more news, we’ll keep you posted!
Last night we met with Daniel Pengelly and Sarah Smith, who’re in charge of clubs stuff at the UCSA. They briefed the University’s clubs on the current situation, and how it’s likely to change in the near future.
The harsh truth is that:
- The UCSA will be closed for the near future, and we won’t have a re-opening date for a good while.
- The Ballroom is completely out of action and may well be unavailable for the first semester.
- The only place that clubs can book is the Big Top tent in the UCSA car park. Every club will want this space, so there’s no chance of getting it regularly.
Our plan is as follows:
Clubs Day
Clubs Day has been rescheduled to March 24 and 25 (next Thursday and Friday), from 10am to 4pm. It will be taking place on the UCSA carpark, which is the largest space they have available right now. Come along, sign up, and see how we’re going!
Intro Night
As it stands, I think we’ll be lucky to get one evening for club events. We’re hoping to hold SAGA Intro Night on Tuesday the 29th of March, from 6pm to 9pm in the Big Top. If this doesn’t work out, Thursday the 31st is our fall-back night.
Regular Bookings
We’re currently reviewing our options for regular bookings. My next task is to look through all the schools and community halls near Uni, and see who’s interested in hiring out space to us on a regular basis. I’ll get back to you guys when we know more about where we’ll be based.
Future Events – Minicon and Buckets of Dice
We’re currently working out where to hold Minicon, as our primary venue (the Ballroom) is out. I’m hoping that Buckets of Dice will still be able to go ahead as planned. Again, more news closer to the time.
Thanks for your attention. I hope to see you on Saturday, when we hold our first Barbecue and Boardgames of the year!
(Via Tony Dijkstra)
Here’s a away to help with the Christchurch earthquake recovery programme: custom dice.
Owen Payne, from ChchWargaming, is selling the dice at $12 per half-dozen, plus postage. 50% of the profits will go to the Red Cross Earthquake Appeal, and the other 50% will be split between the Christchurch Cavaliers and the Christchurch Wargaming Club.
For more information (including how to order), check out this thread.
Update: If you’re thinking of ordering some dice and want to save on p&p, tell Owen that you want your dice put in the SAGA order, and I’ll get them all sent to me. Then I can distribute them on SAGA evenings.
Hey guys. You may have noticed that there’s been a bit of an earthquake.
Since the University of Canterbury is currently closed, we’ll not be doing much in the way of meetings until the place gets reopened. Even then, we may not be able to get our usual room bookings. I’ve talked to the committee, and this is our three-tiered, multiple-redundancy plan for the rest of the year.
Plan A – Business as Usual
Assuming everything gets back to normal mid-March, we will reschedule the intro nights for new members and start up our twice-a-week meetings in the UCSA. Minicon may be moved back a week or so, since we haven’t been able to affiliate our book rooms with the UCSA yet.
Plan B – Alternate Venue
If we can’t book the UCSA for regular SAGA meetings, our next priority is booking an alternate venue. We’ll be looking at hiring school halls or classrooms in the vicinity, but this will also depend on pricing and the like.
Plan C – Distributed SAGA
If we can’t find an alternate venue, SAGA will end up going underground. We have a number of facilities in place so you can get in contact with other SAGA members, so you can still recruit players and get yourself a page on the Campaigns List – it just means that you now need to supply a venue. In this case, the committee will be organising meetups and the like so that SAGA members can be reminded that they’re part of a community.
In the meantime, there’s some good news. Comics Compulsion, the beating heart of Christchurch’s comic and gaming community, is back open – just in a slightly different venue. More info can be found on their facebook page if you’re looking to get your roleplaying and comic fix.
I’ll let you know as soon as we find out from the UCSA what the situation is going to be for the rest of the year.
Feb 162011
Hey folks! If you’re running a campaign this year, you might want to get your campaign blurb onto the campaigns page, so people can see what you’re up to. If you’re really keen, we can set you up with your own page that you can edit and so forth. Get in contact with me (either comment on the post, or go through all the usual methods of finding me on facebook or via email) for more info, or to get your campaign set up.
