Set backs and delay

Well. I want to swear.




One of the things I hold myself to on this blog is trying not to curse, swear, engage in off-colour language, or otherwise write anything that may get blocked on school firewalls. I sometimes fail in that, but only accidentally.




Today, I find myself wanting to break it intentionally. My plans for this term have been derailed quite drastically.




My planed Dungeons and Dragons group has been largely scuppered due to a new revamped sports program taking out whole year groups at a time. Similarly the 6th formers who I were counting on (students in their last years for the non-UK), have been excluded from the one activity slot which suits all other year groups.




Right now, I have one student lined up who can actually make the planned session slot. Dungeons and Dragons can be fun with a solo player, but it's exhausting for both DM and player. And frankly, spending an hour or two one-on-one with a student talking about elves is a little too far into the weird, even for me.




What's even worse is that the plans for my club room have been shot down by the Fire Marshal. It turns out that the room I picked out is part of another building, even though it's connected to my boarding house. It is "closed", which means that no one is in there for the purposes of fire safety.




Opening up that room would mean opening the rest of the building up, which would mean planned and regular fire drills for... well the zero number of people in it. It also means it would need to be regularly checked for fire escape hazards (i.e. stored furniture would have to be moved).




What this finally means, is that the favours I called in and the box of chocolates sent to the building manager has been somewhat wasted. All that progress and hoop jumping for nothing!




So a set back, and certainly a delay. It may well be that the DnD group doesn't get going until next half term. Not a problem, as it gives me more time to market the activity.




As for the club room? Well, I've picked out another two possibilities, but either has problems. It's going to be slightly different in that both have to be shared spaces.












I often quote the mantra of "Don't build walls, break them". But that doesn't mean you bash your head against a wall hoping it will fall down. Sometimes, and in fact most times, it's quicker and more efficient to back away and come at it again from another angle.




With one of the new rooms, well within the bounds of the boarding house, I will build a club room. With the house masters blessing, and amazingly the offered budget of the boarding house, I will build a nerd room. From their, we will naturally need to expand.




It's approaching the problem differently. Rather than a dedicated table top gaming club room, it will be a shared space for other activities. That way we will have more traffic in the club room, and past potential display cases, and thus increase the number of interested students. The club can grow, and when it's large enough the idea of a dedicated club room will have more traction.




It's also worth remembering we are only a week and a half into term, and clubs haven't even started yet. Progress has been staggering on both the Warhammer club front, and the rate of interest in Dungeons and Dragons.


To sum it up... set backs and delays, but I'm not done yet!


Until next time.



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