VIP Club Day - Will now be Saturday 23rd December!

Hi everyone,

Although we hadn’t made this official yet, a few of you may already have had some details about our upcoming VIP Club Days. Initially I was planning on doing the first VIP Club Day today, and to be honest I wasn’t expecting many people on the first one, and that this new one day a month event would take time to attract more people wanting to come. However, I was caught off guard somewhat with almost everyone I mentioned it to mostly being very excited about coming. I wasn’t expecting many people wanting to come today, maybe half a dozen or so, and got caught by surprise by almost everyone I had touted the idea to wanting to pop in.

Now Sat 23rd Dec - Not today!

What with all the delivery chaos this week due to the cold weather, I was very far behind on getting the shop ready today. If only half a dozen people were going to pop in, then I could probably tidy up a bit during the day and it would be ok, but, judging by the response rate from the people I had mentioned it too, if I did go ahead today then even with invites going out at the last minute, I might have had 20-100 people turn up, and I’m really not organised enough to cope with that many people for things like; parking, snacks, etc.

So rather than just quietly doing the first one today, and only a dozen or so people getting invites and everyone else feeling a bit left out, or, sending out invites this morning and then being deluged with people, I thought the best thing to do is to reschedule this for Saturday 23rd December, so that I’ve got more time to prep for a larger number of visitors, and generally make a bit more effort! For a start I think I might need more than 4 coffee mugs etc!

What is VIP Club Day?

Ok, so the general idea is that one day per month I will be opening the shop for a special VIP Club Day. It’ll be invite only (as otherwise we may get far too many people). The first one will now be Saturday 23rd December, and from then on it will be one day on the first weekend of each month.

If the first weekend of the month is a Bank Holiday weekend then it will be on the Bank Holiday Monday, and on other months it will alternate between being on Saturdays and Sundays so more people get a chance to come. It’ll probably start at Midday (I’m not a mornings person), and run through until 8pm or later, so that if people are working that day they can pop by after work.

Here are some more details:

The first one will now be Saturday 23rd December.
After that it will be one day per month, on the first weekend of each month.
Some months it will be on the Saturday, some on the Sunday, and if it’s a Bank Holiday weekend it will be on the Monday.
It will start at Midday (ish) and run through to 8pm, and maybe later.
They will be invite only, and there will probably be a limited number of tickets so it doesn’t get out of hand lol.
Everyone attending will get a free goodie bag of stuff, plus they’ll be drinks, snacks etc.
We’ll also have a frag tank packed full of frags you can buy on the day, at a massively reduced VIP price, and they’ll likely be some other offers on inverts or dry goods etc.
I plan on doing a talk or demo (maybe a couple) throughout the day on various subjects (I’ll probably run a poll so you all get to choose what you’d like it to be about).
They’ll be other events throughout the day which will vary such as: raffles, free prize draws, Q+A, maybe even a guest speaker occasionally, stuff like that.
You’ll also be able to pick up stuff you have on order too (this might need to be a prebooked thing so I can pack them the night before, as packing boxes takes time and there’s only one of me, so I can’t do talks etc and pack boxes at the same time etc), I’ll work out a system for that.
The main goals of the day really is that it gives people a chance to; pop in and look around, pick up orders, get free stuff, snap up some special VIP offers, meet other hobbyists, eat free Pizza, etc.
We currently don’t have any marine clubs that I’m aware of around this way, so hopefully by bringing people together like this it might help people create one, and then hopefully other shops in the area might also like to be involved and maybe also join in with Club Days of their own. It might eventually mean that there is Club Day every weekend, and it being at a different shop each weekend, that is what I would ideally like to see.
Although I am hoping that our Club Day does bring people together so that a local marine club can be formed as a result, I think it’s important that any club formed be completely independent and is formed by local hobbyists between them, and although I’d like to be in the club (if they’ll let me lol) I don’t want any role in the running of the club etc.
I think it’s important the club is completely independent, and run by local hobbyists themselves so it is free to run events at whichever shops it see’s fit etc, and be able to decide that itself, and not subject to influence by any one shop. My role is purely to try and help bring local hobbyists together to help a local club to be formed, and not to create “my club” or whatever.
I’ll send out more details nearer the 23rd Dec, and I’ll also then publish dates for the following 3-6 dates too.
If you were hoping that you might be able to pop in today, then sorry I couldn’t get organised in time, but, there is some good news, which is that if you are one of the people I had already mentioned it too I’ll be emailing you over the next couple of days to arrange a collection slot for you for during next week/next weekend. I’ll work out what times are going to be available, and then send you a set of days/times to pick from. I’ll try to free up as many 1 hour slots as possible, and I’ll also make some spots available for other people to pop in and collect.
Emails will go out this weekend to arrange deliveries and collections for next week, and I’m trying to organise drivers for at least one and possibly two hand delivery runs for next week too. Between posting out, collections, and hand delivery runs, around 100 of the 160 or so people with live orders will be able to get a delivery/collection next week, and everyone else will get one the following week. There may be some items to follow later, but, the plan is for everyone to get a delivery/collection within the next 15 days.
We usually stop posting out around 14th December, and then switch to hand delivery runs only from then right up until Christmas pretty much, with our last hand delivery run usually being on Christmas Eve itself. So don’t worry if some items are still to follow, because if you don’t get everything on order within the next 15 days, then you’ll be scheduled for another delivery before Christmas.
As always please wait for me to email you, because sending out 160+ emails, and sorting through 160+ replies takes time, and the more emails there are in my inbox the harder it is for me to find the replies etc.
Last year we had about 220 people to deliver to pre-Christmas, and we only missed 4 people out of that (2 in the Scottish Highlands, 1 in Central Wales, and 1 person on holiday, from memory).
While currently all new orders are for pre-Christmas delivery, as we get more orders in we will switch to January delivery on new orders. We announce this well in advance, and usuallt the cut off date for pre-Christmas delivery is around 10th Dec. Some orders placed after 10th Dec may still get delivered or be ready for collection before Christmas though.

Many thanks,

James

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