(Test) Edinburgh Board Gamers Connect

Hi all! 👋
First of all, thanks for joining. I thought I'd explain a little bit about what this group is and why I've suddenly created it.
I'm part of Edinburgh Board Gamers Connect, which is currently run by myself and a guy called Mark Stone, along with a few other friends who help out.

We've actually been around for quite a few years, but we've mainly organised ourselves through Facebook and our group chats. At the moment we normally have our main board gaming meetup once a month, usually on the last Sunday of the month.

I was at the Friday Edinburgh Board Gamers recently and got chatting to quite a few people. I realised just how many people now seem to use Meetup to find gaming groups and events rather than Facebook.
That got me thinking that maybe we should actually have a presence here as well.
Edinburgh Board Gamers is a great community, but it's also become absolutely massive over the years.
I still remember when the Edinburgh gaming community was meeting in the old Games Hub cellar on Thursday nights and it had that smaller, tight knit community feeling.
That's something I'd quite like Edinburgh Board Gamers Connect to retain.

We're not really trying to become another enormous gaming group.
We'd like to be a smaller, more relaxed community where people can get to know each other, socialise and play games without it feeling too overwhelming.
Our meetup yesterday had around 10 people, for example, and I think the largest we've had at one of our recent gatherings was around 18.

That's roughly the sort of atmosphere we're going for. Enough people that there's a good selection of games and people to meet, but still small enough that you don't feel lost in a room wondering where you're supposed to sit or who you're supposed to talk to.

As for games, we're pretty broad.
We play everything from lighter and social games, card games, party and deception games, through things like Codenames and Ticket to Ride, and into longer or more involved games such as Terraforming Mars, Terra Mystica and Lords of Waterdeep.

Some people like heavier strategy games. Others prefer something they can learn in five minutes. Both are absolutely fine.
We're much more about playing whatever people actually fancy playing than being dedicated to one particular type of board game.
There's also the possibility of things like tabletop RPGs and other gaming events in the future.
One of the reasons we're branching out onto Meetup is that we'd like this to become a platform where we can organise additional events.
That could be a day focused around a particular game, an extra gaming afternoon somewhere, or simply somebody saying, "I'd really like to get this game to the table. Does anyone fancy playing it?"

The social side is important to us as well.
It's not just about getting through as many games as possible. We want people to meet other gamers, make friends and hopefully become part of the community.
One other thing I should explain is that this particular Meetup group is currently a bit of a test!

Since creating it, we've potentially been offered a much better way of running our Meetup presence through a friend's existing account.
Because of that, this particular group may only exist until the end of the month.
Everyone is absolutely welcome to stay here in the meantime.

Hopefully within the next week or so we'll know exactly what we're doing, and if we do create a replacement Edinburgh Board Gamers Connect group, I'll post the information here so anyone who's interested can move over to the permanent group.
And don't worry if you're new to board gaming or don't know anyone. That's exactly the sort of reason we want a group like this in the first place.
Hopefully that answers some of the questions people have been asking me.
I'm also very new to actually running anything through Meetup, so I'm still figuring out which buttons I'm supposed to press myself! 😅
Thanks again for joining, and hopefully we'll get to meet some of you around a gaming table soon. 🎲