Student Union Bar Closure
Dear all,
Further to our recent post released regarding the closure of the Student Union Bar at Inc. Club (https://www.facebook.com/ravesu/posts/366533143436514), we are elaborating further on this matter with a statement to all students.
The SU bar was a joint venture between Ravensbourne Students’ Union and Inc. Club. Inc. Club offered their premises and services exclusively to Ravensbourne students between the hours of 12:00 - 20:00, Monday to Friday free of charge. Naturally, this meant that the continued existence of this agreement was dependant on the success (in this case measured on the income) of the bar’s operation between those hours.
The agreement was also based upon a three-month trial period, which started on the day of the bar’s launch (Freshers Fayre, September 28th 2012). This information was made public in messages, status updates and promotional material related to the SU bar in the hope that everyone would understand that the future of the bar relied on a good turnout throughout that period.
The reason that the bar was closed prior to the end of the three-month trial period was due to a poor turnout during the two months that it was open. Your Student Union team put a huge amount of effort in to securing the deal that made it possible, and they still consider it a success as they witnessed many students making use of the bar and enjoying themselves, which in their eyes made it all worth it. The abrupt way in which the SU bar was closed was also not our intention. Only a week and a half before the bar was shut we had discussed and planned a campaign to improve turnout following a conversation with the manager who implied that business was not going well. The decision to shut the bar was made by Inc. Club management and we were given no prior notice, it was only when an SU member visited the bar that we discovered it had closed. We apologise for this.
Criticisms have been raised by many students regarding the venue and turnout within the SU bar.
With regards to the venue, points have been raised about the atmosphere of Inc. Club - specifically the lighting, condition of the floor, the volume of the music and overall layout of the club including the seating arrangements. We fully understand these criticisms, and we realise that it may not seem like the ideal atmosphere to simply chill out with your friends. However, what needs to be understood is that Inc. Club is just that - a club. From 9pm onwards the venue operates as a nightclub, and it doesn’t possess the storage space, facilities or work force to allow us to configure and reconfigure the layout throughout the week. The intention was to begin investing money in to things such as decor, furniture and lighting - however, we needed to secure a decent turnout for this to become a possibility. Also the manager, Jay gave students permission to control the music and volume of the sound system. We apologise if this system was abused.
We decided to use Inc. Club as the venue for the SU bar as we managed to agree what we thought was a student-friendly food and drink price list, the venue was given to us free of charge allowing us more freedom to fund events and activities and it also allowed us to establish a relationship with the manager. However, with that said we have of course still listened to your feedback and have taken it on board.
Lastly, the ultimate reason that the bar could no longer operate exclusively as our SU bar during the day was due to the fact that it wasn’t making enough money to open and run the venue. Costs such as employee wages, cleaning and bills were not being covered by the day-to-day takings that the bar experienced. This however could have been avoided with a small increase in the numbers visitings the SU bar. That said, we hope you understand that Inc. Club and the management are running a business, and what they have given us over the last two months has been extremely generous despite their sacrifices.
We apologise for the closure of the SU bar, and we would like to thank all of those who supported it throughout the time it was open. We have taken an enormous amount of knowledge and lessons away from this experience, which we will use to our advantage in the future.
If you have any questions or feedback for us, as always, please do not hesitate to get in contact. You can email us at [email protected], message us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/ravesu) or pop by the Mezz to talk to one of your team in person.
All the best,
Jay
RSU Communications Officer.
P.S. Remember the check out the upcoming blog posts from your RSU team, it’s not all bad news!