I got a message in my inbox about this, so I thought I'd just address this publically.
Two people got stranded at the train in the cold for an hour because they missed theirs, I talked to them for a couple minutes and they were fine, so I invited them in until their train arrived. I did this literally in the spirit of Christmas.
For the people upset about this, please consider this my apology. It was done with the best of intentions. I'm sorry if it upset anyone.
Huh?
They were nice! I think we talked them into coming to Stout Night.
Can I use Strangers at the Bottle Share as a name for one of my beers?
Yeah, they were cool Kris. I didn't talk to them much, but they were gone by the time I left.
Jeff, I'm claiming "Stranger Danger" as a name for my next beer and the label will feature a panel van.
www.singingboysbrewing.com
Haha! A white panel van...
Thanks guys, I appreciate that. The member who messaged filled me in some back story of people just walking in and bumming cigratte's or casing the joint and etc. I didn't know about all of that stuff; so I really appreciate the concern associated with that.
Yeah, they did seem really nice when I met them, like the kinda people we would dig, which is why I didn't really think about it a ton (probably should have). I'm glad to hear it went well, and I will be a little more respectful about such things inf the future... now I know there have been some issues in the past. Thanks everyone!
I've seen veteran members at one point or another entertain strangers walking in off the street asking if CHAOS was a bar (sometimes even offering a taster of beer). If we're now to immediately escort strangers out/forbid strangers from entering, it needs to be a topic of discussion at a meeting.
Reinstalling the gate will help with this, too.
I say use your best judgment. I had 6 suburban guys come in and they dropped a 120 bucks on T-shirts just so they could have a beer and chill waiting on the train.
That's how it's been, Chuck. I'm totally cool with that. But, the busy-body who took the time to actually PM/email Kris about strangers in the brewhouse didn't get that memo.
Speaking of strangers, any body seen my old Greek guy Nick?
Yeah, he came by Saturday afternoon maybe about 30 minutes after you left the first time.
He was probably the only visitor to the open house!
Ha! I remember that guy! Glad to hear he's still stopping by!
Yeah, he was there when I was there, too, on Saturday - he's a hoot!
www.singingboysbrewing.com
FWIW, Jim, I was said busy-body. I sent Kris a note because a few people were kind of grumbling about it—partly because of not-so-great interactions with wander-ins in the past, partly because it was a members-only party, partly because he sent them our way as he was leaving (not trying to throw you under the bus, Kris, but it might have been received differently if you brought people in and stuck around with them).
On the whole, I would agree that we should be welcoming and friendly and whatnot, but after seeing people coming back on a regular basis just to ask for booze, after having kids hurl rocks in the front door a few different times over the summer, after that box of stuff was stolen out back and tossed by the dumpster after the valuables were picked out—I've become more cynical, I suppose.
I can see where Brock is coming from. I'm still very upset that my CO2 tank and regulator were stolen after the Summer BrewBQ, and I'm generally suspicious of anyone coming from the train platform.
Personally, I approach strangers at the club with a friendly interrogation, and I think we should all do this. It only takes a minute of chit chat to figure someone out. It sucks to be cynical, but I've had way too much shit stolen at parties where I thought I was in friendly company.
Another thing that would alleviate suspicion is to introduce the people you bring in. The place is not that big, just yell out, "Hey everyone, let's welcome these strangers to our bottle share!"
If handled well, this could be a lot of fun and help grow the club.
I'm not seeing how the two are related. Do we now fear that these folks Kris brought in will come back and steal from us? Or, Chuck's "buddy" for that matter? Or, that people will come in and, after members chatting with them, try to steal from us right then and there?
Sounds to me like we're talking about two somewhat unrelated things: security (i.e., preventing theft and "vandalism" behind our backs by people we don't know) and politely indulging walk-in non-members (without encouraging them to repeatedly hit us up for beer).
I feel like you should treat like your home. If you wouldn't invite strange people walking by your house into your bottle share, bbq, whatever, don't invite them into the brew house. Thieves and scam artists aren't going to walk in with a sign pinned to them. We have plenty of events where we happily invite the general public in if they have a genuine interest. Somebody could have few beers, go walk through the brew house, slip on some water, crack their head open and that's that. Just a liability we don't need.
And for the record, I think Brock is definitely a busy-body, but he's also probably right.
Hey Jim, I doubt anyone invited to the brewhouse is going to come back and steal stuff, that sounds totally ridiculous.
I was reluctant to bring up theft, but it is an ever present issue at parties, and I think we all need to be aware of it. I really doubt a stranger just swooped in and took my tank after the Summer party. It was most likely someone at the party that took it. I have accepted the loss, but it still burns.
Brock mentioned that his negative experiences informed his reaction, and I felt it was worth adding that his fears are not unfounded. I do not think an email the next day was the best way to address it, so I suggested that speaking up at the event would have been a better way to handle it.
No need for a witch hunt or blame storming, but we should be able to talk about theft at parties and make everyone aware we have had problems.
Everyone makes good points. I'm not arguing with anyone. And, nowhere did I say we can't talk about it/bring it up.
But, it is two topics and not one. Technically, we have TONS of strangers in the brewhouse for parties with tons of distraction for amoral folks to lift stuff; and then there are the walk-ins for smaller "events."
The stop-gap solution to the former seems to be security (locking stuff up; hiding it; taking it home; not letting it leave your sight) and the stop-gap solution to the latter seems to be conversation and some reasonable judgement. This thread in particular seems to be addressing the latter (unless the Holiday Party was as big and as raging as our quarterly parties).