Problems in Management

As I mentioned previously, I host Friday foosball pick up game events. The majority of people that show up for FCFs [Fat Cat Fridays] are close friends of mine who take and play foosball quite seriously. There are others that show up by hearing about it through mediums such as newpapers, facebook, articles published about New York Nightlife, and Meetup.com.

The attendance is steady though slowly declining in the past couple of months. I've been doing this for about one/one and a half year(s) and trust me when I tell you, it is not always easy to keep attendance steady.

Also, when I started this event up, I went through what I call the Great Depression of Foosball. GDofF is when practically no one shows up and I'm stuck there for hours alone waiting for someone to show up. I call it GDofF because one, it's depressing, and two, foosball attendance at FCF is very much like the economy. It's got its ups and downs and twists and turns.

Well lately, I have been in a slump. I don't want to go back to the beginning where I'm stuck by myself. I found out the hard way that it is difficult to herd or manage (a) large group(s) of people, even if they are as close as family, the way the NYCFoos community is.

To boost attendance last time, it was a lot of word of mouth, fake hype, and guest appearances. When the attendance hit 29+ people, the tables were overcrowded, and when coupled with overall less satisfaction; not the picture that I had intended to paint. I slowed down the marketing side and focused more on developing the service. I started taking attendance and statistically compressed population ideas [what, I'm not allowed to talk like that?] into how I could make FCF more worthwhile to those who came most frequently. When I went upstate for a foosball tournament, I had just started www.nycfoosball.com/fcf, which essentially targets those who don't play foosball in NYC and educates them on our most recent activities within NYC and guests from other regions who visit the big apple for foos. This blog is a complement to www.nycfoosball.com/ontour, which captures NYC playing in tournaments on other turfs. Anywho, the upstate folk complemented the blog and I was surprised to see how far management has taken me.

Nowadays, I've been having more and more pages views from over 85 cities [friends we've made right here in NYC!] across the globe in the last 3 months.

Sorry for this being so long; guess I went off on a tangent there. I'm taking a wild guess - No one from class is gonna read/comment this one haha :)]

Ellen M

Hey all!

Herrro :)

A little about me.
My name is Ellen. This is not my first blog. Visit FCF to see my not so fluent HTML expertise or lack there of. I go to Baruch full time as a Marketing Major in the Advertising & Communications sector and a Religion & Culture minor. I work part time at an executive search firm in the research department as a "Data Analyst". I was a gymnast for 9 years and a pianist for most of life [didn't get too far with that though]. I am a total work aholic and LOVEEEEE to do volunteer work. I host weekly foosball events every friday [my pride and joy] at a jazz lounge in the west village called Fat Cat [hence FCF - Fat Cat Fridays]. I also attend the local foosball tournaments in the same place held every tuesday. :) As you probably can tell by now, I am an avid foos fan. I live and breathe foosball. If you wish to locate me in class [I'm friendly & I don't bite{unless I'm playing foosball}], I'm the one decked out in Hello Kitty gear :)

I hope to learn a lot from this Intro to Management class and also to meet new people :)

Thanks for reading!
Ellen M