June Update // Membership Pricing Changes
Hey all,
I’m writing this from inside the Annex, which has been my new work spot on days when I’m not behind the bar. There’s usually one or two folks hobbying or rolling dice in one of the other rooms as I plug away at accounting and website updates, which is lovely. It reminds me of when I was teaching— other teachers and I would be working with our doors open between lessons, doing planning or conducting one-on-one sessions with students. Even though we were only hearing little noises from across the hall, there was a sense of shared purpose that made the environment calm and focused.
Things at the club feel good these days. The energy from our 40k players is percolating as the Tacoma Open approaches, Sigmarites are brewing fun organized play opportunities for 4th edition, and Kill Team players are painting up set pieces for the next narrative campaign from Matt & Sabrina. With a number of big transitions now behind us, our staff is also taking turns getting away for camping, concerts, time with family, and short vacations. There are no emergent tech issues. No capacity problems to worry about or daily waitlist requests to monitor.
Accounting for Changes
It’s these intervening periods of calm when I finally take a breath and ask, “Are all the improvements we’ve been working on actually helping people connect and have more fun?” “Are they worth the sweat our team pours into them?” and “Is the financial impact what we anticipated?”
Those last two questions continue to nag at me pretty persistently. Our 2023 taxes revealed that even though Waystone’s revenue doubled compared to 2022, we’ve been setting aside less for discretionary improvements, our safety net for emergencies hasn’t grown, and we’ve been paying ourselves less.
None of that is the end of the world—most of it has to do with the relentless pace at which we’ve chosen to continually invest in the club—but as we try to find more and more creative ways to keep up financially, it’s become harder to ignore the fact that Waystone’s core offerings might not be accurately reflected in its membership pricing anymore.
Our current prices were set back in April 2022 (just two months after we opened), and since then we’ve not only added the Annex, but also upgraded to a much more robust membership and booking software, and (perhaps most significantly) gone from being open 5 days a week to 7. Yes, it’s been that long.
Each of these changes has allowed us to serve more folks, but we’re also seeing that even when an update is necessary, that doesn’t always mean it pays for itself or correlates with an increase in membership—as with the new Annex, sometimes it’s just worth it because it makes the experience way better for everyone.
With all that in mind, we’ve made the decision to update membership pricing in July. This will affect all new and existing monthly memberships.*
*excluding Kickstarter memberships.
Financial Accessibility
Membership cost is fundamentally tied to who shows up in our club. There’s a significant number of folks who adore Waystone and are active contributors in the community, but for whom the membership price is a barrier to fully participating in what the space offers. We’re also in a time of unprecedented layoffs and inflation, and we’re seeing more applicants than ever for Reduced Cost memberships.
We remain committed to continually supporting our Reduced Cost Membership Policy, creating opportunities for anyone to enjoy the space regardless of membership, helping save members money on Games Workshop products (and coffee), and providing optional ways to support the club through opportunities like fun merch, or hiring us to help you throw exceptional parties.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly—we don’t want these changes to mean losing any members. Please reach out to Stefan or I in person or through our Contact form if that’s in any way a concern for you.
All the best,
Dustin
