Dale Martin
City of Fernandina Beach
City Manager
August 5, 2016 1:00 a.m.
We seem to have a fascination with trivia: trivia games, television shows, and friendly competitions abound. The uncanny ability to remember some otherwise meaningless fact can be somewhat interesting. The extent of our knowledge of the irreverent can be amazing.
The Fernandina Beach Golf Course sought to capitalize on this trivia interest by scheduling its inaugural Trivia Night. I believe that a few other local restaurants offer trivia events, but with the availability of the golf course facility and food, Mr. Steve Murphy, General Manager, also decided to host a Trivia Night.
The event was held at 6:00 PM at the clubhouse on Wednesday, July 27. The volunteer emcee was Mr. Joe Springer (more commonly known to the community as the Marina Manager), who developed the series of questions posed to the several teams attending. Approximately seventy-five people participated, exceeding Mr. Murphy’s expected attendance. Participants included three City Commissioners, several City staff, and obviously dozens of area residents.
While the evening was very enjoyable, a few “first night jitters” were apparent. As mentioned, Mr. Murphy did not expect the large group that did participate, so he felt that he was understaffed. He also strayed from the standard menu, believing that many of the attendees would be familiar with that menu and desire something different. No “formal” registration occurred, so an opportunity to gather contact information for future events was missed. The acoustics of the room made it difficult to hear Mr. Springer at times. The final surprising comment was that the questions were not challenging enough!
While the evening was very enjoyable, the real assessment had to be based upon the financial component, and in that regard, the event was quite successful. With that in mind, and taking all of the glitches into consideration, the second Trivia Night is scheduled for 6:00 PM, Wednesday, August 10, at the Fernandina Beach Golf Course.
Mr. Murphy has indicated that more staff will be on-hand. Additionally, Mr. Springer will be provided a different assistant than Mr. Murphy, so that Mr. Murphy can focus on the food, beverage, and customer service component of the event. I expect that Kristy and Laura will still provide outstanding service, though.
The menu will not only include some of the standard lunch fare, more “finger-food” will be available. Drink specials will also be available.
The acoustics of the facility will be more difficult to overcome and require a little more experimentation. As alternatives are examined, the questions will also be provided visually on television screens. This should make it much easier for participants to understand the questions.
We’ll have registration sheets available to secure contact information (email address preferably). We can use that information to share news about future Trivia Nights.
Mr. Springer has promised to ratchet up the difficulty of the questions. Many of the participants indicated that they preferred to steer clear of multiple choice answers or true-false questions. This is trivia, by golly, and you either know it or you don’t! As mentioned, Mr. Springer will be provided additional staff to support his organizational effort.
I believe that everyone that participated last week enjoyed themselves. It was a fun evening and an opportunity to meet many people in a casually social environment. The game concluded around 7:30, making it an only ninety-minute event. As long as the evening provides an additional modest income to the Golf Course and the people keep coming out, I am sure that Trivia Night will continue to be scheduled. For now, as we work the bugs out, it will remain an “every other week” event. If its popularity increases, it may transition to a weekly event.
Thank you to all you came to the Golf Course last week. New players and teams (hey, get creative with a team name or uniform!) are welcome. Don’t be afraid to come alone and meet new friends. I look forward to seeing you again on Wednesday (6:00 PM, August 10).