SIGHTS
A parking lot filled with cars, a large field (for playing soccer, flying kites, and games of tag), a double-door entranceway, parents dropping kids off for programs (scout meetings, robotics club, a babysitting course, youth group events), large rooms with skylights and windows, kitchen facilities, a large meeting room (with folding tables and stackable chairs, a sound system, tile floors) that can be decorated for various events (wedding receptions, community meetings, youth dances, Christmas parties, family reunions, swap meets), a management office where organizers work (running the center on a day-to-day basis, renting out hall space, setting up meetings), a cloak room, a bulletin board where community news is posted, flyers advertising upcoming events and fundraisers (such as a community garage sale, a bottle drive, a pancake breakfast, movie night in the park), restrooms, a youth lounge (with old couches and armchairs, a pool table or foosball table, TV, and board games stacked on a shelf), moms and toddlers showing up for a playgroup, a yoga class setting out mats and running through warm-up stretches, storage rooms (to hold folding tables and chairs, custodial items, artificial plants, sound equipment)
SOUNDS
A heated discussion in a meeting room, sounds of hammering and wood pieces dropping as a scout troop builds wooden derby cars, children talking and laughing during an afterschool program, people calling out directions to helpers as they set up the center for a dance, a Master of Ceremonies giving a speech to the bride and groom at a wedding reception, the sound of a hanger scraping a rod in the cloak room, phones ringing in the office, toilets flushing, the trickle of water at a drinking fountain, shoes squeaking on the floor, the flutter of papers on the community board when the door is opened and a breeze gusts in, muffled outdoor noises (cars pulling in and out of the parking lot, parents yelling to kids, a basketball bouncing on an outdoor court)
SMELLS
Coffee brewing, food smells (if an event has been catered or the group is using the kitchen to prepare food), the musty smell of an older building
TASTES
Water from the drinking fountain, refreshments served by groups renting the hall, coffee, tea, heated meals from home in the employee and volunteer breakroom
TEXTURES AND SENSATIONS
Holding a phone to one’s ear while checking the community calendar for room availability, wind fluttering one’s clothes when a draft sneaks through an open door, the rhythmic sweep of a broom as one cleans up after a fiftieth wedding anniversary dinner, wadding up tablecloths to take them to the cleaners, manhandling tables onto their side to collapse the legs for storage, shoes slipping on a wet tile floor on a rainy day, lounging on an old sofa in the youth room, hefting decorations out of a storage closet for an upcoming event, dust from old décor making one sneeze
POSSIBLE SOURCES OF CONFLICT
Groups that rent a room and then don’t show up or refuse to pay
Vandalism (broken windows, graffiti-sprayed walls, ruined landscaping) that will cost valuable community funds to fix
Financial issues that limit the center’s capabilities
Having a huge demand for programming yet few people willing to volunteer their time
The center being used as an emergency shelter with not enough space to service the population
A hall space being double-booked
PEOPLE COMMONLY FOUND HERE
Building employees, community members, kids, maintenance and janitorial staff, organizers and members of special groups using the space to host events and hold meetings, teens
RELATED SETTINGS THAT MAY TIE IN WITH THIS ONE
Rural Volume: Church, gymnasium, wedding reception
Urban Volume: Outdoor pool, outdoor skating rink, parking lot, rec center
SETTING NOTES AND TIPS
The size and condition of a community hall will depend a lot on the affluent nature of its residents. A poorer community will have a smaller space and fewer amenities than a trendy community filled with multi-million dollar homes. However, big or small, community centers are hotspots for all sorts of local activity where people in the community can run into one another—even if they’d rather not. An ex-husband with a new girlfriend, a group of bullies from school, even that creepy neighbor down the block are all drawn in by local meetings and events, which can lead to glorious friction, fireworks, and explosions. When choosing this setting, ask yourself how you can use a space owned by everyone to either bring people together or set them at one another’s throats.
SETTING DESCRIPTION EXAMPLE
When Leroy had gone with his toolbox, Carla got up from her desk and walked to Evanwood, the smallest of the three halls up for rent. The room was quiet, the lights off, the floors neatly swept. This was the favorite space of the Orchid Group, a yoga studio that held classes here once a week. They’d been long-time renters, but lately they’d taken to turning up the heat until it was a blistering fire pit so the gals could enjoy a hot yoga session. Carla didn’t know what was worse—the heating bill or the dead body smell that took days to air out. She smiled at Leroy’s handiwork: a clear plastic box covering the thermostat. That was the end of that little problem. If only balancing the books had such an easy fix.
Techniques and Devices Used: Metaphor, multisensory descriptions
Resulting Effects: Characterization, hinting at backstory, tension and conflict