The club I go to here in Portland tried a phone basket at the door for a while and it actually worked pretty well for the first month or so. People dropped them in, we all watched the episode, and the talks after were way better since nobody had one eye on a screen. Then some regulars started saying they needed their phones for family stuff and it fell apart, but a few of us still do it on our own and just sit in the front row together. My tip is to find the two or three people who actually want to watch and stick with them instead of trying to fix the whole room. Have you thought about starting a small watch group in your own place instead of the big club?

Reminds me of a bathroom scale I had that read different every time you stepped on it. I'd weigh myself three times in a row and get three different numbers, so I just stopped using it and went by how my pants fit. Some tools just don't earn their spot in the bag, sounds like yours didn't either.