Start a Paintball Club
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How
to: Start a Paintball Club |
CHARTER You really have to draw up a charter. The charter contains the standards the club has set for safety, the purpose of the club, player attitude and behavior, and membership standards. The Charter is essentially the “spirit” of the club. RULES You should either draw up, or adopt, a set of playing rules. Your rules should include terms and definitions (those used in the rules), safety procedures, marker limitations, marker and power source classes, eliminations, games rules, general conduct and sportsmanship and discipline. A NOTE ABOUT THE RULES AND CHARTER You should really tailor these rules to help maintain what you want the club to be. Paintball is a game of fun and skill where safety and playing with honour are essential to the game. Also, the Rules and Charter apply every time a Member plays. The rules are not just for when the Club plays. MISSION You should also establish a mission. This is accomplished by a “mission statement”. For example, CanCon’s mission statement is very simple: “To make paintball safe, fun and affordable.” REPUTATION This doesn’t happen overnight. It is something you have to work on a daily basis. Once you’ve earned a good reputation, you must continue to work at it. The funny thing is that if you have a bad reputation — it seems to stay with you forever. The main things that make your reputation are, sportsmanship, honest play, and good relations with the field staff (that means no arguments, no hassles). You must also remember that EVERY Club member represents the Club and their actions reflect on the whole group. It’s not just up to those running the Club, it’s up to all members. Members whose actions give the club a bad name should be taken aside and talked to, if the behavior continues — you have the rules and the charter to use to have them removed from the club. (We’ve had to do this.) EXECUTIVE You must select or elect an Executive. These players help to organize the Club and help it run smoothly. Here's an example: Vice President: Performs the President’s duties in the absence of the President. Administrator: Maintain web site, organize play days, road trips, meetings and other Club events. Liaises with field staff. Sponsor Liaison: This is the main point of contact between the sponsors and the club. (If you have sponsors, you’ll need a person to co-ordinate with them. Sponsors have enough people to remember and they prefer to deal with the same person in the team or club every time.) Membership Co-ordinator: Maintains the membership list, collects dues, issues Membership kits/cards, and other general duties involving Membership records. Treasurer: Collects money for events and play days, maintains Club finances and acts as liaison between Club and fields in financial matters. Club Paraphernalia Design and Co-Ordinator: Designs and co-ordinates production of Club paraphernalia such as ball caps, T-shirts, patches, jerseys, and other items. Club Equipment Manager: Maintains, stores, and transports the copious amounts of communal equipment and supplies belonging to the Club. These positions will evolve as the need arises within your club. Positions can be held by the same person.. As your club grows, you can get other members to take up these duties so as not to overburden one person. Also, due to the fact that all of these positions are voluntary, you might want to think about some sort of “perk” such as discounts on play day, or free membership so long as they hold the position, et cetera. It’s really up to you and your Club. The other job of the executive is to make important decisions on club policy when gathering the membership for a vote is impractical. Major decisions have to be made and the club membership must vote to allow the Exec to make decisions on their behalf. (You’ll read more on this, later on.) MEMBERSHIP Our newest policy is on membership. Make sure that new members understand and can abide by the spirit of your club. This will avoid problems later on... you don't want to have to kick members out if not necessary! Think about our sponsors, also. And your reputation. MEMBERSHIP DUES Membership dues should be low enough so that the financial burden on members is not great and high enough that they generate revenue for the club. Now you have to realize that eventually you will have more money int he club that you can spend. This is when the executive can decide on purchasing club paraphernalia and the like. Maybe provide laminated membership cards. HOME FIELD Having a home field is the best way to recruit new members. The home field can also have the advantage of being your first sponsor. Once you have one sponsor, you can use that sponsor to help you find more. The real key to sponsorship is not to ask too much from your sponsor and ensure the sponsor’s logo is displayed on a club banner. THE MORNING BRIEFING Every play day, all players who are playing with your should be required to attend the orientation briefing. At one time we attended the field briefing, but we later secured permission from the field owner to give our own to our group. No matter how many times you’ve played, no matter how long you’ve been a member, attending the morning briefing is mandatory. If there are first-time players, they should be taken aside after the morning briefing and given a little “pep talk”. They should be told that there are some very experienced players in the Club, more than a few with over 10 years of playing experience. If they feel they are being “walked on” or they’re not having a good time, they should come and see you. Tell them that because of their inexperience they may find themselves outmatched. If the new players know they can come to one of the Executive and voice their complaint, they will and the problem will be rectified. The problem lies, sometimes, in the way we pick the teams. We have players draw an armband out of a bag (without looking) to determine what team they’re on. This random draw sometimes “stacks” one team with experienced players. When we have had complaints from newer players it was usually after the first couple of games in the morning and when we reshuffle the teams, we don’t get any more complaints. Individual members of the Club have also helped newer players by teaming up with them and helping them out during games. CLUB PARAPHERNALIA Designing club paraphernalia isn’t all that hard, as long as you keep the designs simple. Hopefully you'll have a couple of frustrated artists in our Club. Keeping the designs simple and limiting the amount of colours also reduces the cost of having it reproduced in silkscreen, embroidery, or what have you. Many print shops have clipart designs you can use or combine to make your club logo and this reduces the cost further. The real benefit to the jersey is immediate recognition. When a member is wearing the Club jersey their actions are immediately reflected on the Club itself. (Which is why the Rules and Charter must always be adhered to.) ANNUAL GENERAL MEETINGS These meetings are important to get input from the membership and to vote in any changes the executive had made to club policy. The general meeting also allows members to voice their opinions or concerns on all aspects of the Club. This is also a great chance to get all the membership together at our favourite watering hole. PLAYING SCHEDULE Set a playing schedule, you'll be glad you did. We do have impromptu pick-up days or visits to other local fields, but by and large we stick to the second Sunday of every month. This allows the members to schedule family activities and lets the family know exactly when Club Day is. We set the schedule at the beginning of every year. ASSOCIATIONS WITH OTHER TEAMS Throughout the years you meet many teams. Many of them become life-long friends and a few are even considered “family”. Amongst the teams we call brothers and sisters are the Long Island Wild Geese, Seuss Asylum, Thunder Lizards, and Paintball Marshals Stock Club. Many of the members of those teams proudly wear CanCon jerseys and other club paraphernalia. You will find that your association with other teams will only help your club in the long run. AT THE END OF IT ALL It will take a lot of work, but you will find that all those blood, sweat and tears were worth the effort. See Also: Pt 2 How To Make a Paintball Club MCPaintball.com offers
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