The role of University Paintball Clubs & Societies?

[rich_price92]

Just curious, what kind of support does Pompey Uni give? Help with travel? Help pay entry fee's? I'd imagine back in the glory days there would have been quite a lot of help from the higher ups. Div2? Bloody hell, didn't know they were that good! I thought they were div 3 or 4!

At the moment absolutely none. Trying to convince anyone paintball is a worthwhile 'sport' to invest in is difficult but we are trying. Back in the day the lads seemed to have a similar problem and the union didn't want to know about their trophies or wins which is why it changed and if I have my facts right Pompey uni became relentless khaos.

 

[F3Z]

I can tell you all right now it is possible to run a successful paintball society and the students CAN afford to buy kit. My proof? UWE are doing it already.

So lets talk about how it's done as we get very little funding from our union just like everyone else. However if we ever want to progress into a accepted sport society we need to stick with them. First off we charge £30 per head to join the society.. these funds go into paying for communal kit, subsidizing trips and keeping the society afloat. We had 40+ sign up in September and have around 25 active student members (around 10 grads also join us for trips outside of uni)

We visit are lucky this year to have had a fantastic training site open up down the road from us where we can get all of our members to via Taxis fairly easily.. however the Student Union has also given us the opportunity to take minibus license tests and hire there mini bus for proper events (on the proviso "real" sports don't need them)

Finally the early creators of the soc raised enough money to buy a very simple sup'air kit.. the cheapy £200-£300 used to be made by extreme rage.. god knows if you can still get them?a box of reballs and a dive tank. So now we can hire out a hall, charge a minimal fee and train every week. Don't get me wrong to get set up will cost about £500 but 20 members at £30 a head would clear that instantly. If your offering weekly paintball at £5 a head then you'll get your 20 members easily. The hardest part is finding a hall to let you use reballs in.. we found a few in bristol before the Union agree to let us use the Uni sports centre.

It's a look of work and if you're running a soc it takes passion to stay on top of it all don't get me wrong. Third years should not be running a society that's for certain. The stress isn't worth it.

 

[cjsoftuk]

Thanks all for your input.

First of all, let me just point out that I knew that change was needed. What we were doing, we recognised that it wasn't working, but weren't quite sure which road to go down.

F3Z - You've hit on a very nice point with your final line there. Third years should not be running a society.... but that's where we are, currently. I'll drop you a PM in a bit about a couple of other bits.

Big thanks to rich_price92 and also Frazer from Portsmouth for spending most of yesterday afternoon having a chat with me about things, and offering his advice.

Let's quickly go through @F3Z's points from his last message:
1) 40+ signups in September - Was this paid members? If so, how did you convince them to join?
2) £30 a head seems reasonable to me, and it's what I said the club should be charging this year. I was met with a chorus of "No, it needs to be a tenner to get people into the club"
3) Our nearest training site is ~20 minutes, which starts racking up quite expensive using cabs (think it's about £24 each way.....), and at £200 a session....
4) This is your biggest selling point - almost certainly. £5 a week, indoor training. For us, we've asked the questions, we've tried to play the games with the union. The response to us: Insurance. Get the insurance sorted, and then you might be able to go somewhere.

It's this last point that's blocking progress. I can get sup'air bunkers if I really need to. That isn't an issue. The issue is insurance. As far as I can tell, even forcing everyone at training to have UKPSF wouldn't be enough. The venue apparently would need specialist paintball insurance. Besides that, all of the University sports halls are chock-full on Wednesday afternoons, Saturdays and Sundays.
We'd be looking outside the Uni, and that starts to get both tricky, and expensive.

 

[Talfryn]

Paintball whilst at uni definitely is affordable but it depends what sacrifices and measures you're willing to take to do it, several Tigers players, myself included, are at uni at the moment and we find the funds to compete in millenniums and I even play the odd event for my uni... but you have to be willing to work for it, whether this means not going out as often or getting a part time job during holidays ect

 

[F3Z]

cjsoftuk Just to answer a few things quickly

1.) They are signed up paid members. We put on one hell of a freshers fair stand and had around 10 returning members from the previous year. Our freshers stand had almost 10 people plenty of markers, a tv with some videos playing, a snap cage for some target shooting. I mean people were hooked on first sight.
2.) Put the price up from £10.. if people are interested they'll pay it. The £10 is worth nothing if those members don't become active. Even at £30 the money isn't that useful unless you have the numbers to actually get out and use.
3.) Our nearest site last year was over an hours drive. We ended up using hire cars to make it work. Even with that we managed to do less than £60 a head with a case of paint. (Numbers make all the difference)
4.) Your right it's a massive selling point, especially when the student accom is less than 5 minutes walk from the venue. Our insurance is covered by the sports centre. Talk to your union reps about it they might be able to find something for you. Our time slot is 2 hours late on a Saturday, we'd never have gotten prime time slots over sports and often get kicked out for the sports to do extra training which is a bit annoying but better than nothing.

 

[cjsoftuk]

F3Z, thanks.

I need to sit down with the Union and see what they say now. It'll be a case of either it works, or it doesn't.

 

[Vimto]

I dunno if this will come in handy or not, but this is what we have. I'm part of BUPS, down in Bangor, North Wales.
Now, the people that run our Student union, or rather Athletic Union (Yeah, we actually come under the brolly of AU) know of paintball and are fond of it, hence we actually get the time of day from them, plus some funding.

I was a complete n00b to paintball this time last year. Played a game at *shudders* Delta *beeeep*, thought it was bloody expensive, and went away feeling like overall, it wasn't worth the money.
I came to Bangor University, and the freshers fair was on. Paintball had a single table on a lineup, between other sports. The thing that drew me and a group of friends to it was the fact that we'd not seen the guns on display before. We were used to seeing Inferno's in play. Sure, there was one of those, but also on the table, and in the hands of the people advertising the society, were Invert Mini's, a proto reflex, a good ol' Tippy 98, and also a Converted a5... Now this converted thing took our attention. Why? It was made into a Barrett.
No kidding. Full body job, it looked badass. 50 round hopper on the side, 21 inch barrel, full picatinny rails running up it, fake mag, scope, it was a beauty. Now that thing was being handed out so anyone could mess around with it, as were all the other guns. There was no cage or reballs to shoot, it was purely these guys, with their guns, handing out business cards.
Never underestimate the importance of the Fresher's fair. It was brilliant, and we wanted to try it out.

Now, as for the actual club deal, we are lucky enough to have a site nearby that BUPS actually help build, hence we get a good deal there. The fee for anyone to come and play is £10, including hire of an inferno, as much air as you need, some overalls, and a mask. Of course, most of us have our own gear, so we just get use of the air.
After that, we pay £3 per 100 balls. We have Sterling Shield at the site, which paint-wise is OK, not the best, but if you only use 400 shots all day, its not a bad price.

However, obviously this totals up a lot if you wanna use a box of paint. So if you want to bring your own paint, you can. The only catch is that its £10 for every 1000 balls you bring. To me, that really annoys me, because I'd love to get my hands on some good quality paint and just use it, but I've got to take into account I'm being charged extra...
Anyway, the way the club was set up, we were quite hooked. With the fee rises this year, there was NO charge to joining the club, anyone could go. We ended up having 3 Taster sessions, where the current members came down with a load of freshers, showed them the ropes, and split into teams. The cheap deal sweetened it for BUPS, as obviously it came across as a cheaper sport than everyone thought.
Most importantly, after the game, it wasn't just 'Hope you had fun, now go away'- The whole team gets home, gets cleaned up, showers, change of clothes, and we all meet in the local wetherspoons and enjoy a pub meal together and reminisce. This is probably a big thing that hooked me. You could sit around and chat and laugh at fun shot you'd made in the game- it was a very big bonding experience.

Now I'm a full member of BUPS. I fell in love with the sport, and decided I could fork out the cash.
We have 70 people registered this year, with 25 of them being active players. So the club is great for a woodsball game (that's what we play, no SupAir just yet due to cost of paint)
The thing that probably got me was that there were no promises made of kit, amazing guns, etc. It was 'You can come play, you are welcome to bring your own kit and gun' Becuase of this, In my flat alone, of 8 people, 4 of us are now Paintballers, and we have 6 markers in the place.

Because of the massive progress our Society made this year, we've managed to pick up a sponsorship from Fat Bob's, which they have so kindly offered us (this includes Shop discounts, kit discounts, and even paint discounts, plus free advertising on talkpaintball.com)
I think that if you really want your Uni team to succeed, you need to be able to show who you know in the industry, and make sure you have an excellent deal to hook people in.


Did I mention we also have themed socials every week? How does this sound for you? 'BUPS: The fellowship of the O-ring'?
Socials are a great way of getting to know each other, and brings people in as well...

I hope some of this info will come in handy to someone. BUPS has been running for its 2nd year now, and I think with 25 players, it makes us the biggest UK Uni Scenario team. If you have more, lemme know! Also, if you guys wanna see what we have, and the kind of games we run, we have a facebook page, just search for BUPS Lions.

Hope this helps!