HI guys,
I am trying to set up a student paintball team and get paintball recognized as a sport and casual activity. The problem I have is that the union isn't willing to give us any funding or support. So far we have supported ourselves through getting a small discount at the paintball place we use and then charging a little extra to cover transport. We would really like to start competing but other than the small amount of kit I have lent to people we have basically nothing. So... this post is basically asking for any old kit (clothes, masks, markers....) whatever you can spare, whatever the condition to help me get the team up and running. I am willing to pay P&P on items out of my own money and I could afford paying a little towards markers but this is all out of my own student pocket so I can't afford too much. Also any advice on how to get sponsorship etc would be really wonderful.
Thanks Paintballers love you all
First things first, this is completely the wrong way to go about it.
You shouldn't be looking at providing club kit at all, not for a second. Not yet anyway.
I've been involved in paintball societies at two different universities and they have both operated in the same way.
Firstly, get yourself out there. In freshers week have people out all over campus really making sure people know you exist, any members who have their own kit, make sure they've got it with them as you'll get people seeing it and stopping to ask questions as paintball kit is quite eye catching. Then make damn sure that you are at your University's equivalent of Freshers Fair, keep it simple and clear, you don't want to complicate things. Make sure that the second somebody approaches your stand they can see how much it costs to join, how much it costs each time you go and play and what they get for that money. Have all of your gear out so that if people have questions about it you can show them your flashy looking kit, but don't rush into telling them how much paintball gear can cost.
The membership fee that you take from people right at the start will give you enough money to maintain the club, cover any administrative costs, and hopefully put some money away for the society for if you need it in the future for essential, unavoidable spends.
The most important thing is to get numbers in, get plenty of people signing up and you'll have lots of them come along to your first day at whatever punter site you go to. A lot of them will come once and decide it's not for them, but that's no big deal as you've already got their membership fee, but the more people you get signed up to start with, the more will be there the first time, and the more will enjoy it and keep coming back. When you do have people who really enjoy it and come back every time then you know there's a chance they'll want to take things further, so share what kit you do have. On site let people have your marker and put some balls through it, see how much better it is than the rental kit, and peak their interest. Make sure that they know that if they want to get their own kit you'll help them find something that suits the style they want to play with and fits their price range, so that they're not having to jump into the world of paintball kit by themselves.
There is no way at all to rush this. You've simply got to get as many people involved as you can, get them coming along to punter days, and then once you've got a good core of people who really enjoy it you start gently pushing them towards buying their own kit.
My first University we did exactly that. When I joined there we had about half a dozen guys with their own kit, and at freshers fair got about 60 signups (all paying our £30 membership fee up front), probably had about 50 turn up to the first punter day, by the third that was down to about 30, but then we started to see people really enjoy it, gave them a go with our own kit, and by the end of the first term had about another half dozen who had started to buy bits and pieces of kit, by the end of the second term had about 9 or 10 who had all the kit, had picked up proper markers and were hooked. End of that year and we had our own club jerseys, a core of around 15 active players all with our own kit and frequently sent a group off to big game events around the country.
