Auckland Committee Meeting Mintues 6th June 2012

nzLARPS
#1

Many apologies for the lateness.

NZLARPS AUCKLAND COMMITTEE MEETING – 6th JUNE 2012

Present: Mike Curtis, Zara Parsons, Phillip Brown, Hannah Jackson, Anna Klein, Cameron Burns

Apologies: Adam Parsons, Dave Agnew, Luisa Parkinson

Absent: Cameron Burns

Opened: 19:34

Minutes:
• May’s minutes
o Hobbiton
 Adam and Zara meeting up with Jared Sunday 9th June there.
o Mike to set up shed
 Mike is talking with people regarding this.
 Looking at getting it set up this Sunday
 It will be a semi-permanent fixture
 Hannah expressed concern over the situation becoming permanent
 A suggestion was made for a dedicated team to be formed to find a long-term solution. The need for someone good at making proposals and talking to councils to do this was discussed.
 Most present felt that even with a dedicated team it will take more than 6 months to find a permanent solution.
 Several options for storage space were discussed again.
 Paying for storage was discussed again.
 The Current aim is to get the shed set up and the gear into it.
 ACTION POINT. Mike to organise this.
 Mike will ask for help on Diatribe, a tentative date of 15th June was suggested.
 There is no need to find a van as Mike has access to another trailer
 Need to buy screws from the hardware store for the shed.
o Mandos’s Wiki
 Mandos has said he would like to re-present this to the council in the future.
o Muppet received money for Teonn
o Adam received money for Defence of Mariumberg

• The awesomeness of groundhog day was discussed.

• Financial report
o We are doing well.
o The bank balance is currently high due to the bloat from Teonn, which creates a layer of undisposable fat in the bank account.
o Confirmation that actuals from the Teonn Day game were received
 ACTION POINT: Anna to check this.
o There is a lot of money coming in for Chimera.
o Our finances are very liquid at the moment.
o We have roughly 2-3 grand of unallocated funds.
o Defence of Mariumberg actuals were submitted.
o Anna has had difficulty contact the correct person at BNZ to sort out our not-for-profit accounts
 ACTION POINT: Anna to make an appointment to do this.

• There was some discussion of a drinking culture that is developing at events.
o There have also been issues at events recently where people have demonstrated poor respect for others when they are sharing sleeping spaces.

• MotuMoana is now booking up 6 months in advance.
o This could cause issues in future
o Writing a letter enquiring about rolling bookings was suggested as those present felt we should enter into negotiations with the camp about rolling bookings.

• Discussion of large events – past, present and future.
o Lots of nostalgia, bittersweet nostalgia.

• Marketing Report
o Chimera business cards are out.
o There were a lot of new people at Teonn
o Armageddon organisers are talking with Michelle.
 It will be less of an investment this year as we already have the signs/displays.
o The need for a mailing list and letter to be set up was discussed.
 The newsletter should contain a programme of upcoming games.

• The need for a projects officer was discussed.
o ACTION POINT: Mike: get discussions going about adding a projects officer role to the constitution.
o Discussed about letting people know what committee roles entail before people volunteer for them.
 Setting expectations.
• Gear
o It has been noticed that a lot of the better looking gear is being brought by actual crew.
o Discussion of the amount of deaths at Teonn. GM’s think we need more 2 handed weapons.
o Discussed hiring chainmail from scene 11.

• The post-Armageddon larps were discussed.
o ACTION POINT: DAVE: organise the running of 3 25ish player games over the 2-3 weeks after Armageddon.
o Talked about running a larp at Armageddon.
 We should discuss with Bill regarding themes.
 Decided to all think about this and come back to it later.

• Larp Safety
o Discussed re-introducing weapons checks.
o Discussed the safety of thrown weapons.
o Discussed Larp archery.
 Zara and Adam are looking at running an archery lessons project.
 ACTION POINT: ZARA: Liaise with Wellington committee regarding travelling down to teach people how to teach other how to do larp archery safely.

• Witchhouse actuals submitted.

• Upcoming Events
o Winterdale
 Not many signed up so far, considering changing date to get greater numbers.
o Chimera
 Forecast will be posted online.
 Prizes for costume and Role-playing were discussed.
 Budget might change depending upon prizes decision.
• Discussed Cerberus having 3 heads.
• Other business
o Awhitu environmental camp has changed hands.
 It is out of use till September.
 Mike does not need to send the letter to them anymore.
o Discussed finding other venues
 Hannah’s mother’s is a potential venue for small modern larps.
 We need to raise $32 million to buy the island for sale by Waiheke. This would also solve our storage issues.

• Meeting Closed: 21.39

#2

[quote=“Zara”]
• Larp Safety
o Discussed re-introducing weapons checks.
o Discussed the safety of thrown weapons.[/quote]

Is there a problem with these?

(As someone who makes the odd throwing knife, I’d like to know if I need to change my design)

[quote]o Discussed Larp archery.
 Zara and Adam are looking at running an archery lessons project.
 ACTION POINT: ZARA: Liaise with Wellington committee regarding travelling down to teach people how to teach other how to do larp archery safely.[/quote]

Excellent.

Clearly, we need a friendly evil genius. We could offer to serve as their minions.

#3

Thanks, Zara.

Re the safety of thrown weapons, my recollection of the general discussion (i.e. no decision, just discussion) was the contrast between the non-cored vs cored thrown weapons.

Non-Core = safer because they have less mass, more likely to bend on impact.
Core = more accurate, less likely to “float” and therefore more likely to hit the target area. Compared to a sword, impact energy is minimal.

Cameron rightly pointed out a freak incident (yet to be repeated) with a cored throwing knife that was thrown by myself. I, once again, apologised for said incident.

#4

I have a professionally-made coreless dagger, and it’s incredibly light and disappointingly hopeless in terms of accuracy. After a few meters it just starts floating aimlessly, even if I really throw it hard. It’s unlikely to hurt because it’s so light, but it seems ineffective to me. I’m curious whether this is the norm for coreless throwing weapons.

I remember reading that a good compromise is some sort of weighting inside each end of a cordless throwing weapon. There would need to be adequate safety measures to ensure the weighting can’t escape.

#5

No. Check out the video on this (for a coreless throwing axe):

darkbladeuk.co.uk/product.asp?P_ID=586

I weight my throwing knives with washers or fishing weights, which gives them a bit more accuracy, but they’re still short-range. In order for the weights to escape, you’d have to tear the weapon in two.

Is a cored throwing weapon more dangerous than an arrow?

#6

Could have happened with anyone, thrown weapons are hardly accurate (which is the point)…

My big concern at the moment with thrown items is a few of the spell packets filled with rice i saw at the last game, alot of them are tightly bound and have no give at all. Spell packets need to have some empty space in them for the rice to move around or be made of a stretchy fabric.

#7

From watching the archery competition at the last Teonn game, I’d have to say that an arrow, when working as intended, is a lot more dangerous. This is because the energy is direct and linear and there is more of it. Even though they have safe and soft ends, I would most certainly not want on in the face.

A cored throwing dagger, OTOH, is lighter and thrown in a spinning action and therefore the energy is more likely to be diffused (bouncing off or glancing). Also, the effective range of one of my throwing daggers is about 5m (compared with an arrow’s range of 15m+). Throwing it harder makes it too inaccurate to be useful at extended ranges, so I tend to throw with less energy and more accuracy. Ergo, less energy and less risk than an arrow.

The real danger in larp is melee weapons. Accidental headshots are a fairly regular occurrence and most people do not wear head protection. In both of the last two Teonn weekend games I received massive headshots, way bigger than any throwing dagger or arrow. And both times I wasn’t wearing my helm . :blush:

Totally agree. We’ve made hundreds of these things over years in Skirmish, and if they have no give then they can hurt. If there is some give, then the energy dissipates and they can be thrown quite forcefully without problems.