The Gear location

Well guys it finally happened, wifey and I have made an offer on a house danced the dance of a thousand forms and are now homeowners. Unfortunately this necessitates the gear moving someplace else. We have about 4 weeks to get this place ready for the next lot of people moving in and I am happy to help move stuff.

Thanks for letting us know, Hamish, and also for storing the gear for the past couple of years. The community really appreciates you and Rachel letting us fill your garage with vast amounts of stuff.

What Anna said, you’re generosity has been much appreciated :slight_smile:

Congratulations on your house purchase. It’s quite exciting to move into a new home that doesn’t have a landlord !

Congratulations Hamish.
On the gear front, do we have any options as yet?
Is the shed was erected at Nikki’s still around, but then does everything still fit into it?
What sort of sized space is required?
What the price options on commercial storage - will it even vaguely fit into the NZLarps budget?
Are these all questions that were raised a few years back before Hamish offered his garage?
Is it time to put the gear moving day onto the calendar now.

There have been a few things discussed (some are temp ideas till we find better solutions like splitting get gear boxes between more than one location) but we are open to hear extra ideas.

We still have the shed but no the stuff will not all fit in.

Its not ideal but its a possibility, though its not cheap.

Thanks Hamish and Rachel, you’ve been a godsend for the larp community.

As I recall, commercial storage would use up so much NZLARPS revenue (thousands of dollars a year) that prices on games would need to be raised in order to meet the combination of storage + other costs. Probably best if we can hold off on that.

Does anyone have an empty garage they’d be willing to have the NZLARPS gear stored in for a while? You’d be joining a proud lineage of gear storers starting with myself (back when the gear fit in a smallish room) then Mike, Nikki, and now Hamish.

Alternatively, does anyone have some land where NZLARPS could put up a shed or sheds, place a container, or leave a truck full of gear?

I think it was $2-3k for even a small lockable storage.

But congratulations on becoming a home owner!

This is a bit lateral, but would it be worth NZLARPS putting an ad in the Herald/Trademe saying what we do, and asking if there are any generous organisations out there that would like to sponsor us some storage space?

For the idea above, the ad might run something like this:

Do you have spare storage space for a good cause?

We’re a non-profit society with not enough space! We run fun, interactive drama events and have lot of youths attending, who we engage with a creative experience among a supportive, friendly community. We’ve accumulated a lot of costumes, props and decorations. Just now we’re lacking a place to store it, but we can’t afford professional storage. Our gear fills a space about the size of a single garage. If you or your organisation have some spare space, we’d really welcome it as a kind of sponsorship. Check out president@nzlarps.org if you think you could help us!

I like this idea.

One idea being floating around as well is asking Motu Moana if they would mind us putting something like a shipping container or a new shed on their grounds and keeping the gear there.

What about doing a deal with an amateur theatre troupe? Something like they lend us wardrobe space and get to borrow our kit for their shows?

The nice thing about putting out a general appeal for help is that it may reach a lot more people than trying to guess who might want to help and contacting them individually. Some of those people we’d never think of asking, but may have space and like the sound of what we do.

Also we may get some sort of generous benefactor, rather than a tricky tit-for-tat or for-pay arrangement. Of course, it may not get any response at all, so best to have other more reliable plans too.

How are things going wrt Hamish moving deadline? (When is that deadline BTW?)
I was visiting my mother yesterday who lives in Kelston (West Auckland, between New Lynn and Henderson), and she said she would be willing to host the gear if there are no other options and things get desperate for us.

Her place has a large backyard with a concrete pad which the shed could be erected upon, and also a porch attached to the house which is pretty watertight IIRC. The porch is about 2m wide x 3-4 metres long. The porch needs a new lock installed as the old one had the key break off inside it and is stuffed. I thought it reasonable for NZLarps to buy and install the new lock, and then you can have the key for independent access.

Also my brother had been storing some stuff at her place, which is probably now just rubbish, but there might be a bit of requirement for some NZLarps labour to get the space cleared out beforehand. IF NZLarps is interested in going ahead with this option I can get more details/photos.

The carport at the side of the house means the trailer can’t be brought up close to the storage areas. And this also precludes her looking after the trailer.

Her place is on St Leonards Road, (which is on a bus route,) so may be too far out to be convenient anyway. Personally the idea of getting some space at Motu Moana would be ideal.

It would, but it would take longer to negotiate and arrange than we have at present, so a stop gap would be necessary even if we pursue this option.

The Auckland committee is meeting next week and I think this will be front and centre of the agenda.

Two small random thoughts;

Re shipping containers - aside from the cost of getting one, has anyone looked at the cost of getting them moved? If you’re going to be relocating the gear every 2-3 years, this may be a factor.

Re the shed - does anyone recall the dimensions off the top of their heads?

Also - last time costing was done for a storage shed, were the places approached directly with a “what can you do for us for the next 2-3 years” mentality in case they’d do a deal?

[quote=“TequilaDave”]Two small random thoughts;

Re shipping containers - aside from the cost of getting one, has anyone looked at the cost of getting them moved? If you’re going to be relocating the gear every 2-3 years, this may be a factor.

Re the shed - does anyone recall the dimensions off the top of their heads?[/quote]
Shipping containers are a cheap option, the main issue is where to store one. Moving one would be in the region of $300 / $400 because it requires a specialised truck.

The dimensions of the shed, IIRC, are approx 2.25m x 4.5m.

While we might be able to gain a discount from a commercial storage company, given that the estimated annual cost is circa $3000, any discount would still leave us with signficant cost.

My preferred long term solutions are either a peppercorn rental with an established community organisation, or a shipping container stored for cheap on some vacant land in central Auckland (i.e. somewhere on the isthmus).

What did the committee think of the idea of posting ads asking for charitable help? Muppet seemed keen on the idea, but I guess it’s something that would be best to do earlier rather than later, and obviously there’s a good chance of not getting a result. Worth a crack though I think.

Storage on vacant land is a dangerous proposition. No security for the societies biggest asset is a problem, and no matter how expensive that lock is, it wont stand up to a bolt cutter or hacksaw if it comes down to it.

As mentioned on Wed there is at least one option for cheap container service putting it in around 300-400 probably for moving and a 1000 bucks for storage a year. Moving I would suggest is limited to the two big games a year if at all. You could still use the trailer to feery the gear when needed.

Peppercorn rental is certainly another option, but again security is kind of paramount, and whether you could limit access to the gear from the other users, and whether there would be access issues.

I have a friend who in a month or two will be moving to a property with loads of spare land and I have approached him to help. He is also keen on giving LARPing a try.

This is not something to rely on but I will let you know if there is a positive response once he moves in.