What are we gonna do with all this stuff?

nzLARPS
#1

OK, so nzLARPS is well on its way to having a boatload of stuff we, ok honestly, hardly ever use.

At the moment it’s stacked (high and thick) in Mike Curtis’ shed, and strewn about the rest of Auckland where it does nothing 99% of the time.

Larp events should take absolute first priority for the use of this stuff, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to suggest we do something else with it also. Here are a handful of ideas:

  • Hire it out bit by bit to individuals (this would actually be really hard to administrate)
  • Hire it out en mass, eg. to a theatre company who could have the whole lot for $10 a week (or something) and store it for us too. They’d have to keep it separate to their own kit and we could book it two weeks in advance.
  • Hire it out en mass eg. to First Scene who would probably pay more for it but be riskier overall. We’d need some agreement over breakages/damage/wear, and we’d need to be able to make priority bookings with a week or two’s notice. We’d retain ownership. Maybe $10 a week is more realistic for these guys who might hire something out twice a week and would be paying about $5000 a year for the use of nzLARPS’ gear. Let’s not forget that gear library is likely to expand as we make more stuff too.

I think for nzLARPS having gear is better than having money, but it seems there might be a way for us to have both.

Or am I over-reacting because there are a dozen new games right around the corner that will use the stuff constantly? This is the best option of all :wink:

#2

I think a lot of the gear from Mordavia wouldn’t be any use to theatre (except maybe amateur drama groups, who wouldn’t want to pay anyway) or rental. It’s just too basic.

What specific stuff do you think could be hired out?

#3

I think the existing constitution etc allow for the Gear Librarian to arrange rental of equipment to members and affilliates. I doubt anyone would want to hire it all, but certainly bits and pieces. This would be organised by the Librarian as and how they deem appropriate, probably passing larger arrangements on for committee approval.

#4

There is an issue to do with accessibility of the gear. It’s hard to get at so renting it out will be an administrative nightmare because it could take 20 minutes just to find the item in question.

I’ve been thinking for a while that I need to rationalise my shed (again !) and install some simple shelves to hold some of the plastic boxes. The idea would be to make them more accessible. This would help to some extent.

That being said, I’m not particularly keen on the administrative overhead of running some kind of hirage operation. If we do decide to do hirage, I would suggest that it would be for sizable amounts of money (i.e. lots of gear at a time) to make it worth my while to do.

The best way to make money off the gear, IMHO, is to run larps, particularly ones that do not require the hire of a premise.

#5

[quote=“Mike Curtis”]There is an issue to do with accessibility of the gear. It’s hard to get at so renting it out will be an administrative nightmare because it could take 20 minutes just to find the item in question.

I’ve been thinking for a while that I need to rationalise my shed (again !) and install some simple shelves to hold some of the plastic boxes. The idea would be to make them more accessible. This would help to some extent.
to do.
[/quote]

Sounds like we need another gear day.

#6

No, sounds like we need more larps!

Get to work, team!