Starting a Club help

[AOANRoss]

Hi all,

Im currently based in Sasebo Japan (navy). Ive talked to the people at my command and have seen a high interest in a fencing club. The question: Is there a place I can buy large quantities of gear (used maybe?) at a low low price? The $100 starter stuf is great, bit with 16-18 people with no gear here, thats to much money. Any ideas?

Thanks!
AOAN Andrew Ross
USS ESSEX (LHD-2)
USN

[danarielle]

While the USFA magazine has been running a series on the management issues facing club owners/operators, a valuable and I believe much appreciated contribution by the USFA to fencing, would be the development and distribution of a "Best Practices" manual for club owners, operators. Many trade organizations do this, and in the case of fencing, the contents could range from: developing a business plan; insurance issues; developing young fencers; developing elite/competive fencers; space ownership/rental issues; design issues (lighting, spacing; floors; etc); extra-fencing opportunities (training guidelines, nutrition, sports medicine); safety issues/rules; running camps; marketing; membership development and retention; etc, etc...

[RITFencing]

Triplette sells 'seconds' gear (stuff with discoloration, etc.) pretty cheaply. I can give you the email of their shipping manager; he's a great guy and he'll work pretty hard to help you.

It's not the best stuff in the world, but it's both plentiful and cheap.

[KD5MDK]

At his location, best to go with a Chinese vendor. Depending on the size of the order, you may be able to talk to Absolute Fencing (who buys their gear in China) and get them to ship to you direct from your supplier.

To be honest, I don't see $100 kits as being excessive for military members. However, your command ought to have recreation funds available from someone, or perhaps you can put in for grants from the base commander or something. Get a $1000 investment from the rec funds or whatever, charge $50 per person for 6 months, and with 20 members you've got $100 per member for gear, plus more money at the end of the 6 months.

[jBirch]

We just opened a salle recently so I understand the whole "chicken and egg" problem. You need gear to start a club, but you need a club to afford to buy gear. The key is the coach. You need a good volunteer coach to start.

We partnered with another salle, borrowed a whack of their old gear, and then paid for that gear with the income from the semester we just completed. To sweeten the deal, any left overs from the semester went as club revenue to the partner club and the new club coach (me) coached a weekly class for the old club as well. After a single semester we had enough to cut loose in the next semester and go on our own. Now we just have to retire that ancient gear and get new stuff.

We started with Epee given the lower initial costs then the other weapons and required our newbies to purchase a glove and body wire in the first semester, a weapon second semester, a jacket third and a mask fourth. Cuts down on club gear requirements.

We had a couple of ancient boxes and a master electrician. *grin* We also had a paperwork guru. All are parents who fence with the club and don't have to pay personal fees (their kids still have to though). We structured it so that the coaches, armourer & assistant coaches don't pay for one of the classes (we offer 4), the club picks up a national competitive passport for them and we also pay for their course fees if they are able to go on training courses.

Our fees were structured higher then baseball/soccer and lower then Hockey. We also opened up pre-registration so that we had cash in the bank before classes started.

You'll want to extend training to the troopers' kids instead of the troops themselves. You could probably partner with a number of the larger home town salles and pay for used gear to be shipped to the unit. If it's a military town, you might be able to swing a case of gear on a transport for a case of beer. The salle would then only have to get the gear to the transport.

Do not offer training for free and ensure that every class has a lesson plan.

Your other major problem will be ensuring continuity. Most likely your key members will be mil pers so they'll rotate out every few years. You'll have to figure out how to keep the gear and the quality of instruction up. If Mergs is still around, I know he's got a lot of experience with exactly your problem.

Hope this helps.

James.

[RITFencing]

Also, talk to Mizore on this forum. He fences in Japan, so he may know vendors and whatnot out there.