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Airsoft Discussion / Re: State of the community and ideas to improve MIA going forward.
« on: October 05, 2017, 03:31:47 PM »
Although I'm newer to the community and haven't lived through some of the growing pains, I've been following along with the discussion and would like to offer up some ideas for an action plan stemming from the conversation.
1) Someone should lead the charge in making the miairsoft.org the number 1 spot for Michigan based airsoft information.
This includes a lot of ongoing task trying to herd the community here, but I think the biggest one is connecting with all the common event hosts and get buy in from them to use the forums as their number 1 spot for events. Of course use the other channels for advertising methods to further the reach, but the forums should be the go to spot for the full details of the event, signup information, etc. If all of the events are being concatenated into one location, it forces the airsoft players to use the forums as a way to get the information about the events, sign up, and participate in the sport.
Players are only going to follow the lead of the event hosts. As a player myself, I'm joining all the Facebook groups and forums that I can find to prevent missing out on opportunities because there isn't a consensus on where this information should be. But if all the hosts are agreeing to unify the community in a central location, everyone benefits: The hosts get their events in front of the entire community instead of just the people that like them on Facebook, and the players have a central repository to go find events to participate in. It streamlines everything.
To get buy-in from the hosts, there needs to be a champion who is going to lead the way in connecting with the host and organizing conversations to push them in that direction. Once the major event hosts start doing this regularly, the rest of the hosts will follow and it will become the standard. Then, players don't have a choice and the forum grows.
2) Event hosts need to work together and coordinate with each other.
There should really be some type of open communication chat that is constantly going on between the event host. I'm not sure if that is a FB messenger group, a text message group, an email chain, or whatever. The point is that all the host should be working together on a few different levels:
- They should work together to not schedule their events on the same weekend. Has anyone got a full tally on the events happening on October 21? I've counted like 4 in Michigan and that doesn't even include Milsim West. Of course the community is divided because players are split all across these events. Why isn't 1 or 2 of these events on October 14 or even October 28? Cause I haven't found anything for those dates. This allows players to attend more events and allow host to have more participation at each event.
- Hosts should plan events together, co-brand them / co-sponor them, or whatever, to help unite the community. Yes event host compete on some levels, but why not work together to benefit everyone? How about a host on the east side partners with a host on the west side and holds a big co-sponsored game a location in the middle? I would say that most players agree that more players with larger playing fields and more organization is more enjoyable experience than smaller games. (I'm speaking more towards the scenario / milsim events rather than weekly rec games)
3) We all need to find ways to support opening of new fields / locations to play the game.
So far, I haven't been able to participate in any event that is less than 2 hours away. I don't mind the drive, but I'm sure there are many players that aren't able to make that type of trip every couple weeks or so. This lowers overall participation of the sport. We needs some entrepreneurs and leaders to step up and work together to get some more playing fields throughout the state. Of course, this is much easier said than done. There is a lot that goes into this. But my point is that if the community wants to thrive, we need places to play the game. Players are the ones that drive this.
We as players need to support our community members that are trying to open new locations. Help with labor, materials, and most importantly, help get players to their fields to play the game. We need to be the advocates and push our community to grow. Individual host can't do it alone.
All of this is easier said than done, but it starts with some champions leading the charge and setting up the organization and communication efforts to make it a reality. This thread is a start, but it's only the beginning.
1) Someone should lead the charge in making the miairsoft.org the number 1 spot for Michigan based airsoft information.
This includes a lot of ongoing task trying to herd the community here, but I think the biggest one is connecting with all the common event hosts and get buy in from them to use the forums as their number 1 spot for events. Of course use the other channels for advertising methods to further the reach, but the forums should be the go to spot for the full details of the event, signup information, etc. If all of the events are being concatenated into one location, it forces the airsoft players to use the forums as a way to get the information about the events, sign up, and participate in the sport.
Players are only going to follow the lead of the event hosts. As a player myself, I'm joining all the Facebook groups and forums that I can find to prevent missing out on opportunities because there isn't a consensus on where this information should be. But if all the hosts are agreeing to unify the community in a central location, everyone benefits: The hosts get their events in front of the entire community instead of just the people that like them on Facebook, and the players have a central repository to go find events to participate in. It streamlines everything.
To get buy-in from the hosts, there needs to be a champion who is going to lead the way in connecting with the host and organizing conversations to push them in that direction. Once the major event hosts start doing this regularly, the rest of the hosts will follow and it will become the standard. Then, players don't have a choice and the forum grows.
2) Event hosts need to work together and coordinate with each other.
There should really be some type of open communication chat that is constantly going on between the event host. I'm not sure if that is a FB messenger group, a text message group, an email chain, or whatever. The point is that all the host should be working together on a few different levels:
- They should work together to not schedule their events on the same weekend. Has anyone got a full tally on the events happening on October 21? I've counted like 4 in Michigan and that doesn't even include Milsim West. Of course the community is divided because players are split all across these events. Why isn't 1 or 2 of these events on October 14 or even October 28? Cause I haven't found anything for those dates. This allows players to attend more events and allow host to have more participation at each event.
- Hosts should plan events together, co-brand them / co-sponor them, or whatever, to help unite the community. Yes event host compete on some levels, but why not work together to benefit everyone? How about a host on the east side partners with a host on the west side and holds a big co-sponsored game a location in the middle? I would say that most players agree that more players with larger playing fields and more organization is more enjoyable experience than smaller games. (I'm speaking more towards the scenario / milsim events rather than weekly rec games)
3) We all need to find ways to support opening of new fields / locations to play the game.
So far, I haven't been able to participate in any event that is less than 2 hours away. I don't mind the drive, but I'm sure there are many players that aren't able to make that type of trip every couple weeks or so. This lowers overall participation of the sport. We needs some entrepreneurs and leaders to step up and work together to get some more playing fields throughout the state. Of course, this is much easier said than done. There is a lot that goes into this. But my point is that if the community wants to thrive, we need places to play the game. Players are the ones that drive this.
We as players need to support our community members that are trying to open new locations. Help with labor, materials, and most importantly, help get players to their fields to play the game. We need to be the advocates and push our community to grow. Individual host can't do it alone.
All of this is easier said than done, but it starts with some champions leading the charge and setting up the organization and communication efforts to make it a reality. This thread is a start, but it's only the beginning.