Loaner Weapons

[David of Doell]

This is some good discussion. I see Mog what you're saying about newbies picking any weapon for two practices. Once they have joined though and are stuck with "crap" weapons it might motivate them but it could also discourage them. I like the start-up kit idea. Here is another idea. You could have your start up kit as more of a rental. Once you want to join you pay a small fee and you get a tabbard and a sword to use. This will last you until you make your own sword and garb. Give them a suggested 3 month period or something like that just so they actually think about doing it. It might also help to get them making their first weapon as soon as possible to get them involved. I have felt involved ever since I started and I think maybe it's because I was on the forum asking questions and building weapons right off the start. And it feels good to use a weapon you've made yourself. What this will do is allow you to make the start up fee less because they are not keeping the "rentals" permanently so you can use it many times. Instead of letting them take these items home you would want to keep it in the loaner bag so they don't get lost or "disappear" in the case something comes up and they don't come back again. You could just mark their weapon somehow so they always have first claim to it. This way there would be some sort of fee to go with Darr's idea but it would be much smaller, say $5-10, so there wouldn't be any hesitation to do the start up "kit". And this wouldn't be mandatory in any way so as not to repel any one(Mog's convern). It would however, be an easy option.

The Gold Member idea is good just to create two tiers which gives a new member something to achieve. Maybe even have a badge/emblem to identify the "full members" as the people to direct your questions to. The people who know what they're talking about.

I really like the initiation idea. You could do all sorts of things with this. If we want to expand on this maybe it's best to start a new topic.

[Darr]

Jun 16, 2009 14:53:59 GMT -7 David of Doell said:

Instead of letting them take these items home you would want to keep it in the loaner bag so they don't get lost or "disappear" in the case something comes up and they don't come back again. You could just mark their weapon somehow so they always have first claim to it.

No no, that's not a good idea. They should be allowed to take the weapon and tabard home with them. When they sign up we would get there phone number (just in case something happens to the weapons we would say) and then if they haven't shown up at practice for a while it would give us and excuse to call them and ask whats up.

[Moginheden]

If they have bought a weapon it should be theirs not a rental. If it's sitting on their coffee table then they will think about Belegarth more often. If we keep the weapons they don't feel as involved.

As a trial, or non-gold member all the weapons and tabards are the groups and free for anyone to use, once they buy them they become the property of whoever paid for them, and they have to lug them around.

[David of Doell]

I agree that they should be able to keep the weapon. It makes sense.

I was thinking they could give it back for a small refund of the initial fee(once they made their own) but then I remembered that we were aiming to not have the practice rely on one person supplying weapons(Cib). So scratch that. The more weapons each person has the better.