Travel pool

Is there any interest?

Brian here. My thoughts for this might need to be limited to the northeastern US area for the initial start, but I do not want to limit this to just one fighting group nor to one fighting group's events. Drama sucks. Everyone who plays nice is welcome. I first began thinking about this when I saw a pallet of camping gear delivered to Scone Palace for IMCF 2018. I thought, "Why don't we pool together and ship out tents to the big events?" The rental tents were pretty basic, especially for the price. Now, what if say, a dozen people - fighters and support - pooled their resources, sent over a big tent and cots? Now we just need to bring a sleeping bag, clothes and armor. Hell, we could send over sleeping bags, too, but the thought of keeping a dozen fighters' sleeping bags clean squicked me out. Hard pass. Let's stick with travel discounts and looking into a big tent.

I can find a modern white canvas 20x40 tent for about $2,000. Cots run about $50. 16 cots and a tent come to (2000+(16*50))= $2800. That's for 16 people, but let's begin with half that to start. 2800/8= $350. OK, that's a little high. The startup cost for 16 of us would be $175, conservatively. But not all of us will always be going to the same event. So we can even get more than 16 aboard and limit tent/cot space to the first 16 to help us cover transport/maintenance costs. So let's look at a goal of 24 people. We'll be about to house 2/3 of that. (We can adjust numbers later). $2800/24= $116.67 or about $120 per person. Hell, that's a weekend in a crappy hotel or a night in a decent one. We can figure out privacy curtain setup once we get the tent. (Mens and ladies sections? Roll your own private space? Each cot private?)

So if we get 24 of us willing to camp together, it'll cost us about $120 each to get the gear. Ok, fine, but we also need to look into storage, maintenance, transportation, and eventual replacement.

A 5'w X 5'd X 6'h self-storage unit looks like about $50-75 a month. Let's use $75 as a baseline. With 24 people that comes to ($75*12/24)= $37.50/year per person.

OK, now we need to look at maintenance and replacement costs. Stakes will be lost. Ropes will break. Eventually we'll need a new tent/cots. If the gear lasts 10 years, and a replacement ends up costing $3500 (inflation), we'll need to raise at least $350/year. Divide by 24 people, we get about $14.58 per person for replacement only. Let's double that so we have cash on hand for repairs and we can get a second tent before the first one dies. So now maintenance fees are $29.17 per person per year.

What's that come to? We need 24 people for this to work. To ensure we aren't suddenly short of cash, we'll do annual contributions rather than monthly. Gear Startup: $120/person Annual Maintenance: $37.50+$29.17= $66.67/person Let's call it $70. I like having wiggle room.

So far so good. What would that get you? The /ability/ to reserve a cot and your place in the tent for events we decide as a group to attend. That means, if we decide to go to ACME War, you are in the running to sign up for ACME War. First come first served. We have room for 16. We have 24 people. If only 16 go to ACME War, great! If more want to go, someone will need to bring their own tent. We can do first come first served, lottery, or what? We can decide on the details later. Once we know who is going to ACME War, we will collectively figure out how to get the gear TO ACME War. Someone might volunteer to throw it in their vehicle. Someone miche have a trailer. We'd pay their gas then. Or we might decide to rent a UHaul or something. We's split the cost evenly and someone would need to volunteer to drive.

What if we get the tent and we decide to disband? We sell the tent and evenly split the profits and saved money (after paying off the storage unit) among the last 24 members.

What if more than 24 members want in? We can add members in multiples of some number, adding tents as needed. (Love to have a smaller arming tent...) We might also be able to set this up with regional tents to save travel.

I'd like to see this available for not just ACS but any event we (the travel pool members) want to go to as a group. (Yes, I'm including the thought of shipping the gear to overseas events or West Coast events.)

If you have any interest in creating a travel pool along these ideas, please contact Brian Chabot at brian@acswiki.com or via Facebook.

-- Brian 20:58, 14 June 2019 (UTC)

Goals

• Shared travel info
  • Road Conditions
  • Border Crossing
  • Travel Security
  • Travel Tips
• Group Rates on
  • Hotels
  • Air Fare
  • Car rentals
• Shared Group Equipment for large events
  • What is a large event?
  • Arming Tents
  • Barracks Tents
  • Cots
  • Some way to transport these things
• Carpool

Story Time - A narrative on how it might play out

Chris is an armored fighter. Chris fights with ABCD organisation. Chris joins the Knight Flight Club (KFC) for the year. Come May, Chris wants to travel to the IMCF in Timbuktu. KFC looks into freight costs and publishes estimated pricing for different numbers. KFC polls its members and gets 12 fighters who want to go to the event in Timbuktu. KFC prices out freight costs for a tent or tents big enough for 12 members. KFC pings the airlines and car rental companies for the best deal they can get for 12 people. KFC then gets back to the members with the pricing. A small "safety factor" is included in all the calculations to reflect the possibility of people deciding not to participate. If the safety factor is not needed, it goes into the general fund to cover potential future catastrophes. Chris and 11 other people pay their share. KFC ships out the pallet(s).

At Timbuktu, the 12 people work together to unpack and set up the tent and 12 cots. After the event, they work together to pack it back up and wrap the pallet, ready for pickup. In the process, they inventory everything and make note of anything that needs to be repaired or replaced.

KFC gets the gear back and inspects it before the next event, replacing or repairing items as necessary.