I dont think the sport of airsoft needs to 'explode' on to the scene or what have you.

Look at paintball.
Do you REALLY want a bunch of cheating 12 yearolds running around ruining what was once a great sport?

Word of mouth is always better as you can direct the 'word' to the people YOU know would handle the sport maturely and responsably, with a recruitment drive EVERYONE would now be aware of the game including the 50% you,we, airsoft DOESNT want.

I don't think a public announcement would really server your purpose well, but making an effort starting a word of mouth campaign could pay off. If you have facilities to host meetings, show and tell (and age verification on the spot), you could probably get a good number of interesting players.

Advertising publically is more likely to net you CS style players, although at least at a college you're dealing with an older group. I still voted yes, because realistically players who cheat and don't get along with the community, usually find themselves on the outside looking in, but it can still be a real headache.

If you focus on the milsim, tactical, and competition aspects, rather than just that guns look cool, you'll also get different types of players...

Hey man, well i'm all for getting new airsofter in the scene, but......guns in a "school". All it takes is one person who doesn't know whats going on to see a gun and think there is another collumbine going down. But then again I don't know what your plan is for the advertising so i guess if it is done right one could avoid those "persons" from getting all upity. Soooo, if you have all your angles covered i'd say go for it, but if there are things your unshure of keep it on the downlow and start small. Good luck with whatever you decide to do

I vote yes.

I'll leave the poll open 'till the end of the week and will propose something else if this fails.

Keep on voting!

its interesting how alot of people feel that airsoft should be an "underground sport" and that the general public should not be aware of it. personaly i feel the opposit. i feel that the more people who know about it the better, one when incedents do happen and the media blows shit all out of praportion less people will get all worked up. also i couldent hurt to have more players. word of mouth is good but in all honousty how many new players come along every year. nationwide many a couple hundred. also i think that a recruiting drive or public information setion would not be a bad idea. obviously make sure the admins and all the people from you school know what is going on dont just show up one day and walk around campus. the faculty might not care but the cops would be there verry quickly. also i wouldent walk around to much with my guns set a booth up. i vote a verry cautious yes. if done properly it could be a verry good thing. if not a swat team is iminent. and not the airsoft kind

Before the cops show up, the security has to call them up. Before they call them up, and it's a matter of student unrest, they usually come to me. If they see that I'm in charge of what ever unrest there is, they usually hang around for a minute or two, we have a good laugh and then they leave.

However, if a student calls the cops directly, I know that it can lead to trouble. And the end of the last semester, I had to deal with eight squad cars and two squads of anti-riot police because an idiot called the police saying there was a riot during the semester's last party. The riot was actually my security staff escorting a rather coked up and unrully "anarchist" (I won't even go into that debate) outside of school property, and a bunch of his friends took offence. Thing is, he broke another student's leg (my aformentionned only ambulance call in a year), so he had to be taken down with some force, unfortunatly. Meh, he wasn't even bleeding.

Point is, I know full well the potential problems, and I'm even considering inviting the local police to have a look.

From the law standpoint, I don't see any problems.

This could take place in a sealed room with all the windows filled with random posters, and the doors locked after everyone is in.

The more I think about it, the more the idea apeal to me.
On let's say 100 people attending, maybe 30 would come to an introductory game and on that number, maybe 10 people would buy gear.

The intro speach could be the informative and theoric part, than a "noob day" could be done somewhere.

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Now that I'll remember!

Locking the doors would probably be against fire regulations. At least locking them so people from the inside can't get out would be.

I really don't know about that. I'm on York at the moment, and there are a few 'softers in the school from what i've heard. I've talked to a few of my very good friends about the sport, what it's about, the community, etc. Most of my friends are very much like myself: left-wing, pro peace, pro love and kisses, but at the same time, some of us see the merit in having a good old fashioned fun time. Airsoft, its team-building atmosphere, and tactical action is really something that a lot of my friends are interested in getting into.

I'm down for the private meeting amongst individuals of high character, but let's not turn away others because they're simply "left wing" or "pro love"

left wing doesn't necessarily equate to anti-airsoft or anti-gun, we just stand for the responsible use and acquisition of said items.

my vote is yes in respect to the private invitation-only information session.

No, but the "left" you see in higher places of learning is usually some obscure hallucination of a political view lost in some heavy drug use.

However, the left is usually against such sports as ours, but I'm aware of exceptions such as you, though I can't really tell if or how much left-wing you are.

Yeah, whatever happenned to that UofT indoor range?

If I remember correctly, a person or persons in a supervisory position "borrowed" a weapon from the range and took it home, not with any malicious intent, but just being a complete and utter moron.

ive vote no, i don't think it's gonna be payful, airsoft need a kind of "innitiation" to understand, feel and live with the rule. That's not paintball, honnor is something you can get with work. That work is the searching on internet, the discution, been the only noob in the group, etc.
Its like a shop work, when there is only one noob, he will learn fast and good, thy he will be kicked out, but if you take 20 noob, then a new mentality will be developped, witch can or cannot be good, i mean by that that there is an inconscious work out there that affect the action, the interaction, the need of rule, etc.
Airsoft is to me something with an innitiation, and that's is done one by one or at least a little group(1 to 3). And not at this cegep, one of the biggest of the Quebec.
most of the people out there that will want to see this will be 17 anyway.

for people that dont understand pretty well what cegep is, its a school between college and university, it have been created to prepare the educationnal system of the Québec in the mid 60 for the baby boomers
this school is useless and should be removed, seem we are too dumb to do it then.
so PAAAYYYYYY!!!!!!