On Wednesday 13th June I attended the first meeting of the Air Soft Industry Association, an organisation which wishes to become the focal point of UK airsoft. They would like UKARA, UKASGB and UKAPU to join ASIA and it would be funded by its direct members, i.e commercial bodies who wish to donate a large fixed sum to the association as membership. 2/3rds of the board would be made up of these companies and ASIA’s focus will be commercial. UKAPU is conducting a consultative process with members in the forum http://www.ukapu.org.uk/index.php?topic=639.0 so members are strongly encouraged to read the extra information available in our forum and post up their opinions. The committee will make a decision on whether to join in the coming months, but UKAPU is not committed at this stage. I am extremely keen for a tri party ‘umbrella’ body to be formed but I have strong concerns about promoting an authoritative and representative body for the whole hobby that has a substantial commercial focus.
The minutes can be viewed here Minutes 1306012 ASIA although they are rather brief and needless to say do not cover the breadth of the discussion.
Matt Furey-King
Chairman