Category: Association Administration

Matt Furey-King here. I’d like to announcing that I’m stepping down as Chairman of UK Airsoft Players Union. When I returned to the role as Chairman in 2015 my intention was twofold; to get the association back on its feet, and to make sure we had player representation throughout the Policing and Crime Bill passage. My return was only ever supposed to be temporary, the committee knew my intention from the start was to stand aside on the commencement date of the new law. So here we are.

I’m pretty disappointed that the PCA is still an open subject, that we still need to push the government for clarifications in order to find out how to comply with the new law. There’s some grey area which I think will one-day spell real trouble for some poor airsoft player. As much as I’m dying to help with this situation, I have to call it a day and move on. Unfortunately, other parts of my life have been suffering due to lack of attention, I’ve been so distracted by all this airsoft politics going on these last 2 years. My girlfriend Po Ling has been very accommodating but even her impressive patience with me is wearing thin! So it’s time to get my priorities straight. The way I see it I’ve done my bit and to be honest other people now need to step up to the plate.

I am massively proud of the work UKAPU has done. Over the last decade many hobbies have been restricted or eroded or banned in the UK, modern society doesn’t seem to have any room for people like us who like having fun in non-vanilla ways. But airsoft has not fallen, we’ve stood our ground, we’ve not been bullied and suppressed, we fought back on every level. It’s really impressive, and we have a bright future if we make this unity and determination a core part of our identity as UK airsoft players.

You might be worried that UKAPU is going to disappear when I go, as most of our announcements come with my name attached. But the reason you see so much of me and not much of the rest of the committee is because I have been the associations figurehead, actually there’s half a dozen people working hard behind the scenes that you don’t hear about. I have a huge amount of confidence in the remaining committee and the association. We have 4000 members, a great reputation and a great future. Let me tell you, the committee have some fantastic plans for the next few years that will be a huge lift for airsoft.

David Weston, UKAPU Vice Chair, has taken command of UKAPU. Soon he will hold a management meeting and the committee will select a new Chairman, and it would not be appropriate for me to preempt that vote. But there’s some really great guys working for UKAPU at the moment and I have every confidence in them to lead the association forward. That said, I won’t be disappearing completely and will still be available to help and advise them, if they so wish. Of course I’ll be an active UKAPU member and you’ll all see me around at airsoft games, as normal.

All that said, UKAPU does have a high turnover of volunteers (voluntary associations tend to, people’s circumstances change and they often run out of free time to commit). The committee already has a few vacant positions and, unless they can fill positions and spread the workload, the association could go into a downward spiral. So PLEASE, if you are a self-motivated and literate airsoft player and have some free time, give them a message on Facebook and volunteer for a committee position. Now is the time.

What’s next for me? Well, I’m pretty pissed off at the shambolic way the country is being run and politician’s dreadful attitudes towards civil liberties in general, not just the liberties of airsofters. So I’m thinking bigger, I’ve made a step into the wider world of politics and I’m running in the upcoming Parliamentary election. I’ve been selected as the Green Party candidate for Kingswood in Bristol. Green Party may seem an unusual choice for a firearms guy but I’ve found it to be a really inspiring movement, the Greens are very far from being the stereotypes people imagine they are. Yes, they do currently have an anti-replica policy in the manifesto but they have no commitment to it and I’m confident I can get them to change it. They didn’t know about airsoft skirmishing or the VCRA when they wrote it. They asked me to help them rewrite it many years ago but I never had the time, so it’s partially my fault. If you are interested, there’s some information about me as a candidate here 

Later in the year I’m aiming to put more time into my airsoft channel, Claymore Airsoft TV. I’ve got some fun content planned so please give it a sub or a like if you want to see what airsoft shenanigans I’m up to.

www.facebook.com/claymoreairsofttv

www.youtube.com/claymoreairsofttv

Huge thanks to all the people who have done so much to help me achieve my aims over the years, especially my fellow UKAPU committee members. I know UKAPU has a bright future ahead if all of you support the next leader of UKAPU in the same brilliant way you have supported me.

Kind Regards,

Matt Furey-King

UKAPU Member

Some of you have been asking why the association has been so quiet in recent times. Unfortunately, our committee positions are mostly vacant. We’ve had a period where we didn’t manage to get normal replacements for guys who were leaving (people tend to come and go) and then a general feeling of being worn down by the enormity of the task caused two of the remaining committee members to resign at the same time. As such, we’re down to a single committee member at the moment (out of 5 positions). To add to our misery, our membership database has broken down at the same time.

Bearing these facts in mind, James (our Treasurer) has stopped all new member registrations and member renewals. It just wouldn’t be fair to take your money if we’re providing none of the promised services. We did recently discuss the idea of dissolving the association, in a worst case scenario we’d rather that we closed shop than allowing it to limp on with no-one at the helm.

UKAPU was set up with the sole aim of becoming the manifestation of players will, a tool for you to use. But after 5 years of successfully defending many players who have been wronged by the law, and representing members to the media and different parts of government, UKAPU still doesn’t have the weight of the airsoft community behind it. It seems like the majority of players don’t want to be involved in airsoft outside of playing or don’t care to research the precarious situation. Threats to players rights aren’t just coming from outside of airsoft though; as with anything in life if you don’make your voice heard, someone else will talk on your behalf. Sadly, other new airsoft groups also have deep inherent flaws; an absence of transparency, democracy and management with heavily vested interests. So, you can see, the need for a strong players association hasn’t reduced one iota.

In spite of these recent issues our South East Representative, Bruce Clark, has volunteered to step up as Chairman and lead UKAPU. Bruce is a Captain in the Merchant Navy,  ex forces, has allot of spare time on his hands and is extremely keen on Airsoft. He is the perfect man for the job. This week we’ll get Bruce officially slotted into the Chairman position, and I’ve high hopes that Bruce’s fresh ideas and enthusiasm will knock UKAPU back into life from the stagnation which has come about this year. Massive thanks to Bruce for stepping up.

Lately we’ve also had a respectable volume of volunteers step forward to fill the other vacant positions and I promise to be in touch with them during the next week (sorry its not been sooner, I have allot going on in my personal life at the moment). So, with a fresh team on the job and the old guard on hand to pass on their knowledge and experience, I can see UKAPU achieving great things in the near future!

Despite the new committee, the association still won’t last without more support from all airsoft players, and active participation from more members. My thanks to those who have continually talked us up and the core of awesome people who been loyal members over the years. UKAPU wouldn’t be here without you. But for those who have refrained from ‘picking a side’ or generally haven’t taken an interest in the future of airsoft, this could be your last chance to get behind a resource which is created for you and could be extremely valuable in your future.

Please post on our forum if you are interested in working for the association as a volunteer

http://ukapu.org.uk/forums/index.php

For those of you who aren’t currently members, we’ll ask you to sign up (or renew) soon. Keep an eye on our our facebook page, twitter account, website or our articles in gun mart and airsoft action magazines. We’ll let you know as soon as the new membership database is back up and running.

https://www.facebook.com/UKAPU

https://twitter.com/UKAPU

http://ukapu.org.uk/

Matt Furey-King, Consultant UKAPU