Category: News

The AGM starts in a few minutes, join here https://join.skype.com/i9chiR0sRnLe

Here is the agenda for the AGM on Monday evening. Please do try and attend. Everyone who attends will be given membership. We’ll keep things simple, and I aim to hold a management meeting straight after the AGM to talk about the Police and Crime Bill, Firearms Directive and other pressing matters. Just add me on skype, matt.furey-king, and on the evening of the meeting I will add all my online contacts to the group chat. make sure you install skype updates the night before!

Matt

Facebook’s moderation algorithm now seems to be deleting airsoft pages as suspected, but for my part I don’t think UKAPU should campaign against it unless our members think otherwise. Facebook is a private website and they can control it however they want, in line with their personal politics. The owners aren’t compelled to listen to the public.

We web users have over relied on Facebook and as a result have lost some of the freedom of speech that the web was supposed to provide. But there’s plenty of good airsoft sales forums and they are better moderated to prevent illegal sales.

It’s a shame to see our legitimate, positive activity marginalised yet again though, and I hope you will all continue to talk about airsoft on this site so that we can keep introducing new players.

Matt

For those who have been asking about the timetable for the EU firearms proposal, one has now been published. https://polcms.secure.europarl.europa.eu/cmsdata/upload/0982a1a4-8dc8-40d1-8414-f2ddf58516a0/timetable.pdf

Matt

The Home Office has invited the airsoft associations UKAPU and UKARA to a meeting to discuss the Police and Crime Bill, and the airsoft exception.

This is actually the first HO airsoft meeting which has been convined since we created UKAPU, and getting proper representation for players at these meetings has always been one of our highest priorities. The founders of UKAPU were never pleased with the way the previous meetings were conducted, it was extremely hard for players to get any say or find out what went on. I don’t consider this to be the fault of the Home Office at all, IMO the problem was on our end. For players this upcoming meeting will be markedly different. The UKAPU committee members representing UKAPU members at the meeting will be people with no vested interests, and at the AGM next week YOU will be given the opportunity to select those people, or even be one of those people. I’d like to know what your concerns are in relation to the PCB 2015/16 and what questions you would like to ask the Home Office. We will distribute the minutes to you when we recieve them, as is proper. The meeting date is the 11th of March.

Numerous branches of the government now recognise UKAPU as a legitimate airsoft stakeholder, and the Home Office contacted UKAPU in the first instance when they decided to convene this meeting. Many of UKAPUs reccomendations made it into the law commision report and the draft Bill. UKAPU is merely a mechanism which allows players to have real influence on their hobby, so please discuss below.

Matt Furey-King, Chairman UKAPU

Urgent Vacancies

As you might know already I’m looking to move on from the Chairman’s position. Its been worthwhile and interesting but I’ve been at it for too long and need to concentrate other things in my life. As such, I’m aiming to stand for Chairman again at the coming AGM, but recruit a vice-chairman who can take over from me later in the year. I’ve learnt that putting someone new into the Chairman’s position with no lead in isn’t viable, so this way we’d be able to do a staged handover. Chairman is a big job, and you need drive, resilience, as well as good planning and communication skills. But I do recommend it, you’ll learn allot, find it very interesting, and operate at the heart of UK airsoft.

The other position I want to highlight is that of Scotland rep. We are in dire need of someone to monitor and engage with the Scottish parliament and keep the Scottish members and the committee updated.

Although the situation is fairly static at the moment, an Northern Ireland Rep would be very useful too, as they also have a devolved parliament and specific laws.

Please PM the page if you are interested.

Matt

Due to the progress of the PCB 2015/16 we’ve decided to step up the pace of reform. As such we are holding an AGM, via Skype, on the evening of Monday the 29th Feb. All UK players are welcome to join in. Joining instructions to follow.

The new membership system will not be running by then (although, those wheels are in motion), so if you are not already a UKAPU member we will add you to the membership on that evening. That way everyone gets a opportunity to vote on association matters.

The most crucial thing we need is a set of volunteers to staff the new committee. Please PM the page if you are interested, and we can discuss what positions we have available (although every player has the right to stand for any position, we need to know ahead of time so we can organise a ballot if necessary). Apologies if you have volunteered in the past and we’ve not taken you up, could really use you help if you are still keen.

Please try and get the word out that we are looking for people, and consider volunteering with a friend, it seems to work quite well if some committee members know each other and have already worked together.

We’ll probably get together and have an association management meeting in the Midlands in the coming months, but right now I need to present the association as fully manned and elected. Exciting times ahead! We’ll be forging new relationships and working with the government to shape new laws and the future of British airsoft. In the UK we’ve got associations to give us a voice and we’re getting protection for airsoft written into law. In a number of US states, they are not organised and represented, as such nobody listens to them as individuals, and airsoft is being wiped out. Hell of a difference.

Matt Furey-King, Chairman UKAPU

http://www.popularairsoft.com/project-tank-20-fundraiser-hits-halfway-mark-more-help-needed

Just giving my other project a cheeky push https://m.facebook.com/claymoreairsofttv/ give it a like, it’s an airsoft video series I make for a bit of fun. Set up a Facebook page for it recently as its actually quite difficult to promote YouTube videos on here.

Matt

The firearms community have found that a number of Facebook pages have been deleted now that gun sales are banned on here. Airsoft got caught up in the last anti gun moves by Google and Facebook so let us know if any airsoft pages start disappearing.