Locksport International: Your input please.

[dougfarre]

Dear Lp101 Members,
Recently I have been getting a lot of inquiries about Locksport International and locksport in general. People have seen the potential of a successful L.I chapter in action and want to be apart of that experience. I speak on behalf of the Locksport International Board Members when i say our problem is that we are having trouble getting that experience to all those that are interested, and that is very disheartening for all involved. We all know that the major growth of this hobby is not going to happened overnight, but it is something that is growing, as most of us have been able to experience this over the years.

There are hobbiest in every major city and country across the world that use lp101 as their channel of communication when it comes to lock picking. And the majority of those active lp101 members would be delighted if they could find somone in their city, area, or country to share this experience with. Even if it means driving 2.5 hours in a thundering rainstorm or horrible blizzard (speaking from experience).

The problem I am getting to, is reliability. We have seen many L.I chapters survive for two months and some for two weeks. Fortunately, our organization does have chapters that have been running smoothly for over 2 years now, but those are very low in quantity. A lack of reliability comes from the following problems:

1) New chapter presidents not knowing how to gain support for their new chapter.
2) Not enough local interest.
3) No advertisement attempts.
4) Lack of help.

Money loans are available through L.I for starting a new chapter, so cash is never a problem. However, as you can see from the previous list starting a new L.I chapter requires a very large commitment on the part of the local chapter administration. And while many think they are up for the challenge, after a single hardship, they quickly give up.

Of course there will always be exceptions, there will be those individuals or groups who will continue to pursue their chapters goals until self sufficiency has been reached, or continue to operate year after year for the shear pleasure of it.

Until L.I chapters have reached self sufficiency in every big city on the planet (one day ) I am asking for YOUR input on how L.I can more effectively aid in helping YOU organize in smaller numbers in an attempt to instigate the formation of a larger chapter in your area. What would be helpful to you? Remember, we have resources, locks, picks, websites, the forums, and other communication channels. We want to help YOU come together.

Any input would be appreciated.

Doug Farre
Administrative Director

[dougfarre]

Hi there,

I'm Regina and I am leading a group of the SSDeV, the German lock picking club. I started this group myself 2 years ago and it is developing nicely. In these two years, I was rarely active here, cause I concentrated a lot of my free time on that group.

As a group, we decided to have more contacts to other groups (meant as group to group contact) from other organisations, but as you stated you need input for having groups lasting longer than just the first enthusiasm, I thought we might be able to help you there as well.

My local club is in a very small town, which doesn't have a university like all the other local groups in Germany. A university or a technical school always brings a certain fluctuation towards a group. I don't have this advantage, but I do work with the local press. It is fairly easy to get coverage if you make your press releases relevant for the seasons (the club is gonna do a bicycle lock session in spring). This is possible in Germany, your mileage may vary.
My latest idea was that local leaders provide a twitter, so if anyone is visiting some place they can just follow the regional twitter while they are there, and visit if something interesting happens, or groups organize a box of locks that is sent from one group to another.

That was it from me today, if we can help you further, we will gladly do so.

Have a great weekend,

Regina

[maintenanceguy]

Doug:

You've got a club that works. Franchise it. When something works, don't fix it.

From your example, it seems that universities have the right mix for a locksport club to work. People of the right age looking for something interesting to do, available leisure time, some available cash to participate, and probably other things I can't think of now.

What about making locksport primarily a college and university organization? Anyone can participate, college student or not, they just have to sign up at the local college. No matter where you are, there's a college near by.

[Safety0ff]

Advantages of Universities &colleges:
-Location, location, location!
It's relatively easy to get classrooms for student organisations/clubs. Usually if the person is attending that school they've got the means to get there (even better if they're in residence.) It doesn't take much to advertise in heavily traveled areas, my school has one area which is always used by clubs to advertise.
-Potential interest.
It's there, especially once you start talking about personal security and why it's important to know about it.
-Funding.

Disadavantages:
-Excluding people that aren't registered for that University/college.
Depending on the institutions policies, they might have the right to remove any body that doesn't have a student card/good reason to be there depending on their policies. Althought usually that rule is in place to remove people that are causing trouble on campus, it's still something to look out for. We know all to well the prejudice that people have about locksport/lock picking.

[JackNco]

personally the drive for me has always been competing with others. I honest don't think I would have stuck at it without IRC. the goal was always to be able to open locks that other people could. and there is always someone better so I think setting up chapters in pairs where possible is the best bet.

But thats just my 2 cents.

John

[assweasel]

A charter template would be helpful.
Perhaps a Mission Statement as well.

Without an International charter formulating a Local one would be moot.

[BigJohn60]

Has the idea for this project gone the way of the dumpster? Where do you stand on developing the chapters? Is there a list of what cities/towns that have chapters are located?

[hydruh]

Hi, BigJohn

Actually, the club is thriving, and Doug is getting new chapters even as we speak. More here:

www.locksport.com

S

[BigJohn60]

Ok, I dropped them an email as we need a chapter in Georgia USA

[d_m234]

How long does it usually take for them to respond to emails when you request more inof?

[mr_chris79]

dunno bud im still waiting for some more info for Locksport UK

[hydruh]

It might be a little bit - we all are still recovering from Defcon, and getting our ducks in a row. Doug is snowed under.

There will be more soon.

S

[foghorn]

I don't visit here nearly as often as I should, so pardon my late response.

I started a club at Penn State called Penn State 2600. While we are affiliated with the 2600 organization, one of the things we quickly found out that we love to do is pick locks. So I contacted Doug, and within weeks I had a new set of locks for us to play with, and an introduction to a lockpick maker who made our club pick sets that we now sell to fund our various interests. So far, we've raised over $200 in pure profit from the picks.

Being at a University, we have a fresh wave of Freshmen every year. And the more we advertise (online, in print in our local newspaper, and good old fashioned word of mouth), the more interest we see, and the more members.

Tips for university clubs:

- Get your local newspaper interested. It helps. A lot. Especially when trying to convince the administration that we're not evil.
http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/20 ... n_art.aspx
I tried to shoehorn L.I. as much as possible, but they didn't seem to pick up on it. See suggestion #1.

- Meet in an open, public space. Not only does it give the impression that we don't have anything to hide, but it pulls in a lot of foot traffic who see us picking locks and want to join in. We've snagged about 10 people this way.

- Get university funding. Locks tend to get sticky as you pick them, and the members get bored of the easy locks pretty quickly. University funding helps a LOT with getting new locks and toys, and many universities give out $200+ just for signing up.

Suggestions

- The biggest problem we have is getting people to see where we are. As we meet in the middle of a large open space, most people don't connect "guys in black t-shirts sitting around locks" to an actual club. What I would REALLY appreciate is a large vinyl banner with the club name, the time of meetings, and perhaps the affiliated organizations' logos. There's a railing we can hang that from for our meetings that would make us much more visible.

- A standard "new club" kit would be perfect. I would include 5 cabinet locks, 5 master locks, 5 slightly harder shackled locks, and perhaps a competition kit, along with a couple set of picks as "loaners". Also, some sample posters and an email with the logos would be ideal.

Just my $0.02.