Welcome to the Australian Paintball Industry Association December 2011 APIA Annual General Meeting held February 2011 Some of our campaign videos produced by Derder Productions! Ramp Mode: Paintball guns are NOT real guns: Splatballs: October 2010 More information regarding the fantastic discounts APIA members can receive on their Public Liability Insurance through Milne-Alexander. This has been made possible by Andrew Grogan and the wonderful people at Milne-Alexander whom you should contact to ensure you're getting the absolute best price on your Public Liability Insurance. Please download and fill out this questionnaire and email it to Andrew.Grogan@milnealexander.com.au and Andrew will be in touch as soon as possible. September 2010 APIA Vice President and Australian Paintball Identity, Mr Peter Russell, steps down from his position due to personal family issues. We are thinking of Peter and his wonderful wife, Dazzling Debbie. Mr Russell is still very much an active member of the APIA. APIA President meets with Mr Michael Faulkner of the insurance company, Milne-Alexander who are a major insurer of many paintball businesses in Australia. Mr Faulkner offers for Milne Alexander to become the official APIA insurer. On top of offering approved member paintball businesses (who meet the basic criteria) special discounts on all of their insurance needs (not just public liability) Milne- Alexander have offered to pay for the APIA public liability insurance in full! The association is very grateful for this very generous offer and hopes all of our members will appreciate the same and at the very least talk with Mr Faulkner at Milne-Alexander to see how much they can save your business each year in insurance. The APIA is sure it will be no more than the $100 per year membership. The APIA is still in talks with other outside suppliers such as Schweppes to get better pricing for all of our members...stay tuned for more information on this as it comes up. The NSW Firearms Registry has given us in writing that yet another paintball gun is now illegal in NSW. The Mac Dev Drone is now officially illegal to buy, possess or use in NSW. This gun joins the Smart Parts SP1 and numerous other paintball guns that supposedly "look" like machine guns. The APIA does not agree with this ruling and will add it to our fight. APIA President, Mr Michael Whybrew says "This ruling is indicative of how perception is one of our biggest concerns, the government bodies are all worried about these types of paintball guns being used in crime, despite the fact there is absolutely no evidence to support such frivolous, unsubstantiated claims". August 2010 The APIA starts its biggest membership drive ever! More than 44 paintball businesses around Australia pledge to join our fledging association from every single paintball playing state and territory. Our goal is to get more than half of all of the Australian Paintball Industry to join us. July 2010 The APIA is sent an invitation to meet with the Law Enforcement Policy Branch of the NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet asking for the APIA for consultation in regards to the conduct and regulation of Paintball in NSW. Key Issues to discuss (but not limited to) are... Minimum Age for participation Emergence of paintball as an organised sport in NSW Types of markers currently used plus emerging technologies Unfortunately, the APIA President, Mr Michael Whybrew was already booked in for meetings with Chinese Government officials in relation to legalising the sport in one of their provinces, Hainan Island for the first ever government approved Paintball Competition in China. As this meeting was nearly two years in the making Mr Whybrew could not get out of it. He passed on his apologies, and the APIA Vice President, Mr Peter Russell was able to go in his place to represent the association. Mr Whybrew organised to meet with the Senior Policy Analyst Ms Justine Atkins the following week after he came back to Australia. After both meetings, both Mr Russell and Mr Whybrew agreed that now was the best time ever for us to continue pushing for law changes and improvements. The important thing here was that we had the NSW government asking us to help and consult in fixing our paintball laws and making them better for us. This was something we had been waiting many years for. February 2010 APIA sent in proposals to the policy branch of the Law Enforcement Policy Branch of the NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet addressing all current problems and issues faced by the Paintball Industry due to our out of date and discriminatory paintball laws. In the proposal, we outline many areas of concern including irrelevant rulings, a lack of any proper safety awareness course and numerous OH&S violations that are actually written in the current laws. We also bring up our concern over the total back flip of the 12 year old ruling and the tens of thousands of dollars wasted by our members because the government had changed their minds. We also outlined our issues with the lack of any rulings, decisions or policy changes in writing.