How to Organize a Paintball Outing

by John Peters 

     A paintball outing is one of the most exciting and fun events for you and your friends, family, or co-workers to share! Paintball is great for birthday parties, bachelor parties, family reunions, corporate and church outings, and father-son days. It’s great for creating camaraderie and for team building.

1.      The hardest part about paintball is organizing an event!
2.      This article is specifically written to help you, a potential group organizer, get your event off the ground as simply and painlessly as possible.

1) START THE BALL ROLLING- Do you have 11 friends, co-workers, or family that want to play paintball? Because you need a party of 12 players to make a reservation, and reservations are always required. Since we only host private parties (you and your friends playing each other, supervised by our staff, no strangers involved) you must have 12 players to make a reservation.

     Usually, a group organizer will phone or email potential participants. Perhaps post a flyer on the bulletin board at work, school, or church.

     Ideally, you want to invite a minimum of 36 players to your event. If you don’t know 36 people, perhaps some of your friends can invite some of their friends. Not everyone invited will be available to attend or interested in attending. That’s why you invite 36 people… to insure that you’ll meet the minimum requirement of 12 players in your party. If you wind up with more than 12 guests… the more the merrier.

2) CHOOSE A DATE FOR YOUR EVENT- The most popular time to play is on Saturdays in Spring and Autumn. If you are interested in playing during these seasons it is crucial to set up your reservation 3 to 6 weeks in advance to insure that your date won’t be booked out by other parties.

     Although occasionally a play date can be booked as little as 7 days in advance, generally the less lead time you have between when you call to make a reservation and the date you want to play, the less likely you will be in actually pulling the event off.

3) CHOOSE A SESSION FOR YOUR EVENT- Are you and your friends gung-ho twenty-somethings that are in shape? Or are you a bunch of thirty-somethings that have been sitting behind a desk for too long?

     A rule of thumb: older, out of shape players should aim to play a half day session (morning or afternoon). Younger, in shape players can manage to survive a full day of play. A full day session starts at 8:30am and ends at 4:30pm. A morning session starts at 8:30am and ends at 12:00 noon. An afternoon session starts at 1:00pm and ends at 4:30.

4) CHOOSE THE EQUIPMENT YOU WANT TO RENT- You’ve never played before… how do you know what equipment you need? This is a simple question to answer. A lot depends on what you can afford. A general rule of thumb is that a player will spend a bare minimum of $50. in a half day of play, and a bare minimum of $100. in a full day of play. We have set up a couple Admission Packages in this cost range. We have a Regular Admission package that includes just the bare essential equipment and supplies you’d need to get through your adventure. And we offer a Premium Admission Package that has all the essentials, plus some extras. You can view the various Admission Packages, their associated costs, and a list of the equipment and supplies each comes with, by clicking here: www.NJPaintball.com/paintball_fees.htm

5) QUALIFY YOUR GUESTS- Are they really interested in playing, or are they just mildly interested in playing maybe one of these days? In our experience, there is only one way to make sure someone is really interested in playing. You need to collect their payment in advance.

     A general rule of thumb is that a player will spend a bare minimum of $50. in a half day of play, and a bare minimum of $100. in a full day of play. If the people who have shown interest in participating in your event can not afford these fees, or seem reluctant to fork over the payments to you in advance, you need to search elsewhere for people to fill out your minimum requirement of 12 players.

     50% of all people who make a reservation fail to collect the required advance payment from their guests, and their reservation gets cancelled. Collecting the payments in advance is the hardest step in the reservation procedure.

6) MAKE YOUR RESERVATION- OK, you’ve found 12 people who are really interested in playing, can afford to play, and are willing to pay in advance. You have all agreed to the date you want to play. You know what session you want to play. You know what Admission Package, equipment and supplies everybody wants. Now it’s time to phone or email our reservation office and give us the details. If the date and session of your choice is still available, (dates sometimes book out 3 to 6 weeks in advance), we’ll write all your information down, type it all up into a contract, and submit that contract to you for your approval. The contract will contain the bottom line payment we need to receive to secure your play date. We’ll pencil you into the reservation book while we are waiting to receive your payment.

7) SEND IN PAYMENT- If collecting the money from your friends was the hardest part of organizing your paintball outing, getting the payment to us is the second hardest thing you’ll do.

    When you made your reservation, you were penciled into our reservation book. Until we actually have your payment in our hand, we can not ink you into the reservation book. That means it is possible some other party, interested in the exact same date as you, might get their payment in before you and book you out of your date! Although we can handle as many as 5 private groups simultaneously, once we have received payment from 5 parties the date is booked out. There is absolutely no possibility of getting any additional parties playing once a date is booked out.

     So you see that it is critical to get your payment to us, as quickly as possible, once you have received your contract! And here’s a curve ball for you: we do not accept credit cards at any time. So what are your payment options?

A)    Send us a check. Checks need to be received and deposited at least 14 days before your play date in order to give your bank and our bank plenty of time to process the transaction. Contrary to popular belief, checks do not clear in 3 days! According to our bank manager and our accountant, it sometimes takes up to 10 business days for a check to clear.

B)     Send us a Money Order. Money orders need to be received at least 7 days before your play date.

C)    Send us a Cashier’s Check. Cashier’s Checks need to be received at least 7 days before your play date.

D)    Send us a Direct Wire Transfer. Wire Transfers need to be received at least 3 days before your play date.

E)     Hand deliver a cash payment. Cash payments need to be hand delivered to the playing site on a weekend. You need to make an appointment first, or you will not be admitted through the security gate. Cash payments need to be received at least 7 days before your play date.

8) CONFIRM YOUR RESERVATION- When we have received your payment, you will get inked into our reservation book. We will confirm your reservation by contacting you by phone, email, or both. You will be sent a Checklist that you should read carefully and distribute to all of your guests. If there are any questions that you have about your event, any last minute changes that need to be made, any adjustments to your plans, you need to make them now, before you arrive to play paintball. The staff at the playing site are not authorized to make any changes to your contract, or negotiate changes or alterations of any kind!

9) CONGRADULATIONS! You have successfully organized a paintball outing! Now go out there and have the adventure of your life!