Paintball Sports Trade Association Newsletter

PSTA Newsletter
Volume I, Number 8
November, 2009


Which Paintballs Are Environmentally Safe?
Several field owners have asked the PSTA for assistance with “land use”
issues regarding paintballs and EPA/OSHA restrictions. These owners have
fields on property affected by City, County or Federal zoning regulations,
and the problem they are having is any paintball field on zoned property
must conform to EPA and OSHA guidelines. With new fills and imported
paintballs on the market now, field owners are not sure which balls are OK
with the EPA?
We took this question to Procaps Direct and KEE Action Sports. Both
companies are PSTA members, and both are leading paintball manufacturers.
Executives at both KEE and Procaps stated their paintballs meet the
guidelines. All their brands and types of paintballs, from the
highest-quality to the lowest-priced, are environmentally safe. (Note:
Since Procaps came out with their new line of “Ecofill” paintballs, some
retailers and field owners have wondered if Procaps other types of fills
are environmentally safe. Yes they are. “Ecofill” is a different formula
with no oil in the solution, but all Procaps paintballs still meet
environmental safety guidelines.)
Mike Lucas, a V.P. at KEE, also is involved with the ASTM committee for
paintball standards. He sent us the ASTM General Requirements.
Specifically, Section 3.7 covers Environmental Safety: Paintballs shall not
contain environmentally hazardous or toxic substances as defined in CERCLA
Regulations 40CFR302.4; SARA Toxic Chemical List Section 313; Clean Air
Act, Section 112B; and RCRA Regulations 40FRR261.24 through 40CFR261.33.”
As Mr. Lukas explains it, the environmental regulations listed in the
standard above are compliant with all EPA and other government requirements
in place at this time. EPA and other government groups do not give
approvals for specific products. However, they do give guidance through the
information in the various government regulations in effect. It is the
responsibility of every manufacturer to ensure they are in compliance with
all industry standards and government regulations.
Mike says both the EPA and the Consumer Products Safety Council (CPSC)
feel that manufacturers in the paintball industry are responsible partners
working to provide safe high-quality products to the general public. And
Mike also notes, “In all the interaction I have personally had with these
agencies, I have found them to be helpful and understanding partners in the
standards process.”
Fields on zoned property should do the following: Contact the
manufacturers of the different types of paintballs you use, and have them
send you a Materials Safety Data Sheet (MSDS). This form lists the chemical
ingredients in the paintballs and other safety information. Usually this
sheet of paper is the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
Form #174, but there are several different types of MSDS. Include a copy of
this MSDS when applying for zoning approval, and have copies available at
your field to show anyone inspecting for OSHA. Also, you can contact the
ASTM for information on their paintball requirements (PSTA members can
e-mail Mike at MLukas@KeeActionSports.com). And finally, if you allow
Bring-Your-Own-Balls at your field, you should restrict the type of
paintballs players can bring to those brands that follow the ASTM
guidelines (you know KEE and Procaps are good to go). A sign at your field
and a notice on your website about which brands of paintballs are allowed,
and why, also are good ideas.

Criticism of ‘Ref’s as Independent Contractors’
The article in last month’s Newsletter drew a number of comments from
members. The information in the article was controversial, which is why it
was prefaced with a warning disclaimer. Here are two thoughtful responses
from members who are strongly against hiring refs as independent
contractors instead of employees.
Ben Nagengast of White River Paintball feels that making your refs
independent contractors would mean relinquishing control over them. He
says, “In an effort to circumvent or ‘legalize’ your business activities
you have given up control of the most important part of your business -
your staff and their interaction with the customer. In fact, based on the
independent contractor guideline, you could not discipline, correct or
improve a referee’s behavior lest you pay a bit more in taxes and
insurance. Yes, employees do have a burden upon a company in the form of
additional expenses and commitment. But, if you focus on hiring good staff
and good referees the burden is transferred into a benefit and asset for
your company.”
Larry Cossio, an insurance agent for paintball fields and amusement parks,
believes fields should never make their refs independent contractors. He
says, “If you incorrectly classify an employee as an independent
contractor, you can be held liable for employment taxes for that worker,
plus a penalty. And from an insurance coverage standpoint, if you hire a
sub-contractor to work at your store, pro shop or field as a ref or sales
person, then the act of refereeing, gun repair, air fills, lens
replacement, etc. by that person will not be insured under your policy.
Larry says hire refs on as employees, see if your state requires that they
be covered by workers compensation, and do it correctly. Otherwise, you are
paying a lot of money for liability insurance that most likely would not
cover you in case of an injury.”
Cossio recommends, “All truly independent contractors (electricians,
remodelers, etc.) who do work at your field or store should have their own
liability insurance and should ‘also insure’ you, the field, the property
owner, etc. on their companies’ insurance policies.”
NERSA paintball insurance policies also require independent contractors to
carry their own insurance.


PSTA Updates
Forum Activity: A criticism we’re hearing is the lack of posting traffic on
the PSTA forums. Some field and store owners signed up with the expectation
more of you would be posting your thoughts. To them, the big attraction of
the PSTA was the potential for sharing ideas, information and advice with
others in the industry. A few interesting discussions have been initiated,
but the responses have been limited in volume (but not in quality of
comments). Those who have expressed their disappointment were anticipating
more activity on the forums, more posting participation from the
manufacturers’ end of the industry as well as more thread contributions
from the fields and stores.
These are not intended as excuses, but here are some factors worth
considering as to why there is not more posting activity on the PSTA
forums:
Currently, there are less than 170 members in the PSTA, so less than 170
people have access to the forums. Now factor our number of possible posters
against the millions of viewers surfing and posting on the commercial
paintball websites. You really can’t compare the posting traffic potential
between us and them. The PSTA forums just started up in June, and it will
take more time for our membership and forums to grow.
Also, the PSTA forums are designed to be different than commercial sites.
We are not trying to attract and entertain millions of players, then sell
advertising space to the industry. Our potential contributors are industry
members only, not the players, and the entire international paintball
industry is only a couple of thousand people. This means the PSTA forums
never will have as large a quantity of postings, and our nonprofit,
small-budget operation probably never will be able to afford high-tech
graphics and professional monitoring. But the quality and depth of the
discussions on our threads always should be superior for members of our
industry.
Probably the key factor regarding posting traffic on PSTA forums is the
makeup of our membership. Most of you are over-worked, and you don’t have
extra time in the day for surfing the internet. Members might get an
opportunity to read a few posts, but few have the extra time to post a
response. And with the level of insight and experience PSTA members have to
offer, a quick reply or a smiley face probably wouldn’t be a sincere
effort. Most members feel it would take an involved, multidimensional post
to adequately contribute to a topic. This is extra time and effort they
just don’t want to give.
Perhaps this is the fundamental reason why more members don’t post; their
sense of not living up to a high level of expectation. After all, the PSTA
forums are a very public presence. It’s your real name on the post, not
just some anonymous web avatar. And if everyone in the industry may end up
reading something you posted, you want to make sure your response is
noteworthy. There definitely is a sense of your peers might be judging you,
which makes it easy to take these forums too seriously. Most PSTA members
won’t consider contributing to a thread if they don’t have the time to
write a concise, thoughtful post.
With all that said, the PSTA forum remains what we, the members, make of
it. If there are too few posts, it’s because we didn’t post enough. Sure,
it would be nice to have many more threads with interesting topics ongoing.
But that’s up to us. We get to choose.

Free Advertising: The recently launched online magazine, Shooting Hot
Magazine, is offering a no-cost listing, which PSTA field and store members
might want to check out. There is no requirement to purchase their magazine
or to pay for a listing advertisement. They will publish your business
listing for free in their magazine if you will put a link to their website
on your company’s web page.
Just send in the information for your paintball business. They want your
field/store name(s), address including City, State and zip, phone, website,
and e-mail. Send your listing to Bill Murray, the web designer, by
e-mailing to addictionarmy@yahoo.com. To see their new publication, go to
www.shootinghotmagazine.com.


Industry Trends
The jobless rate is nearing a post-Depression record high. By the end of
October, the government reported, the USA national rate had grown to 10.2
percent. It marked only the second time since the WWII era that the jobless
rate in the USA has surpassed 10 percent (that was during Jimmy Carter’s
administration). Some economists now are predicting the numbers will
continue rising toward the second half of 2010, and it could be 2011 before
the jobless rate goes below 10 percent again if something doesn’t change.
The unemployment rate already has exceeded most of these economists’
previous estimates for 2009.
This month officials of the Federal Reserve warned bankers that
unemployment likely will remain high for the next several years because the
economic recovery won’t be strong enough to spur hiring. They also said
rising unemployment could crimp consumers, which would further restrain a
recovery.
The Feds also said there now are more than six times as many workers
looking for jobs as there are employment openings. As a comparison figure,
in December, 2007 there were 1.7 unemployed workers per job opening. The
rate grew every single month to the high of 6.1 unemployed workers per job
opening in September, 2009. The good news, they say, is the number of job
openings has improved slightly since September, and the number of layoffs
is slowing.
As a consequence of the battered economy, many consumers are curbing the
cost of their holiday traveling plans. A new Automobile Club survey shows
about a third of their members plan not to travel this holiday season. For
those who do intend to travel between Thanksgiving and the New Year, the
method of travel (driving versus flying), the amount spent on traveling
(over/under $500), and how far people travel (in-state versus out-of-state)
all will be dialed down. This is further evidence consumers have become
frugal.
How is this relevant to paintball? In the opinion of one PSTA member,
retailer Curt Benedetto, the key to tapping into these people, those who
have turned a little frugal, is giving them a deal. If customers now are
willing to spend if the deal is good, then now is the time to sell them a
good deal. Don’t get too caught up in selling the product, sell the deal.
Mr. Benedetto says, “The news in the economy is that the ‘fear factor’
seems to be diminishing. What this means for retailers is the people who
held on to their jobs, but shut themselves in their homes and held on to
their money, now are starting to come back out and spend. They are frugal,
but they are willing to spend if the price is right. Moving more for a
little less is better than not moving anything at all. Also, giving people
a screaming deal on one item helps them justify purchasing the more
expensive second item. This also will transfer to fields if they discount
an aspect of the typical daily play.”
Retailers and field owners can get customers to spend more often with a
“rewards” system of discounts. They can get customers to buy right now with
limited-time or limited-availability discounts. And they can encourage
their customers to purchase higher-priced products by added-value
discounts, such as an extended warranty or an ancillary product included in
a package deal. All three sales techniques can be used and combined to
create attractive deals for frugal customers.
Curt feels, “At this stage of the recession it’s safe to assume everyone
coming to your field or store no longer is afraid to spend the money they
have. If they didn’t have the money, they would have stayed at home, right?
Now assume you can make the sale if you have the right deal, a deal that
appeals to their new frugal spending habits.