"Membership" kits - RMFF emulate SWGFA?

Fellow Star Wars fans down in Florida have put together a "membership kit" that is available on their web site for anyone to purchase. You can take a peek at it here: http://starwarsgrandflorida.fatcow.com/store/index.html.

It includes a t-shirt, button, patch, pin and membership card for $34.00 with shipping.




Some of us have commented how cool a package like this is and why the heck can't the RMFF put together something like it as well?!? We've done several very cool t-shirts in the past thanks to our art monkey who moved to CA and we've done Geek Cards, but never a "membership kit" like this one.

Of course membership in the RMFF is open to anyone and everyone who participates on the boards or at events/meetings, so we're quite inclusive to all, thus pretty much anyone could buy our kit, if we decided we want to do one like this.

I suggest that we spend $34 from the RMFF treasury to get one of these not only to support fellow SW fan groups but also to check out the quality of this stuff and see if we want to do something similar.

Perhaps at the Feb meeting we can discuss doing a membership kit, and if so, what would be in it, a price point, etc.

 

What would be the motivation of doing a kit vs the way we already do things in the piecemeal approach? The piecemeal approach seems more versatile to me, giving people flexibility to get the items they specifically want. Maybe they buy all of them, maybe not.

Another question - how would it work with a t-shirt run? As I understand it, our t-shirt runs are done by placing specific orders - size, color, etc. Would the membership kit have to be done in runs to accommodate the way t-shirts are done?

 

i think it is a fun idea...

 

I like the idea.

I think the advantage of the kit would be the member gets all the pieces since not all the pieces are not always available. I think it's a nice idea for new members that may have missed out on previous items etc to get them.

As for t-shirts I think we would need to do another run and when we did it we would order extras for this purpose. To have a stock of T-shirts is not a bad idea anyways . There are always new members or other people that see our awesome shirts and want one.

 

I wouldn't mind having a 'kit' but minus a shirt would be the way to go and this is why I feel that way.

Well we have had a stock of shirts from the last one and I think we still have one or two. Sizes and color options were too hard to figure out what would be needed down the road, hence extra shirts for 3 years or so now.

A generic RMFF tshirt, 1 or 2 colors and 3 or 4 sizes Med, large, x-large, 2X on hand or something like that wouldn't be too bad of an idea. But when we have 6 or 7 colors of shirts and they go up to size 5X or something like that and then the spreadsheet is read wrong and we get the next size or two up the line, it makes it difficult to off those 'extra' shirts. So when it's 3 years down the line do we clearance the out? Is it fair the hold outs or n00bs get them for cheaper?

 

I agree with S_C in that it sounds too hard to have a full selection of shirts on hand. We have no way of knowing what size/color the next new member will want for a shirt. In order for it to really work, we'd have to have a fairly large stock. This would tie up a lot of money in inventory.

 

what about a reallly nice iron on..that way people could pick out their own shirts????

 

Agreed. Nnay might have a workable idea, but that is something I am not at all familiar with doing.

 

Are there good enough iron-ons available? Last time I tried one was for a home-made Supernatural shirt, and it was just really... bad. The iron-on part, not the SPN part.

I remember back in grad school though, that we used to get transfers made at the copy store and take them to a store somewhere to be deposited. Those worked out decently. I have no memory of what exactly it was, though.

 

I'm stingy with the treasury money. I don't think we should buy Florida swag for $34. Just my vote.

 

I did a shirt with sarah one year before anyone knew about SPN. it still looks decent, but NOT for a dark shirt. I was thinking we would get them custom done made with a place that does it professionally. Thing is for the quality ones, you have to have a HEAT press to make them 'look' decent enough. I am going to do some more research on this.

 

Of course we can put whatever we want in these "kits" and if doing a shirt isn't the best idea, we can always forego on that and do a different, non-sized clothing item, like a rally towel, backpack, etc.

 

I don't know, this implies a membership fee with a kit to go with it. Many organizations use tactics like this to bring in money to their clubs. I think if someone wants a bumper sticker/patch/shirt/etc then we can do runs of those individually. I don't want any new members (or old) feel they are obligated to buy a kit. To me, not a good idea.

 

There will not be or will be a membership fee for this group. I think the purpose of this kit is an opitional item for new or even current members to buy a kit with items with the RMFF logo etc.

 

I would buy a RMFF kit if there was one,( I don't have a RMFF shirt yet) and it could bring in money for more charity events.

 

Yep, there will never be a "membership fee" so perhaps we can call it something else? RMFF swag kit? This is just a way to put several RMFF logoed items together in one go to raise money for things like the float, pinewood derby track, etc.

 

IRON ONS SUCK!!!


just my opinion.

 

... and I'm waiting for someone to comment... then where's our new RMFF shirt Cory?

 

Grim's right, there are places like Vista Printing that will do a small order of shirts that are reasonably priced online. Not sure about the color range i.e. Black Shirts might be a problem but you may have to inquire about that with them. I have used them once for a friend's cancer walk but that was done on white shirts. very easy.

 

I know where our new RMFF shirt is, Cory. It's percolating in your brain, to come to fruition when the time is right.

 

So....where is it?!

 

... in My Head.

 

Hmmm I see a lobotomy in your future.

 

Kim said that she was going to contact Cory's employer and see if we can get the shirt files so we can do another run of the most recent shirt. We also talked about doing a new shirt with just the logo, but nobody's heading a "shirt committee" as of now.

We decided to not to a kit in this current form and definitely not put anything on the world wide web where certain Lucasfilm lawyers may find it and shut it down. We're looking into doing patches with the same design as the challenge coins or just our logo with it's cut-out shape. We may also do a shirt and have these two items available in large quantities throughout the year for purchase at meetings/conventions by RMFF folks only...not the general public.

Did I get that right secretarians, QueenHighMistress and Sarnia?