Sunday, January 6, 2013

Using Fobs or other door entry systems for added benefits

Some people have wanted to give access to their skateparks to others who have either helped out a lot for free, or they are their "friends" or whatever reason they have.  While there are some safety and liability issues at stake here, giving out a key to your park could be a reasonable idea with certain protections in place.  Firstly if you simply give a hard key to someone, you will never know when they are in the park if you don't have a system for tracking this.  Who is there?  How respectful are they?  These are some things that you should know, and randomly showing up at the park is not the answer.  FOB systems and or card-readers could be a way to get a handle on who is in the park and when.  With FOBs or readers you can track when people enter the park and you can change these FOBs out when you want to revoke a privilege that has been abused, or as you change people's jobs and roles.  This can help you also manage when people are opening the park up in the day too as you can set time parameters for the doors to unlock.  It can also tell you when a door is propped and more.  If you were to combine this with a simple security system, managing how people come to the park when you aren't there can be better understood.  FOB systems can also be used to grant levels of entrance, so that if someone is able to enter the park, they might not be allowed to enter other areas that are secured and locked.  It could save you from carrying loads of keys.  Depending on how the park is setup, allowing entrance via a FOB or card system can be arranged as a benefit for members as well.  With smaller end parks that don't have open areas of food and merchandise and money systems could use the FOB and member system as a graduated level of support.  This could be organized where more expensive memberships allow for access anytime and lesser members can only come during certain hours.  The YMCA uses this type of system as do certain gyms, and a card door reader or a FOB system could be a way to create this type of benefit.  In the end it beats giving out a key and then having to try and get it back.  Fob systems start around $60, and get more expensive from there.  But for the access and ease of use, FOBs and door readers could be a good way of giving your people access while still maintaining control.