[Gumps]

Hey Trace, we've never met but I fly out of Sky Soaring and have seen your dad speak many times and have seen you around at the seminars. It's good to see you coming up in the ranks. You've got the right idea building time as a safety pilot. You're suspicions are correct though, you'll need the complex endorsement to be a safety pilot in a complex aircraft. (61.31e,1)
Here's the trick.

1. Find an instructor that you know at the FBO that will fly an hour or so with you in the arrow, and give you the necessary ground instruction. Log both flight and ground instruction.
2. With that you can get the endorsement.
3. Then you can be a safety pilot in complex aircraft.

You can even do the flight part in a sim/FTD. Just tell the instructor what you're up to and they should go along with it if they know you well and you can handle the aircraft. (Of course as a fellow glider pilot I know you'll do just fine!)
If the fbo requires a lengthy check out (10 hours or so) make sure to apply that time to a rating, make cross country flights under the hood, etc. Try to kill as many birds with the proverbial stone as possible.