TexasCHLforum.com

joseywales wrote:Charles, Thanks for your efforts in this endeavor to promote the shooting sports and our 2nd Amendment rights!
Do you have an agenda in mind or topics you would like to see discussed for the first meeting?

Thanks for the kind words. The first meeting will be my introduction of the program to everyone and the website to support the effort. It's pretty involved and I'm sure that will take up all of our time.

Chas.

I don't have time to create an entirely new web page just for the meeting announcement, so I just added a modified version of my post to the current http://www.TexasShooting.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. If you have people who may be interested in this project, you can refer them either to one of the two threads on this topic, or to TexasShooting.com.

I will add meeting locations to the web page and here on the forum as volunteers find locations.

Chas.

The meeting will be at 2:00pm on Saturday, January 31, 2009. Since this will be a statewide effort, it will not be necessary to come to PSC to attend. At this point, I plan to use http://www.GoToMeeting.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and we can have up to 15 different locations around the State. We will have one meeting location at PSC and I am currently working on at least two more in the Houston area; one north of town and one west of town.

We also need locations in other cities throughout the State, so I can't use up too many of the 15 available slots for the Houston area. I think the three I've mentioned is about all we can have in the Houston area, unless we don't fill up the 15 slots by Jan. 31st. Each meeting location will need Internet access, preferably with a large monitor or projector, depending on the number of people in attendance and a telephone with speaker phone capability. The reason I'm incorporating the http://www.GoToMeeting.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; element is so I can be sure we are all seeing the same thing on my computer. If for some reason GoToMeeting.com doesn't work, then I'll switch to AT&T Conference call, with everyone viewing the website from a test location. I don't like this approach as well, as it is difficult to keep everyone on the same page and in the same discussion.

This is an exciting new concept and approach to getting people into the shooting sports. Whether their interest is purely recreational shooting, self-defense, or competition, they will be impacted by this new approach. As I said in the original post in this thread, it is imperative that we ban together to promote the "fun side of shooting" to people who own guns, but never take them out of the closet or drawer. The more people we can attract, the stronger we will be as a political community and the stronger the shooting industry will be from an economic standpoint.

I'm going to try to post a web page on http://www.TexasShooting.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; with a little more information for people who are not following this thread and who are not TexasCHLforum.com members. You can use this website to recruit people for this planning meeting on Jan. 31 simply by referring them to it for more information. Hopefully, I can have it up later today or tomorrow. (The current http://www.TexasShooting.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; has remained stagnant since Hurricane Ike, primarily because of my work on the replacement website that will be the backbone of this new effort.)

This new project will not be solely for IDPA shooters, or pistol shooters in general. We need every shooting sport/discipline represented. I'm going to contact the Shotgun Director and Rifle Director at PSC and I'm going to talk to the folks at Greater Houston Gun Club (a great shotgun-only club) and try to get them interested. I'm also going to invite the folks who run the Juniors Program and the Ladies Program at PSC. I know we have Bayou Rifles members here on the forum, so it would be great if you could contact them and see if we can get them involved. These are the type of contacts we need all over Texas.

Obviously, I will run the meeting from the PSC location and Steve Vandermolen will be a meeting coordinator for the meeting location north of Houston. I need volunteer meeting coordinators in other areas of the state. Meeting coordinators will be responsible for recruiting people for the meeting in their area and for finding a location to hold the meeting. As noted above, the location will need Internet access and a speaker phone. If you would like to be a coordinator, please post something here and I'll start a thread that lists each coordinator and his/her area.

Who should attend the meeting. Even though I started this thread in the Competitive Shooting sub-forum and directed it to match directors and staff, we need to reach a lot more people. Here is a short list of people I think would be beneficial to the effort, but this is by no means an all-inclusive list:

• Match Directors & staff for all shooting disciplines
  People involved in youth shooting sports of any type (not just matches)
  People involved in ladies programs
  Boy Scout/Girl Scout Leaders
  Firearms instructors
  Shooting range owners
  People active in informal recreational shooting (a/k/a plinking)
  Individuals willing to promote the shooting sports informally (You don't have to have a title, just a desire to help!)
  Gunsmiths & others in a shooting or gun-related business
  People willing to share their experiences by writing articles (ex. the two father/daughter threads recently posted)

For you who tend to focus on the more serious side of guns and shooting, such as those who own guns solely for self-defense and defense of your family, don't write off this project as not being "your cup of tea." Remember our audience is the person who owns a gun but never uses it. Many of these folks inherited the guns they own, or received them as a gift; they didn't decide to buy one. While these people may well be "pro-gun" there is little doubt their commitment to the issue isn't as strong as is the case with a person who shoots regularly or who carries a gun for self-defense. Unless a tragedy befalls them or someone close to them, we aren't going to entice them into shooting by telling them they need to start carrying a gun. However, if we take a cue from the recreational industry and convince them that "sport shooting is fun," then we have a good shot (no pun intended) at getting them involved. A lot of us have had the experience of taking an anti-gunner, or someone who just wasn't interested, to the range and leaving with someone who had a ball and is going to get into shooting. This project will let us do this on a grand scale! Some of these new shooters will get into competitive shooting, some will remain only informal recreational shooters, and some will gravitate to the more serious side of guns and shooting, such as getting a CHL, carrying a gun, and getting advanced training. Regardless of the route they ultimately take, they will be a shooter and "one of us."

If anyone wants to email me about this project and/or meeting, you can give them Charles@TexasShooting.com

With your help, this project will be successful and we will provide a great resource for current shooters to use in inviting non-shooting gun owners to get active in the shooting sports, whether formally or informally. This increase in sport shooting activity will benefit us all by helping to build a larger, stronger and more active political base, as well as strengthening the shooting industry.

There will be different slogans used for this effort as time goes on, but the initial "campaign slogan" is Sport shooting is fun -- Give it a shot! (This pun is intended. )

Get involved and let's work together to grow all of the shooting sports!
Chas.

PS: I'm going to post this in a different thread, since many of our members may not read it since it's directed to match directors and staff.

AggieMM wrote:Charles, if you're using the AT&T conference bridge, you should be able to "record" the meeting, and thus the folks that miss it can listen to the replay. We do it all the time at work.

Ryan

Now that's a great idea.

Chas.

I have everything on my end completed so I need to schedule a meeting sometime in January. We need to get as many people involved as possible and not just those in the Houston area. It's not practical for people to drive or fly in from all over the state, so the meeting needs to be a combination of in-person and teleconference or some Internet based medium.

The website related to this project has been completed, so it will be available for people to see while we are discussing the program. I have the information for an AT&T conference call and that may be the way we go. I'm going to look into GoToMeeting.com and anything else that may work.

The meeting will have to be on a weekend, so undoubtedly it will conflict with some match, but that can't be helped. Another possibility is to schedule two or more meetings, but I don't want to do that unless it's really necessary.

I'll post some potential dates soon, but I wanted to give everyone an update.

Chas.

Thanks folks, I have about 8 PMs already. Please pass this along to match directors and staff that aren't members of TexasCHLforum.com. If they don't want to join to send me a PM, then ask them to email me at Charles@TexasShooting.com.
I'll be contacting everyone I can from the IDPA club list and I'm going to ask one of the PSC Board members to tell all of the USPSA MDs about it as well.

Although I keep referring to match directors and staff, I want to invite anyone who has an organized shooting event to join in the discussion. CompVest's ladies-only programs are a good example of non-match events, but informal events like small group practice sessions would also qualify. Again, there is no cost to anyone and if the response is good, it should have a significant impact on the shooting sports (formal and informal) in Texas.

Thanks again,
Chas.

Increasing the number of people participating in various shooting sports is a critical element in preserving the Second Amendment. It's great to have more gun owners, but gun owners who shoot are even more valuable to the cause.

If you are a match director or on the match staff (or considering becoming one) for any shooting sport, whether rifle, shotgun or pistol, please send me a PM with your contact information. I have been working on a project to help increase the numbers of competitive/sport shooters and I want to make it available to everyone without a cost.

I am going to host a meeting in the Houston area for people who are close enough to attend, but this project will be for shooters throughout Texas. I'm exploring a conference call, or a Go-To-Meeting (Internet) meeting, either as part of this initial meeting, or as a follow-up meeting, but I'm not sure how well that will work. I'm also going to set up a private planning/discussion sub-forum here on TexasCHLforum.com and it will be available to match directors and the staff. The planned kick-off for this project is January, 2009.

Chas.