It is with a heavy heart that I must make the following announcement, one I never anticipated having to make here in Florida.
The event scheduled for June 18,19 at Rocky Creek Ranch in Myakka City has been cancelled due to ZERO pre-registrations. I cannot in good conscience ask my instructors to take time away from their families on Fathers Day, if nobody has signed up for the event, on the off-chance that we will have walk-on shooters.
Folks, it is imperative that we step-up our promotions activities. While I have not yet crunched the numbers for the first half of this year, my gut tells me that we are WAY off track. Attendance has been steadily declining, except for at a few key venues, and I am 100% positive that promotions is the answer.
We need to redouble our efforts to get the word out, and drag people to the line. They'll thank you for it later!
-ItsanSKS
That's rough. I've had a 0 attendee shoot and I remember how fired up I was after that!
The life blood of Project Appleseed rests solely with our ability to promote our shoots and this is a problem we are seeing nationwide right now. A lot of folks are not stepping up and 7th stepping. Some haven't handed out a flier in a very long time. Heck I've run into folks who don't even know who to ask to get fliers!
First let me ask is there anything National Promotions can do to help?
Second I would like to encourage your folks to really consider getting plugged in with promotions. We need more people who are willing to step up and help us take our promotional efforts to a new level. You can talk to your state coordinator or heck, come help us out at the national level! We need each and every one of you!
Remember why Paul Revere and his network were so successful. They built up relationships with local organizations and with the existing local governments in each town. This obviously took a lot of effort and paid off in spades on April 19th, 1775. Just like Paul Revere we need to be pursuing organizations, talking to people and just building relationships. If everyone commits themselves to this cause and dedicates just a little bit of time we will revitalize and awaken our nation VERY quickly.
ItsanSKS, I feel your pain. I really do. Let's see what we can do to keep this from happening in the future. We're all here to help! Just let me know what if anything we can do at the national level.
In the need to double every year we are scheduling shoots on more unfavorable days. i think we can overcome it in the future by learning lessons now when we encounter them first and making good evaluation and analysis of what went wrong.
Do you think this event would have sparked interest if it had been a one day? (Was it I one day? I have no idea) I ask because Cloverdale had a one day Mini Appleseed on the day before Mother's Day and it went off like dynamite. In fact it set a record there and several of the shooters commented that it was a mother's day gift to themselves.
Can groups be approached to use this as a Father's Day gift ( I am thinking it would be appealing to a father/son outing fellow)? Scouts, 4-H
Should you wait until tomorrow after the preregs are updated? Just a thought...
Greg
I was on rimfirecentral.com in the Appleseed section and there was a guy planning on attending the RCR event and who was asking about how much ammo to bring. Don't know if he pre-registered or not; sounds like he might not have. One shooter though?! Sucky. :(
Talk about your wake up call... I just passed out more flyers and AQTs to see if we can get a little more interest out of the church folk.
Quote from: SPQR on June 14, 2011, 12:10:32 PM
In the need to double every year we are scheduling shoots on more unfavorable days. i think we can overcome it in the future by learning lessons now when we encounter them first and making good evaluation and analysis of what went wrong.
Do you think this event would have sparked interest if it had been a one day? (Was it I one day? I have no idea) I ask because Cloverdale had a one day Mini Appleseed on the day before Mother's Day and it went off like dynamite. In fact it set a record there and several of the shooters commented that it was a mother's day gift to themselves.
Can groups be approached to use this as a Father's Day gift ( I am thinking it would be appealing to a father/son outing fellow)? Scouts, 4-H
Your milage may very.....we have never had a problem filling the line with shooters out here on Father's Day, and yes we promo it as "Give your Dad the gift of Appleseed!". It has been difficult at times to get enough instructors/IIT's for the event. Having a binder with future events listed and a sign up for Instructors/IIT's ahead of time is a worthy plan.
Jules
There seems to be an odd slinky effect,and it hit all areas in one way or another.
Last year here, working these events at this location, We had an instructor shortage this year we have an attendee, shortage! :'(
This is quite a blow, yet again, not an event cancellation, but low turn out. My short commings about seventh stepping this, venue, is that I live two hours south, and have little success even draggin a buddy with me outta town. And local BOTG and promotion, are nominal, and the range is isolated.
By the way,I ended up sick out both ends and, would not have been able to work this event. Just a side note maybe a blessing in disguise.
I am taking some fliers up to the Pawn shop, and the local, VFW post, today.
Quote from: Jules
Your mileage may very.....we have never had a problem filling the line with shooters out here on Father's Day, and yes we promo it as "Give your Dad the gift of Appleseed!". It has been difficult at times to get enough instructors/IIT's for the event. Having a binder with future events listed and a sign up for Instructors/IIT's ahead of time is a worthy plan.
Jules
Did you have it on the Saturday before, or on Father's Day itself? The lovely Mrs. NHale would probably vote Saturday Appleseed and Sunday at home with the rest of the family. (Just my opinion, of course.)
I think Florida has done single day events at HSC in the past. I'd be curious to see what the attendance was for those and how the Instructors felt about the usefulness of it...
NH
Quote from: NHale on June 21, 2011, 10:42:15 AM
Did you have it on the Saturday before, or on Father's Day itself? The lovely Mrs. NHale would probably vote Saturday Appleseed and Sunday at home with the rest of the family. (Just my opinion, of course.)
I think Florida has done single day events at HSC in the past. I'd be curious to see what the attendance was for those and how the Instructors felt about the usefulness of it...
NH
For two consecutive years we have held it on Father's Day weekend, with huge results. Given the choice of A: Get a new bar b que for Father's Day, and be the one to cook your own dinner on Father's Day, or B: Go to the Range for Father's Day and have a blast. I say B is much better than a schmaltzy Hallmark card. At least that is how I felt when I got to go shoot on Mother's Day! ( and have done so for 3 years in a row ) Maybe it's just ME, but the numbers say otherwise. We really love the Dads that come out, and their families that bring them out to an Appleseed on Father's Day weekend.