Greetings,
One way to find a lot of adventurous homeschoolers all together is to look for "homeschool days" events at living history museums and such places. I've just posted a request to start working on a homeschool shoot near Williamsburg next fall: http://appleseedinfo.org/smf/index.php?topic=42337.0
Can anyone here think of other major events like this that we could consider targeting? There are tons of homeschool days near where I am, but most are not really destination events. People would just pop over for the day, and not make a longer trip of it, where they might be able to consider fitting in an Appleseed. There may still be connections we can make with such events. But do you know of other major destination events like Williamsburg? More importantly, do you think it would make sense to think about putting together some shoots near them?
If so, please let me know!
Not quite the same as what you're driving towards, but...
I had a guy stop me while at the homeschool convention this year - as it turns out, I was wearing an Appleseed shirt. He asked if we had a booth and I thought, "Huh, now there's an idea!"
Given everything else I saw there, I think we would fit in quite nicely there. Need to put this on The Wolfhound's radar.
Sorry I missed this (by several months!). I don't know if this plays into what you're talking about, but we go to the Alamo every year (we're 3 hours away) and stay for a few days to also visit the Riverwalk and surrounding area. ;D Do you think that would be a destination? I know the Alamo isn't Rev. War history, but it is American history and we could easily tie in the Revolutionary War (compare/contrast the reasons for fighting, weapons used, tactics, etc.). IDK, just a thought. :)
Definitely a "destination." Is there a time when it gets a greater-than-usual influx of visitors, where it might conceivably make sense to go to extra lengths to try to set up an event targeting those visitors? I know Texas does shoots in Fredricksburg, which isn't that far from San Antonio, so maybe they could make something happen?
Boothes at Homeschool conventions are expensive.
I have ran a booth twice at CHAP (Christian Homeschooling Assn. of Pennsylvania) and talked to a ton of people for very little return on the lines. Most are supportive a few combative and one woman most offended that we "work" on Sunday.
Your milage may vary. Doing 2 full days is a lot of work. If you have any question please ask.
Chuck
Hello Charles,
I'm not actually thinking of booths at conventions, I'm thinking of shoots in the area of major homeschool gatherings, marketed in advance to those traveling to the event so that they can plan to attend the shoot while they're on location.
I think it is a nice idea, but would require a ton of thought and a non-trivial advertising budget (banner ads at various homeschooling websites, etc) in order to put into operation, and might very well never work anyway. Obviously, these folks would be highly unlikely to bring their rifles with them on their trips (and may not have rifles in the first place), so it would all depend on having a large number of loaners available--this can be done, but is difficult. Also, we'd need to have ammo available. Also can be done, also can be difficult these days. Etc. That's kind of why I more or less let the idea drop after floating it. :-(
You know, I'm not sure when/if the Alamo has a higher-than-usual traffic pattern with respect to interested parties (ie: homeshcool families). We tend to do our own thing and go when it's convenient for us - not with a homeschool group, per se.
This is something I'd be very happy to research. Let me do some digging and come back here with some more info.
BTW, I do know that there are tons of school groups going through, esp in the spring, but they're not likely to take the kiddies out to the range. If we're talking homeschool groups, it's far easier to tie in shooting. However, for public school groups perhaps we could tie in a Liberty Seed...?
Again, will do some digging. Sometimes I have a thought after I hit "send" and then look like a doofus throwing up multiple posts. Sorry!
Quote from: Weezer on January 22, 2015, 05:26:13 PM
BTW, I do know that there are tons of school groups going through, esp in the spring, but they're not likely to take the kiddies out to the range. If we're talking homeschool groups, it's far easier to tie in shooting. However, for public school groups perhaps we could tie in a Liberty Seed...?
Again, will do some digging. Sometimes I have a thought after I hit "send" and then look like a doofus throwing up multiple posts. Sorry!
Thanks for posting all this. And speaking of home school groups - I've had some contact in the last week or two with a group out of Temple. You want to do some PR with them? Waco sure is close by to Temple.
Quote from: scuzzy on January 22, 2015, 05:42:05 PM
Thanks for posting all this. And speaking of home school groups - I've had some contact in the last week or two with a group out of Temple. You want to do some PR with them? Waco sure is close by to Temple.
Sure. What do I need to do?
If you have a homeschool group looking for an introduction to what we do, you can arrange for a Libertyseed.
If they're interested in coming to a shoot, I'd say to offer to put on a special shoot for them. There have been several special homeschool shoots around the country, and they're a great way to reach out to people who otherwise might not come to an AS. Please feel free to PM me about this. We ran a couple of homeschool shoots here in NC last year and have another one scheduled for spring. They pose certain challenges, but they're really great. Bullet ran an enormous homeschool shoot, and so did Prone to Knit, if I'm remembering right, and they're great people to contact, too.
I'm a wee bit too far to do anything from here, but if anyone in Maine is interested or knows if this would be a friendly convention, they've still got vendor spots available. :-) The convention organizers sent this via email today.
http://us8.campaign-archive1.com/?u=e1bcaa74745564ef92d2c924a&id=7dddc1c7a4&e=9a297aa828
Years ago we did a direct mail to homeschoolers. I know that it brought a few families to shoots that I ran. I do not know if anyone ever looked at the ROI data.
Homeschoolers are great to teach. They listen. They think. They are responsible. But as a group they are not as homogeneous as one might think. They can range from far left to far right and some think that guns are evil (those don't seem to show up at Appleseeds :-)
Quote from: jmdavis on February 17, 2015, 03:39:05 PM
Homeschoolers are great to teach. They listen. They think. They are responsible. But as a group they are not as homogeneous as one might think. They can range from far left to far right and some think that guns are evil (those don't seem to show up at Appleseeds :-)
You are SO right. I've met my fair share of homeschooling families and we are all vastly different! In fact, we totally offended one family we'd become friendly with when they found out that we (dear husband, the older kids and I) are avid shooters. You'd have thought I told them that we regularly strip naked and run through the neighborhood for fun the way they reacted. (It only came up when my son couldn't attend a birthday party because he'd previously committed to a father-son .22 shoot with his dad. We know better than to start conversations with "So, uh, you like rifles?"). **)
I've put the word out about Appleseed to some of the families in our church. Most are interested, but our biggest problem is that we've got big families and everyone's got a baby and/or toddler (or a few) at home. Babysitting isn't cheap. :( Another issue is that, at least with the families in my church, church attendance comes first. 2-day events are tough for this reason. Lastly, we tend to be loners. We all interact with each other and with other parishes, but we're not typically part of huge homeschooling groups. While I might get one or two interested parties, I don't have a huge group of people in which to cast a wide net.
I've often wondered about trying to advertise LibertySeed to homeschool groups. I'm talking, something like putting an ad for LibertySeed in one of the homeschool magazines. Perhaps through that, people who are interested in the marksmanship part can continue on to an Appleseed event.
Even if you are loosely associated with a homeschool group you can use the email/forum to offer Libertyseeds and announce Appleseed as long as you aren't a pest or spam like about it. I have done a Libertyseed seed for a homeschool group at a church and a Boy Scout troop from using the email list. We did get two families at a shoot from a repost of my post onto another board.
We may not be all a like but we do tend to talk to each other.