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2010 WV AS General Planning Area

Started by The Machine, October 22, 2009, 01:49:31 AM

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The Machine

Hi Ratchett, and thanks for stopping by!  :)  I thought I heard a rumor from one of our Athen's IBC attendees that you were really a West Virginian pretending to be an Ohioan.  @@)  ;D

You know, I've personally made listings of our shoots in some of the larger state community calendars, and never got a single response from them. We'll have to check into the TV station calendar as you suggest; I don't discount any possible promo effort. At some point in the near future, we are actually going to be on one of the largest TV stations in WV. One of our instructors is working on that now. Hopefully, that will put a big crack in this very hard-shelled WV "nut".

After trying several of the promo methods which seem to work well in other states, the most effective method which has created turnouts here is word of mouth. I always ask attendees where they heard about the program from, and the vast majority say someone told them about it, usually a volunteer in the program. A handful read about it in SGN; never has a person told me they saw it in a community calendar, emailing, radio announcement, paper, flyer, etc. We did have a couple last year attend our Patriot's Day shoot from AS Newspapers that "SuzyQ" handed out at the Charleston Tea Party. It seems like the personal, face-to-face method is working the best for us here; if I can just get more people doing it on a large scale.

A few of our instructors are very close to WVU, so perhaps they can look into the situation up there. I don't think it would be very hard to get on the college radio station they have up there. I'm not sure if Marshall has a station, never heard of one.

You guys/gals are doing a great job in OH, and we welcome any "overflow" from your sold out shoots here in WV.  ;)  I appreciate these suggestions, and please stop in to share any thoughts, anytime.  O0
"I proudly support limited government and unlimited common sense"

"One of the great advantages of the American Revolution has been, that it led to a discovery of the principles, and laid open the imposition, of governments." - Thomas Paine 1792

"It does not take many words to speak the truth"

siglite

Ok.  I've gone and done it.  I've made contact with the WVANG. 
--

Keith Morgan
President, West Virginia Citizen's Defense League
http://www.wvcdl.org
http://forums.wvcdl.org
Proud member of West Virginia's first "All Rifleman" family.

vanrichten

Nice siglite!  That is great news.  The stuff from Ft. Stewart and White Sands should be a great help with that  :)
An armed and informed law-abiding citizenry is the best defense against an unjust government and the criminal element created by irresponsible societal benevolence and activist judges. - Lt. Col. Allen West

siglite

Quote from: vanrichten on May 05, 2010, 04:15:01 PM
Nice siglite!  That is great news.  The stuff from Ft. Stewart and White Sands should be a great help with that  :)

I included links to both with the email they requested.
--

Keith Morgan
President, West Virginia Citizen's Defense League
http://www.wvcdl.org
http://forums.wvcdl.org
Proud member of West Virginia's first "All Rifleman" family.

The Machine

Great job siglite!  O0  I'm glad you took advantage of those promo resources at our disposal. Now we'll wait to see if it bears fruit.
"I proudly support limited government and unlimited common sense"

"One of the great advantages of the American Revolution has been, that it led to a discovery of the principles, and laid open the imposition, of governments." - Thomas Paine 1792

"It does not take many words to speak the truth"

Chrome

As far as the range in Fairmont goes, they seem fairly uninterested in gaining a dues paying member.  I can't even get them to arrange for me to see the range, or give me an answer as to what dues are, or even return an e-mail.  In the three or four emails I've sent them, I've gotten one reply, and it took about two weeks to get.  I'd say getting an event there would be a long uphill battle.

I'll keep scoping out for some place local.  I ran into a nice fella at Pedlar last week, he was VERY interested in AS and even already had a practice AQT he ordered straight from Fred!  I also gave out three more SWAT flier packets after others heard me talking about it with him.

Later,
Chrome...
Montani Semper Liberi

The Machine

2011 is about 6 months away, but plans and preparations must begin now, if we are to expand into every county by the end of 2012. In case anyone missed it; that's the goal I established for WV the beginning of last year. We won't reach that goal through static thinking or inactivity, however. Those of you who have been in the WV AS program for awhile should be able to see where I'm heading with this.  :cool2:

It boils down to the usual "suspects"...

1. Growing the instructor ranks.
2. Adding additional locations.
3. Exploiting promotional opportunities.

Each of these items works in concert with the other. A break in any of the links drags the entire program to a slower pace.

The 2 biggest deficiencies that I can identify are; 1) weak promotions and 2) lack of upward mobility among some instructors, along with minimal recruiting of new instructors.

Weak promotions leads to weak attendance. Weak attendance leads to weak instructor recruiting. You get the point...

While we now have 3 Red Hat instructors, with a 4th coming up soon, there are a few who are stalled at the IIT/IIT1 level. We haven't picked up any additional instructors at our last 2 shoots either. I would encourage everyone at the IIT/IIT1 level to step up the pace and get your PCs submitted ASAP.

As for promotions; it's been identified from experience what has worked best in WV, and I suggest reading the posts in this and other threads to get a feel for it. The problem is not so much knowing WHAT to do, rather, the problem is primarily not DOING it. Nuff said about this topic. I can't embellish it more than I have in the past, and quite honestly, I get tired of repeating myself--as I'm sure others are tired of hearing it--so I'll leave it alone.  :wb:

If anyone has suggestions on how to make the 2012 goal work, and what we can get scheduled for 2011 in that direction, I'm "all ears".  :)

"I proudly support limited government and unlimited common sense"

"One of the great advantages of the American Revolution has been, that it led to a discovery of the principles, and laid open the imposition, of governments." - Thomas Paine 1792

"It does not take many words to speak the truth"

agony

Machine et al,
I'm one of the guilty new IIT's who has yet to come back to start the training process.  And unfortunately, I won't be able to do anything until after August....too much on my plate.  Hopefully by fall, I can get into gear.

The Machine

#38
We're gonna try to help you out brother...fixin' to get another Beckley shoot on the schedule after Aug.  :)

http://appleseedinfo.org/smf/index.php?topic=12970.msg122193#msg122193
"I proudly support limited government and unlimited common sense"

"One of the great advantages of the American Revolution has been, that it led to a discovery of the principles, and laid open the imposition, of governments." - Thomas Paine 1792

"It does not take many words to speak the truth"

The Machine

If anyone hasn't visited the WV "job board" lately, could you please give it a look to see if there's something you might be able to help with...lots of positions available too. http://appleseedinfo.org/smf/index.php?topic=5594.0

For those with WL-1 or higher access, number '8' on the list needs completion ASAP. Thanks!
"I proudly support limited government and unlimited common sense"

"One of the great advantages of the American Revolution has been, that it led to a discovery of the principles, and laid open the imposition, of governments." - Thomas Paine 1792

"It does not take many words to speak the truth"

The Machine

Folks, please read/reread the last 4 posts, as we are rolling quickly into 2011 and don't have anything scheduled yet. If you are involved with one of the existing host ranges where we currently hold ASs, please work on getting some more shoots on the schedule for the rest of 2010, and preferably all of 2011. If anyone has ideas for new locations, now's the time for us to get pushing on finalizing these locations.

This is the year of "Winterseeds", so all states are tasked to list some events on the schedule for the months of Jan and Feb, which historically have been "dead zones" on our schedule thus far. Now realistically, Beckley and other places with harsh winter weather and bad access, probably won't be feasible at this time. Locations near roads that actually get maintained in the winter would be a more realistic goal. I'm thinking PCGC would be a good candidate right now; based on the wonderful results we're having there so far and it's accessibility.

Pre-planning and listing dates on the schedule now is necessary for our instructors to arrange their schedules, and for promotion efforts to move forward effectively. New national flyers and such will be produced, and we want our locations and dates to be added on that list.

I'm also still searching for someone to step-up into the Promotions Coordinator position. This is a very, very, important job which has been sitting unfilled for too long. Please look over the job list on our WV board again and let me know if there's something you can lend a hand with.

Thanks in advance for your help.  :)
"I proudly support limited government and unlimited common sense"

"One of the great advantages of the American Revolution has been, that it led to a discovery of the principles, and laid open the imposition, of governments." - Thomas Paine 1792

"It does not take many words to speak the truth"