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North Carolina Instructor Meeting

Started by Stimey, January 26, 2010, 01:31:30 AM

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Stimey

Ok, I am getting much positive feedback on the subject of an instructor meeting in February.  So let's start planning one.

We currently have no shoots scheduled for the following weekends:

Jan. 30-31  (that's this weekend, mighty short notice but an option)
Feb. 6-7
Feb. 13-14

I will commit to any of the above dates, as I have all three weekends open.  Location will be somewhere in the central part of the state, like Raleigh to Greensboro to Ramseur.  Bulkhead has brought up the idea of combining the meeting with a partial day at the warehouse packing shoot boxes, and I believe this is a damn good idea, and one that we should try out.  After all, there are forty or so of you receiving this message.  If only half of the attendees and all of the instructors show up for a couple of hours' work, that would be over fifty man-hours of work, and that would help out the National Program immensely.  I am open to suggestions and will try to find a date and location that will satisfy the largest number of attendee schedules. 

Here is my own suggestion:  The simplest thing would be to meet at the warehouse by mid-morning, pack boxes until lunchtime or a bit after, have lunch together in Siler City so we can all meet, then proceed to the range for a serious planning session.  Think of it as a town hall meeting for Appleseed in North Carolina.  Primarily, the topics of discussion will center on promotions and future shoot plans.  Also, there is a wealth of distributable literature at the range clubhouse, so anyone who is filling our need in passing out our flyers will have the opportunity to get all they need.  I will be there to answer any questions, field any gripes, and explain our plans for this year.

Please reply to this message with your availability preferences and whether you will attend.

Stimey

PS  Just like any other Appleseed event, you are encouraged to bring at least one other person with you.  While it wouldn't be as fun as a shoot, we may still be able to influence people as to the worthiness of our purposes and the meaning behind our Nation's founding.
"Give me an army of West Point graduates, I'll win a battle.  Give me a handful of Texas Aggies and I'll win a war!"  Gen. George S. Patton, Jr.

steves4570

Just sent bulkhead a pm for Feb 6th. This will work for me Steve :~

Stimey

#2
Ok, here's the latest:

Looks like the morning of the 6th of February is the best time to plan on meeting.  I have the following verbal commitments:

Fred
7.62BBQ
Hawkeye
Law Man
The Kid
Karl2500
steves4570
txpirate
P Shooter
HEAVY-CAV
bulkhead
Bonden
Redwolf
and me, of course
As well as our new Regional Coordinator, VAshooter, and as many of his boys and he can round up!

I am sorry to miss the others among you who responded, but could not make this day available.  We will miss your participation, but there will be a full AAR of the meeting, so all can be privy to the results.

For everybody else, please get in touch with me ASAP.  Coming or not, I'd sure like to hear one way or the other from everybody.
"Give me an army of West Point graduates, I'll win a battle.  Give me a handful of Texas Aggies and I'll win a war!"  Gen. George S. Patton, Jr.

Stimey

Per Fred:

  I believe that is the weekend of the Greensboro Gun Show.

    I'm wondering if we could meet there (RWVA will have a table) and do some initial planning, some coordination, and even recruiting of passerbys - we'd prob look pretty spiffy if we all had our Appleseed Instructor Gear on - red sweats, etc.

     And give everyone an hour or two to cruise the show - an additional incentive to show up.

     From there maybe to BH's warehouse to pack some boxes.

     Then maybe for a late lunch to Siler/Ramseur - or even the official RWVA spa, the Golden Corral in Asheboro, followed by a trip to the range for some shooting (say, about an hour - another incentive for people to come) and some cogitating/planning in the clubhouse the rest of the day. (Sunday could be a "ditto" - or a strictly "work" day.)


In my opinion, this MUST be incorporated into our plans.  Not only will it increase our visibility, it will help us fill our shoot in Yanceyville with more patriotic Americans, and Ramseur as well.  And who wants to turn down some range time?  I sure don't.

Let's have some more ideas like this!
"Give me an army of West Point graduates, I'll win a battle.  Give me a handful of Texas Aggies and I'll win a war!"  Gen. George S. Patton, Jr.

steves4570

This will be good, but Bulkhead needs help with the boxes. So if others would would the gun show, I'll help at the warehouse. Because if I go to the gun show I'll spend to much money :'(. Let me know, I can due both. Steve :~

Stimey

I didn't know this until tonight, but I now understand that bulkhead has moved all of the literature material to another warehouse, not in Siler City, but near Greensboro in Kernersville.  Also, the warehouse has enough floor space for us to conduct the meeting, and it is less than a half hour's drive to the Greensboro gun show.  Therefore, there is no requirement to go to Ramseur (except for some range time) or Siler City.  Time may become an issue, so here are another couple of options I want for all to consider and comment upon:

First, it could be possible to split our forces for the morning of the sixth, as steves4570 suggests, with one crew going to the warehouse and another to press the flesh at the gun show.  There will be enough of us to do both, certainly.  My question with this option is this.  Do we want to maintain a presence at this show for the entire weekend?  My initial inclination is to say yes, but that stands at cross-purposes to the meeting, because someone would have to miss the meeting to go to the show, which defeats the original purpose.  At the same time, we really need to boost attendance at Yanceyville in particular, and along the show circuit in general.  Therefore, I could live with losing a few guys at the meeting and filling them in later.

Second, I know some of you can come up for Saturday but not Sunday.  That's why I've been working on cramming everything in to one day.  However, that's more of a guideline than a rule.  We can still work the show on Sunday, although I would suggest a short day, due to the travel time of some of the attendees (myself and my 5 hour commute included) and the fact that we are talking about Super Bowl Sunday, and most gun guys will morph into football guys by early afternoon.  We can also pack boxes on Sunday.  And, we can also go to Ramseur and shoot on Sunday after noon.

Third, I also expect a bit of variability among us as to the times we can arrive and leave and whether we can do one or two days.  That's not a problem.  In fact, it might lend us some versatility.  As long as the vast majority of us can meet and discuss our upcoming Appleseed season, I'm fine with whatever. 

Give this stuff some thought and let me know how y'all want to proceed.

Stimey

"Give me an army of West Point graduates, I'll win a battle.  Give me a handful of Texas Aggies and I'll win a war!"  Gen. George S. Patton, Jr.

MCKNBRD

Would love to show, but I'm scheduled to work at Gander Saturday, and I haven't got my schedule for next week yet, so I don't know about Sunday.  I have an M1 Carbine I REALLY need to sell, so I'd love to go to the show this weekend, but it ain't looking good.

If ya'll have time, swing by Gander and say hello...

Byrdman
Its better to sweat in peace than bleed in war.

Guns and Ammo...between them, they get all the money my wife lets me have!

Stimey

#7
OK, folks, it's time for the rundown on Virtual Muster night, which occurred last night from 8-10 pm.  Here's the list of attendees:

Red Hats:  Fred, Stimey, txpirate, hawkeye, Law Man
IIT's:  MCKNBRD, Bonden, Karl2500, steves4570, M1NC, neilr, FourIze, Iron Pony
Forum members:  checksix, Carolina Gal, Wylde Bill, Tareece, Hawk_308, 1shot, paintballdude902

1.  We have 10 Red Hats.  Five showed up, and several others would have if not for work/school commitments.  Good showing.

2.  Of our 11 IIT's, 8 checked on the forum.  Outstanding!

3.  As a result of this muster, I was able to make contact with seven new members, five of them for the first time.  I was also very pleased to learn that one's recent absence from the forum was due to his state senatorial campaign!  For all of you in NC Senate District 7, which includes Franklin County, Granville County, Vance County, and Warren County, please be aware that there is an Appleseeder on the ballot, and his name is Glen Bradley.  He wants us to know that he wrote the NC version of the Firearms Freedom Act, and won it sponsorship in the House from Rep David Lewis.  For all of you in this district, I would like to challenge you to inspect Mr. Bradley's record.  As State Coordinator for Appleseed, I am barred from granting endorsements to any political party or candidate.  However, I can say that I personally am envious of those of you who will have the privilege, as well as the civic responsibility, of voting in the NC Senate District 7 election this year.

The rest of the night was spent hashing out the plans for this Saturday's Instructor meeting.  Currently, I have the following verbal commitments to attend:  Fred, 7.62BBQ, Stimey, txpirate, hawkeye, Law Man, The Kid, len1459, P shooter, Red Wolf, Karl2500, steves4570, HEAVY-CAV, bulkhead, Bonden, FourIze, Tareece, and our Regional Coordinator, VAshooter.  Due to the expected immoderate weather, however, I will not be offended in any way by those who can't make it.  For the purposes of this update, I will proceed as if everyone still plans to show up.  

During the morning on Saturday, we will split our numbers to accomplish two tasks.  The first group will meet at the Burger King near the GSO Coliseum in Greensboro to man a table at the gun show that will be held there this weekend.  The Burger King is just off the High Point Road exit from I-40, and all volunteers for the show should arrive betwee 8:00am and 8:30am.  This group will promote the Appleseed Program in general and the February shoots at Yanceyville and Ramseur in particular.  Appleseed attire is strongly encouraged, whether it be T-shirts, hoodies, polos, caps, whatever.  This group will stay at the show until lunchtime, when it will depart the show for an as yet to be determined lunch site.  So far, the first group will include Fred, Bonden, FourIze, and Tareece.  Just added hawkeye, Law man, and The Kid.

The second group will muster up at a warehouse in Kernersville to pack shoot boxes for our nationwide April 17-18 shoots.  This group will muster around 8:30am and pack boxes until lunchtime, when they will link up at the lunch site with the first group.  This group will include Stimey, txpirate, bulkhead, and steves4570.  Just added P shooter and len1459.

The lunch will be a time of meeting each other, debriefing about the show, etc.  After the lunch is concluded, we will all proceed to the warehouse for the meeting.  Everybody needs to bring a chair or two; the warehouse has plenty of floor space, but no furniture.  We will cover such topics as our future expansion plans, IIT development and promotion, event promotion, and whatever else needs addressing.  We will also have promotional literature available for distribution.  Expect this meeting to last for a couple of hours.

Now, the last item to consider is staffing the show.  Right now, I only have plans to staff the show on Saturday morning, but I am open to suggestions as to how we could staff it all weekend.  We could run it in shifts on Saturday afternoon by splitting off during the meeting, but that would not be my first option.  Likewise, we could staff it on Sunday if people were willing to do that, just as we could send a crew to the warehouse to pack more boxes on Sunday.  I'd like some suggestions on this.

That's the big plan so far.  One last item.  My NC Master Member's List now has 48 names on it.  Fellow North Carolinians, we have got some things to be proud of!  Everybody give me a shout back on your availability this weekend if you haven't yet (or if plans have changed), and whether you want to work the show or the warehouse.  Also, I am taking any requests on discussion topics for the meeting.

See you all Saturday!

"Give me an army of West Point graduates, I'll win a battle.  Give me a handful of Texas Aggies and I'll win a war!"  Gen. George S. Patton, Jr.

The Kid

Hey,

Hopefully I will be able to make this one.  I am going to be dropping off my Chinese exchange student around 10 ish but I am going to see if I can arrange getting out of that.  Do you know if anyone will be leaving a little later, specifically Kevin and Matt.

thanks,

Keaton
"I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom." Lincoln

Fred


   Keaton - the "Chinese guy" is welcome to come, too... O0
"Ready to eat dirt and sweat bore solvent?" - Ask me how to become an RWVA volunteer!

      "...but he that stands it now, deserves the thanks of man and woman alike..."   Paine

     "If you can read this without a silly British accent, thank a Revolutionary War veteran" - Anon.

     "We have it in our power to begin the world over again" - Thomas Paine

     What about it, do-nothings? You heard the man, jump on in...

The Kid

He is really interested in the program.  He loves American culture and heritage, specifically the amount of freedom we have. He is leaving that morning but he is coming back later this year and hopefully there will be an Appleseed while he is here!
"I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom." Lincoln

iron pony

Count me in for box packing on Saturday AM.  I can only stay still noon though..  If ok, I will be bringing my future appleseeder with me .. 
"Man who say it cannot be done should not interrupt man doing it" (Chinese Proverb)

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." (Edmund Burke)

Stimey

That'll be fine, and looking forward to seeing you.  Call if you need anything.
"Give me an army of West Point graduates, I'll win a battle.  Give me a handful of Texas Aggies and I'll win a war!"  Gen. George S. Patton, Jr.

resonant1

Mike,
  Please contact me at insightbuilders@gmail.com about scheduling an Appleseed shoot in Wilmington, NC.
John Evans