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Brainstorm: noshows

Started by Mark Davis, May 23, 2010, 11:51:34 PM

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Mark Davis

Hey Montana apple corps,

This Satuerday, there was a NRA Woman on Target event at the Logan Range. The sky was dark, cold rain falling, and a forcast with high probability of rain all day and a high temp of 39F.

41 women were preregistered.

36 showed up, most of them went about the three events of rifle, pistol, and shotgun from about 10 am (with a hot gormet lunch served inside a heated clubhouse)
untill 3pm.

True to the forcast it did rain on and off all day. Every one was wet and cold. On the rifle range sticky clay made shoes heavy.

Most of those women stayed on the firing line untill the instructors would give them no more ammo.

What will we do about our no shows?


glocker21

I still think there needs to be a signup fee. Whether or not the get it back if they show up remains to be seen/discussed. I think that during crappy weather we do what we have in the past and have bon fire or even have  a warming fire in a barrel.

Question...where the participants laying in the mud? where they under shelter or was there shelter nearby?

I would like some more people to weight in
"Americans, both politicians and voters, may have become corrupted by big government beyond redemption.

A virtuous government requires a virtuous people.

A frugal government requires a selfâˆ'reliant people.

A free country requires people who value liberty more than
money."
Charley Reese

Fred


    For comparison purposes, we need to know how much, if anything, the ladies paid for their 'adventure'.

    And, let's understand: what keeps people from AS, at least some of 'em, is the two-day, all-day aspect of the program.

    Far easier to get off the couch and go downtown for a couple of hours for a teaparty, than spend a weekend out in the weather in uncomfortable positions, learning to shoot.

    Likewise, as glocker says, how did the facilities compare between this event and AS?

    We already know "a gormet meal" was a plus (for the ladies), for this event. I can see it as an encouragment for them to show. Sorta a "putting on the airs" a bit, maybe. At least, a part of the event that would attract them...

     And I sure wish every AS had some comfortable indoor facilities to take some of the sting out of the weather.

     So, let's list the differences, both pro and con, between this event and the typical AS, to see if we can come up with a laundry list of ways to make AS a more pleasant experience for all.
"Ready to eat dirt and sweat bore solvent?" - Ask me how to become an RWVA volunteer!

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

Mark Davis

The women on target event has very strong word of mouth advertising. The waiting list is overflowing before it's time to advertise.
Limited enrolment, once a year event maybe 8 years running so far.
NRA and MWA (the range) pay for everything, Food, ammo, and targets but participants pay $10. for the reason stated in the first post in this thread. This is where the 10 dollar idea came from.
The range is nice, flush toilets, nice kitchen, covered fireing lines.
The day's activities are scheduled
8:00- 9:30am Introduction.
Goodie bags handed out with  printed information, ear plugs, safety glasses, water bottle, sometimes a tshirt.
A safety talk given by skilled concealed carry instructor. The women are divided into three groups and sent to three diffrent ranges. Rifle, pistol, shotgun.
930-10 break and movement to the ranges.
On the rifle range for this cold wet day there was a burn barrel and ample firewood and a roof.
the instructors on the other ranges did not provide fire.  (ole clod aint worried about getting fired)
They shot from a bench with sand bags, they were told about the six steps and fired four groups of five with iron sighted bolt gun provided at 25 y.
Then they were given 10-22 and shot clay birds from standing at 20 yards
Then allowed one shot at colored water filled jugs with 7.62X39 bolt gun at 50y. They really like it when the jugs  cartwheel.
More info on next post

Mark Davis

What really happened on the other ranges is info I lack.
But the pistol range had a roof the shotgun range did not.
The women were rotated around to each range with a talk on gun cleaning starting at 3pm. Clod spoke about briefly about a tougher rifle marksmanship program and handed out appleseed fliers. Thanks Glocker.
The instruction is meant to be an  easy, fun, introduction to the shooting sports.
The menu,
Roast pork lion with raspberry sauce garnish
Diced baked potatoes with herb seasoning
Garden salad
Bread sticks
Chocolate cake
Dang that was good!

glocker21

#5
Dang...I want to go to that. I do not tknow if we have the infrastructure to put on such fare but in time we should have more people. What I would like to do is to have a support group that can help make our events have more turn from pre-registration.

What needs to be understood is that in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho we have small population and very long distances to travel. For example, for me to get to Billings it is a 3 hour+/- drive. When we have Boulder or Three Forks shoots wwe have shooters from as far away as Kalispell. Kalispell is about 4+/- hours away.

So, for people to sign up and then not show may be as something simple as "I really do not want to drive that far after all". With people that pre-paid that can be a problem. BUT, when it comes to instructor scheduling and there are women and children (no pay) involved who are no cal no show it becomes more of a problem.

In my opinion there needs to be some sort of penalty in regards to woman/children no call no shows. It is very nice that we allow free of charge shoots for women and children (great marketing tool) but it can be abused. IF we put some sort of a small returnable no call no show penalty that may decrease the no call no show incidents

Glocker21
"Americans, both politicians and voters, may have become corrupted by big government beyond redemption.

A virtuous government requires a virtuous people.

A frugal government requires a selfâˆ'reliant people.

A free country requires people who value liberty more than
money."
Charley Reese

mtmisfit

The pistol line had overhead cover but no shelter from the wind. It rained and snowed, a wet heavy snow with large flakes, all day. We did not have a fire at the pistol line.

Some of the women came to the line shiverring from the cold but were not leaving without trying out each of the handguns. They spent 1.5 hours at each station(rifle, pistol, shotgun), going through 2 stations before lunch and being indoors. After lunch they went to their last station and then cycled back through for an additional 30 minutes in each area.

To my knowledge only 1 lady left early because of the weather.

The lunch was excellent, but the ladies were just as interested in shooting as they were in lunch.

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Mark Davis

The refund idea sounds good, but signing vouchers sending them in, someone to process them, checks, and postage make the plan heavy.
I say let them pay ten bucks make it simple.
I do not think we can do anything like Logan range's women on target program but wanted get us thinking about giving our attendees enough value to get them to cinvince their freinds to show up.
The value is in the appleseed program, ole clod and all the other montana instructors need to deliver better history, and benediction.