The 7th Step [long]

[Keystone]

I just got back from volunteering my time at the Deer Sight event at Racine. Today I worked the 100yd line -- my fellow workers and I helped over 800 shooters get properly sighted in -- lots of inches, minutes and clicks instruction so these shooters will be able to figure out their own scope adjustments. Over this and last weekend over 2,200 shooters were served.

Quite a few brought their kids/girlfriends/wives to try shooting for, in many cases, the first time. I specialized in these -- a calm, confident voice explaining the basics of the six steps takes a lot of the anxiety out of "will it hurt?" and trying to learn from someone you care about (a distraction in many cases). The neat thing about most of these hunters is that when I asked if they have a 22 rifle 75% said they did. I told them to look up Appleseed and see if they could get to one to learn more about the six steps and the importance that the citizen rifleman have in the birth of our country. I explained that their wives/kids/girlfriends would shoot free and even being experienced shooters they'd improve in accuracy.

I'd brought 50 fliers for the Racine shoot next weekend with me, deploying them at the shooting locations, registration, raffle, etc. Had I known there would be such a huge volume of people I'd have brought more, because they were all taken -- DESPITE THE FACT THAT THESE GUYS WILL ALL BE IN THE WOODS.

I think this is a HUGE opportunity for Appleseed. We can't run a shoot in WI this weekend because of deer season. Most of the people I was talking to aren't going to come to the one next week, but they would come to one in the spring or summer IF THEY REMEMBER.

When it comes to bailing water, this is like trying to bail Lake Michigan -- we need help. I was firstly working as a club volunteer and secondly as an Appleseeder. Someone who was focused on talking to people about the program would have the same positive response I did but could get to so many more people. These are guys who would love to be a little more accurate with the deer rifle, and would love to get their wife and kids interested in shooting (so they can buy more guns ). Win-win.

How would you like a sympathetic audience of 2,200 shooters when you practice the 7th step? And that's just one club -- I bet Bristol, Lodi, LaCrosse and the other clubs all have similar events with similar turnouts. There are over 800,000 licensed deer rifle hunters in Wisconsin. How many of them have heard of Appleseed? If only one in a hundred hears our message and comes to an event, or comes with their son or daughter, or wife and kid, you have 8,000, 16,000, or 24,000 new shooters. Similar success rates on the shooters from this one club this weekend would have 22, 44, or 66 new Appleseeders at either Racine or Bristol, and I think we can do a better job than one in a hundred if we can engage and retain their interest.

What do we need to do?

1. Continue to build relationships with clubs -- the Racine club has a positive opinion of the project but doesn't know a whole lot about it. A couple of the other members I spoke to said they'd been to one, and one member (Rich) is the liaison we work with (and my sponsor into the organization), but beyond "oh, Rich does Appleseed stuff" a lot of the club leadership doesn't know much about the program or its benefits.

2. A strong relationship would allow us to volunteer to help out at their deer sight events (which is an all-hand-on-deck event for the club due to the draw) in exchange we could probably have a staffed table in the reg tent to engage people. I helped people become better shooters this weekend -- you need to shoot consistently before you start adjusting scopes. In the mean time one or two people rotate off the volunteer detail to work the booth and engage shooters.

3. Develop a method for helping people remember Appleseed over a long winter. I doubt these hunters will be at next weekend's 'seeds. They won't bring their families out to a January Winterseed. They'll come in June if they remember, so let's put some forms together that will allow them to enter an email address for a reminder email, one that will come in March with the year's schedule, and one followup in June -- and no further emails.

4. In Q4 schedule as many events as possible for the following year -- focusing on Q2. If we can tell them "You'll be busy next weekend, but we have a shoot here on May ___. You can put your email down here and we'll send you two and only reminders come spring" they'll be more likely to do so than "We'll be doing some shoots sometime next year, if you want information sign up for yet another mailing list and we'll email you three times before every event for the rest of your life."

5. Create some incentive for attendees to take the 7th step -- previous attendees who bring someone else along with them get Saturday free. They still pay to shoot Sunday. Not really an incentive for military as there's no cost, but a hunter who attends one to check it out and brings his wife to the next one would only pay for Sunday -- basically half price. I don't know whether this is a common thought process or not, but as a shooter I couldn't see myself paying for more than one or two Saturdays a year -- there's twice as much shooting, drills, and feedback opportunity on Sunday. If "Joe Shooter" could bring someone to a Saturday and shoot both days for the price of the Sunday they were going to pay for anyway that would probably change a few people's minds.

Perhaps some of this has been discussed and discarded, or I'm being unrealistic, but as I sit here, tired and sore from 13 hours on the line, I'm excited enough about it to write this instead of going to sleep.

Cheers,
Tom

[JustJeff]

 
Looks like you are on the ball!!!! And have some pretty good ideas to boot.

[dragonfly]

Hello Keystone, one thing to remember in Appleseed is that persistence pays off. Even though those shooters will be hunting next weekend, Appleseed is now on their mind. It some times takes several contacts to get them to their first.
Interesting thread here; http://appleseedinfo.org/smf/index.php?topic=17338.0
Good job in 7 stepping and getting the word out. We do have a great relationship with the Racine club, and what I think really helps is when we get strong Local Boots on the Ground. Members like yourself, endpoint, and I'm sure their are others. Thats what makes Appleseed strong in a specific area. Fred likes to call it low tech promotions. Its really easy just do like you did at your hunter sight in. Personal contact is the cheapest and best way to promote Appleseed, and for the most part it will take several mentions of Appleseed before they attend their first.
If you ever have any questions, or suggestions of Appleseed contact our SC, Deacon, or you can pm dragonfly, or just call me 608-370-1747.

Thanks for all your help, and I hope to see you on the trail soon,
dragonfly     Keeping the Faith

[endpoint]

Excellent post Keystone   I'll take all the help I can get here at Racine!

Number 2: I hadn't thought of this before and we can run it by the board.  I think it will be well received.

Number 3 is an excellent idea and can still be implemented to some degree at the yearly meeting in February.  This will just hit club members but it's a start, and we can do that at our Appleseed table next year to better effect.

Number 4 is tough.  I had wanted to get some dates firmed up to pass out at the deer sight, so I put in for some 2011 dates in October.  Basically, we are coming in second to Highpower events, as far as reserving the range, at this time.  They seem to get their dates settled in late November or early December.  I should be getting the final word back in the next week or so for 2011 but we'll have to see.  In any case I don't see having the following year's Appleseed shoots nailed down before deer sight the way things are organized now (in future years, I mean).  I will talk with the Highpower event coordinator to see if it is possible in the future to pick dates sooner though.  It would help both Appleseed and Highpower to be able to advertise at the deer sight. 

For this year we can hit the yearly meeting with a sign up sheet to collect email addresses from those who would like reminders, as well as pass out a promo sheet with Appleseed event dates which we did last year.  I can also work with the club website admin to see if a form can be put up to email me the name and email address of anybody who wants Appleseed reminders from the club and work a mailing list from that. 

By the way, welcome to RCLRC in advance!    See you at December's meeting!

[Old Glory!]

Keystone - YES, excellent post.   800 at the range in one day?   How can AS help?  We know how AS can help them.