Re: WI Appleseed volunteers needed! Opportunity with "A Girl And A Gun" Shooting

[DrRichP]

Re: WI Appleseed volunteers needed! Opportunity with "A Girl And A Gun" Shooting League

A Girl And A Gun is a national women's shooting league that is very eager to partner with Appleseed. Begun only a few years ago as a single club in central Texas, it has spread to 19 states, with 1,386 members in 45 clubs. And it's still growing. (http://www.agirlandagunclub.com/)

Julianna Crowder, the founder, sent out a message last week to the club facilitators across the country, letting them know that an Appleseed representative would be contacting them soon. She says they are excited and ready to get the ball rolling. This is where you come in!

We need an Appleseed instructor (IIT4 or above) to contact the facilitator of each club (clubs listed below) and work with them on involving their members in Appleseed and Libertyseed events. If possible, it's great if this contact can be a female instructor, so ladies, please step up! I imagine it won't be feasible in some areas, though, and that's fine.

If you can volunteer to be the contact for one or more clubs, post a reply on this thread and I'll add your name onto that club. (If the club you want to help with is already taken, contact the volunteer listed and join the effort!)

When you contact the facilitators, let them know that Julianna Crowder (the founder of AG&AG) asked us to contact them about working together with the Appleseed project. Be sure to explain the Appleseed mission.

Exactly where you go from there depends on your location, available shoots and instructors, and that specific chapter's needs or wishes. Here's what I suggest:

1.) Ask to come to a club event (can be a shooting or non-shooting event) and have at least 30 minutes to give a LibertySeed presentation and present info about Appleseed. Obviously, more time is better if you want to present a full LibertySeed, but take what you can get.

2.) Let them know what upcoming shoots are available in their area. Explain what an Appleseed shoot is (be sure they know it's for rifles; I think this club does a lot of handguns).

Julianna mentioned that they are trying to do more family events and loved the idea of a family camp out at an Appleseed shoot. You could suggest this if your local range allows camping.

3.) Offer to hold a private shoot for A Girl An A Gun members and their families. They may very well have access to a range that we aren't able to access on our own.

Please be creative! Maybe they want to sponsor a LadySeed for women in their region. Maybe they want to have a dinner with you as their featured speaker doing a LibertySeed presentation. Maybe they can use that as a fundraiser or recruitment for their program (that means more listeners for us too, right?) Maybe there are several clubs in an area (ex., Dallas) that would like to have a joint meeting.

Be sure to post your results and ideas!

I'm going to go ahead and get this kicked off by volunteering to contact the 5 clubs in Central Texas, and I'm willing to take on other Texas clubs as well.


Wisconsin
Eagle River: http://www.agirlandagunclub.com/eagle-river/
Waupaca: http://www.agirlandagunclub.com/waupaca/

[scoob]

I can't post in or see the original thread yet, but I noticed on their "Find a Chapter" page, they state:

Your Community
Women across the nation are joining us. To begin a chapter in your community, you need a:
•    NRA Certified Firearms Instructor
•    Range facility available for events
•    Welcoming attitude
Bring our mission home.
Start a local chapter!

If they truly want to partner with Appleseed, maybe their leadership (and insurance company) needs to be aware of How Appleseed Instructors Compare, so they'll want to say "NRA or RWVA Certified Firearms Instructor" in that list.

I realize that it may be a limitation placed more by the ranges than the aGaaG organization, but hey, I'm drinkin' the RWVA koolaid!  They should too, right?   

[DrRichP]

Hi Scoob,

Thanks for noting this.

Here is the link to the original post:
http://appleseedinfo.org/smf/index.php?topic=35996.msg263639#msg263639

I can't speak to the politics of their wording, only our mission. While I would prefer they publicly recognize RWVA Instructors, I wouldn't let it hold us back from our mission.

Nonetheless, I will let our liaison know about the oversight.

[scoob]

Here is the link to the original post:
http://appleseedinfo.org/smf/index.php?topic=35996.msg263639#msg263639

That post is in a board that is above my pay grade for now, so I probably can't access it until I make RH.

I can't speak to the politics of their wording, only our mission. While I would prefer they publicly recognize RWVA Instructors, I wouldn't let it hold us back from our mission.

Right.  That was just an observation I thought was relevant to the mission.  I'm just hoping that someone at National is keeping the credibility of RWVA instructors on the 'to-do' list, as I'm sure they are.  I believe in our mission.  I want others (individuals and orgs) to wake up and believe in our mission.  In order to get more people to do so, we have to be perceived as legitimate.

I've shown that comparison document to more than a few people that know about Appleseed, but had no idea how our instructors compared to "real" NRA instructors.     If we're partnering up with other organizations, it could impact our potential effectiveness if they don't capitalize on RWVA instructor qualifications.