ihmsa forums

ole95 wrote:Joe go ahead and $hi+ can my I deal
I got the answer to my question ;)

Actually Richard, I think your idea has a lot of merit. We want more people shooting, and we also need to increase membership. Something I thought of based on your idea was what if new members were offered a "discount"… maybe when members renew, they get a card or two which can they can give to a new member for a discounted price just on their first year of IHMSA membership, say $25 for that first year. $50 is a little steep I think for people that have never been in the organization before, especially when an NRA membership is $35. So if they could get introduced to the sport for $25, especially if the IHMSA News goes online which would cut out that expense of postage/printing, then we would get a few more people in the door and once they get to experience a year of IHMSA, hopefully people on the local level would make it inviting enough for them to return. Just a thought that came from your idea. The whole point is that we have to get growth.

Joe Frey aka Kickbass,

Is the purpose of IHMSA the same as it was in 1976, “the purpose of promoting handgun silhouette competition”? And are we doing this by maintaining the purpose of the original group, “a group of dedicated handgunners got together to have some fun”? If not, what is our purpose now?

Why should a person join IHMSA? How does it benefit them?

These questions must be answered for us to be able to ‘recruit’ new members. The answers to these questions also serve to ‘steer’ the organization. If IHMSA is to survive and thrive we must have an established plan, a ‘strategic plan’. Without a strategic plan any organization is destined to fail.

A strategic plan defines every aspect required to move an organization successfully forward. It includes very specific action steps required to get and keep an organization healthy.

I think the purpose of IHMSA has changed since 1976. I believe in 1976 hitting a ram at 200 meters was an accomplishment, now hitting a half sized chicken with an open sighted Freedom Arms revolver can be "easy for some shooters" at that distance. We have made it possible to put together the equipment, ammo and techniques for anyone willing to spend the time and most of all the money to hit small targets at a far distance. But it's not easy or cheap. They can do it with an open sighted or scoped handgun. For us it has become less a sport and more of an happening. We have to decide what we the last of the try hards are willing to maybe adapt to. If we don't change some, we may go the way of all extinct species.

I may be the only one saying this. We cannot get mad and take our ball and go home. Any changes I or you don't agree with must be done with compromise. We cannot afford to fight amongst ourselves. Nancy Lacroix's last report showed that I did not have as much knowledge about our organization as I should have. We must stay informed at the local, state, regional, national and international level.

If some people still want a "paper" mailed to them we need to work out a more economical way to get it to them. I know some people don't want to look at ads on here. But we could sell space on here. Only to those companies that support our big matches also. It would be a perfect place to put a picture of Tom Smith in front of a banner saying he used a GGGGG revolver to win the internationals. I don't know how many people stumble on this site each day, but it has to be several. Or someone infront of a banner saying they used hhhhhh bullets, primers or whatever. It doesn't have to be at the Internationals it could be at a regional or the WCC or ECC. This should have been done 30 years ago in my opinion. Just think about how many rounds of Eley, Lapua, Wolf, Aguila and other brands of .22 ammo go down range each year. How many 100, 140 and perfect 1/5 scale scores are shot with it each year.

I'll shut up for awhile.

Stumble onto our site. Much truth to that! Several people who happen to stop by our range while we were having a match would talk to us about silhouette shooting and IHMSA. Most of them would comment they had never even heard of handgun silhouette shooting or IHMSA. Our sport doesn't get magazine/tv coverage like the other shooting sports and I think we are the best kept shooting sport now. I was glad to see a small ad a recent Handloader magazine. How do we go about getting other shooting websites to add a link to our IHMSA site? Many gun/shooting sites I go to have links to other shooting related sites but I have never seen any linking to our site. I'm not an Internet guru or marketing person so I wouldn't know how to make those arrangements. At least people searching other gun related websites might be tempted to click on our link if it appeared. I don't know if money is involved to get links added like that or maybe we could add links on our site to other gun sites in exchange for them adding our link on their sites. Anyone know how to make that happen?

260 Striker wrote:Our sport doesn't get magazine/tv coverage like the other shooting sports and I think we are the best kept shooting sport now.

Lynn, I agree with your assessment. How about this idea? Years ago I realized that door prizes did not bring shooters to the West Coast Championship. People come for friendship, socializing with like minded shooters, a new (or different) shooting venue, and several other minor reasons. So, I quit mooching prizes from manufacturers.

So, let's all stop mooching. Then, IHMSA can go to manufacturers and tell them all clubs will no longer mooch. Rather, IHMSA would like a cash contribution in order to market the sport. If enough money were raised, we could even hire a marketing firm. I found one that i told our Prez about that would market IHMSA for $1500/month. That was reasonable given others wanted a minimum of $50,000.

Steve W.

I believe American Handgunner magazine used to have a silhouette column. What
happened there? Mary Scotto, wife of former IHMSA president, Frank Scotto, wrote
it. After she left, another person, maybe J.D. Jones picked it up. After that, it just
wasnt there anymore. Has anyone thought of maybe talking to the editor of that
magazine, and seeing if we can get the silhouette column back? That is one of the
best handgun mags out there, and would get us some of the exposure we sure do
need.

LOCKHART wrote:I believe American Handgunner magazine used to have a silhouette column. What
happened there? Mary Scotto, wife of former IHMSA president, Frank Scotto, wrote
it. After she left, another person, maybe J.D. Jones picked it up. After that, it just
wasnt there anymore. Has anyone thought of maybe talking to the editor of that
magazine, and seeing if we can get the silhouette column back? That is one of the
best handgun mags out there, and would get us some of the exposure we sure do
need.

Tried that 5 or 6 years ago at the SHOT Show. I was told there was not sufficient following of the sport to use up page space. If someone else wants to try, go for it. Maybe they would have better luck.

Steve W.

Thanks for that info, Steve. I didnt know that. Maybe thats the original
reason for dropping the column in the first place, they just didnt think we
had enough following.

19 Turkeys wrote:

260 Striker wrote:Our sport doesn't get magazine/tv coverage like the other shooting sports and I think we are the best kept shooting sport now.

Lynn, I agree with your assessment. How about this idea? Years ago I realized that door prizes did not bring shooters to the West Coast Championship. People come for friendship, socializing with like minded shooters, a new (or different) shooting venue, and several other minor reasons. So, I quit mooching prizes from manufacturers.

So, let's all stop mooching. Then, IHMSA can go to manufacturers and tell them all clubs will no longer mooch. Rather, IHMSA would like a cash contribution in order to market the sport. If enough money were raised, we could even hire a marketing firm. I found one that i told our Prez about that would market IHMSA for $1500/month. That was reasonable given others wanted a minimum of $50,000.

Steve W.

Steve I want to calmly disagree with you about door prizes. I like you don't believe shooters come because there are door prizes. Manufacturers support those that help them sell their products. A few well placed pictures on this and other sites goes a long way. I firmly believe it is easier for them to contribute in small amounts at a time than in a lump sum. We make sure everyone sends a thank you by sending them for them. There is a range in Bowling Green Ky where they shoot 3gun and that other stuff. They have sponsors for each station each target and so on. That's how their bills are paid and their prize money is made. All our monies for everything pretty well have to come from the shooters themselves. My hope is to satisfy the manufacturers will send me a prize I can sell to pay for some part of the ECC so the shooters don't have to.

35isit wrote:Steve I want to calmly disagree with you about door prizes.

Greg,

Not a problem in disagreement. That's why they make Pepsi & Coke!

Steve W.