2010 Wounded Warrior - Please read!

[Wolfer69]

Ladies & Gentlemen,

We just concluded a magnificent Wounded Warrior match at USSA!

We raised over $10,000 to help our most treasured resource, our Wounded Warriors.

This thread is to help craft a even better match for next year.

I will be quite honest. I was not pleased with attendance. We could have had more shooters. I will take the sole and full blame. I was very busy with the IDPA Nationals, and started on this project too late.

To make sure we get more shooters, and even more contribution for our troops for next year, I would like your help.

1) When would you like the match? We polled the shooters and they were predominately May thru June. Let me know what you want, and what your concerns are. We cannot miss everything. There are too many matches, critters to hunt, shows to go to. Help me come up with what will work for most of us.

2) This was a learning experience for us all. Next year we will have three Divisions. Open, Limited, and Rimfire. Open is what is says. Limited is IDPA and USPSA production legal. I hope rimfire will bring more kids and spouses into our sport. I get tired of the same old guys waiting for Obama to cut their med's

3) I need 10 safety officers to commit to help. I think the match will work better with SO's in each of the 10 assigned bays. If you want to help, let me know. No Friday shooting. We had limited interest in the Friday squad, and with trying to get 10 SO's to help, they cannot take another day off work.

4) I have talked to the incredibly helpful staff at USSA. (And as a aside - this match would not have went on without USSA. Tom, Mike, Brad, Brian, Levi, and all the staff - God Bless You.

We are thinking of having all the stages on the front ten bays. Less walking, driving around. With more lead time, we can schedule this.

5) Open squadding perhaps. We give you the scoresheet, and you find a empty bay to shoot in. With fixed SO's, this should be faster.


IN ANY CASE, lets keep this dialogue going.

I know we all have our problems. Even as the contentious, argumentative Americans we are - I think we can agree on one thing.

Veterans that fought for us, took hits for us, and need help -

Damn well deserve our time and help.

Curt Nichols

 

[Glocktogo]

I like the idea of May for the match. The 1st weekend has nothing on the regular holiday schedule. The 2nd weekend is Mother's Day. The 3rd weekend is Armed Forces Day. The 4th weekend is Memorial Day.

To me that narrows it down to the 1st weekend and the 3rd weekend to get the best turnout.

On the local shooting calendar, we have OCR&GC Practical Rifle match on the 1st Sat and USSA Steel Challenge on the 1st Sun. OKC has their IPSC match on the 1st Sat as well.

The 3rd Sat is USSA Pro-Am match and I'm not aware of any matches on the 3rd Sunday.

The National IDPA calendar doesn't show anything in our region for either weekend and I didn't find anything on the USPSA website either.

Does anyone know of any other matches or events on the 1st or 3rd weekends of May that are large draws in this region? Please post it up if you're aware of any.

So far it looks like the 3rd weekend would work best. The USSA Pro-Am match is run on the back bays and anyone who wanted to shoot Wounded Warrior after the Pr-Am match certainly could. Or they could come back and shoot Wounded Warrior on Sunday. I'm not aware of any big Armed Forces Day parades, sporting events, etc. that would conflict.

Also, did anyone have issues with the cost of the match? I figured there were multiple reasons for the low turnout. Minimal advertising, short notice, end of the regular shooting year for most regular competitors and exhausted shooting funds for the season.

Do many people feel we would get a greater total donation to send to the Wounded Warrior Project if we dropped the match fee slightly? How much is too much for a 10 stage 150+ round match that is almost 100% a charitable donation and your entry fee is tax deductible?

Also, if you know of any companies or organizations who would make donations or sponsor the event, please shoot me a PM so we might approach them before they allocate their charity funding for the 2010 calendar year.

Please provide feedback guys, we want this to be a successful event. Thanks for your consideration!

 

[Rob]

I like the idea of May for the match. The 1st weekend has nothing on the regular holiday schedule. The 2nd weekend is Mother's Day. The 3rd weekend is Armed Forces Day. The 4th weekend is Memorial Day.

To me that narrows it down to the 1st weekend and the 3rd weekend to get the best turnout.

On the local shooting calendar, we have OCR&GC Practical Rifle match on the 1st Sat and USSA Steel Challenge on the 1st Sun. OKC has their IPSC match on the 1st Sat as well.

The 3rd Sat is USSA USPSA match and I'm not aware of any matches on the 3rd Sunday.

The National IDPA calendar doesn't show anything in our region for either weekend and I didn't find anything on the USPSA website either.

Does anyone know of any other matches or events on the 1st or 3rd weekends of May that are large draws in this region? Please post it up if you're aware of any.

So far it looks like the 3rd weekend would work best. The USSA USPSA match is run on the back bays and anyone who wanted to shoot Wounded Warrior after the USPSA match certainly could. Or they could come back and shoot Wounded Warrior on Sunday. I'm not aware of any big Armed Forces Day parades, sporting events, etc. that would conflict.

Also, did anyone have issues with the cost of the match? I figured there were multiple reasons for the low turnout. Minimal advertising, short notice, end of the regular shooting year for most regular competitors and exhausted shooting funds for the season.

Do many people feel we would get a greater total donation to send to the Wounded Warrior Project if we dropped the match fee slightly? How much is too much for a 10 stage 150+ round match that is almost 100% a charitable donation and your entry fee is tax deductible?

Also, if you know of any companies or organizations who would make donations or sponsor the event, please shoot me a PM so we might approach them before they allocate their charity funding for the 2010 calendar year.

Please provide feedback guys, we want this to be a successful event. Thanks for your consideration!

The USPSA match at USSA is on the 4 Saturday of the month. The Pro-Am is the 3 Saturday

 

[Glocktogo]

The USPSA match at USSA is on the 4 Saturday of the month. The Pro-Am is the 3 Saturday

Thanks for the clarification. I've edited my post.

 

[Shootin 4 Fun]

I'm a Fat Guy so I really I like April, September, or October. I seems like we would run a higher risk of being rained out in April though.

 

[Rastus]

Wolfer, I suggest April 17th & 18th for the 2010 match dates. This is the weekend after Wanenmacher’s and there should still be some euphoria from April 15th being in the back window. I further suggest we set up a table at Wanenmacher’s to let people know about the event and to encourage new shooters by both answering their questions and asking them to show up.

Fixed SO’s is the way to go.

Also, to move things along shoot each stage twice not three times. Feedback from people who weren’t routine shooters indicates that the time invested overcame their initial enthusiasm of shooting. I’m saying it was all fun and games for them until they got tired….then they leaft without interest…we want them to keep wanting to shoot and join our ranks so we should want them to leave happy. Shooting twice will move everyone through quicker. If they want to shoot more, then USSA can extract a few $’s and send them to some of their other bays.

Some people complained about the cost. Let LEO’s and people under 21 shoot for $10 or $15 less….maybe include first time competitors and ladies. And for the people without fishhooks in their pockets they can always throw in a few more $$$’s to get back to $75. Current warriors that show up shoot for free and Wounded Warriors free + ammo?

Have a donation can available at gun shows and the match.

Get some Wounded Warrior logo banners and signs up at the gun shows and the match.

 

[Ridgeway]

If we can't get a booth/table donated to the cause and volunteers to run it (shoot they would get into the show free if they worked the booth because they would be considered a vendor right?) anyway; we could raise the little bit of funds needed to rent a booth/table. We could accept donations at the table/ complete registration including payment with a discount given for early registration and payment. I work for a print shop and could talk to the owner about doing a banner for us as a tax deductible donation/ possibly even a bumper or window sticker with a webpage listed if there is one for people to make tax deductible donations. Just some ideas; let me know if I can help.

With the economy the way it is I know the fee was an issue for me personally; but I know there are people like me who would love to help by making donations of prizes; professional help such as web design, banner donations, brochures being printed, helping in the booth, etc. or smaller monetary donations to offset the cost of these type of expenses.