Questions about the future

[7br]

Should we consider cash prizes?

Well, In about three years I will probably relocate and the nearest match will be about 3 hours away. I contacted a person in the "Firearms" industry about helping revive a club near the area where I am considering relocating. Here is his response
"I had a little interest from some people interested in IHMSA over the last few years, I hope there would be a little interest. Most younger people are more interested in 3 gun matches though. Nearly all the major matches will limit the number of shooters to 250 to 350 shooters and will be full and have a waiting list of 75 to 100 shooters. It is not unusual for prize tables to be worth $100,000 or more where in IHMSA you get a little trophy. Unfortunately IHMSA seems to be slowly dying on the vine. Internationals has about as many entries as a local match used to be. They keep adding catagories to attract more shooters and about all that happens is the old shooters just have one more catagory to shoot."

This guy makes a living out of selling to competitive shooters.


One of the things that attracted me to the sport was the amateur aspect. No money, no reason to cheat. No money, all recreation. I heard tell of a guy that would pawn borrowed equipment to pay entry fees, then would use his winnings to get the stuff out of hock. Finally got busted when he took a club computer to a pawn shop and the serial number came back as stolen. Just food for thought

[260 Striker]

7br, I hope you can spark some interest at your new location and maybe get some matches going again closer to you. Unfortunately, IHMSA is not getting the publicity as the other shooting sports so I think many shooters don't even know about silhouette shooting. We have had several new visitors in the last few matches who stopped by to use the public range where we shoot (closed during our matches) then they watched us shoot and seemed to show an interest in silhouette shooting. They had not even heard of silhouette shooting. Many young shooters like the run and gun style matches these days but we still hang in there to prove our long range shooting skills. Let us know if you can stir up some local interest.

[TEFREY]

Personally, I don't know what the future holds for IHMSA, but I do see positive signs. As I write this, there are 6 users online-2 registered, 4 guests. As I have stated in the past the guests on this site outnumber "us" on a regular basis. I have been keeping an eye on the "newest member" part of that, to see if I could welcome them in and get some others to respond (sorry about rattling the door on the old folks home the other day-but I did get some response) and in following that I have seen about five new sign-ups. This over the span of a couple of weeks.

Some have groused about headquarters not doing enough to attract new shooters. What constitutes HQ? 5 people? Guys, it's up to us. Advertising in magazines is a waste of money.

When I first bought my accounting practice I dabbled in advertising. Conventional wisdom was you have to spend money to make money. This trolling for whomever yielded mixed results. The people it did attract ran the spectrum from great to audit bait. After awhile I realized my client base brought me more new clients, of a higher quality, and they paid me for the service. I liked my clients, so when they brought me a new one it was a generally a person like them so they were already vetted. And 17 years later I'm still in business and still growing.

I know this is getting long but I have an idea. Why don't we get with FA, Savage, TC(SW) or some other mfg who builds our guns and see if we can't buy a couple at cost, or less. Divert the funds from print advertising. Then hold a contest amongst membership for referrals. Add a line to the application to state who referred you. Then, after the end of the year award one pistol to the person with the most referrals, and one from a random drawing of all people who referred a new member. Most referred gets his/her choice, with the random winner getting what's left.

Building membership, like a client base, is a bottom up process, not top down. But the top can provide a sweetner.

[260 Striker]

Along the same idea. Throw the names of the shooters who bring in new members into a hat and have a random drawing for one gun. Seems more fair since some areas of the country may only bring in one or two new shooters but larger towns/cities may bring in more new shooters. More fair to everyone that way. Second gun could be used for random drawing just for the new shooters brought in during the set time period. That way you could sell our sport and tell the new members they had a chance to win a gun. Good suggestions like yours could be a shot in the arm for IHMSA.

[TEFREY]

260 Striker:

I was just thinking a potential reward for effort, and a reward for achievement. I like the idea of a new member drawing. Heck, if we swing a good enough deal, or depending on the funds we can divert from print advertising, maybe we can get 3 prize pistols. But I still think we need to reward someone for winning the competition. Isn't that what we're all about on the line?

Lets keep kicking this ball around. Suggestions like yours are much appreciated and will definitely improve any idea I might have.

Thanks for the input.

Troy

[TEFREY]

Hey,

Any thoughts? Hello? Is anybody out there?

[19 Turkeys]

IHMSA has done gun giveaways for recruiting new members on several occasions without much success. Not wanting to be a wet blanket but I do not see that the results would be different.

Steve W.

[TEFREY]

Thanks Steve, just want to know. Was it in the heady days of IHMSA, when membership was not an issue? Just trying to get a feel as to what was done, what worked, and what we should dump. I think we should divert advertising funds that are not working into funds that might. Or save it for a BIG party at INT'LS. (HA) One thing about it: if we divert the funds from print, it will cost nothing more than the failed policies of the past. There may a different environment we are dealing with that the times you cite may not encompass. I'm sorry, I talk like a dork, but I mean well.

I really appreciate the input. Thanks for chiming in.

Troy

[19 Turkeys]

The last 2 gun giveaways were in 2010 & 2011 as I recall. They were to promote the new Practical Hunter proposed discipline. To give you an idea of the success of that idea, the 2012 end of year financials showed (as I recall) that there were 57 entries shot in that year. That is a combination of both new and current member entries. So we created a new discipline for a net gain of $57 in sanction fees and an unknown (abet small) number of new members. This promotion just has not been a great success historically.

Steve W.

[TEFREY]

Thanks Steve,

I remember those. They were ill concieved, in my opinion,but at least someone was trying. What i propose is not something that depends on sanction fees but actual sign up fees, at $50.00 a pop. New blood, recruited by tried and true old blood, that may create a revenue stream and recruiting force well into the future. To pay for a $3000.00 campaign, we would need 60 new sign ups. Money diverted from print could reduce that amount. Sanction fees are not going to cut it, I agree. But 60 new members? That's a real possibility considering there is roughly 520 members of the website and guests outnumbering us 2-3:1 everyday on the website. Do you think that we, as a body, with a financial incentive, could recruit 60 new members in one year? Replace $57.00 with $3000.00? We offer a good product, we just have a lousy sales department, myself included.

Thanks for your reply, pard. I don't have all the answers, if any at all.

Troy