OldRanger wrote:Ghostofwar wrote:Can we draft Dustin to head up the Silhouette department at the NRA?
I agree Dustin would be good at this job. Of course we couldn't afford him, but that's another story. Part of the problem is that Barry isn't a silhouette shooter. While he is a nice guy and might do a fine job he doesn't have the passion or inside knowledge that a shooter has.
Thanks for those nice words. I'm not sure whether I would be good at that job or not and I can probably think of several people that would be better but I'd REALLY like to see Barry be great at it. I don't know if it's appropriate to discuss his job performance publically but I feel okay about laying out on this site what I would do if I was in Barry's position (I've told him all this and I hope he listened).
If I were the Silhouette Director...
First, from a general perspective, my overall outlook would be that the game of silhouette is a business and I am the CEO and the "profit" of this business is shooters. If there are lots of shooters shooting silhouette, the "business" is making lots of "profit" and I'm going to keep my job. If shooter participation is suffering, my business is not "profiting" and I'm in trouble. So the question I would ask myself every day is "what can I do as the Silhouette Director to get and new shooters and keep the ones we have?"
There are lots of ways I believe that the silhouette director can answer this question and help IF shooter happiness and promotion is his goal. That was never Greg Connor's goal - I hope it is Barry's. It would be mine.
Specifically, this is what I'd do and I would add to it as I figured out new things:
1. I would shoot LOTS of silhouette. I agree 100% that we need a COMPETITOR in this role and he/she needs to understand and love the game. I would travel to national, regional and state championships as a competitor and get in the mix.
2. My day-to-day job would consist of TALKING to competitors, match directors, and people in the shooting industry. I would have a big presence here on SteelChickens. I would have every national, regional and state championship match director's number in my cell phone (and I'd call them). I would engage with the shooters to find out what the shooters want and how the NRA can help make that happen. Job #1 would be talking and communicating with the shooters. Also, I would constantly be calling and meeting with industry representatives like those at Lapua, Anschutz, Leupold, Weaver, Kowa, CZ, Remington etc. etc. etc. to determine what we can do to bring them into the game and to sponsor matches and to entice them to develop and manufacture products for our game. If silhouette is to grow, the shooting industry needs to recognize us and be interested in helping us grow.
3. I would create an online presence for the sport to promote our matches. Maybe work with Mike to make SteelChickens that place or maybe the NRA's competitive shooting website and certainly Facebook and other social media. We need a single place to go where shooters can see a calendar of championship-level matches all over the country AND see results AND see pictures AND see videos generally make the game more open and accessible to those looking for information about it. I'd personally operate that website and personally operate a Facebook page for the silhouette department and it would get new content every week (or every day). The only way to promote things nowadays is on the internet.
4. I would create more of a "shooting season" for our shooters with "monument matches" every year that are big deals to be a part of. We need to make sure that the nationals are not the only big show on the calendar. Golf has its 4 "majors" - The Masters, The US Open, the British Open and the Player's Championship. Other sports are similar. I'd like to see something like that with lots of corporate involvement to make it more financially beneficial for the top shooters to travel around and shoot. We need more of the top shooters in the world to take up silhouette because that has a trickle-down effect and gets more people into the game in the lower classes. I would try to get retired Olympic hopefuls from 10m rifle and 3-p into the game of silhouette but to do that there needs to be money in the game and BIG matches to shoot. All that goes back to corporate involvement.
5. I'd automate national records, grand slams, match approvals, pins, certificates and all that stuff. I'd just farm that out to a business that can do it very efficiently and not waste my time on that (or I'd find a volunteer to do it).
6. I'd move the nationals around the country. I wouldn't have any arbitrary range standards. I'd TALK to clubs and match directors about ways to make it work and I'd try it. If the numbers get huge, we might have to keep it at a big range somewhere but until then I'd figure out ways to let interested clubs host.
7. I would constantly be on the phone with editors of shooting and sporting magazines and websites about getting silhouette in the press. Our game needs exposure - we cant grow if people don't know about the game. These publications need material and I would supply them material and try to make the top shooters available to them. This is easy free promotion; just needs a persistent voice making it happen.
I'm sure I could think of more things; and I believe that's exactly what I'd need to do - think of INNOVATIVE ways to grow the game. I'd like to see Barry excel at his job by doing some of these things.
Dustin