Where to now.........?

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Craig McGowan
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Where to now.........?

#1 Postby Craig McGowan » Wed Aug 28, 2013 8:57 pm

Hello all,

Some of you may may know me or have seen me around the ranges in SEQ, but I am fairly new to the sport. I like many of you have a passion for the sport of F Class shooting, and thru the club I am a member of, I have the unique opportunity to pass on this passion to potential members / shooters thru numerous course and seminars we run.

This leads me to the title of this topic, Where to now.......?

By this I mean the sport. To me it would appear as though we are now at a cross roads. We have sent 20+ of our best F Class shooter over to the USA and shown that we are a force against some of the best shooters in the world.

What has been the responce from the sporting bodies around Australia.......None, nothing zip. Have a look at the NRAA website, still advertising Queens Results from the Nationals and the West Indies TR Tour, with only a single line on the right side bar of the web page.
QRA....nothing.
NSWRA.....nothing
VRA......nothing

It would appear that the NRAA has no interest in F Class, as with most of the other State Assocoiations. I would love to be proven wrong. But from where I sit, instead of trying to promote all aspects of shooting, the governing bodies are only interested in promoting TR, to the determent to the sport as a whole.

So again, where to now............?

It would be ashame to look back in 4 years time to the next FCWC and see no change in the status quo......

Just my 2 cents.

Regards

Craig McGowan
BRC.

johnk
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#2 Postby johnk » Wed Aug 28, 2013 9:30 pm

Craig,

Tell me, who as passed on information to the state associations & the NRAA from Raton that they've ignored?

We were fortunate that Alan ran his blog for this website & Linda & some others posted on Facebook, but surely it's up to the team management to give our associations the photos & data for publication. It's the team that are overseas, not our parent bodies.

John

Matt P
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#3 Postby Matt P » Wed Aug 28, 2013 9:38 pm

John
Sorry but I don't agree with that, "The NRAA" sanctioned this team and should follow it's progress, and inform the membership of its outstanding result, just as it did recently when James Corbett won Bisley. From memory this is the first Australia team since 1988 to win a World Championship, I would have thought that would be something to shout about.
Matt P

johnk
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#4 Postby johnk » Wed Aug 28, 2013 10:07 pm

Matt,

The NRAA was supplied information from Corbie's win from people over there. The information was there, published in detail on the official website - the NRA of great Britain website & was augmented & supplemented by the many of Corbie's Aussie friends who were there at the time.

Today, when I checked to see if NRAA was aware of the situation, I was asked by Catherine where she could find pictures and information to arrange a decent & immediate writeup. The information isn't there. Neither of the so-called official websites (Bald Eagles & ICFRA) have any information of consequence other than the published result sheets & apart from a single email making NRAA aware of the win, nobody from the team had passed information on to NRAA. That was understandable of course. Because of the time difference, I'm betting that the team members were well & truly Brahms & understandably so by the time the NRAA office opened.

So I as again, where, if not from the team & supporters is the NRAA to get information?

Surely you're not asking for them to provide a reporter with every travelling team on the offchance that they might achieve a notable result? I contend that it is up to us to provide adequate & timely information about the successes of teams we travel with so that they can be suitably recognized. In this case, again taking into account the time difference & the understandable probability of a celebration, the lack of information from the team is understandable.

I get as pissed off as the next guy when things don't happen. You might recall that I bitched loud & long some time back when the win of the Australian Match Rifle team against the Poms wasn't ever published on the previous NRAA website & had to be listed by QRA because the webmaster wasn't available. But this time, that isn't the case. NRAA got a stop press on their site same day as most of us heard about the outcome.

What will be more to the point is how this is progressed in the next day or so.

John

Craig McGowan
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#5 Postby Craig McGowan » Wed Aug 28, 2013 10:23 pm

+1 Matt,

These people are representing Our Country, at considerable expense to themselves, and Matt's point about James Corbett is precisely what gets me frustrated about all the current administrations. This is not to diminish what James has achieved, but mealy highlight that no matter what the discipline the governing bodies of shooting should be shouting these achievements from the roof top.

Regards

Craig McGowan.
BRC

Craig McGowan
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#6 Postby Craig McGowan » Wed Aug 28, 2013 10:34 pm

John,

I can understand what you are saying, and perhaps we are not (the shooter) the best at promoting ourselves. But how hard is it for the NRAA / QRA /VRA NSWRA / SARA to put together a brief press release. Nearly everyone on this forum has managed to find out scores / pictures and placings within a matter of hours after the event has finished, there is even the youtube video with a interview of Marty.

Perhaps I am expecting to much.


Regards

Craig McGowan
BRC.

ecomeat
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#7 Postby ecomeat » Thu Aug 29, 2013 5:43 am

This really is a difficult one.
How do you cross breed between "in an ideal situation" and "hard, cold reality" ............because that's what's going on here IMHO.
Like Craig, I am new to this sport but quite passionate about it. Unlike Craig I am not on my Clubs executive, and I have no knowledge of the politics involved in National Associations like NRAA , and the various State Rifle Associations.
We have to face the simple fact that, obviously, there is noone working in the various "Associations" offices around Australia that has the interest in F Class that "we" all do, and so they haven't been following every word from the USA the way we all have.
Like Craig, I have been bloody near obsessed with our Teams results for the past week. Trawling forums for hours trying to find scores...
:oops:
But like John has pointed out, I don't think we should have seriously expected the "Associations" to have gathered the news on their own and printed stories.
It would be terrific if they had and I think we have every right to expect that they could.......but reality is they didn't .
I jumped online and advised Ben Fordham, and advised the Courier Mail, but I never even thought to contact NRAA and QRA.
There are really only two options.
1) We make change happen WITHIN THE ASSOCIATIONS. As Members , we could get organised, and ensure that NRAA and State Associations appoint someone with the serious responsibility of promoting OUR sport (as well as all other shooting sports that they represent). A "Media Officer" type appointment would have to work to cover all shooting sports.

OR

2) We make change happen OURSELVES. We could form a meaningful National F Class Association, and appoint our own PR/Promotions/Media Liason type person. It will come down to how much WE the participants in the sport, are prepared to contribute emotionally, financially ($$$$) and personally.
Writing proper Press Releases is an art.....and I sure as hell don't have it.But there are probably a number of people shooting F Class who have the professional skills to contribute significantly to promoting F Class........but they probably don't know how badly they are needed.

While some of us are quite passionately obsessed with F Class, it is an unfortunate reality that apparently some participants aren't quite as obsessed as us. It is just a sport that they undoubtedly enjoy......or they wouldn't do it......... but they apparently have other interests.
I am continually gob smacked at the number of people who I meet at Prize Meetings, or Queens recently, who have never heard of OzFClass.com

The reality is that it's quite possible that "normal" participants.....and Association employees around Australia .....don't share our passion. So it's up to us to improve the situation. What will we do about it ? Or as Craig asked ..."where to next ?"
Extreme accuracy and precision shooting at long range can be a very addictive pastime.

bruce moulds
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#8 Postby bruce moulds » Thu Aug 29, 2013 6:52 am

the sa fclass assn. was onto this the day before yesterday and yesterday.
it is happening here.
we had a report in the paper about our guys leaving as well.
we are building a working relationship with the media based on how they work.
bruce.
"SUCH IS LIFE" Edward Kelly 11 nov 1880
http://youtu.be/YRaRCCZjdTM

higginsdj
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#9 Postby higginsdj » Thu Aug 29, 2013 7:18 am

I would not recommend going down the path of an F Class Association - there just aren't enough F Class shooters in Australia to support it at the moment (think the basis - Inusrance cover, range access, certified instructors etc etc etc. Although some of this varies state to state, you can't operate on a range without them.)

With the NRAA the basics are already in place. Yes, things happen as slow as molasis but thats across the board - not just F Class. But remember, with successes such as we have here will come focus, increased interest AND, if handled tactfully, change where change is warranted. My advice - use these successes but don't push too hard and go for what is actually needed rather than what you want! Be passionate by all means, work around roadblocks - don't try to bash throught them!

Cheers

David

PS - I'm an ex F Class shooter (I shoot TR now) but am introducing my wife to the sport via F Class.

bruce moulds
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#10 Postby bruce moulds » Thu Aug 29, 2013 7:43 am

david, our fclass assn. works purely as an advisory machine for sara.
we have a seconded bember on the sara council.
we have no intent to take over, but rather to work within.
this does not however stop us from developing a relationship with media etc for the benefit of tr and fclass.
bruce.
"SUCH IS LIFE" Edward Kelly 11 nov 1880

http://youtu.be/YRaRCCZjdTM

macguru
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#11 Postby macguru » Thu Aug 29, 2013 4:03 pm

Matt & others I have emailed the nswra and politely suggested they put something up, ill let you know what they say ...

I suggest someone from QLD does the same :)

johnk
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#12 Postby johnk » Thu Aug 29, 2013 4:17 pm

Why didn't you write something for them to publish?

DannyS
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#13 Postby DannyS » Thu Aug 29, 2013 6:04 pm

The VRA has updated their website with a photo of some of the team members and a link to the bald eagles website results. Good onya VRA.

Took me a while to find Alan Fraser in the pic, then I found him sitting on the knee of the young lady in the front row, with a stunned look on his face.:-)

Cheers
Danny

bruce moulds
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#14 Postby bruce moulds » Thu Aug 29, 2013 7:28 pm

danny,
alan is just experiencing the effect fclass males have on females.
you would also know this yourself.
keep safe,
bruce.
"SUCH IS LIFE" Edward Kelly 11 nov 1880

http://youtu.be/YRaRCCZjdTM

AlanF
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#15 Postby AlanF » Thu Aug 29, 2013 7:31 pm

DannyS wrote:The VRA has updated their website with a photo of some of the team members and a link to the bald eagles website results. Good onya VRA.

Took me a while to find Alan Fraser in the pic, then I found him sitting on the knee of the young lady in the front row, with a stunned look on his face.:-)

Cheers
Danny

The VRA is yet to figure out that that the photo is the F/TR team members. Its nice of them to make the effort, but they have ceased upon the only thing that is incorrect in the 6mmbr report :oops: . I have contacted 6mmbr in the hope that it will be corrected soon.

Alan


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