Dave Hardy looks at the NRA Board elections. I couldn’t agree more with what he has to say, especially this:
I also try to compensate for my natural bias, and not to neglect the folks who focus more on shooting as such rather than activism. If we don’t have people to bring juniors into the shooting fold or promote hunting or arrange competitions, activism won’t do much good after a generation or two.
I guess you could say my focus lately has been preserving places to shoot, and trying to keep some kind of shooting community together at a local level. All the political activism won’t amount to squat if we’re not making new shooters, and that’s really hard if there are no places to shoot.
Join your local gun club. I don’t care if it’s run by curmudgeonly old farts. Most of them are, because any organization needs young people to not end up that way. I can say a lot of bad things about the Baby Boomers, but one bad thing I can say about my generation is we’re not joiners, and we’re too cynical about our ability to make a difference. But eventually, all those curmudgeonly old farts are going to die, and without young people waiting in the wings to take the reigns, those places to shoot will die with them and disappear forever. Take some non-crumugeoness with you. You might find a lot of curmudgeons actually aren’t all the curmudgeonly if you approach things the right way with them.
And eventually? You’ll be the one griping “about these kids, and their fancy electromagnetic weapons. You know, in my day, we didn’t have to plug in our ARs! Back then, 3000ft/sec was enough for anybody! Don’t need no fancy charger here, no sir!”
I would add that, if you happen to be a curmudgeonly old fart, find ways to appreciate the young blood.
In the Sad Puppy Kerfuffle with WorldCon (I don’t know how many of you are familiar with this Science Fiction and Fantasy issue), among the observations was (1) there isn’t all that much young blood at WorldCon, and (2) some of the actions of the WorldCon over Sad Puppies actually hurt some of the young people (including teenagers) who participated in the event for the first time.
I have the impression that any organization that doesn’t ask itself “how do we attract younger people to our organization?” is doomed to aging out and disappearing — regardless of why that organization was organized in the first place…
I don’t know how many times I’ve argued in game forums that new blood is immensely more valuable than veterans.
This does not make me friends in the vet contingent.
Nobody needs a phased plasma rifle in greater than the 40 watt range …
Our club was run by curmudgeonly old farts, so too help fix the problem I ran for a club position. The vote was not even close as I won by a landslide, and a whole bunch of old farts voted for me. Now I admit that I am not super young blood, but I am 20-30 years younger than the old guys. My 30 year old nephew is thinking of running this year for the secretary position.
First thing that we did was install free gun safety courses using our range, our rifles and pistols, and inviting every group of youngsters that we can think of. Our insurance took a hit, but it was only $1000 or so more than before. We now have a waiting list to join the club, and since our memberships are for a household we are getting the fathers, and their offspring. It is refreshing to see someone who doesn’t shave yet, or has reached high school at the range, shooting!
Well done, StephanA. Club officer positions are thankless jobs with little or no benefits.
I make sure to celebrate those who serve in these positions, whether club officers, match directors of the various disciplines, people who aid in CCW training or other volunteer efforts. Everyone should play some part or it’s going away.
My last club was run by curmudgeonly old farts. I spent two years trying to change things. I actually was able to create and chair a rules review committee. In the end, the COFs were too much headache, and I left. I found a much better club with saner rules.