Okay as promised here is a summary of what was discussed during the meeting on Saturday, February 23, 2008
We had a total of 18 people show up for this meeting, with the majority of the group being Trad Gang members. Those that were not Trad Gang members were people that were visitors to the site and saw the thread or they were invited by a Trad Gang member.
The main purpose of the meeting was to discuss whether or not a traditional archery club was wanted or needed for the Kansas City and surrounding areas. Some of the concerns in forming a formal club were: insurance, finding a place to setup a 3D range and static range, distance of travel for all members, accessibility (open to the members at all times or opened at scheduled times) and the expense of starting up a club.
The consensus was (for now) not to form a formal club but to form a network for the area traditional archers to draw from. It was determined that having an actual formal club was really not as important to the group as having a way of contacting, meeting and gathering traditional archers together on a regular basis without the headaches of running and maintaining a formal club. By working off of a network system there would be minimal buy-in for everyone interested in participating and the location for gathering to shoot or meet has the possibility of constantly changing rather than a designated location that might only be convenient for a few in the group. Having a network could also increase the possibilities for everyone involved to have opportunities at different experiences that otherwise may not have ever been available to them.
It was agreed by everyone at the meeting that Trad Gang is an invaluable resource to us all and the site is the common thread that brought us all together. But, the majority of the people at the meeting agreed that they were apprehensive about contacting anyone on the site out of the blue to meet and shoot. Some of the people found that they commonly frequent the same local areas and / or events but their paths had never crossed until the meeting. Some of the people (myself included until Saturday) have/ had never had the opportunity to shoot with another traditional archer. So there is a need for our local people to feel comfortable with contacting other traditional archers for fun, help or advice. To bring us together on a local level we opted for trying to start a local “network” of traditional archers rather than a club.
This is how the proposed KC Traditional Network is to work. Any traditional archer interested in participating will have a required buy-in of one 3D target. The choice of the target is up to the individual. The storage of the target will be the responsibility of person that owns the target. All participants will also have to register themselves with the group by providing their contact information. The contact information should consist of: Your real name, Handle, address, phone number(s), and email address. This contact information will only be available to the other people in the group. The contact information will not be posted for the general public to read. There was a desire in the group to have a way of storing the contact information in an area that can only be viewed by the people in the group. How this will work (storing the information in a secure spot) has not been determined as of yet. For now, we have elected to use the private message option in Trad Gang. Any Trad Gang member within the Kansas City area interested in being put on the list should send me a PM and I will add your information to the list and send you the group list. For now I will only send the updated list out on Fridays instead of sending out an updated list every time someone new sends me information.
There was only one vote that was taken during the meeting and it was conducted by a show of hands. The question was: “do we want to be a traditional archery only network?” The vote was an overwhelming yes. There would be an exception for bringing children into the group that may already own a wheel bow to keep them interested in archery, with the understanding that they will be mentored to the traditional archery ways and eventually be shooting traditional bows only. Another topic that was brought up was a name for the group. Near the closing of the meeting names were being evaluated but a name had not been decided on. I have been calling the group the KC Traditional Network. Currently this name is up for review and any suggestions are welcomed.
When a shoot is schedule, everyone in the KC Traditional Network and their immediate family is welcome to join us. Correct me if I am wrong but I believe immediate family was determined as: Spouse, children, parents, siblings and boyfriend / girlfriend. A person’s buy-in of one 3D target has assured their family members a place to shoot but the family members should be accompanied by the person that is signed-up on the group list. Everyone participating in a shoot is to bring and setup their target. During the shoot all the targets will be shared with the group. When the shoot is over, everyone is responsible for removing the target that they brought. Anyone in the group can bring one guest with the intention of introducing and mentoring the guest to traditional archery.
Shoots will take place on public lands that have archery fields and ranges or were permission has been granted. Some shoots may take place on private land that someone in the group owns or has acquired permission for us to use. All shoots on public land may require us to share our targets with non traditional archers unless we are able to gain exclusive rights to the space during our shoots. The diversity of our gathering areas will be totally dependent on the group’s participation. If there are only a few people in the southland actively arranging gatherings, then we should expect most of our shoots to be in the southern parts of KC. The same principle will more than likely apply if most of the people that are arranging the shoots live in the northlands of KC. Anybody in the group can start gathering people for a shoot, hunt or outing. Gathering of group members can consist of 2 people or twenty people on weekdays or weekends. Gathering of a group is not limited to target shooting. Gatherings can involve hunts, BBQ’s, canoe trips, campouts, restaurant dinners or anything to bring traditional archers together.
The topic of food at the shoots was not discussed but it will need to be addressed in the near future. For simplicity we probably should work off of a “bring your own food and eating supplies” setup.
The main purpose of the network is to bring the local traditional archers together and get us out of our basements and backyards to share talents, knowledge, create new friends and to open the opportunity for local traditional archers to share their passion for this sport.
Thanks,
Tom
PS,
For those of you that were at the meeting, if I have made a mistake or forgot to put something on here please bring it to the group’s attention.
Topic: Kansas City Area Archers Please Read This (Meeting Notes and Pictures on Page 9) (Read 5105 times)
