Friendship?

[Dogshirt]

I had a couch like that!

[mongrel]

I wouldn't exactly call it a rule, it's just the way things work out since it's easier than actually throwing away 90% of the clutter -- if it's horizontal or has walls, it will be used for storage.

[Papa]

The more "stuff" you have on your sofa the less likely it is to run away from home. You know; dogs, cats and  human cabooses, "stuff".
Mark

[mongrel]

As of Wednesday, Sept. 18, I will go on record that June is the better event to plan for if someone is only going to attend one or the other Shoot. It would be more in my (and my fellow vendors') interest to encourage attendance at the Fall Shoot, but truthfully this year's event is, from where I stand, not much to write home about. June was much livelier, or at least my memory says it was.

[Watauga]

Mongrel, In talking to folks on the primitive camp side, lots of them were pulling up stakes early  to go to the  Eastern Primitive Rendezvous.
I think NMLRA overlapped the Schedule for some reason?

[woody]

Mike that was the talk around Ken's booth also. Several vendors expressed the view that that are leaning towards the spring shoot only. On a brighter personal note, in addition to seeing Mike I also had the pleasure of meeting Watauga and hang out with some great folks.

[mongrel]

The Fall Shoots and the Eastern have always overlapped, at least as long as I've been in a position where it paid me to be aware. Being as how the Shoots are an institution that goes back to the 1930's, were I on the scheduling committee of the Eastern I'd suggest moving the time frame for it a week or two, so as NOT to conflict with the NMLRA's schedule. It isn't like the NMLRA sets its Shoot dates at random or that there aren't sufficient remaining weeks in the late summer and early fall for another major whoop-de-do with a completely separate time frame. The Shoots begin the second Saturday of each June and September and run nine days, no more or less short of an act of God (I have been witness to two such that seriously disrupted things). This has been the structure for longer than the 18 years I've been attending both Shoots, so no one can claim a lack of awareness of what their schedule might be, from one year to the next.

[Watauga]

  National Rendezvous and Living History Foundation, organizing group of the NMLRA rendezvous. 
      I thought they would work to keep these kind of thing's from happening???

[mongrel]

You would think....

I honestly don't know and don't feel much like speculating on how complicated it actually is to keep event times straight. It would SEEM to me that with a basic calender, a telephone, and an e-mail account, things could be organized and kept straight with relatively little fuss, but maybe my preference for keeping things simple, efficient, and hassle-free is why I'm not cut out for upper-level management and organizational duties.

[mongrel]

I dislike needless negativity, but if the truth is to be told as to how the 2013 Fall Shoots played out, it must be said that from all standpoints I'm aware of -- after the first three days it was simply dismal.

I and several of the vendors around me are going to concoct a commercial to be paid for and played on the local (Dearborn and Ripley Counties in SE Indiana) radio station, advising folks that, contrary to appearances from the road outside, there are a number of us open all week, who between us have guns, gun parts, jewelry, beadwork and beadwork supplies, knives and hawks, and other sundries and goods to offer the buying public, and that we would much appreciate being paid a visit. This would primarily only draw in some of the steady traffic moving between the two flea markets that flank the pay-to-get-in NMLRA Commercial Row, but at this point it's slow enough after Tuesday, with four days yet to be slogged through, that something has got to at least be attempted to turn the situation around. It wouldn't help me, since the vast majority of the flea market crowd would never in a million years consider paying the price I have to get for my guns, but due to my low overhead (I live local, so my travel and lodging are financial non-issues) I'm not hurting too awful bad if I sell little or nothing. There is a total count of between six and eight of us, though, clustered on one row, who stay for the duration, and most of the others sell items of much lower cost and much greater appeal to the general public than my guns. For their sake it's worth trying anything we can to get people to wander to the rear area of Commercial Row and have a look-see.

[Papa]

Mike,
Unfortunately I didn't make it to Friendship this Fall but have been hearing the rumblings you are concerned about. I have also heard of a few of the vendors considering the Spring shoot only. Perhaps as an incentive to get some to stay beyond the first weekend, the NMLRA could be asked post something in Muzzle Blasts listing those who "commit to stay longer", prior to the shoot. It might induce someone who can't make it early to come down later in the week anyway.
Mark

[mongrel]

That's not a bad idea, Mark. Not bad at all. It would tie in with the plan of myself and the ones around me, who stick it out, to try and bring it to the public's attention that WE ARE THERE, day-in, day-out, till the end.

Visiting my ex-co-workers earlier today, they told me that for several weeks prior to the Shoots they heard multiple commercial spots on the local radio station for the flea markets that flank either end of the NMLRA grounds, but never a word about the Shoots and the vendors there. That "local station" is background noise in easily half the vehicles, homes, and businesses in this area, and obviously commercials are paid some attention to, or my ex-co-workers couldn't have told me what they'd heard. Like I said before, bringing in a larger amount of local traffic probably won't be of great benefit to me, personally, but the folks selling beadwork, jewelry, knives and hawks, leatherwork, other smaller-ticket items -- they offer quality American-made, often handmade goods, at decent prices.

Ah, well, this is preaching to the choir and accomplishing nothing. Time to get to work.

[Watauga]

Perhaps a Coupon at the gate after paying the gate Fee for the gate amount off the purchase price of things in the Traders row and Primitive sales areas?
As packed as the Flea Markets are somehow they need to get more people to the Venders at the NMLRA Events.
Might Encourage them to find Something to buy?
And advertising that the Venders will be open is a good Idea as you can save a bundle on shipping charges and plus get to see what you are buying.
If you know who is attending and that they will be open.

[mongrel]

"That they will be open" is the whole catch. Quite a few -- I would say well over half -- the vendors in both June and September bug out around Tuesday or Wednesday. Most actually don't have other events to get to, they have a backlog of work waiting at home and have to consider the value of their time when, frankly, after opening weekend we all spend most of each day socializing, visiting the flea markets, catching naps, getting small items of work done in our booths, and a few times a day actually waiting on customers. I would very much like to see more people stay, but in terms of dollars and cents and efficient time management I can think of no compelling reason why they should.

The very nice lady I spoke to, earlier today, about radio advertising, has lived in this area all her life and, obviously, has a vested interest in being aware of events and happenings that might generate commissions for her, for selling commercial spots. Until today, when I explained who I was and what I did, she had heard, vaguely, about something called "the Friendship Shoots" but had no idea when they were held or that they had any relationship to the flea markets that she visits every June and September. So much for the notion that all of SE Indiana knows and takes pride in a twice-yearly tradition going back to the 1930's, which seems to be the NMLRA's view of its own importance.

This is not lack of attention on the part of the general public, it's a failure of communication on our end, and I mean us as individuals in this pasttime as well as the NMLRA. Explaining to me how advertising works, the lady I spoke to today said that it always has to be remembered that the listener to a radio spot or the reader of an ad or article is completely self-centered. If the spot or ad or article doesn't hit a button in terms of "What is this going to do for ME?" the information will "blip" right off the listener or reader's awareness and be forgotten within seconds.

In the course of associating mainly with people like ourselves in thinking and action (including taking part in sports and pasttimes), we sometimes get the highly mistaken idea that what we do and what we enjoy is way more important in the larger picture than is actually the case. People are not wandering around, lost, out there, wishing for participation in muzzleloading to complete their lives. Most people are blissfully unaware of what we do or why we do it. Many of them MIGHT very well enjoy participating, but it's us who have to reach out to them, rather than opening the range at Friendship twice a year or holding rondies and then wondering why the grounds aren't packed with eager newbies and paying customers. The general public is under exactly zero obligation to make itself aware of the NMLRA, of muzzleloading, of shooting in general, of why the ownership and responsible use of firearms is an American birthright.

The responsibility for making that known is on us, and here in my neck of the woods the largest muzzleloading organization in the entire country is failing. And, sadly and infuriatingly, a great many participants in the Shoots give no indication of caring, so long as there's a range and competition to gather into twice a year.

And, just so we're not talking apples and oranges, here -- bringing more warm bodies with money into the Shoot grounds won't really help the NMLRA and the pasttime as a whole. A few might be inspired to try muzzleloading and buy a membership and have that turn into a lifelong enjoyment, but most will, if they do anything, buy a few things and then head on to whichever of the two flea markets they were moving toward when sidetracked through the NMLRA gate. "Local traffic" in SE Indiana isn't going to do much of anything to offset the dwindling national numbers in this sport. Those dwindling numbers can't be attributed to (or, more correctly, blamed on) the NMLRA. That comes down to each of us and our efforts to present this pasttime as something worthwhile and enjoyable enough to rate an investment of time, money, and energy on the parts of people around us.

[Rev]

Exactly right, Mike. I know I am preaching to the choir here, but that is why we have to reach out individually to people who might become interested.
I disagree about it not being the NMLRA's fault, tho. They do very little to reach out to anyone, especially out here in the west. You mention the two national shoots, fact is there are THREE national shoots, & even someone like yourself, as involved in the NMLRA as you are, overlooks the Western National Shoot almost every time. Truth is, 1/3 of the national matches are treated like a red headed step child by the NMLRA.