Foxboro IDPA?

C

chrismshanks

Joined
Mar 1, 2014
Messages
134
Likes
38
Feedback: 17 / 0 / 0
Do you live south of Boston?

...enjoy competing in the IDPA or want to start trying?

want to be part of an exciting new IDPA program located perfectly between Plymouth, Worcester, Woburn?

We are in the very preliminary stages of proposing the start of an IDPA program at Independent Sportsman Club, Foxboro, MA to the reluctant Board of Directors

there is a VERY tough hill to climb to get this up and running and your help is needed

1) If you are an existing member of Independent Sportsman club (Foxboro) and are interested in the IDPA, please contact me

2) If you currently have no club affiliation but would more likely consider a club should they offer an IDPA program, please contact me

3) If you currently compete in the IDPA locally and would like to add another facility to places you compete and/or could be available for 1 day a month, please contact me ASAP!

At the last board of directors meeting, we had some board members who outright said "NO", there were some who were curious and one who GREATLY supported the idea of IDPA

Agenda:

- Next up coming board of directors meeting is 10/18/16 @ 730pm (welcome to attend), we'll provide an outline and proposal which would include details of program development over the next year

- We are up against a few board members who are 'jaded' from a prior 'home-grown' action pistol group who were allegedly unsafe, un organized and the program was shut down

- Our intent is to show great respect for the board members tenure & any of their reservations... not looking to poke a bear, just sticking with the facts

- It's necessary for us to show, from the start, that we intend to earn their respect and represent the IDPA League by the letter, thus displaying the typical
+safe firearm handling aspects of the sport as well as welcome any 'outsiders' who respect the clubs they participate at

Long term:

- If our program is considered, it will be our FULL intent to assemble a crew to represent the Club & the League will full IDPA affiliation
- We would get full IDPA RSO certification for the dedicated crew (some pre-requisites may be required)
- Our crew would support other local club's affiliated IDPA events (including helping them advertise), including attending their events
- Our schedule, including practices, will be built around the other local clubs IDPA affiliated events to not conflict and promote growth
- If everything goes perfect, it will be some time before the program is producing 'full' competitions, but we will get there

Again, if you or someone you know want to be part of something exciting, we will need to build a crew & we will need a physical show of support at the next few meetings... not necessarily voices, but definitely head count

my email [email protected]


feel free to ask any questions
 
Posting so I don't lose this thread. I'd be interested in helping and getting into IDPA. I live in town and have been meaning to join.
 
you're dealing with a group of people that see anything other than bullseye gallery shooting as "unsafe" (said while resting the muzzle of their shotguns on their big toe). The matches previously run at this club, while having no national organization affiliation, were well organized, well run, and safe. Before you spend too much of your energy on this effort you should make sure that the board has no intention of keeping you to the rules that they claim the NRA demanded as part of a "range safety survey" and tried to impose on the previous program.

good luck.
 
I wish you luck but you are talking to a brick wall. The former action pistol group stuck to USPSA safety rules almost exactly, were VERY safe and well run program. Unfortunately the board, composed of almost all shotgun guys and only believe in bullseye style pistol shooting imposed such strict rules (no movement, Straight at rear berm & all targets against backstop just to name a few) that it was impossible for those guys to hold any sort of match.
 
I wish you the best if luck in organizing an action pistol program of any flavor. Have you reached out to the folks who used to run the previous program at the club?
 
BostonBullit said:
you're dealing with a group of people that see anything other than bullseye gallery shooting as "unsafe" (said while resting the muzzle of their shotguns on their big toe). The matches previously run at this club, while having no national organization affiliation, were well organized, well run, and safe. Before you spend too much of your energy on this effort you should make sure that the board has no intention of keeping you to the rules that they claim the NRA demanded as part of a "range safety survey" and tried to impose on the previous program.

good luck.
Click to expand...

thanks for the insight, I have yet to obtain any information on what was done previously except for the limited info I got from the other board members

if there is any other perspective you could offer on what they did there, that would be helpful & would make my dialogue topics better chosen

- - - Updated - - -

SJan said:
I wish you the best if luck in organizing an action pistol program of any flavor. Have you reached out to the folks who used to run the previous program at the club?
Click to expand...

I have not, could you steer me in the right direction by any chance?
 
Look up Atty Keith Langer (banned NES'r Scrivener) as he used to compete at Independent. Unsure if he was involved in running it but he'd likely give you a rundown on what occurred there.
 
I suggest that you really shouldn't pursue this until you get information from the action shooters who were previously running matches at the club. You really need to have information about what objections were used to shut down the previous program and who the people were behind getting it shut down. You need to know who your enemies are and the "logic" they are going to use long before it gets to a board vote.
 
Run for a seat on the board...
Put a call out to any current club members shooting IDPA often enough and get your RSO in order.
I don't know how much cash flow can be generated by IDPA match. Some clubs that's all they look at....also some clubs prefer non particpating members.

Maybe get the foot in the door with a scheduled steel plate shoot.
From a little experience any shooting event must be continuous.
Once you stray off a schedule the shooters find other things to do....

Clubs (most) that do not have safe environment for moving around type shooting will not want to put in the effort to make it so...what I see with IDPA is the amount of people needed to make it work...
I would talk with other clubs in the area and see how they started.
 
mac1911 said:
Run for a seat on the board...
Put a call out to any current club members shooting IDPA often enough and get your RSO in order.
I don't know how much cash flow can be generated by IDPA match. Some clubs that's all they look at....also some clubs prefer non particpating members.

Maybe get the foot in the door with a scheduled steel plate shoot.
From a little experience any shooting event must be continuous.
Once you stray off a schedule the shooters find other things to do....

Clubs (most) that do not have safe environment for moving around type shooting will not want to put in the effort to make it so...what I see with IDPA is the amount of people needed to make it work...
I would talk with other clubs in the area and see how they started.
Click to expand...
+1
I feel your pain.
If you haven' already done so, do a detailed inventory of what you have for equipment to work with (Steel, Target Stands, Targets, Timers, staplers etc). Then see what you need.
Don't get too ambitious with number of matches. Schedule only what you can follow through on and run.

Calling Keith would be a good start.

http://www.northeastshooters.com/vbulletin/threads/262048-Matches-at-independent-done?highlight=independent+sportsman
 
Last edited:
mac1911 said:
Run for a seat on the board...
Put a call out to any current club members shooting IDPA often enough and get your RSO in order.
I don't know how much cash flow can be generated by IDPA match. Some clubs that's all they look at....also some clubs prefer non particpating members.

Maybe get the foot in the door with a scheduled steel plate shoot.
From a little experience any shooting event must be continuous.
Once you stray off a schedule the shooters find other things to do....

Clubs (most) that do not have safe environment for moving around type shooting will not want to put in the effort to make it so...what I see with IDPA is the amount of people needed to make it work...
I would talk with other clubs in the area and see how they started.
Click to expand...

all great advice!

I have had the opportunity to speak with a number of other clubs IDPA organizers & have received nothing short of great support, information and offerings of further assistance

even Tom Yost (ex S&W employee, now with Sig Sauer & area coordinator for the IDPA in new England) has been generous with his personal time & direction. Tom has even offered to attend meetings if needed

I expect this to be a slow process, if at all. but... one very small step at a time
 
Knob Creek said:
+1
I feel your pain.
If you haven' already done so, do a detailed inventory of what you have for equipment to work with (Steel, Target Stands, Targets, Timers, staplers etc). Then see what you need.
Don't get too ambitious with number of matches. Schedule only what you can follow through on and run.

Calling Keith would be a good start.

http://www.northeastshooters.com/vb...ependent-done?highlight=independent+sportsman
Click to expand...

I will try to contact him, thanks!

inventory? although helpful advice, that's getting a bit far ahead for me, there will be quite a few months of work to be done before the first shot(s) can even be fired

of course, this all depends on any approval of a program, hence why I need support & head count now
 
ipscdrl said:
PM sent.
Click to expand...

thanks for the information Mike, very enlightening & I greatly appreciate the encouragement

fortunate for all of us, nothing is guaranteed but death and taxes.

This will in fact be a challenge, but if it wasn't worth doing, we shouldn't even bother

again, thanks for your support!
 
Knob Creek said:
+1
I feel your pain.
If you haven' already done so, do a detailed inventory of what you have for equipment to work with (Steel, Target Stands, Targets, Timers, staplers etc). Then see what you need.
Click to expand...

The inventory is going to be a really quick task because we (Hopkinton Sportsmen's Association) bought all that stuff when the program was shutdown...the steel, the walls, everything. It was all well made and well cared for so for us it was a no-brainer. If you'd like to see it stop by for a weds night practice or one of our USPSA match...maybe after a USPSA match you'll forget this silly IDP....ok, sorry, I'll stop now [wink]

The key to success of any type of program like this is 1) club support, mainly the board and 2) staff support. HSA has #1 locked up through the hard work of some longtime members who spent years changing the culture at the club. #2 is something we struggle with even with 900+ members at the club. We have a great group of people that come out to practice and enjoy the sport but not everyone can commit to coming out to setup and help run a match every month. I can easily count the number of people I KNOW will be there for every match on one hand. It's not a dig or "trowing shade" as the kids say these days, it's just the reality. Running monthly matches also puts stress on the club because you're shutting dues paying members out of the facility for a period of time so you have to be careful about that aspect as well.

those are the general pitfalls. feel free to pm me about setting up a program in general, I'm happy to fill you in on the details.
 
chrismshanks said:
Very helpful, thank you for the link. Would love to find out more
Click to expand...

Respectfully, you will need far more than one board member seat or five. Ten may get you a viable chance at a good action pistol program started with reasonable rules. Consider THAT from someone who can speak of these things with very good authority. Feel free to send me an email and if I miss it and don't get back within a day or three reach out through Ghettomedic or IPSCDRL. They have my contact info. Some things are best left off the interwebs.

I'm glad to have stumbled onto this thread.
 
Mooney said:
Respectfully, you will need far more than one board member seat or five.
Click to expand...
It really depends on the board. Some are factionalized and you'll need to get a majority; others operate on the principle of "don't get in my way and I won't get in yours". I even know one where all it took was a single board member to ask for a fish bubbler for the club pond ($1K) and he got no resistance, most likely based on the go along to get along principle.

Two things you can do to make practical shooting valuable to your club:

- Make sure it makes money. Lots of money.

- Do other stuff that helps the club. Make sure your team is represented at club work party days; take on responsibility for some vital portions of the infrastructure; and make sure that more than just your practical shooting matches would be missed if you the rest of the crew vanished. In other words, try to be contributors and not just takers. (another example: It was two of the USPSA shooters who got the call to fix the power feed to the aforementioned fish bubbler, which we gladly did)

I'll get calls to fix stuff at the club on an emergency basis that is completely unrelated to the USPSA program, but my contribution is definitely seen as "coming from one of those handgun people" and cannot hurt the cause.
 
Last edited:
Good luck, I'd love to see an action pistol program of any sort at Foxboro. It was one of my favorite matches when they had them regularly.

- Cuz.
 
Thanks for the encouragement

I think that's good and healthy advice to offer more services to the club for 'help' and have more representation than just 'those action pistol guys'
 
Miamivice said:
Following. I'm a member.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

If you are a member, please make time to come by the BOD meeting on this Tuesday night @ 730pm

not really looking for 'voices' at this meeting, but we could REALLY use more of a 'headcount' that the BOD can visually see

I want to show them we can and are respectful of other shooting disciplines & appreciate their opinions and concerns
 
M1911 said:
Checkout what is happening to IDPA at Woburn Sportsmens Association.
Click to expand...

What is happening at WSA is a dispute over a single range being used by IDPA. The program is NOT going to be shut down or stopped.

WSA has invested significant money over the last three years, too much to stop the program. John I. has spent so much time and effort to build the program and he is committed to keeping it going. I have been working with John for last 6 months helping him so he does not have to do so much work and I am also committed to keeping the program going. I refuse to get into specific details but there are plans in place to try and resolve the dispute over the range in question. In the mean time the program will continue without using that range.

As of yesterday afternoon John and I decided to continue with the program so the Sunday night practices are on and I am working on the November match which should go off as planned.

It was an unfortunate thing that happened however the program will continue.
 
Last edited:
ddraper said:
What is happening at WSA is a dispute over a single range being used by IDPA. The program is NOT going to be shut down or stopped.

WSA has invested significant money over the last three years, too much to stop the program. John I. has spent so much time and effort to build the program and he is committed to keeping it going. I have been working with John for last 6 months helping him so he does not have to do so much work and I am also committed to keeping the program going. I refuse to get into specific details but there are plans in place to try and resolve the dispute over the range in question. In the mean time the program will continue without using that range.

As of yesterday afternoon John and I decided to continue with the program so the Sunday night practices are on and I am working on the November match which should go off as planned.

It was an unfortunate thing that happened however the program will continue.
Click to expand...

I had full faith anyway, that program is sound & a great model for smaller clubs, like ours, to follow
 
Tomorrow night @ 730pm is the meeting, I would like to encourage all members who are interested in a IDPA program at Independent sportsman club to attend... nothing is guaranteed to us, but we can be more convincing if we have people there showing support

If we all display respect at this meeting like we do when we attend our local action shooting events...we'll be speaking volumes for the promotion of the program
 

Similar threads

  • Sticky
New England Regional IDPA
Replies
0
Views
117
BillV
B
Worcester Pistol Rifle Club IDPA May 11
Replies
0
Views
78
john1911
john1911
Worcester Pistol & Rifle Club IDPA April 13
Replies
0
Views
75
john1911
john1911
Intro to Action Shooting and IDPA
Replies
0
Views
146
Amputee Marksman
Amputee Marksman
Woburn Action Shooters Tier 1 Cinco deMayo IDPA Match - May 4, 2024
Replies
0
Views
68
Amputee Marksman
Amputee Marksman
Back
Top Bottom