How Do I Get to Run or Sponsor an Event?
Gerhard Schroeder	November 1994
So you haven't run (set up , organized, sponsored, etc.) any of our club's events? Well, no problem, it is not exactly required, or even expected. On the other hand, if you would like to do it, but just don't know how, or what's involved, or how to go about it, following are some information and suggestions in somewhat random order: Please remember that the objective for all our events is to have fun, NOT to win prizes. 1) As the sponsor, you get to make the decisions on what the rules are, how the scoring is done, what prizes are available, and how to give them out. For example, the Action Pistol event requires a lot of organizer decisions, because nothing is predetermined, like it is, say, for a silhouette shoot. As another example, Bruce Bennett wanted to conduct a pistol silhouette shoot like official leagues do it, instead of our somewhat more loosely conducted HSC version. So he sponsored that event and had us shoot in the "proper" manner. 2) Contact the treasurer to get the club funds, money, to buy refreshments and prizes. Again, you decide on what to get. 3) If the event is to be held at Ben Avery range, be there at 8am, go to the public range and let the rangemaster know that HSC will be at the (whatever) range, and that you will pay afterwards. Then, afterwards, pay according to how many shooters participated. If your event is in the desert, more work will be required of you, because you have to either provide, or arrange for all the stuff that is needed to have a shoot. Desert Action usually takes a lot of steel targets, and the shotgun events require traps and clays at a minimum, and if you set it up as nicely as Dan Martinez did our first Sporting Clays event, a whole lot more. 4) Try to team up with one or more members to ease the workload: one buys refreshments, one the prizes, one prepares the score sheets, one arranges that the club's targets will be there, etc. 5) To get "your feet wet", offer to help a sponsor on one or several of the coming events. Or, if you are a creative person and have ideas on what could be fun to try, or is just plain different, but you don't want to sponsor a whole event, just get in touch with the folks that might incorporate your portion. 6) Even though most events are club funded, nothing prevents anybody from scheduling and conducting an unfunded event in addition to the yearly scheduled ones. We scheduled a .22 rifle silhouette event in August, and simply upped the fee by a dollar to have a few boxes of .22's as prizes. But even prizes are not a neccessity. If you want to conduct an additional event, just make sure the word gets out ahead of time. 7) A couple of comments about any event itself. We've gained quite some experience over the years while doing the desert action events. Try to have the event not go past 11am to 12 noon, most participants want to split around midday. Keep 'em shooting, avoid long waits or early eliminations; for instance, during the Sporting Clays shoot, groups of three to four shot simultaneously at the different stations, or during desert action we have teams of 2 to 4 shooters shoot simultaneously, with each receiving a team score. Use targets that do not litter and can easily be set up again, replaced or that don't need setup at all. And above all, make sure that everything is safe! So, what are you waiting for? © Honeywell Sportsman Club. All rights reserved.

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