i view this entire ibo thing as a grass roots deal. fastfletch is right in his statement new shooters have no idea what the ibo is, or what it is about. getting them involved in the clubs is the beginning. the invitation to the ibo world shoot is the pinnacle, likened by some to an invite to the olympics. once these new shooters are educated to the process to get to the big dance, then the problem starts. with the hunter class being one of the larger classes, by fastfletches own admission, it would be even harder for the average bowhunter to get the invitation, with the toploaded talent in that class.

another problem, the ibo has initiated the rule that you have to be an ibo member to participate in qualifiers. in the past, we only passed along the addional 5 dollar fee the ibo directed us to. with the average cost of a qualifier being 20 dollars, the additional 25 dollars paid by a person who has no interest in the ibo has definately showed up on the national level. part of the money gained by the qualifiers goes into the world purse. by the numbers present at the ibo this year, i would say people did not participate in many qualifiers. the ones who are truly interested paid, and shot. the problem is the new guy who has a desire to go, but is not yet an accomplished shooter, has to shoot the top scores to be able to go. multiple qualifiers doesnt help. i qualified multiple times this year, and in all likelyhood bumped someone who really wanted to go. once you qualify, you should be able to participate in local qualifiers, but scores not count toward the overall qualifier, enabling more folks to get in if they have not qualified. make it mandatory to be a member for the national level shoots, but not the local qualifier.

this is the grass roots foundation we need. it starts from the bottom up, at the club and local level. the hunter class has evolved into a huge class we all agree. the ones who do not see it as a problem may not have a problem locally, and only see the sucess on the national level. locally, the ibo affiliated clubs, or clubs who use the ibo rules are getting beat to death with targets, and folks who have ability way beyond the hunter class.

initiate a semipro and pro pins class, reduce the max yardage in the mbr to 40 yards, have a seniors class for hunter and mbr. the guy who says he is compfortable with the 35 yard max, and only attends to practice and have a good time, will always be what drives ahead of all other things in the ibo. no one is going to get rich shooting a bow. after every national shoot i attend, even if i win money, i still have to go to work on monday. the idea that we can move up without being forced to is something the ibo is very fair about. i agree that folks should not be forced to move up, but merely think that an avenue for progression be available.