I've been involved with a local 3-d league for several years now and with a great deal of help run the shoots at my club. Today at our annual meeting, one of the Vermont club reps under new business stated that he had been approached by someone who wanted to know if our league would be interested in hosting an ASA shoot. I have no experience with larger shoots, however I would appreciate any information, input and or personal experieces with either running or shooting at one. We all had questions and wiil be holding a special meeting to see if it's something we can and want to do.

Jim

I haven't been involved with ASA at all, and only had a brief bit of involvement with IBO. Our local club dropped it's affiliation with IBO after a year. But I can tell you generally what to expect.

When you put on a sanctioned shoot, your club rules are null and void for the shoot. You go by the rules set out by the sanctioning organization (org).

The org will generally advertise the shoot in their newsletter, leaving local advertising to the host club.

Sometimes the org will provide awards but more often that's left up to the host club.

All the money the host club makes on concessions and novelties belongs to the host but the org takes a cut of the gate - and the org tells you how much your entry fee is. While it's possible you'll pick up some tournament shooters, maybe even a whole bunch of 'em, your bread and butter will still be the folks who regularly attend your shoots. Now, what you have to find out is: Will your regular shooters pay the jacked up price just to shoot a sanctioned event?

Our regulars wouldn't, and we weren't about to alienate them just to give IBO another venue. Not to mention that not one - zero, zip, zilch - of the IBO shooters showed up for either of the two IBO shoots we tried to put on. So, I can tell you what to do when you put on a shoot and nobody shows up. [&:]

There are some clubs that are successful doing IBO and ASA shoots. It just didn't work for us. On the other hand, we put on a shoot for our state traditional bowhunting organization (Traditional Bowhunters of Texas - TBOT) every year and we always have a good turnout and a lot of fun.

I was thinking that was the way it went, but I wasn't sure so I didn't reply at first. I have heard about a shoot that became "sanctioned", and lots of folks were griping. Guess that's why I've never shot IBO or ASA--no clubs around here wanted to deal with it.

Chad

I'm not sure what to make of it. Just the idea of it is very new to me. Just gathering information to try and make an informed decision when the time comes.

Thanks for the input

Jim