When was the last time that you offered to take a non-shooting co-worker or casual acquaintance shooting? Just when I was beginning to think that interest in shooting was declining; I discovered that there are many potential shooters who just do not know where to begin. On September 21 and 22, I helped man the Friends of NRA tent at the Hoosier Outdoor Experience at Fort Benjamin Harrison State Park. This event, organized by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and funded by grants from several organizations, including a significant grant from the Friends of NRA, was spread over much of the 1700-acre park. Activities included hands-on opportunities to learn about everything from outdoor motorsports to fishing, hiking, and backpacking, but two of the most popular were trap shooting and archery. We were located between the trapshooting and the archery/airgun venues. While only a portion of the 13,000 visitors to this outdoor experience passed in front of our tent, all had huge smiles on their faces. Many of those that I queried had come to this free event specifically to shoot trap or archery. Although our purpose in staffing the NRA/ISRPA tent was to share information about shooting programs, it became apparent that many of these novice shooters did not know enough about our organizations to even stop and ask about how we could help them. This event will be repeated September 18-19 in 2010. If you are affiliated with a gun club or would just like to help advertise shooting sports to the public, please consider helping us to design and staff a booth to share these opportunities with an enthusiastic, but uninformed public in 2010. Banners that say “Learn about shooting in Indiana” and knowledgeable representatives who can talk about their shooting sports and clubs may be a good place to start. Please share your ideas, but in the meantime, invite an acquaintance to go shooting with you.

Places to shoot in Indiana are tabulated in a booklet prepared by the ISRPA. I will have extra copies at the annual meeting and we hope to have this resource on-line soon. We would also like to tabulate contact for the 4-H shooting programs in each county, along with the nature of the individual programs. Please try to get this information for your county and share it with me.

The Annual ISRPA Meeting and Awards Banquet will be November 21 at the Ricks Center, a newly remodeled Theater in Greenfield. This is a new venue for this meeting with a great sound system (even old hearing-impaired shooters should be able to actively participate). Thanks to Dave Scott of the Hancock County Visitors Bureau and our ISRPA board member representing the NCOWS group, facility use is free and your only cost is for the meal, catered by Victoria Rose at a cost of $20.00. Our banquet speaker this year will be our NRA legislative liaison, Ashley Varner. She is both an enthusiastic supporter of both the Second Amendment and shooting sports and is knowledgeable in both state and national politics. We hope that you will let her share her enthusiasm with you on November 21. Please RSVP before Nov 18 by sending $20.00 per person (checks to the ISRPA) to me at 755 W 300 N, Greenfield, IN 46140. Match Directors and Board members, please send your electronic photos and other items to be displayed on our 16 foot screen to me so that we can get them organized (PowerPoint presentation format is best, but we will try to work with whatever you send).

It is with great sadness that I end with a note on the recent untimely passing of my friend of 30 years, John (Jack) Reboulet. Some of you may have chatted with him at his booth at the Indy 1500 gun show or stopped at his new gun shop in Greenfield. He was an avid outdoorsman, one of the most natural shots with any kind of gun that I have ever met, and a great friend to many. He will surely be missed.

Bill Jordan

President, ISRPA