President's Message
Summer 2010
July 23, 2010
Overview
About midway through the 2010 season it appears that match attendance is near the same, or a bit above 2009 levels. By winter meeting time I will do a more complete review of our trends to say for sure. Overall, the state of IBS registered competition is stable.
Annual Meeting
The IBS Annual Meeting (AKA Winter Meeting) will be held January 14-15, 2011 in New Cumberland (Harrisburg), PA. Later this year please check elsewhere on the IBS web site for full details. If you have never been to the Annual Meeting you might find it of interest. I find the opportunity to meet old friends or make new ones to be valuable. Also, anytime I can talk benchrest nonstop for a day or so is great.
We only have three or four agenda items to deal with this year. The details of which will soon be posted on the web site. I will consult with the Executive Board, but this year might be a good time to try to have a "roll up the sleeves" work session to see how we can do things better as a shooting body and how to grow our sport.
The Executive Board and I want to hear from you. If you have ANY questions that we should address at the meeting or other comments that you want entered into the record please email me at jstover33@verizon.net. We ARE truly looking for input from our membership.
"Black Rifles" in IBS?
Well, the "black rifle" craze has yet to take hold at the bench. Last November I made a pitch to the rest of the Executive Board: why not allow AR and AR-style rifles to compete at IBS matches? I was not laughed off. In fact, I was proud of the Board. They said let's try it on an experimental, one-year basis and see how it goes. We have had only a handful of AR shooters at some of the matches. It was set up as a trial basis, but I think we should not give up.
I wonder if we could get vendor and manufacturer support (i.e. Rock River, et. al.) to sponsor some sort of money and prize shoot? Think of it as a "prime the well" endeavor. Comments and suggestions about AR's in IBS competition are welcome! If you are active in AR circles we need your guidance.
Just for the record here are the reasons we support AR rifles in benchrest:
- It furthers IBS mission of fostering extreme rifle accuracy
- Introduce new shooters to bench rest shooting and adds new IBS members
- IBS may become the primary vehicle to showcase the ultimate accuracy of “black rifles”
- The AR rifle community is an extraordinarily large and active group that should not be ignored
- New shooters at the matches may gravitate to traditional BR rifles
- Infuse the IBS and IBS-matches with new enthusiasm
- Raise the profile of benchrest shooting amongst other serious riflemen
Future Plans
I had hoped by now we would have had a survey implemented through one of the sites like, surveymonkey.com. I think we need to assess the needs of IBS members and the benchrest community in general. We need to know, and assess, our strengths and weaknesses. We have had many persons leave competition, why is that? Have they gone on to other disciplines? If so, what do those forms of shooting offer that we do not, or cannot bring to the shooter? What can we do better? How can we bring more shooters to the line? If anyone would like to lend some help on this project, please let me know! (This section is taken from the Winter 09 message and NO ONE volunteered! Please donate your time and expertise to benchrest. We need help on this one).
IBS Website
The new web site has been well received. Thanks go to Dick Grosbier for his continued dedication to keep it current.
Great shooting to all and see you on the range!
Jeff Stover
President