Appleseed - Denver donation meet up.

[CHA-LEE]

I don't want to sound like a dick, but why is the "financial burden" always on the event coordinator/organizer? Don't get me wrong, I have probably donated over 1000 rounds of ammo to support different shooting disciplines through the years. But I think these groups need to start thinking about this stuff differently. Shooting has expenses (Guns, Gear, Ammo, Targets, etc) and if you can only gain participants by providing "free" stuff, then what kind of expectation are you really setting? Hobbies and other fun activities cost money to do that that expectation needs to be set up front. If they don't know what ammo or targets to bring, then they can bring some cash to pay for the ammo or targets they shoot up.

I could promote and host a USPSA match that provided all of the guns, gear, and ammo for free. It would probably pull in a shit ton of shooters ready and willing to burn up a bunch of ammo for free. But the retention of those "Mooches" would be pretty minimal when they have to actually open up their wallet and pay for the crap on their own. So how effective was that effort? Not very effective.

I understand that some people like bringing new shooters into the shooting sports and know that dangling the carrot of "Free Shooting" is a great marketing tool. But these people need to understand that their expensive marketing plan needs to be funded within their own budget. If they can't or are not willing to invest their own $$$ in to that type of marketing effort, then they should probably change their strategy instead of begging for ammo or money from others to fund the effort.