Idea on educating the community...

9026543 said:

The rise of missouricarry.com is a classic example of this. The founder kept total control as should be until it became a C3 organization then a board of directors was elected from and by the membership and they were supposed to have control but the original founder kept the BOD under his thumb and control. Now it is going to be merged with MSSA. Who knows what that will bring.
So be very careful with forming a organization or it will have the same problem.

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I am not so sure it was or is a problem. It wasn't such a problem that I avoided donating monies their direction and supported events.

It also was not a problem that they did not openly discuss what was going on to prevent the plans from being undermined.

The only problem you have remotely identified is internal politics, there are some, there will be within any org. It is simply a matter of somethings having priorities over others and some folks do not like it. That really is just kind of tough potatoes because that is pretty much how the world goes round. Internal politics are often far worse from the outside view when you have folks moaning and groaning making it sound bad when it isn't at all. You know what I mean, the kind of person who rarely says anything but when they do it is a complaint of some sort.

Despite your implied falsities about Zak, he has to my knowledge never done a thing but work for the gun rights of all Missouri residents and work pretty darn hard. My first meeting with him was several years ago and he was motivating others to join orgs beyond his own and has never claimed to be the do all end all org at all.

^^^I have to agree. Again. They were organized and did what they set out to do.

Randy,

It is very important you consider the human element of things and the harsh reality that truly exist. thre are just over 22k members of this web space with just over 700k in post that averages to 35 post per member, I have over 10 times that rate and i have only actively been posting here since April.

That does not make me "more" than anyone else, however, it does indicate clearly how reluctant folks really ar to get involved in even discussing the issue, let alone trying to change it. 22,513 people registered across all fifty states aka 0.000073% of the population and this excludes the non=us registered guest. the fact is, open carry is not important to far less than one in a million persons.

Even if one decided that 100% of the activity was from Missouri and all of the registered users were from MO, your still talking under 4%.

Folks can talk all the smack they want, but the reality is about 60% of the population owns guns, only about 30% bother to vote and out of the 30% that are part of the 60% only about 50% pay enough attention to the record of those they vote for and the issues.

Ask yourself one very serious question and you do not have to answer it, but did YOU even bother voting in the August elections?

Before one puts together a political action org, they really need to ask themselves if they really bother enough to fool with it. It is great to talk about it, it is totally different to actually DO something about it.

A lot of folks may indicate they did indeed vote, the two largest areas of the state, voter turn out:
KANSAS CITY 13.47%
ST LOUIS CITY 13.66%

Anymore questions on your disappointment with the response rate? Voting is the ULTIMATE expression of free speech, but the reality is, folks just want to whine a lot, sit on their butts while about 15% of the folks make the rules.

IMHO vote or shut your freakin pie hole.

There are folks who will indeed cry the rally cry, but in the end, won't even bother to be inconvenienced enough to actually step into the booth and cast a ballot. Pay close attention to the GAME and know your moves or your just wasting energy on the right thing but with the wrong strategy.

i am a bitter gun owner, i vote and i make it a point to be educated on the issues at hand and the candidates on the ballot. that said.....

i really hate to admit it but i'm going to have to agree with LMTD (say it ain't so! ) on the point of there being proportionally more whiners than there is do'ers. and it's the same across the net on every single board i am a posting member of and the subject matter matters not. more folks would rather sit in their mommy's basement and whine about things rather than actually get off their collective assess and do something about it.

they also have the mentality that since they see others taking a stand, or voting etc., that they can sit back and things will take care of themselves. but when it doesn't, they get right back to crying.

IMO, if you don't try to better/change/influence the world around you then you have no right to cry about it when things don't go your way.

i personally am all for getting this thing going but i am also aware that i am one of the few. but that awareness does not deter me from working towards this goal. JT59 along with LMTD seem to have the knowledge as far as what kind of org can be done and what rules apply to each. i will do some further reading and learning on this.

i know we are not jumping out of the gate like a quarter horse but hey, old mares can still make the finish line too.

I must confess...

I must confess that I too must agree with LMTD, as much as I am loathe to admit it! hahaha. He has brought out some good points in his usually subdued and refined way.

Broondog, I am with you! I am also still on board with making a strident effort in getting this thing airborne! Are numbers are few, but we are mighty!

With the experience of those you mentioned, along with CSHOFF...there seems to be enough knowledge and expertise available to make a pretty good go of it.

I also will continue to study and get myself more knowledgable so I can be of some use in this effort.

Some good discussion here, guys. LMTD touched on some good points that I believe anyone interested in taking the first steps in creating an organization would be well served to take under advisement. Like I said earlier in this thread, you must have a clear message to "take to the people" to try to bring them into the "movement", and you also must be able to clearly identify what that "movement" is. Until the message is precise and clear, and until the movement is clearly identifiable, it's really nothing more than a lose exchange of ideas.

With that said, there is no reason that the beginning stages of an organization can't be based around a well organized website and forum such as what MissouriCarry started with. IMO, it would be foolish to overlook their successful and effective example. A website wouldn't have to be set up as an official non-profit to begin with, as long as someone is willing to invest the capitol to keep it running until it can become self sustaining. This approach would provide the opportunity to organize thoughts, recruit members, work out details, and find volunteers who are willing to work in areas where they have experience and strength.

Remember, you don't have to necessarily be the biggest or the oldest organization out there to be effective. But you do have to be well organized, consistent, and viewed as non-extreme if you want to be taken seriously.

I'm new at all this but very willing to help.

How about an unofficial "club" first to determine interest and direction. As stated before, it can determine the type of org that shall develop when it comes time to incorporate.

Beyond that, I am not a fan of discussing such things in open public at all, it is very unwise and I will not be a party to it if that is the direction folks decide to go.

I'm a Certified Volunteer Administrator, so I'd be more than happy to help with the logistics of organizing, fundraising, finding sponsors and the recruitment of helpful and willing souls beyond these here cyber walls. As well, I do stand up comedy , so I'm more than comfortable going out into the public and doing some speaking if necessary. I'm of an artsy soul, so design might be another branch for me, though I don't necessarily have the tools available for "graphic" or web design.

This sounds Great!! So.....

It appears that there is enough expertise and willingness to get started and in getting a website up and running.

What is the very first thing we need to do first?

randyj said:

It appears that there is enough expertise and willingness to get started and in getting a website up and running.

What is the very first thing we need to do first?

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IMO we need to get together and set the mission parameters and ultimate goals. the question is, do we do this face to face or over the webz? or by phone?

there is a slight possibility that i can get us access to a secure forum (password access) on a little known board run on a private server. would that be acceptable?

Broondog said:

IMO we need to get together and set the mission parameters and ultimate goals. the question is, do we do this face to face or over the webz? or by phone?

there is a slight possibility that i can get us access to a secure forum (password access) on a little known board run on a private server. would that be acceptable?

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This was more or less what I had hoped to do before. Set up a private discussion area to determine goals. Despite lots of interest, only two ever bothered to register. I set it up in such a way that ownership of the group could be passed on via click of a mouse.

Other folks may differ, but I have to use the goals and objectives methods, I just get scrambled up if I do not.

I can support this...

LMTD said:

This was more or less what I had hoped to do before. Set up a private discussion area to determine goals. Despite lots of interest, only two ever bothered to register. I set it up in such a way that ownership of the group could be passed on via click of a mouse.

Other folks may differ, but I have to use the goals and objectives methods, I just get scrambled up if I do not.

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I can support this. We can make this happen! I know we can...let's just stay focused, be flexible with a spirit of compromise..and lets get this bird airborne!

randyj said:

I can support this. We can make this happen! I know we can...let's just stay focused, be flexible with a spirit of compromise..and lets get this bird airborne!

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I can as well. I'd be willing to offer my opinions and suggestions if we have the luxury of a private forum, or even a place we could all meet (probably harder to work out than just using the internet).

cshoff said:

I can as well. I'd be willing to offer my opinions and suggestions if we have the luxury of a private forum, or even a place we could all meet (probably harder to work out than just using the internet).

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yeah, considering we are spread out across the state getting together FTF would be difficult at best.

i just put in the request for a private forum to a friend of mine. i think he'll do it. this would be the ultimate in private considering the board and server are housed in his personal dwelling. he ran a real nice temp board while our "home board" was down due to legal issues.

ok the private forum has been agreed to and will be set up shortly. those who are seriously interested in this venture can PM me for the link to the main board so you can set up a user account. once the sub forum is ready i will set your permissions and give you the password to gain the secure access.

hopefully y'all will use your OCDO usernames so we all know who is who.

Broondog said:

ok the private forum has been agreed to and will be set up shortly. those who are seriously interested in this venture can PM me for the link to the main board so you can set up a user account. once the sub forum is ready i will set your permissions and give you the password to gain the secure access.

hopefully y'all will use your OCDO usernames so we all know who is who.

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Okay, Broondog, I'm in on the private forum. Thanks for setting it up. I hope to see the others there over the next day or two.

I'm trying..

cshoff said:

Okay, Broondog, I'm in on the private forum. Thanks for setting it up. I hope to see the others there over the next day or two.

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I'm trying to get there. I will see you soon! It's great to know you will be there.

all access requests are being honored. let's git er dun!

i do think that this is a good idea and it should be done. we all should figure out how to start and org. it might be difficult at first but look at what it could become. i vote yes on the idea and say we should start an org