Things to think about
We tried that after the meeting/dinner @ Manu's restaurant ....... failed miserably... got shot down....
Ok, so (some) of the folks at the dinner meeting didn't think it was a good idea, how many were there? ....and is that representative of the feelings of the entire group of people that
may wish to be involved?
How long ago was this?....has anything changed in the politics, progress, momentum or demographics of the group (like we got way bigger, or the "lurkers" are showing up by the dozens.
It
is important to the process of guaging interest to do it in a number of different forums, and a number of different ways....you also have to do it over time (go slow), to allow for the people that are regularly monitoring activity to those that only visit occasionally...
A lot of times, these ideas of organization, jump straight to the conclusion of structure and beauracracy and how it "won't work". Its often based on peoples personal experience with other organizations that are pretty ineffective or have lost their way (think about peoples rants or support to the NRA on this forum).
Keeping an open mind and letting the process develop the discussion of establishing the needs....which looks at how things are working now vs how they might...allows
everyone to be heard. Something may emerge, maybe not....but if you just shoot down the idea from the get go, you never know what good may have come from it.
Resistance to change is about as natural as it gets....you can look at that personally or in nearly any of the relationships or activities that you are in (employer, gov't, clubs, teenagers)....
Anyway,
The initial question could be as simple as "Do you think there
could be value in formalizing an organization to represent this specific segment of the gun community?"...if the answer is Yes, then take the next step, if NO, then OK, stop.
Once you've established that the interest is high enough (you'll need 50+ people willing to get it started and then 150-300 people to make it "survivable" and 300-1000 to make it sustainable) depending on what it's focus is and how much it costs.
Questions that come later develop a "needs analysis" of folks from the intial question:
"Yes, but, that depends on (pick your response)"...and then you begin to frame the issues.
It could be:
Education (community)
Segment representation (Ie: CC vs OC or...CC
and OC, to common issues)
Training Opportunities
Legislative representation
Political advocacy (pic-nics)
Legal support
Cool Logo wear
...whatever.
...and then you see if these are the things that are important enough to "organize" around....if not, then OK, you stop.
My experience with managing over 250 employees in my past working life and participating in various volunteer organizations with as many as 5,000 members, is that people
join and
participate in companies and organizations for three basic reasons (IMO)...
They have something to contribute
They hope to affect change
They get some recognition or satisfaction out of what they are doing.
They
stay because all of the above are satisfied over time. The sustainability of the organization, employer, gov't, volunteerism or whatever is linked in its ability to consistently meet all those basic needs concurrently....otherwise, they don't step up, lose interest, get bored, quit donating, and/or go away.
There will always be detractors and supporters and those in the middle waiting (the "independents" in the upcoming election) for some impetus to make a decision...but in some ways, it's the nature of the growth of a grass roots movement into something else...IMO - it doesn't need to be "either/or" as much as "both/and"...
It's the beauty of a bell curve...and the saying "lead, follow, or get out of the way"...
....looking forward to your feedback!:idea: