Mike McKeown who is putting on the Pacific Airgun Expo on March 7 & 8 at the Eldorado County Fairgrounds in Placerville is looking for volunteers to help during the show. Mike has indicated that even just a couple of hours on Saturday or Sunday would be really appreciated. Mike is taking on the entire financial burden of hosting this show, and is looking for people to help him make sure the show is a success and helps promote the airgun sport that we all love. Mike is also looking for help in promoting the show by getting flyers out to your local sporting goods and gun stores as well. I know many of the members of the Diablo Club in Concord have volunteered to help so hopefully we can add to the workforce for Mike and reduce the hours required for everyone.
The web site for the show is:
http://www.pacificairgunexpo.comIf you can help at the show contact Mike directly at:
[email protected]The Sacramento Valley Airgun Benchrest and Field Target Club (us, well Scott and I at the moment) has volunteered to do some Field Target Demonstration Sessions on Saturday and Sunday. So if any of you are at the show and available during the sessions and would like to help answer questions from show attendees you are welcome to help.
Below are some questions and answers Mike has provided so far, with some other information he has shared with me.
I hope you can attend the show and give Mike a hand. This is a great way to help our sport.
On a sad note, I was notified a couple of weeks ago that Ken Mcdole passed away after a long battle with his illness. Many of you know Ken from all the Sacramento Airgun events where he was a regular attendee and often brought friends to introduce them to our club and members. I met Ken at the first Fun Airgun Shoot I attended about 5 years ago at Ione and had the pleasure of sharing his company at many of our events over the years. He was one of our biggest supporters and a great ambassador for our sport. We will miss his great friendship and the support that he gave us.
Thanks
Jim
Q&A with Mike:
Q: Is there a planning meeting in the works? You know for work assignment, etc.
A: not yet
Q: Does the working poor get in free?
A: The financial failure of the previous two events was everybody who helped got free entry or free tables, and since pretty much that’s about everyone, it was one reason the events were significant financial losses. I’m hoping that the airgun community will want this event to continue to help grow our sport and our industry and will be willing to work and pitch in the entry or table fee. But if it’s a financial hardship, I’d rather have helpers
Q: Free parking?
A: The fairgrounds is charging some small amount for parking…I forget at the moment…might be $5. The show doesn't get any of that. They were willing to not charge for parking if we provided the parking attendants, which I doubt we have enough volunteers for. There isn't an actual parking lot per se so parking is around the building and has to be managed by someone.
These are some of the many questions.keep ‘em coming…you might be thinking of something I haven’t thought of. This is our first time, and I’m sure we’ll forget plenty.
Quote for previous Email from Mike
"I would want to impress on potential helpers that they are not helping me, show-promoter-Michael, make money. I hope to only lose a thousand dollars based on previous show experience. This is not a for-profit venture (though we are not yet a legal ’non-profit’ so legally we are a ‘for profit’ except that we probably won’t make any actual profit). Our entire focus is on promoting the airgun shooting sports in California and promote the vendors so that they can grow and continue to provide us with the goodies we need for our favorite sport.
Finally, another big big help would be if you or your people have a relationship with any vendor, business, or hobbyist, please encourage them to have a table at the show. Both of the previous events I rented a table just so I could have a place to hang out for the two days and chat with people, but anyone in the industry would be great to have at the show.
If we do not make enough money to pay forward at least some of next year’s expenses (I’m at $4k so far), airgun shows in California will be a dead proposition, so it is imperative that all of us that want to grow our sport help make this a success. At some point in the future it may be a turnkey operation that requires little effort with people and vendors flocking to the venue, but where we’re at now is at the grass roots level and I hope everyone will be on board to help make it happen. We all have to benefit from the Pacific Airgun Expo being a success, and it will certainly take many of us that care about our sport to make it happen."
by sacshooter » Sun Feb 01, 2015 11:32 am 
