The ATA Needs a drastic Immediate change

That means a change in Presidency, EC, BOD, and almost all State Delegates of one frame of mind. The ATA is being run Like a CLUSTER

Have you seen MASTER CHEF w/ GORDON RAMSEY, To Hell & Back, That is the ATA In it's present form.

EVERY YEAR you reciieve a New PRESIDENT, No REAL LEADERSHIP, Give someone like me that ran a successful Business for 40+ years. Always Financially Stable, Inventory was always being turned over, You ALWAYS UPDATE your BUSINESS, and you have 100% Inventory Control, NO LOSS OF SHELLS.

A Person Like Lynn Gipson is being paid big bucks w/benefits, and not DOING HIS JOB, Look How Long He Has Had it, WHAT THE HELL HAS HE DONE!!!

A business man needs to de the DIRECTOR, He doesn't necessarily need to be a TRAPSHOOTER, BUT IT WOULD HELP..

BIDDING of Targets, Bidding of Shells, Training Trap Help, Training of ENTRY HELP, TELLING THE PEOPLE LIKE RJ STUART, HOW the shoot will be run, Never Closing entries, No pulling Full BANKS W/O Paying for Targets UP FRONT
ABSOLUTELY NO EXCEPTIONS.

NO ATA Mgmt allowed to have a Liquor Tab, No LIQUOR ever on a shoot site. Consume it IN your motorhome not
outdoors.

ATA Officers to be bonded for $1,000,000, Pass a Background Check, and DRUG TESTS, to hold an Office.

State Delegates to be elected for a 2 year term, must be Life Members.

All memberships first 2 numbers are year of joining the ATA Example 18-123456.

Life Memberships to be $250.00. w/a yearly $10.00 Certification Fee. Which I feel is to hold down Cost, making Life Memberships Available to more Average Shooters w/famalies., Dedicated Trapshooters for offices. This will not be a RICHMAN's SPORT w/$1,000 Life Memberships. I paid $100.00 for mine, Costs have risen since then.

A GOOD SOUND PRESIDENT, Must Be a LIFE MEMBER to be elected for a 4 year term, at the same year as US President, Elected BY
LIFE MEMBERS ONLY, in good standing.

The disciplinary Panel composed of 13 LIFE MEMBERS elected every 4 years at time of Presidential election by WRITTEN VOTES, Votes Counted in Open Session during Grand American Meeting.

NO GETTING IN LINE FOR PRESIDENT, AND HE MAY BE ELECTED TO 4 TERMS.

We will need to set up an IMPEACHMENT Process Rules. ALL Officers may be IMPEACHED at ANY TIME.

ARTICLES of IMPEACHMENT need to be written.

I will need to add more as my thoughts are processed & suggested



Gary Bryant ATA Life Member #10126

 

Gary, I agree with most of your ideas listed above, but the catch 22 is the current ATA process for getting changes approved and implemented will never allow these changes or other changes to be implemented. As an example, on the other site, we have one zone vice-president asking the readers of that site for their opinions on 4 things he feels need to be addressed, approximately 38 days before the meeting at the Grand America.

My question is why aren't all the state delegates specifically asking the ATA members in their states what suggestions they think need to be addressed? If this was required, (meaning it not required now), by the ATA rules, by-laws and articles, including a requirement for each state delegates to submit all the rank and file suggestions to their respective zone vice-presidents, at least 3 months before the Grand American. This would give the 5 vice-presidents time to meet and discuss the suggestions of the rank and file members, and then the 5 zone vice-presidents would decide on which suggestions they will present at the Grand meeting to be voted on.

 

Garry,
Your proposal makes to much sense it will never happen ... There was a time when the membership mattered, that changed a long time ago ... WPT ... (YAC) ...

 

wpt, I think you are most likely correct, which is a sad situation. But maybe the rank and file membership should just by-pass their state delegate and e-mail their zone vice-president their list of things they feel need to be addressed, at least 3 months before BOD meeting at the Grand American and then wait and see what is actually presented at the meeting to be voted on. If nothing good happens, then like Just Joe and others have said, we don't need the ATA to move forward with the sport of trapshooting.

 

Garry
There was a time when the membership mattered, that changed a long time ago ... I agree with you but read the first line again ... WPT ... (YAC) ...

 

Garry, I admire your conviction. I haven't shot this year due to new parts added to my body but last year I asked a delegate a question at the OSTA meeting. This was following the delegates report, required by bylaws. The President at the time said the delegate was not required to answer.

I just take pictures now. Thousands. I help locally a little. I hope you are successful. Good luck convincing the VP that did not even win his state delegate election. Ask that question.

Have you forgotten the states OH and PA may have 65% of all the trapshooters in the U.S but they only have 3% of the vote?

Again....best of luck. Fight hard.

 

Family Guy,

My fight with the ATA has just ended. I will support Joe and the others who are charting a new course.

Garry

 

I haven't seen joe chart anything. ???

 

7.5shot, There is a difference between a graph, and a chart.. At the rate members are leaving the registered shooting, the GRAND will be able to be held on any 12 trap layout. Maybe that is the new and fantastic direction that the EC wants. Then one of them can buy the land and sell it to the ATA at an inflated price. OH they have already done that trick. Roger C.

 

So the grand American can be held on 12 trap fields? Am I reading that correctly?

 

Brad, Your reading comprehension is correct. The ATA is throwing about the same total of targets it did when membership was at it's peak. The amount of clubs throwing them has decreased tremendously. THEIR MONEY MAKING BUSINESS PLAN IS KILLING THE NEW REGISTERED SHOOTER FORMAT. They have not listened to the wants of the shooters for about the last 20 years. The results are coming in big time now. There is no insentive for new shooters to sign on for registered trap. The small shoots have fallen by the wayside because of the ATA sponsored AA shoot program.
The ATA shoots; 50 state shoots, GRAND, satalite grands, zone shoots, this does not leave any time for the small clubs to field enough shooters to pay for the time and effort of holding them, needless to mention that a majority of today's shooters are chasing AA points and do not attend local shoots. sad but all to true, lack of fore site . Roger C.

 

Just a thought and NOT to be confrontational or start any arguments, but isn't it a reality that many small registered ATA shoots have fallen by the wayside due to the considerable struggle to find willing volunteer workers to help with all the tasks to successfully put these shoots together and do all the work necessary to run them? I note the frequent comments on this forum and among fellow shooters that it is more and more difficult to find anyone who is willing to give up his/her weekend to help run the administrative squadding, scheduling, and record keeping; then filling machines with targets; scoring; etc. People may complain about not enough ATA shoots available, but ask for volunteers to help run a shoot and far too many are "too busy". Flame away. Ed

 

Old Goat 2,
It is part of the problem, but not the big contributing factor. Not enough shooters show up to make the shoot pay for it's self.That is why a lot of clubs are dropping registered shooting. The paper work after the shoot is time consuming also, and the club gets no renumeration from the ATA for doing all of the work for them. The ATA is all take, and no give, to the clubs that are still trying to have successful registered shoots. They are not promoting at any club that I have attended for many a moon. Roger C.

 

Roger, Very Excellent points, particularly well-stated in the first three sentences of your reply...I totally agree! You are also 110% correct re: the time consuming aspect of the paper work issues after a shoot, but this is a task which even the local workers who run the shoot usually don't want to be burdened with. If the shoot fees are increased locally or by the ATA to try to somehow get the paperwork done, the participation drops even more.

That said, it appears ATA is trying to promote local shoot participation - I have gotten several emails lately notifying me of shoots at clubs in and around (within about 200 miles) of the Kansas City area and inviting/encouraging me to attend. Best Regards, Ed

 

If small clubs are ever going to have "registered shooting" again ..... the ATA is going to have to give people a reason to shoot overpriced practice .....

In today's pick your yardage and class, knowing it takes perfect or near perfect scores then plus more much of the time ..... How are the small clubs going to get people to spend extra money on something, that has little to no effect on their chance of winning anything ?????

 

Your 1st point: Agreed! I have stopped wasting my insulin budget buying any money options, especially on singles events, except an occasional lucky number Lewis option.

Your 2nd point/question: Don't know! Perhaps someone a lot smarter than me has some idea on this. Best Regards, Ed

 

Wait a minute....

Dang, I thought I was reading a NASCAR site.

Same participation levels dwindling because the WIGS don't want to listen to the people supporting the sport.

Race FANS and drivers have no say any more about their entertainment either.

 

Welcome to the New World of Electronics and Open Information Age! I just watched an information piece on the "Today" show explaining how all these companies/organizations know all about us as your cell phones, tablets, and smart TVs capture your selections, including your voice/conversations and catalog your behaviors, including stores using GPS technology following your you via your phone and sending ads to your phone! You get fed what "they" want to influence you with.... including this message. Think not? Do some research... Have a nice day. Ed

 

Well stated. And that reason needs to be a good reason not their typical phony baloney reasons.

 

Sounds to me that the ATA needs those that feel they are not being listened to with THEIR suggestions to run for office, or the positions that will make a difference. Load up the important positions with alike thoughts. That way you can tell if they make a difference, or not. Otherwise being critical really does nothing but make outside participants looking in, remain there.

 

BS---we been there....done that! As posted earlier the states with few shooters outnumber the states with shooters. OH and Pa have over 65% of the shooters and 2% of the vote.

Been there....done that too. We have a VP that didn't win his delegate race.

Wrong again! It tells the whole story.

 

Polite way of saying shut up. Not so polite response is bite me.

 

Well then, hope the ATA folds, and start your own organization to which you can dictate what you want. Could start now, and compete with them. Nothing wrong with open competition. Start a local organization outside the ATA and see what kind of interest there is.

Maybe the ATA needs a similar delegate format of our elections. That would equal out the power of the votes. Clean out the swamp! That is until it is fills back up again.

 

This is why I avoid ATA politics. I just don’t care. I send them $20 per year and in return, I can try to win an occasional trophy at a shoot. I was out of trap shooting for a few years, returned and shot in my state shoot. It was fun and I did pretty well. I could care less about numbers of registered targets, AA points (I honestly don’t know what they are), yardage, zones, how the delegate system works. I’m a guy with a busy career and a young family. I attend a shoot when I have time and break as many targets as I can. I would guess that applies to the vast majority of guys and gals who shoot. It’s a hobby, nothing more. No one pays me to shoot trap, though I would love if they did. I personally find sporting clays more fun, but I’m just better at trap. It also seems to have less burden of a long history. I have no opinion if Sparta is better than Vandalia, and neither do 99.9% of shooters. Let’s focus on having fun.

 

Not to diverge too much from the topic, but that is also why I left the other website. If I did not participate sufficiently in the exact, precise way they desired, I was penalized. That is simply laughable. People have almost infinite recreational and entertainment options today. An organization which places unrealistic demands and lots of hoops to jump through in order to participate will quickly find itself withering. Keep things fun, open and simple,and the organization will flourish.

 

Welcome aboard. Your opinions and concerns are certainly valid and we don't penalize negativity or differences. Feel free to challenge anyone on this site and don't expect banishment for it. Don't expect everyone to agree with your logic either. That's what makes this site fun!