Tricities chapter of TFA

[Guest Hyaloid]

I hate being outdone by other regions of the state. Would anyone be interested in organizing a NE/Tricities chapter of the TFA?

I have no idea about the logistics, but I am thinking a quarterly meeting to begin (so as to maximize attendance, and minimize perceived inconvenience), but the most important part will be organizing and promoting the organization on a grass roots level.

Anyone interested in working with me on this?

Because of the birth of my new son, I don't know if I can dedicate a ton of time until things calm down a touch, but it is definitley something I'd like to explore.

[Guest SomeGuy]

If you do decide to start one up, here are a couple of little things I found out after I started the Chattanooga chapter.

First and foremost, let John know. He can help. Lots. (Mass TFA alerts for example.)

You will get help from the rest of the TFA. Advice, speakers, etc. John was kind enough to come and be our first guest speaker, and we pretty much chatted his ears off. It was supposed to be 11-1, and I think we kept him till after 3. (I felt kind of bad afterwards, because I know how busy he is and how hard he works. Time really did fly though.)

So, if you are worried about being tossed out on your own, don't be.

I think the single most time-consuming activity, (post start-up) is finding good speakers. Even then, it doesn't take long (generally).

When I started mine up, I called people. (TFA members from the surrounding area.) The personal touch brought out quite a few to the first meeting.

Before you start rounding people up, you need a meeting place. Pre-start up is the heaviest work.

First, select a time that will be good for you, and hopefully as many others as possible. You will not be able to please everyone. Set a time, and stick with it.

Place. I chose a restaurant. Memphis has a gun range. Nashville I think has a gun shop. Knoxville uses a restaurant. Find a place that works - I made it a point to make sure people carrying guns openly would not be an issue. It wasn't, I found my place. (Food was reasonably priced, they had a room, worked for me.) Once you have determined the place, make sure they are on board with how often you will meet.

You just need to call likely members, (or spread the word through your own preferred method) and you have started a chapter.

[Marswolf]

We had a local guy who tried to start a TFA chapter that met at Unaka R&G. Bad location and I don't think he had the commitment to get it going. It does take time. If you don't think you will have the time, I'd wait until you do.

If something does get going, it needs to be at a restaurant as far as I'm concerned. It also needs to be monthly. People mark their calendars for monthly meetings. They forget about quarterly ones.

Morristown has a group that meets monthly. You might talk to them.

Personally, I'd rather just have a Tri-Cities gun owners organization and let the TFA folks meet with us if they liked. If I had time, that's what I would do.

[Guest Hyaloid]

Thanks for the replies and advice. I appreciate all that's been said thus far.

Marswolf, I am not averse to setting up a "Tricities Gun Owners" organization, but my concerns would be the following:

It could be a plus or minus, but I would worry about diluting the purpose of the organization. Would we carry more clout if we focused solely on political aspects (ala TFA)?

If we diversify, would we garner higher membership?

If not solely political action, what other services would the membership expect?

If it were just a firearm organization, then perhaps TFA items could be covered quarterly... I dunno, just thinking out loud.

[Marswolf]

I suspect you would get a lot more people showing up if they didn't feel they needed to pay TFA dues.

I suggest you do what I did several years ago. Go to some gun shops and ask the proprietors and customers what they think of TFA. I think you will get a lot of blank stares. Even the owners didn't know much about it. One of the few comments I got was that the TFA "is a lawyer in Nashville who takes your money." Whether that is a fair assessment or not, I'm not prepared to say. I have commented before about Harris several years ago not even having time to have a state convention.

I think a Tri-cities gun owners group would produce a lot of grassroots support politically while not being a strictly political organization.

[Guest SomeGuy]

Regarding dues,

There is not a chapter I know of that mandates people who attend meetings pay dues to the TFA. I encourage it (maybe, once a year at MOST), but at the first meeting I made it clear it was not required.

I would encourage you to be affiliated with the TFA. Just because you are the local chapter does not mean you cannot do other things. My chapter has range trips for example. We have a strong focus on maintaining our rights, but by no means does it limit what we do.

[Marswolf]

I think Morristown TFA makes it plain that anyone is welcome to attend the meeting.

But there is a difference in being a TFA group what does other stuff vs. a gun group that also has TFA members. I'd much rather be a member of the latter, although I'd probably join TFA too.

[Guest SomeGuy]

Mars,

You reminded me of one other crucial point. What is his goal for his group? Does he want a group that is involved and works to change the system, or just a bunch of guys who own guns who hang out together?

As a general rule, groups whose purpose is social, tend to be less active and willing to be involved in the fight for our rights. The model for my chapter was a group whose main goal was to fight for our rights, and as time permitted enjoy ourselves through gun related activities (range for example). The people who are involved tend to be more focused and determined not to become enslaved chattel. People who don't want to fight come to a meeting, realize we aren't a bunch of guys who just screw off (we DO, but it is after business), and decide they don't care enough to be involved. They are the kind of gun owner who can't even be bothered to write an e-mail asking his rep to do anything.

Since I am running a group whose main goal is to keep our rights, people such as that are worthless. Completely worthless. If my group was a social club, then they would be great. So, it really depends on what kind of club the OP is wanting that will determine whether or not he should get affiliated with the TFA, IMO.

As an aside, technically every TFA chapter is modeled after the latter type you describe that you want to be a part of. Either way, most TFA groups have some form of socializing. My group hits the range occaisionally, Knoxville does gun shows a lot, Memphis meets in a gun range. I can bet they have lots of fun. So, don't assume it can't be fun to meet in a TFA group.

[Marswolf]

SomeGuy, how many people on average come to one of your meetings?

[Tim Nunan]

I worked with the fellow who tried to start a chapter up there. I cohost the Lakeway chapter (Morristown) and it was not an automatic full attendance. The most we've had was 45 with the Morristown Chief of Police and then there was a meeting when no one showed up

Much depends on getting the word out and who you get as a speaker. Use the community calendars of the various media for free notice; put up flyers where the gun owners go.

I offered a mailing list to the last organizer which was to be paid for by the TFA; it was not used. When we met there were about 5 of us, including me and my bride. About the same when the Lakeway chapter first met. If it were not for my wife we would have never met again.

Our speakers have been state legislators/candidates (particularly just before an election); gun shop owners; LEOs from local police, sheriff, State Troopers; Don Dare from TV channel 6 (Knoxville); TWRA, the options are limitless.

Our meetings are held in the Shoney's Family restaurant and open to the public, i.e., TFA membership is not required. I fairly certain none of the chapters' meeting are closed to the public.

If you, perhaps with an acquaintence, desire to start a chapter up there contact me at bentcreek@outdrs.net and I'll do what I can to help you get it going.

[Marswolf]

Tim, if you go through the messages over at TFA, you'll see that I tried to help get a group started up here, but James never found time to even get together for lunch. Maybe he didn't like me. Who knows. So I moved on to a more general meeting idea when the TFA chapter flopped. Then I got too busy to pursue it.

But you guys at Morristown, I think, do the meeting the right way. You meet every month on the same day and time, at a restaurant, and have a speaker. I think that's a recipe for success.

I still think a TGO (or whatever)/TFA combined meeting is the way to go. I want commitment to political issues, but I also want numbers and a pool of sportsmen to persuade to get politically involved. It's surprising how many hunters don't see the threat to their activities from the gun-grabbers.

[Tim Nunan]

In addition to those speakers/topics I mentioned previously we've also had the local trap club speak on the Scholastic shotgun program (Morristown teams have done well) and a speaker for Cowboy Action shooting. As I said the possibilities are many. We try to touch on all aspects of the shooting sports.

We had an ICE agent whom I'd hope would address firearms import laws but the TN office has little to do with importation and wasn't prepared to speak on that. He did talk about immigration which is a hot topic thus bringing in a group to listen that might not have otherwise attended one of our meetings.