October 2009 President message
Part of the role of your Association, the SSAA, is to build good faith among the community, as well as build our brand name. It’s about educating non-shooters about who we are and what we do, to counter the sensational and misleading claims put by the antis. The SSAA in all its forms, whether it is the National Association, the state and territory arms or the many clubs, are involved in various aspects of the community, from volunteering and fundraising to planting trees and greening the landscape.
The SSAA Victorian office and SSAA deer hunters, for instance, collaborated with the Premier’s department, Victoria Police, the SES, SEC, Bush Search and Rescue, paramedics and the army when Victorian Water Minister Tim Holding went missing during a bushwalk on Mt Feathertop. After Minister Holding was found alive and well, it was wonderful to hear his mother publicly thank SSAA Victoria’s efforts in the operation.
SSAA Queensland was recently contacted by Greening Australia on behalf of Queens-land electricity supplier Energex, who was looking for 20 hectares on which to plant trees to offset carbon credits. SSAA Queensland, of course, owns a large shooting property in South East Queensland called Stewartdale and was very keen to get involved in the broad-based conservation effort with Energex, Greening Australia, Birds Queens-land, a local state school and the traditional indigenous owners of the land. This was not only a worthwhile conservation effort, but an avenue for local and state partnerships, as well as public relations.
Another of SSAA Queensland’s recent endeavours is the co-management and co-branding of the University of Queensland’s deer research project. This project, which will research the impacts of wild deer and their value as game, is a collaboration between the University and SSAA Queens-land, as well as Biosecurity Queensland, Environmental Protection Agency (Qld), Toowoomba Regional Council and the Toowoomba Pipeline Alliance. For more details about the project, read this issue’s Open Season column.
SSAA National has been highly involved with the McGrath Foundation, but also sponsored the XXXX Gold 20th anniversary Queensland Variety Club Bash during August. SSAA National donated to one of the teams participating in the charity event and was given advertising space on a car for our logo and our ‘Secure Your Gun, Secure Your Sport’ message.
These are just a few of the activities that the SSAA has recently been part of. It doesn’t even begin to include the tireless efforts and many activities that our 120,000-plus-strong membership do to get sports shooting and the SSAA name into the general public.
If you would like to promote your sport to the wider community, but don’t know where to start, the following are a few ideas you might like to take on board.
The next time you have a chance to meet a local parliamentarian, as part of your regular conversation, why not mention that you are a target shooter, conservation hunter or firearms collector or enthusiast? In fact, why not mention your recreation when meeting people more generally in various sporting or social settings? You might be surprised to find that your new acquaintance is also a SSAA member or that they have always wanted to learn about sports shooting, but just need more information or a guiding hand from someone who is already ‘in’.
For those SSAA members who belong to or have friends who belong to a local Rotary, Apex or Lions club, encourage the club to join forces with your SSAA shooting or hunting club for fundraising or social events. It’s a great way to meet new people and discuss your shared interests and who knows, it might even result in bolstering the membership of both associations.
Getting the SSAA name and recreational shooting out into the general public can even be as simple as purchasing a hat or shirt from SSAA Merchandise. As D Henty has described in this month’s Letters section, when people inquire as to what the ‘SSAA’ acronym on your jacket stands for or what the logo on your hat represents, you have a perfect opportunity to discuss your sport and what it means to you.
As I said, it’s all about establishing your legitimate place in the community, as well as building good faith and the SSAA name.
Bob Green
SSAA National President
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