Meeting Notes

The meeting was conducted by Ted George at 18:40hrs with approximately 60 GR&P shooters in attendance.

The meeting was started by thanking Neil Francis for his hard work and dedication over the last 6 years as Gallery Rifle and Pistol Rep. His service to the sport and the shooters has benefitted us all and he will be dearly missed. With the spare time he’s to hoping he might actually get a decent score now.

After the thanks and applause Ted continued by pointing out that certain functions undertaken by Neil as GR&P Rep. will not be continued. Numerous jobs and tasks had been added to the burden of the Rep position which take it away from its initial and intended purpose. Ted explained that he neither had the time nor wish to take on these additional roles and as such the GR&P community will either have to find a Rep who will, or take on these tasks on a volunteer basis. After discussion it was decided that Ted and Neil will draw up a list of roles and present these to the community to see if any volunteers would take them up.

There are a number of things that are not working well at present.

· We do not have enough Range Officers (ROs) to run the shoots at Bisley.

Over the last few meetings the situation has grown worse as a number of people have stopped acting as ROs. This has been in part down to the number of RO shooting days being reduced from 2 to 1. Some felt the NRA was not valuing their efforts and simply messing them around. In some cases this led to the NRA making ROs pay for accommodation, despite working.

· It is a fact that some people who volunteered as ROs shot their matches and did not work.

Certain people did a quick walk down their range, considered it had enough ROs and took the rest of the day off. This is unacceptable.

To help the ROs shoot all their matches Ted has spoken with Pete Cotterell about running 2 bays on Melville on a Thursday. This will also be raised at the Shooting Committee meeting. We are currently waiting to see if the NRA Accounting systems allow for this. It’s worth noting that people who shoot on RO days will be put to work on a bay over the weekend. If they do not RO then they do not shoot on RO days, and to enforce this any scores shot be non-complying ROs will not be counted.

· The definitions of Accidental Discharge (AD)/Unintentional Shot and, Negligent Discharge (ND) needs further clarification. Different opinions among shooters, the ROs and the NRA need to be sorted and for the benefit of everyone involved we need printed quick and easy rules and procedures so the NRA especially, know any incidents have been dealt with in the proper manner. ROs will then be able to recommend training etc. Or in serious cases refer to the Match Director. It is vital all shooters and their equipment are safe before being allowed to continue.

· There’s also a question of ‘can people acting as ROs get a copy of the current RCO handbook?’ This needs to be resolved as well, so everyone is on the same page with commands and procedures.

For the future; shot and long term

· We need to try and get national bodies to support and help shooters competing in GR&P internationally. A common and transparent selection process for teams has to be made. Those who have an interest or want to have a go need to know how and what to do. As current selection process leaves it open to understandable criticism and rumour, something a robust and transparent system will fix. A system like that used by the NRSA has been accepted by Sport GB and following that example we may be able to gain some additional funding to help the aspiring shooters.

· Given talk in the meeting about the possible direction of pistol shooting it must be made clear this is a Gallery Rifle and Pistol community. There is a need to promote LBR and LBP to improve their public face and reputation with the Police and Home Office, but this in no way takes away from the Gallery Rifle aspect of the discipline. Both are valuable tools of our sport.

· It became apparent that there is a real need to improve communications among ourselves. The GR&P website and it’s Facebook group should both be looked regularly for the latest information. Given the healthy hate of doing either of these it was decided an email would be sent around about specific topics and events. These emails will only be sent round by those requesting it (contact info@49th.co.uk with your details to register).

Please sent this post far and wide to all the GR&P shooters you’re in contact with. Get them to register as well because the more the merrier for all of us.

For any further information or to contact me directly email info@49th.co.uk. I might not be happy you do but apparently it’s part of the job…