So - what's your political issue? This is a public forum and maybe some of the wise oldsters who read these threads could offer a solution based on experience rather than personalities.

Reading names on your shoot report I see there are several shooters who were at your shoot who have been through several "wars" before and should be capable of helping resolve any dispute.

This is my take on the issues - other versions may vary.

For a number of years the Idaho ATA State Shoot was on a three-year geographic rotation - Boise, Lewiston, Pocatello. Lewiston was forced out of their location adjacent to the airport sometime around 2008, and the last I knew still hasn't come up with a new facility. At the 2009 State Shoot, held in Pocatello, some eastern shooters introduced without advanced notice at the annual ISTA meeting a proposed revision to the ISTA constitution and bylaws. Among other changes proposed was a revision to the composition of the ISTA Board of Directors. The existing composition was four Directors from north Idaho, two from SW Idaho, and two from south central/SE Idaho. As was pointed out in the discussion, this distribution reflected fairly accurately both the distribution of ATA shooters in Idaho and the numbers of ATA targets shot by those shooters. The proposed change would have three Directors chosen from each region. After hours of heated discussion, between two events at the State Shoot, the proposal was tabled until the next year at Boise. At the 2010 State Shoot at Boise a revision of proposal along with other proposals were brought up again. One of the new items discussed was whether to hold the 2011 Idaho State Shoot at Walla Walla WA, as many of the northern shooters desired. Walla Walla is less than 100 miles from Lewiston, about 250 from Boise, and a little under 500 from Pocatello. Those last two distances are very comparable to the distances to Lewiston from Boise and Pocatello respectively, although the driving times would be shorter to Walla Walla because much more of the drive is interstate highway. I and many others argued strongly that the Idaho State Shoot should remain in Idaho, not held in Washington. In the end a motion was made to amend the current ISTA constitution to mandate staying in Idaho. The motion had a large majority vote for it, but fell less than five votes short of the required two-thirds majority necessary for a constitutional change. The meeting adjourned without further major changes, leaving the decision on where to hold the 2011 Shoot to be resolved by the ISTA Board. At the Board meeting the next morning, I, as a member from eastern Idaho, made a motion to hold the 2011 State Shoot in Boise, and the 2012 Shoot in Pocatello as scheduled. My stated intention in making the motion was to give Lewiston some breathing room to get a new facility up and running, so that the rotation would hopefully be back in place by 2014. The motion was seconded, and I insisted on a roll-call vote so that every Director would be on record. The motion passed unanimously, and after other business was conducted, the meeting was adjourned. Very soon after the meeting the other Director from SE Idaho told members from my region that I had sold them out over her objections, and I was cursed and threatened by several people I had thought were friends.

Several of the hotheads, including this other Director, threatened lawsuits. Their argument was that the State Shoot should be rotated between facilities big enough to hold it, i.e. Pocatello and Boise, and the northern shooters should just suck it up. At a fall meeting of the ISTA Directors, this other Director was a no-show, and the decision to hold the 2011 Shoot in Boise was reaffirmed. As spring rolled around there was more talk of lawsuits, and a proposal for a new State organization was floated by the easterners. A couple of weeks before the Shoot I decided I had had enough, resigned my position on the ISTA Board, and went to a dog trial with my Chesapeake instead of the Shoot.

The following is hearsay since I was not present. I was told that at the 2011 State meeting the easterners proposed to replace the ISTA with their new organization, a 3/3/3 split on its Directors, and a Pocatello/Boise rotation for the State Shoot. I heard that the proposal was resoundingly defeated, whereupon the proposers walked out of the meeting. Then there was a motion made to make Boise the permanent home of the Idaho State ATA Shoot, and that proposal passed. The 2012 Shoot was held last weekend in Boise, not Pocatello.

As to a possibility of a reconciliation, I doubt it will happen. I've pretty much stopped trap shooting, even though I am a life member of both the ATA and the Pocatello Trap Club.

I guess you mite say I am in it for the long hall and the sound of things there are several others that feel the same way. I hope they get it fixed soon as it is quite obvious there are hundreds and hundreds of people pissed. They can blame the weather for the drop in shooters and that could be but we all know the real reason.

Pocatello,

Good to hear your story. I have always thought that you have had a very good head on your shoulders. Interesting how you described "she" and "hot head" and I can easily figure out who you are talking about.

I hope to see you at some shoots in the future and you can still count on me in the "friend" column.

LB

Sorry to hear about the turf war going on up there, I guess we all know who pays for it - the shooters.

This a familure story to me and I do know of a decent solution which bypasses a lot of the BS and provides the shooters with more and generally better options. We found it with PITA. Sometimes a clean break fixes things better than a half baked attempt at mending fences. The shooters really don't care what the initials are - they just want to shoot at nice places that don't have a bunch of BS politics playing into the game.

In general I don't have much use for organizations that are tightly controlled by some highly regulated board of directors (technically I am one of them). The important thing is that you have the energy and desire to put your talents to work in making your own club a place people want to go to and that you limit your support of other clubs to shooting at them and supplying advice only when asked.

It is surprising that the Camas Prairie shoot - bigger than the Idaho State shoot - could be held in Walla Walla temporarily while Lewiston looks for new grounds - and the State shoot can't.

From the description of the problem it is personalities rather than reason that are causing the friction.

Shooting is under enough negative pressure without allowing a vocal person or small group to alienate those shooters who are in the sport for pleasure and camaraderie as well as winning.

Very nice Big Heap! I think you may have it!

Lyle

Lets get this straight. The Idaho "state" shoot in Walla Walla "Washington". What kind of a moron come up with that idea? I guess if you start adding it all up it kind of tells some of the story as to why there are some issues.

Here is a photo of the site of the former Lewiston Gun Club.

With all the hundreds of trapshooters around Lewiston it is surprizing no one has found a new location. There might even be some money to be made by a private owner/operator if they investigated the possibilities.

I believe they have had the Oregon State shoot in Walla Walla for the same type of reasons there was no where in the North part of the state with a big enough club to host it,as long as the money goes to the State Association who cares,The fee's for the Camas Prairie shoot are split betwween Idaho and Washington associations and it has been successful despite the change of venue and similar issues with the change of location.If Lewiston were to form a new club I'm sure they would get a chance to host it again but Until then Walla Walla will probably host.Jerry

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Is it common for state championship shoots to be held in a different state ?

For example, for the Minnesota state championship to be held in Wisconsin ?

Or for the Ohio State championship to be held in Michigan ?

Just curious how often this happens ?

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Unfortunately Hammer, more often than you'd think. Too bad.

This is only my opinion, so take it for what it is worth. I believe the decision to hold the Oregon ATA State Shoot in Walla Walla killed what was left of ATA shooting in western Oregon. Portland, Medford, etc., used to hold both ATA and PITA shoots. After the ATA State Shoot moved to Walla Walla, the west went to PITA exclusively. The northern Idaho Directors disagreed with me on this, but I believe that moving to Walla Walla would have alienated much of southern Idaho. Boise and Twin Falls have long held both types of shoots, but for many years Pocatello has held ATA shoots exclusively. One reason was the desire to support the ISTA - fees from ATA shoots go to them and not the Idaho PITA. Cross registration was offered occasionally, but we never had more than two or three shooters take advantage of it. Another reason was that many of Pocatello's shooters are from Utah, Montana, and Wyoming. These states have virtually no PITA presence and we believed they would not be interested in PITA shoots. Soon after we heard about the Walla Walla proposal some Pocatello Trap Club Directors proposed changing several of our shoots to nonregistered status or to PITA, but there was an emphatic negative reaction from our out of state shooters. Another option considered for a while was to explore the possibility of joining the Utah State Association and sending our fees to them. Nothing came of it.

What difference would any of this make to the ISTA? For many years fees from ATA shoots in Pocatello has made up a large part of ISTA income. This is even more evident when the Camas Prairie Shoot moved to Walla Walla. My recollection is that some years Pocatello contributed the majority of the in-state fees, more than all other clubs together. The future will tell how things will shake out. I blame hotheads on both sides for unwillingness to compromise. I know many in the east who blame the ISTA and the northerners. I'm sure many others blame the easterners. I'm sure trap shooting in Idaho was the loser.

Don't give up on the future of Idaho trapshooting just yet - the Idaho Scholastic Clay Target Program (SCTP) is just forming up and many junior teams are being put together at this time. A group of us are going through a shotgun instructor course this weekend so that we can form our teams and get them shooting events. Thanks to the Potterfields at Midway USA this organization is well funded and is the best chance we have of saving the sport from dying out. If you guys know of any youths between 5th and 12th grade who are interested in joining, give me a private message. Jennifer