Is SASS fading? If so, why?

[Jackass James]

Just thought I would drop in a little comment or two, or three, or MORE!   I am new to SASS, so my "outsider" perspective may help address the future of SASS and CAS in general.   

I just today phoned SASS to get my ID number ( #59748 - posted on Wednesday the 23rd of June ), which shows that the memberships are growing at a slightly faster rate then some of you had guessed.   I couldn't say, however, how many before me have moved on to other hobbies or organizations.

I went to my first CAS shoot just last month after an old high school friend invited me to watch him shoot.   I have target shot rifles and a few odd pistol for decades.  But never ever have I experienced the feeling of "Lets just have ourselves some good old SAFE fun", like I experienced at this meet!  I am now a SASS member, I am going to enter in my first shot this weekend (yep, using borrowed guns), and look forward to developing friendships and working on my gun selection and "costume".   

With that said, I feel I must first complain about the DANG BLASTED "SASS shooters handbook"!   I keep reading it over and over, but can't get a clear picture of what guns are "right", what the classes are ( the index lists six, but my count I come up at SEVEN! ), plus all the uneplained terms that I am not up to date on.   So please SASS!  Just what the heck is a "buscadaro" anyway, and why isnt there a diagram or picture of one?  I now my old buddy, and all the new pards I will be making, will fill in the gaps, but what is the SASS doing to prevent one club from deciding that something is right, when another says differently?

What they should be doing is setting rules that are CRYSTAL clear, even perhaps to the extent of declaring ( by vote I would hope ) specific gun makes and models that are qualified for each catagory.   Then they should clearly define competition levels in which members can compete.   I would like to see something more like a classing scheme that divides members up into skill level classes such as "Gunslinger", "Cowpoke", "Farmhand", and "Town Drunk" for example.  Then let the Gunslingers work on their best times while we Farmhands and Town Drunks (yours truely) just try to hit something we wuz aimin' at!   

Hey!  Want more new members?  How about a SINGLE weapon starter class!   Join, buy one sixshooter, and compete in a seperate catagory for a few months!   But oh no!  Ya just HAVE to go out and spend two grand on guns to get started ( yep, I know you can borrow, but think like an outsider for a minute!), plus you need to make up a personna and outfit that chahracter ta boot!!!! 
               KA-CHING!!!!   
(Mamma says we need a new refrigerator -  I guess SASS is out of the question!)
 
I just want to go have fun, crack a few jokes, and play cowboy better then back when I was a kid.   If someone else wants to shave a tenth ( or hundreth ) second off his times, "well go ahead pard, but don't compete against me!".   

So now, back to the basic question of "is SASS fading?".

It WILL if it fails to define itself and it's membership better.
With vague rules and classes, add in rising gun costs, mix in the ability to out-tech the other guy, and you have a formula for chasing the membership off to other venues ( maybe a better description would be that they kind of just wonder off! ). 
On scoring - Any organization can have a National Champion, but a successful organization MUST also have many thousands of "want-to-be" champions before anyone will notice that one champion.  That dosn't mean that those thousands want to be taken for granted or walked over, they are the front line of support for there hobby and as such, deserve fair recognition for their accomplishments, no matter how poorly they do.

You all can rest assured that I am MUCH less confusing when I am standing on the firing line, loaded and cocked!   

Thanks for listening pards

Yours truely
Jackass James    <new member at large>

[Texas Lawdog]

The membership is till growing, up to almost 60,000 members.  Most members can only afford to be Annual members and won't be able to afford the Founders memberships.  There will still be folks that wealthy enough to afford those perks.  The vast majority of the membership are the regular folks that make up the shooting clubs.  They are out there for the fun and friendship, nothing else.

[Joyce (AnnieLee)]

I recently renewed my membership so I could shoot at MDS. I am glad I did, for it wasn't a high faluting, intense competition for me, it was a great, relaxed shoot where I met a bunch of good people. Was it expensive? Aye, it was. Was it worth it to me to get away from the rat race for a few days to hang out with friends and shoot? Every penny.

I may not agree with all that SASS HQ does and will often voice my disagreements with them, but I am glad they are providing the infrastructure for shoots such as MDS. It's not fading for me.


AnnieLee

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[Cactus Cris]

I don't think it is fadeing just change'n.  When I started in 92 the Az. groups had 30+ at the matches. Now we get 100 +- each month and there are shoots every weekend within a 2 hr. drive- not even counting Tucson clubs.   The mood has changed too- more compete for prizes less compete for fun.  The pards I shoot with want to do the best they can but don't whine about it if they don't.  That is one reason our "posse" is always full.  We have a good time and razz each other big time.
  To me SASS is getting real impersonal and becoming a distant group.  If it weren't for Tex, I wouldn't have any contact with the WB at all. ( He shoots on my posse at WR)  I see them at EOT & WR and talk to them very briefly about the cart corral, but that is about it.
   So I would have to say it isn't fade'n but going in a different direction ( What Tex's article in the Cronicle is about)

[Col. Riddles]

I don't think SASS is fading, just going through some growing pains.

[Camille Eonich]

A year and a half later......


What do you think now?

[Four-Eyed Buck]

Still more growing pains. Gettin' so large that it's hard to control everything. For me, the people are still tops......Buck

[RRio]

A year and a half later......


What do you think now?

I believe it is fading. Since the last post on this thread (October 07,2004), all 5 of the people that I recruited into SASS have dropped out, along with myself.

[Arcey]

Buck's 'people' part.  Yeah.  They're as good as it gets.  Thing is, most of the time the folks I'm shootin' with may or may not be SASS members.  I wouldn't know the difference.  Heck, I'm a SASS member but I don't wear the badge.  Ain't sure where it is.  13901 - I could prolly sell it fer a good gain on eBay.

The game we play is important to me.  SASS can do what it wants.  The game is solid.  Good core of folks where I play.  They were there last month 'n they'll be there next month.

[Rascal Ralph]

SASS is over 70,000. Our club just had a record shoot attendance for March. Good clubs grow, poor ones fade. the members make the club. If your's is failing, maybe your part of the problem. Our TG told me the worst thing about SASS is the "wire". After reading all the bitchen, I agree. The  best part of our club is the work partys, and most of us show up! Sass started the best thing going, it's not failing.

[Marshal harpoluke]

 

I don't think so, just changin as it grows.  People may need to be patient with each other.

 

 

[Highlander999]

SASS or Cowboy Shooting or Victorian Era Shooting (my idea of a better name for it) was great for two reasons:

1.  I love the era, I love the message it sends, mainly based on the old Western Serials, and even movies today.  Honor and Integrity.  Just as when Woodrow took Gus to Clara's orchard as he promised.

2.  I have always loved the firearms of the era.

I don't blame the "Gamers" as we call them, but I was there for the Lifestyle, and the Commeraderie.  The Gamers to me made it another competitive event in my life (all week long).  And everyone wants to win every now and then. 

So, I take my pistols and rifles, they hang on my walls, I look at them, and I still shoot them.  But I shoot them by myself or with a few friends.  It seems like becoming organized usually creates more issues.

Much like when we were kids and we all took our balls and gloves and bats to the ball diamond and played ball.  Then a parent got the great idea, let's coach them, and then they can compete and learn to win..  And then we structured  it, and then it became a "We've got to win" situation, and we didn't let the kids that couldn't play as well play. 

Believe me, I DON"T BELIEVE IN MEDIOCRITY, nor in having a "Wall of Medicrity" in the home.  But for goodness sakes, this was just supposed to be fun.  Then prizes got involved, and maybe more.  It became much more like work than play.

I'd rather go ride my horse in the mountains, and shoot my pistols or rifle on the farm...

I do miss the commeraderie, and sometimes just show up to watch at the shoots.

[Birdgun Quail]

I'm putting on more pounds and from what I see of others, SASS ain't fading, we're getting fatter!

Seriously, I think SASS is growing just fine.  But what do I know, I've only been playing CAS for a little over a year and I've enjoyed every bit of it! 

I don't worry about the small stuff--just go out and have fun with a bunch of folks that dress up and play cowboy like a bunch of kids.  Ain't life grand!

[Trap]

  Highlander999,
 You need to take a look at NCOWS!           jt

[Camille Eonich]

I don't blame the "Gamers" as we call them, but I was there for the Lifestyle, and the Commeraderie.  The Gamers to me made it another competitive event in my life (all week long).  And everyone wants to win every now and then. 

So what I am reading is actually that your own competiveness took away the fun.  People came along that had more desire and more drive than you did and started beating you.  Since you were no longer winning and didn't want to put more time into practicing so that you could get better you stopped playing at all?


I think that this is where a lot of the demand to change rules and add rules comes from.  The people who say that they are just in it for the fun of it really do want to win sometimes and since they don't want to work that hard at it, that takes the fun out, then they want to try to stop the people who do work hard at from doing as well as they do.  When I go to the SASS wire and read, it seems to me that those people who are asserting the most that they don't care about winning and that they are there purely for the fun are the ones that are causing the most fuss.

Then again that's just the way that I read it over there and that doesn't mean that everybody else is reading it that way.

[Mustang Gregg]

FADIN'??
Maybe for some clubs, but not that I can see.
Still gettin' serious new shooters every match.
MG

[ColonelFlashman]

To many "Gamesters" that have to Win @ all costs by using Dubious means even though it's w/ in the Rules, their Sincophants & the Sellers that make their "Gamester" Gear & kits to keep them happy.

They do not understand the Real Meaning of the Spirit of the Game, Nor the True meaning of the Cowboy Way.