Julie Goloski-Golob signs publishing contract

The WOMA member and Smith & Wesson Pro Shooting Team Captain Julie Goloski-Golob is writing a how-to book for aspiring shooters—and current shooting enthusiasts who want to hone their skills.

Skyhorse Publishing of New York has tentatively scheduled Julie’s first book for an October 2011 release. The working title is Shoot! A Guide to Shooting and Competition, but Julie cautioned that this may change. “The title isn’t set in stone but it describes the book well and it’s a bit catchy. It’s what we are calling my project at the moment,” she said with a laugh. Read more

Fall mushroom season is here!

Seems like the whole neighborhood is in a frenzy getting ready for the soon-to-open hunting seasons. Scouting, stand hanging, blind brushing . . . all the prep work in the woods is hot and heavy. Now is also the time to be gathering the rich, full-flavored autumn mushrooms that are seemingly everywhere after each little shower. Read more

Shooters and shots

I recently finished a weekend class in which we learned about historical analysis of photographs, and had a lot of fun taking pictures of each other and random strange things.  My team consisted of myself, a National Guardsman, and a 22-year old named Jessica that I had tagged as an academic who never left her office.

I was so wrong.  Over the course of three days I discovered that Jessica frequently hikes in Alaska, packing a gun; that she spends several hours at the range shooting each month; and that she’s a huge proponent for gun rights and women shooters.  I was ashamed that I had profiled her based on appearance and assumption.

These same unfortunate assumptions and stereotypes are the very thing that inhibit women from participating in outdoor sports, and I couldn’t believe that I had been guilty of the very thing I criticise others for. I had to examine what had brought about this lapse in my judgment, which led me to wonder about how I can erase those stereotypes and assumptions from others.

I came up with the following guidelines. Obviously, correcting your own mindset, as I had to, is the first requirement.

• Communication-find out who are the outdoor women in your area and network with them. There is strength is numbers.
• Affirmation-when you meet someone like Jessica, whether young or old, congratulate them on their involvement or interest. Take part, if appropriate, to reinforce the affirmation.
• Shoot straight-when you or someone you encounter voices those negative stereotypes, speak up (but courteously, of course). Be prepared with correct information about women in outdoor sports, and hunting, fishing, or shooting groups and opportunities in the area. Let people know that outdoor women are the norm, not the anomaly!
• Encourage and promote!  Being actively involved in shooting or other pursuits, inviting others to participate, and being a voice for those activities through avenues such as local policy making, civic service, and incormation sharing all important ways to get the message out.

Jessica and I will soon be traveling together to the local shooting range, delighted that we have found someone with whom to share an activity we like, as well as treasuring a friendship that has developed from shooting down assumptions about people we meet.

Welcoming eight new huntresses into the world

It’s always exciting whenever we get to welcome a new hunter or huntress into the world, but this weekend I was thrilled to participate in an event where EIGHT new huntresses were born.

The event was California Waterfowl’s second annual Women’s Hunting Camp, and it was a fantastic deal: For $175, these women completed their hunter education training, got licenses, took shotgun lessons and went on their first hunt.

Having just begun hunting four years ago myself, all those feelings are still fresh in my mind. But getting to watch these women experience it for themselves was such a thrill. They thought I was volunteering, but really I was there to feed off of that energy that I knew would be there – it feels like I got so much more than I gave.

I’ve written about the weekend on my blog, and I’d like to encourage WOMA members to comment there to give these women a hearty welcome into the sorority of huntresses.

Also: My thanks go out to the supporters who made the weekend possible: California Waterfowl, Birds Landing Hunting Preserve and Sporting Clays, Prois Hunting Apparel, the Tackle Box in Chico, Calif., the Bad Ass Girls Club, and lots of volunteers who came out with dogs to assist on the first hunt. Their support meant a lot.

Finding a balance, creating the whole

I made a lot of changes in my life this year in an attempt to reach the level of simple, basic, and balanced I desired.  There were the insignificant ones like quitting my job and moving to another state, and then there were the important ones. Like blogging and writing every single day.  It became so important that at one point I was working on FIVE daily blogs, submitting frequently to two online magazines, and sending articles to print publications every week. I successfully undid all the simplifying I had accomplished with the insignificant (read: major) life changes. Read more

WOMA members meet and shoot at Babes with Bullets Camp in Michigan

When a few WOMA members get together, things happen. Shots may get fired, a fish or two might get landed, a bear down … here’s an article about WOMA members Deb Ferns, Sheila Hoekstra and Kay Miculek, on duty at a Babes with Bullets’ Camp in Michigan this week. From the Niles Daily Star.

Post a photo or your news in this section so that we know where you are this season!

WOMA logo items now available to members!

The booth babe problem

Why do industry people expect eye candy ladies to be able to recite chapter and verse the virtues of a gun, list the specifications and talk knowledgeably about the reasons that gun should be in trade show attendees’ hands — all while wearing a bikini top, Daisy Duke shorts and stilettos? See Barbara Baird’s editorial at Guns & Patriots that focuses on Field and Stream’s annual “booth babes” video from the SHOT Show. Click here to read the article. Feel free to comment here and/or at the Guns & Patriots’ site.

The Opinions & Editorials expressed in this category do not reflect the beliefs of the membership of the WOMA or its board of directors.

Where did the time go?

I’m a scoffer. I scoff at the idea of time management. Seriously, time marches on no matter what I’m doing (or not doing} so the whole idea of time management is a misnomer.  I do know, however, that I can manage the activities that fall within that parade of time. As Shakespeare so eloquently put it, “Therein lies the rub …” What I really need is a tool that lets me monitor the amount of time I spend on performing those various activities throughout the day.

If you’re like me and spend your days in front of a computer, I’m sure you’ve noticed how difficult it can be to stay focused on specific tasks. How many times have you told yourself, “I’m going to read this one e-mail …” and an hour later you’re still digging through your inbox or reading an article that you clicked on in the article that you were reading that was included as a link in that one e-mail you were going to read (oh, and did you actually read the e-mail, or just click on the link?). If that scenario sounds familiar, checkout Grindstone 2 by Epiforge Software.

I’m a big fan of Kim Komando and I learned about Grindstone from one of her newsletters. According to the Grindstone site:

Grindstone greatly simplifies everything about staying on top of your time, from automatically recording it to producing useful reports based on it. Just tell Grindstone what you’re working on and it will keep tabs on your time in the background while you work. Incorporating automatic away detection, advanced task and time management functions, and customizable billing calculation, Grindstone is the most powerful personal time tracking solution, period.

Yes, I tried it. I’m still using it. One of the problems with online time tracking tools is that it takes too much time to use them, which pretty much defeats the purpose, if you ask me. Grindstone is as easy to use as setting the time and temperature on your oven and putting the food inside. It really does run in the background. You can enter the name of a task, click the timer and do what you need to do. Grindstone displays a timer bar on your screen that overlays whatever window in which you’re working and in whatever position you drag and drop it, so you can always see how much time you’re actually spending on a task. If you’re worried about spending too much time on a specific task, you can always have Grindstone pop up a reminder at specific time intervals to remind you that you’re still working.

If  time tracking is something that you need to incorporate into your day, give Grindstone 2 a try. Hey, it took me about 32 minutes to create this post! Oh, and did I tell you it’s free?

If you use an online business tool that really helps you work more efficiently and be more productive, let us know about it by leaving a comment.

Chris Mathan — Member of The Women’s Outdoor Media Association

Chris Mathan founded The Sportsman’s Cabinet in 2003. Having spent the prior seven years as senior designer/art director at one of Portland, Maine’s oldest advertising agency, Chris decided to follow her instincts to forge out as an independent graphic and website designer and marketing specialist. Her involvement with upland bird hunting and pointing dog field trials and her deep commitment to conservation and traditional outdoor field sports led to a specialization in this industry.

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