Heartbeat of the WOMA – June 2011

Each month we try through the “Heartbeat” blog to keep members in tune with what is going on with and for the Women’s Outdoor Media Association.  I urge each of you to take the time to read the board meeting minutes, carefully prepared for all of us by Chris Quam, Secretary of the WOMA.  The board meeting minutes reflect the WOMA team reports for Membership, Web, PR/Marketing, and Editorial. Another team that is moving forward relates to By-laws and it is led by Chris Quam.  ChrisQ@HiVizSights.com

The WOMA organizational bylaws are concerned with the operation of the organization, setting out the form, manner or procedure in which the organization should be run.  They provide for meetings and how meetings of directors and board members are conducted, elections of a board of directors, filling vacancies, notices, what officers the organization will have and a description of their duties, committees, assessments and other routine conduct. 

Her team will be meeting in July so that by early fall we can send on to each member a request to vote on by-law revisions. 

Through the last six months we’ve received 14 either bylaw revision requests and/or specific policies to be considered for the WOMA from members.   If you have specific policy suggestions for the WOMA organization we welcome any and all.  These will be taken under serious consideration and voted upon at monthly board meetings.

If you are interested in serving on one of the teams please email WOMA President, Marsha Petrie Sue, at Marsha@theWOMA.com .  One of our new members (WELCOME) is Cameon Eizenzimmer.  Cami has a strong background in website design, social media, and is active in a variety of shooting sports.  She is stepping up to help Cindy Noyes, our Treasurer, who is taking over duties as the WOMA webmaster. Cindy will be replacing Paige Eissinger, who remains a valued member of the WOMA! We very much appreciate her professional manner in assisting Cindy throughout the month of May to make this transition smoother.

By now each member of the WOMA will have received copies of the new brochure.  Please use it when presenting the WOMA to new potential members or possibly include it as part of your presentation when discussing ways to get more media on women active in shooting sports, hunting, fishing or archery.  The conversations and presentations you make about the WOMA would also make a great blog so please submit those to editor@theWOMA.com .  Thanks and hope you have a great summer!

- Deb

Heartbeat of the WOMA – April 2011

The mission of the WOMA remains positive and focused on our mission: “increasing media coverage of women who are active in traditional outdoor sports, especially shooting, hunting, fishing and archery.” As always, we encourage you to log in to the WOMA website and read the minutes and attachments from the March board meeting. If you do have any specific questions please send those to me, DFerns@Earthlink.net.

Read more

Heartbeat of The WOMA

Remember L245.

That’s the official booth number of The Women’s Outdoor Media Association’s space at the upcoming SHOT Show, the “mega outdoor industry event” in Las Vegas, January 18 through 21, 2011. The Sands Expo Center is not the easiest place to navigate, so I’m thrilled with our location—right in the center of the main traffic area on the second floor. Read more

Election Day 2010 — The WOMA board approves new bylaws

On Nov. 2, 2010, the board of the Women’s Outdoor Media Association voted at their perspective polling places and also, unanimously voted to adopt a new set of bylaws for the organization. The membership will be asked to approve the new bylaws, which include an Ambassador membership and splitting the Active membership category into two divisions: media and industry. Be watching for your call to vote in the next two weeks.

October ‘Fish Babe’ – Marsha Petrie Sue

What do you need to get across your high ropes course?

The teenager looked at it me through tears streaming down her face. Her helmet sat cockeyed on her head and she looked pink from a day on the river earlier. It was Day #4 of her wilderness adventure experience. She had climbed a 40-foot tower and now shook and cried while hanging on to a set of ropes that she needed in order to get over to the other side of the high ropes course at this wilderness adventure setting in the Ozarks of Missouri.

“Barb, I can’t do this. I can’t do it,” she sobbed.

Meanwhile, I found myself – someone who is afraid of heights, mind you – standing on a cable 40 feet above ground, about 10 feet away from her. I inched my way back to the platform. She kept falling apart. The only answer it appeared, and the guides waited to see if this needed to be done, was to get the rescue rope and team and take her down from the course if she decided not to do it.

I tried all the pep talks I knew in the world. You know: “Sure you can do it. You made it up to the stand, right?” And, “Aw come on, it’s fun out here!”

She wasn’t buying it.

Finally, the mom-of-four, the long-distance athlete in me from high school track and the wife of a former military guy who was never home and left me with teenage boys to raise said, “OK. Now, look at me, look at me. I want you to reach down in that pit inside you and pull up whatever it was that got you up here in the first place. Use that to step down here to me and I’ll help you across.”

Two hours later, and after a long rest on the middle platform taking deep breaths (her, not me – by this time I was spotting the water tower in the nearby town and thinking about what it would be like to be a turkey vulture), we zip lined down to the ground. She was smiling, and my biggest reward came when she looked at me, all dry-eyed on the ground, and said, “Thanks, Barb.”

That makes me think that this Women’s Outdoor Media Association is like a big high ropes course. There are lots of ways to achieve your goals and some of us have different methods than others, but all of us working together can help each other get through it and maybe even fly down the zip line of life to experience the joy of success. For too long, it’s been too intimidating for many women in the outdoor media – and not only because of some men who think that women should not be allowed in the good ole boys’ club, but also because some women out there clawed their way to the top or were born into the business, and are not inclined to help others.

Take a look at the links section here. If you’re not in there, why not? Do you have a website or blog yet?

Find other members and reach out to them. You’ll be surprised at the caliber of men and women in our ranks with the mission to focus on what’s being done for and about women in the outdoors.

Also, remember, within our ranks are some prestigious athletes who would skip across the ropes course of life, and they are accessible to you as members of The Women’s Outdoor Media Association. Fly fishing guides, Olympic athletes, professional shooters, a videographer, photographers, writers, editors and the list goes on and there’s a reason they’re here: they understand the mission.

If you’re standing on the platform up high and need someone to help you across the course, let us know. That’s why we started this association and we’re not to the zip line yet.

Still time to join the WOMA members at mini-retreat in Sparta for Appleseed Project weekend

The WOMA member Gretchen Mueller Steele coordinated a last-minute mini-retreat and invites the WOMA members to join her at the World Shooting and Recreational Complex in Sparta, Ill., from Aug. 21-22, 2010, for an Appleseed Project experience. See http://appleseedinfo.org/smf/index.php?topic=14215.0

The Appleseed Program is designed to take you from being a simple rifle owner to being a true rifleman. An American tradition, the rifleman has been defined as a marksman capable of hitting a man-sized target from 500 yards away – no ifs, ands or buts about it. This 500-yard range is traditionally known as “the rifleman’s quarter-mile.” A rifleman can hit just about any target he can see within that radius. Marksmanship skill (albeit with smoothbore muskets) was particularly evident in the birth of our country, and was the difference in winning the Revolutionary War, right from the first day. At least four members have already signed up to take the weekend class, and intend to follow up with a week-long, advanced Boot Camp at the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri in October.

Women are admitted free for the weekend, as the program is trying to train more women to be riflemen.

Here’s Gretchen’s agenda for the weekend:

Friday 8/20
Arrive and check in
4:00 PM Tour of the World Shooting and Recreational Complex with CEO Tony Mayfield
Following the tour we will travel  ( 8 miles) to Coulterville for dinner at Pistol City. A few local outdoor media folks will join us there as well as a rep from the City of Coulterville and the Coulterville Chamber of Commerce

Saturday 8/21
Appleseed Event 8-4 (need to be there somewhat before 0800 to register etc)
Dinner at 17th Street at the WSRC; again joined by some of the area outdoor media and industry folks

Sunday 8/22

More sweating with oldies – on the line at the Apple Seed event
Sunday evening meal we can decide  based on what we decide on lodging.

Monday 8/23
For those wishing to stay over for Monday – Bank fishing will be available at the Hunt CLub should we elect to stay there. I am also happy to give folks a tour of the area and the various outdoor opportunities, historic sites. Unfortunately my boat will only hold two ( it’s not much more than a floating laundry basket) – so our fishing would be bank fishing or bank bowfishing/slingshot fishing for those who would want to learn. We have good bank fishing at several sites close to both Sparta and Percy. Baldwin Lake and Peabody Fish and Wild Life area are both excellent pieces of public land with good fishing opportunities.

An IL fishing license is required for bowfishing.

Let me know what you ladies decide about lodging. That’s always difficult in this area – there is lodging, but our rates seem a bit high – mostly due the huge influx of people associated with the Prairie Sate Energy Campus project.

If you’d like to attend, get in touch with Gretchen Steele:

Gretchen Mueller Steele
Steele Photo Services
1314 South Main
Coulterville, IL 62237
steelephoto@gmail.com
www.steelephotoservices.com
618-201-4180

–

The WOMA now on Facebook and Twitter

The Women’s Outdoor Media Association (the WOMA) focuses on increasing media coverage of women who are active in traditional outdoor sports, especially shooting, hunting, fishing and archery. Along with an interactive weblog published on a WordPress platform, where members may post freely, and even nonmembers may comment on news, reviews and stories regarding The WOMA, the organization’s updates are now available on Facebook and Twitter.

“Most, if not all of our members are very engaged with social networking,” said Barbara Baird, president of the WOMA. “In fact, our membership spends a lot of time in the ‘outdoor trenches,’ away from their office spaces and needs these types of connections to stay informed about what is happening in the organization.”

She continued, “Professional shooters, fly fishing guides, PR and marketing representatives, outdoor journalists, university professors, a gunsmith, Olympic bi-athletes — these are a few of the professions represented in our ever-growing network of outdoor communicators.”

http://www.facebook.com/TheWOMA

http://twitter.com/TheWoma

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

Chris Quam grew up in rural Pennsylvania, riding horses, camping, hiking, and trying to keep up with an older brother.

Read more

Kathy Jackson — Member of the Women’s Outdoor Media Association

As the Managing Editor of Concealed Carry Magazine, Kathy Jackson has been actively involved in promoting better and more accurate portrayals of women in the firearms and self-defense industry. She comes to this role with experience that includes co-founding in 2003, along with well-known gun writer Gila Hayes, the Women’s Study Group at the Firearms Academy of Seattle (www.firearmsacademy.com). WSG is an informal group dedicated to supporting women’s self defense choices, increasing women’s knowledge of firearms, and improving women’s shooting skills. It meets approximately six times per year with a different focus each time. Most recently, Kathy took charge of the holster show, gathering and presenting different carry options for women.

Read more

« Previous Page — Next Page »