An excuse for a party - with guns

From Castle Arrgghhh and The Mudville Gazette:

An excuse for a party - with guns.

[John of Argghhh!]

Public Service Announcement:

Bored with the same old dull, "sit in chairs listening to bloggers earnestly discuss how important they are kind of conference?"

(Hey, I was there, I was as self-important as anyone, and lord the Press made sure we knew about YearlyKOS!)

Interested in attending about the most dangerous gathering of bloggers since YearlyKos? The Gunblogger Rendevous!

Well, dangerous if you're Sarah Brady, or The Senators SchuBoxerClinStein!

C'mon, Blogs, guns, booze, and gambling. Pretty much what we're fighting for around the globe, ain't it? At least *the bad guys" think so.

SWWBO and I are going to try to be there, too - client willing and the creek don't rise.

For the success if the Gunblogger Rendezvous it is extremely important to get your Rendezvous Registrations in as early as possible. We need to plan well in advance to that we secure a banquet room of suffcient size to hold everyone, and the only way we can plan for it is based on registrations received.

All registration money sent in goes into a special escrow account, and is sent on to Circus Circus as one check 60 days in advance of the Rendezvous. If we do not have enough registrations in by September 1st., the event will be cancelled. You need not worry about losing your money if not enough people register, as every penny will be returned from the escrow account back to the people that sent it in.

I really don't think that's going to happen, and I'm expecting a really good turn-out for the Rendezvous, but in planning for the event, I want to make sure all bases are covered.

We've also got some other announcements in the wings regarding the Rendezvous, but won't be making the announcements until confirmation and final details are determined.

Did I mention that a "Really Big Rifle Organization" was working on the details for their involvement?

I'll keep you posted!

Rendezvous Church Sign!

Fodder over at Ride Fast & Shoot Straight put this together.

The word is getting out, Reno's the place to be on October 6th., 7th., and 8th!

We'll see you there!

Rendezvous Range Facility

The Palomino Valley Gun Club is the home club at the Washoe County Parks Department Regional Shooting Facility.

A shooter's eye view down range.

Covered shooting stations and benches.

Plans are coming together for getting in some range time at the Gun Blogger Rendezvous this October in Reno. The Washoe county Parks and Recreation department in Nevada has a great shooting facility with target stands out to 200 yards, then steel targets on out to 900 plus yards! Their facility is located about 20 miles out of town on 560 acres of land. It looks like a perfect location to go get in a little shooting during the day on Saturday.

The home club at the range is the Palomino Valley Gun club, and their website has more details about their club and the range itself.

I'll be in contact with the club and make sure they are all invited to come to the Rendezvous too.

The more the merrier!

Rendezvous - We're Getting There!

Things are falling into place for this October's Gun Blogger Rendezvous. This is going to be one heck of a lot of fun!

• The basic hotel room reservation and Rendezvous Registration mechanisms are in place, and registrations are starting to come in. We have an outstanding Guest of Honor in Dan McKown, whom you will enjoy meeting in person.
  
• We have a hospitality room set up both Friday and Saturday nights as sort of a blogger hang-out.
  
• The details are just about finished for the banquet Saturday night.
  
• The Gun Blogger Rendezvous web site/blog is up, where you can find all of the info on the Rendezvous, without having to wade through mountains of unrelated posts.
• Donations and support from industry folks are starting to come in.
• A really BIG national organization (you know who) is looking into how they want to participate.
• I am in the process of lining up a place to shoot on Saturday during the day.
• We have a volunteer looking into activities for the spouses that come to the Rendezvous who aren't interested in the range, but are interested in other Reno activities.
• KeeWee and I have bought our plane tickets, and we'll be heading down to Reno on Thursday, in case any of you are considering going a day early.
  

In short, a lot of the heavy lifting has now been done. To all of you shooters, blog readers, and bloggers, here's where I really need your help. We need to get the word out in as many ways as possible about the Gun Blogger Rendezvous. Bloggers, we need a blog-burst of publicity so that everyone knows about what's coming up. If you do a post on the Rendezvous, please let me know and I'll put in a link for you in the "Friends of the Rendezvous" blogroll.

I can do all of the other stuff to bring this together, but I need everyone's help to get the word out. If you are a blog reader or shooter, round up a couple of friends and start making plans to attend.

Most of all, try to figure out a way to break free for the weekend and come join us in Reno. It's early enough still to look for the discount airfares. Some folks are looking at car pooling and driving to the Rendezvous, both to share expenses, and to bring the favorite arsenal along!

We're going to have a lot of fun - come join us!!

Thanks to all for the help!!

Circus Circus Donates Dan's Accommodations!

I've got some more great news! As you know, Dan McKown will be our Guest of Honor at the Rendezvous in Reno in October. When the good folks at the Circus Circus heard that Dan was our Guest of Honor, they offered to provide his room for both nights at no charge! The had already heard of Dan and his story, and decided it was the least they could do to show their appreciation.

Since any money beyond the direct cost of the Rendezvous will go directly to Dan's recovery and rehabilitation expenses, this is good news indeed!

Thank You, Circus Circus!

Yet More Updates!

Things are moving right along nicely in the preparations for this October's first annual Gun Blogger Rendezvous. By getting started early that should greatly reduce the amount of last minute panic!

The Rendezvous is open to all gun bloggers, mil-bloggers, and any one else interested in guns, shooting sports, gun regulations, and the right to keep and bear arms. It is also open to gun and gun accessory manufacturers, shooting associations, and any one else who would enjoy hanging out with a bunch of gun nuts for a weekend in Reno!

If you are planning to attend, it is important to get your Rendezvous registration and room reservations in as early as possible so we can plan and adjust for the amount of folks attending. We need to have a fairly good idea how much space we'll need, how big of a dining room to reserve, and so forth.

Click here for info on room reservations

and

Click here for Rendezvous Registration

Keep checking back regularly, as new information on the Rendezvous will be posted here on a regular basis.

Some Background Info

Being as I blog every day, and read other blogs daily, it's easy to lose perspective on the blog world. The reality is that most folks don't quite know what a blog actually is or what they do. When it comes to the Gun Blogger Rendezvous, an understanding of blogging and the "Gun-Blogosphere" is essential to understand what the Rendezvous is all about. Here's a quick run-down and a few definitions to get everyone up to speed:

BLOG: The name is a shortened up word that originally was WEBLOG. A blog is an internet web page, and is viewed by using the same web browser, like Internet Explorer or Firefox, that you use to view any other web page. Where most web pages don't change too much on a day to day basis, blogs are often updated with new articles, called POSTS, on a daily basis.

Blogs usually have one or more themes, the topics that the blog author (BLOGGER) writes about on a regular basis. Blogs are also interactive. Blog posts usually have a COMMENTS section following each post. Blog viewers can contribute their thoughts and information on the subject of the post for other readers to see.

For example, a blogger could write a review of a particular product, and mention that the product had a problem and some function didn't work properly. A reader could respond that he also had one of the products, and found a simple solution to fix the problem.

Bloggers often use a "Pen Name" rather than using their real name, but not always.

A group of blogs with common or at least overlapping areas of interest is called a COMMUNITY. There are blog communities for cats, humor , politics, recipes and a lot more.

The Gun Blogger community is made up of well over one hundered different bloggers from across the United States, Canada, and around the world, all interested in, and blogging about shooting sports, guns, competitions, firearms safety and education, and laws and regulations concerning firearms ownership and use. Most of the gun Bloggers read each other's blogs on a regular basis, and often exchange information on topics of shared interest. Every so often gun bloggers in a local area will get together to head out to the shooting range, visit, and generally have a fun outing.

Most of the gun bloggers "know" each other through their blogs, and through email communications, but have never met in person. That's why the first annual Gun Blogger Rendezvous is going to be held in early October. It will be a chance to meet other bloggers, perhaps get out to a local range for a little shooting, and honor someone deserving of recognition, as our Guest of Honor.

The Rendezvous will not be attended just by gun bloggers. It will be open to anyone with an interest in shooting sports. Shooting organizations, gun manufacturers, accessory manufacturers, any one with an interest is welcome to attend.

If you are a manufacturer or a shooting sports related business, how should you think about the Rendezvous if you are thinking about participating, either as a donor sponsor, attendee, or both?

As an analogy, this of a large international media organization with tens of millions of readers every year, and over one hundred "Branch Offices", each with it's own publication. Imagine that each "Branch Office" has complete editorial control over it's particular publication. Now imagine that forty or fifty of those branch office editors will all be gathered at one place where you can meet them one on one, hang out, have dinner, talk guns, maybe go shooting, and in general get to know these editors on a first name basis. That's the opportunity that the Gun Blogger Rendezvous can provide to you and your business.

Not to mention, of course, that it'll be a lot of fun, and you can write it off!!

What a country......................

Hi Point Donates a 9mm. To The Rendezvous!!

Had an interesting phone conversation this morning with the "Big Cahuna" over at Hi Point firearms. Not only do we share our enthusiasm for firearms, but for fishing as well, but that's another story!

Anyhow, we were talking about the Gun Blogger Rendezvous coming up in early October in Reno, and he decided that although he wasn't sure if he could make it in person, he was willing to support our efforts, both for the Rendezvous and for a little fund-raising to help a bit with medical and rehab expenses for Dan McKown, our guest of Honor.

Not only is Hi Point willing to donate some hats and stuff, but they are also going to donate a brand new Hi Point C-9 9mm. pistol! WOO HOOO!!

Hi Point C-9 9mm. Pistol

We were thinking about doing a playing card drawing sort of deal at the Saturday night banquet, where we start with a deck of 52 playing cards. You can buy as many cards as you like, at ten bucks a card. There are only 52 cards, so it's definitely not one of those gazillion to one sort of deals! Buy one card and it's 51 to 1, buy two cards and it's 25.5 to one, buy 10 cards and it's 5.1 to 1! We'll have some one at Hi Point seal a single playing card in an envelope. No one will know what the card is until we open the envelope at the dinner. If it matches your card, you win a new Hi Point 9mm. pistol!

Remember, no one is getting paid off of this Rendezvous, and all funds raised after covering expenses go to Dan's recovery and rehab. fund.

Everybody wins!!