FIELD ARCHERS AND BOWHUNTERS (FAB) BRANCH UPDATE

As some of you will recall, back in July this year I floated the idea of setting up a branch of the Shooters & Fishers Party that would be specific to field archers and bowhunters.

Its primary purpose would be to provide our sector with an active and very audible voice to fill a representative void that has existed for far too long.

Such a branch would be well positioned to advise the Party on priorities and concerns from the archers' point of view, while also providing a ready source of expert advice and guidance for our representatives on the floor of State Parliament.

Your feedback indicated strong support for such an organisation, while also making it very clear that you thought it should have a much wider brief in support of our sector.

As a result of the feedback and the support this idea received from you its stakeholders, I set-up a public meeting at Parliament House Sydney, in order to discuss our ideas and concerns with S&FP Parliamentarians; to float some ideas about how we might proceed, and to set-up the first Shooters and Fishers state branch of field archers and bowhunters.

I can now report that the Field Archers and Bowhunters branch – or ‘FAB’ for short - has been formalised with the full and enthusiastic support of the Shooters and Fishers Party.

An inaugural seven member committee has been elected to steer the FAB through its establishment phase until a broad democratic process can take over at its inaugural AGM in 2014.

Perhaps most importantly, the committee is skills rather than grievance-based, and I believe this will be a great asset to our sector.

Garry Mallard (Chair)
Antonio Lara (Secretary)
David Baker (Treasurer)
Michael Caelli
Andrew Maughan
Gary Nichols
Peter Fairhall

The committee is made up of equal numbers of field archers and bowhunters or a combination of the two, and expert skills and knowledge we’ll be able to harness include, but are certainly not restricted to:

• Member management and marketing

• Information technology

• Documentary film-making

• Funding and grant scoping

• Commercial publishing

• Education and safety

•  National coaching credentials

• Creative writing, including the preparation of media releases 

• Media monitoring and communications, and the list goes on...

Each committee member aspires to the highest levels of professionalism and integrity, but perhaps most importantly, each is doggedly committed to the promotion of our sport and culture, its preservation and its growth.

There are many ways in which our sector requires representation, promotion and support to help it prosper and grow, and no one agency is going to be able to make great inroads into those needs in the short term. However, nor will we accomplish anything if we allow ourselves to be so daunted by the scope of the task that we are too frightened to step up to the peg.

The key lies in identifying short, medium and long-term goals and setting priorities, and this is where we need your help.

The FAB invites stakeholders to help it identify its priorities. This is an important opportunity to have direct input into our direction.

Your feedback will also influence the FAB’s Mission Statement which is also under development.

There are three key areas that we are seeking your advice about: 

1. What are your main concerns for field archery and/or bowhunting?
   
   
2. In your opinion, in what ways has representation of field archery and/or bowhunting been lacking to date?
   
   
3. What two things could the FAB do to better support and/or represent field archery/bowhunting?

Your responses to these questions need not be detailed, nor need you be an old hand or an ‘expert’ in any particular discipline for your input to be relevant. We just want to know your priorities to help us ascertain if we’re on the right path.

You can send your feedback to fabnsw@gmail.com  

All input will be treated as strictly confidential and will be available only to the FAB committee.

Questions about the FAB can also be directed to fabnsw@gmail.com 

The committee is determined to ensure that the FAB is a stakeholder driven representative force for the preservation and growth of our sport and our culture. Your input and support will help us to achieve these goals.

Current Shooters and Fishers Party members will be able to affiliate with the FAB, internally, by a process still under development and people new to the Party can nominate the FAB as their branch at sign-up. For further information contact Shooters and Fishers or the Field Archers and Bowhunters (FAB) branch  at  fabnsw@gmail.com

Garry Mallard OAM

FAB Chairman
For and on behalf
The NSW Field Archers & Bowhunters Branch
The Shooters and Fishers Party