Popcorn Kelly
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Posts posted by Popcorn Kelly
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Click here to view the video and find out.
Hint - it has to do with the 2024 Illinois State Championship.
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As of 5:00 p.m. Sunday, April 7, the Illinois State Champion has 126 registrants from 13 states and one foreign country, shooting across 36 categories. This is 56% more registrations at 133 days out than we had last year. We are now 70% of the way to our 180-shooter limit. While we’re not assigning posses yet, one posse is 100% full and a second is 70% full just from common posse with requests. Click here to see the Who's Coming List.
Here are some interesting registration characteristics so far:
Posse With Requests: As of today, I have one request that could be a challenge meeting because they asked to posse with someone on the already full posse (It’s early and it may still happen.) I can add that all other posse with requests received so far are safe and should remain so. However, please understand we accommodate posse with requests in the order we receive them. Generally, this won’t pose an issue until very late in the game. However, if getting your posse with request is important, I encourage you to get your registration in – the sooner the better. Please know we will do all we can, but we prioritize posse with requests in in the order we received them - it's the fairest way of doing it.
Registration Characteristics: Forty-niners have the most shooters registered, followed by Cattle Baron, and Classic Cowboy. Elder Statesman just replaced Frontier Cartridge as the 4th most entered category. For ladies, Lady Forty-niner and Lady Silver Senior have the most registrations (6) followed by Grand Dame and Lady Senior (5).
Yr to Yr Comparison: The chart above shows how registrations compare to last year’s with 137 days to go. At this time, we are now running 56% ahead of last year.
Click here to see the Who's Coming List which include shooter specifics, category counts, and states.
As always, there’s no time like the present to get that registration in. Click here for more information on how you can register.
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As of 4:00 p.m. Sunday, March 31, the Illinois State Championship "Mayhem on the Mississippi - Illinois Against the World" has 121 registrants, which is over 66% of the way to its 180-shooter with 137 days to go. We've shooters coming from 13 different states, plus an international shooter, making this a true Illinois Against the World Border War. Click here to see the Who's Coming list as well as which foreign country the international shooter hails from. (Of course, they'll be on the out-of-staters' team for the border war.) The list also includes shooters by category and state.
On a related note, we’re starting to order awards and working on, among other things, the meals and banquet supplies, door prizes, raffle items, stages, shooter information packet, and event program.
Join us for the 2024 Illinois State Championship. 3 days of Cowboy Action Shooting, 10 Championship-caliber stages, an optional Saturday evening Riverboat dinner cruise, another once-a-year chance to set a State Record or set a Club Record if you're fast, or lucky enough, and more. Our range is conveniently located near the juncture of Interstates 80 and 74, along the Illinois/Iowa border. This area offers plenty of nearby hotels and restaurants all within a few minutes’ drive of the range. Click here for more information on the state championship or visit our website at www.illowairregulars.com.
What else do you have to do in August?
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Illowa Irregulars enhanced its website four years ago. We started accepting both paper and on-line registrations in late 2022 - in time for the 2023Illinois State Championship. We are taking both online and paper registrations again this year for the 2024 State Championship.
My goal was to make signing up as easy as possible using any method the customer wants to use. Last year 56% of registration came in online. This year we are running 66%. In the end, I don't care which form the registrant uses - I just want to provide them with whatever option they are comfortable with and find easy to use.
Other nice things about online registrations?
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The money is deposited automatically into our bank account according to a frequency I select
- No trips to the bank or fiddling with my phone to do mobile deposit of a hand-written check
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I can import the registrant's information directly into my registration spreadsheet
- Actually, more of a download/then link process
- I don't have to decipher handwriting or worry about making a typing error
- Waivers are incorporated into the form so with one click, everything is done
- The shooter can select category and order/pay for extra meals, t-shirts, etc.,
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The shooter gets an instant email acknowledgment
- I still send them an email confirming our receipt
In terms of the credit card fees, we consider the fees a cost of doing business, so we absorb them. We used PayPal in 2022 because it was easier for me to set up at the time. I switched to Stripe this year. Between the two I prefer Stripe. Square's good I'm sure, but WP-Forms has a ready-made integration with Stripe that is provided as part of our subscription level so that is what we're using. I'm very satisfied.
I agree with several of the previous comments about the need to have a quality website. IMHO, almost every club should have an easy to access, clean, and well-designed website that provides and makes it easy to find, information about the club matches, scores, and other activities.
I (grudgingly) use FB but do so only to enhance our website communications. Virtually all of our FB posts are web posts that autocross-linked to FB, and then point back to our website. I personally would never consider using FB as our primary means of communicating with our shooters or potential shooters (i.e.., as a replacement for our website), but . . . , that's just me. You may feel differently, and if you do I wish you success.
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The money is deposited automatically into our bank account according to a frequency I select
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As of tonight, Sunday, March 24, we’ve 116 registrants from 13 states, one foreign country, and shooting in 32 categories.
Click here to see Who's Coming.
Yr to Yr Comparison: The web post includes a chart showing how registrations compare to last year’s with 145 days to go. We are running 66% ahead of last year at this time. Interestingly, about 30% of shooters are new to our State Championship.
There’s plenty of time, and I still think it’s a stretch we’ll actually hit our 180-shooter limit, but who knows? I'm beginning to wonder. As always, there’s no time like the present to get that registration in. Click here for more information on how you can register.
Hopefully, we’ll see you there,
Popcorn Kelly
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Here is a direct link to the file that should work: https://illowairregulars.com/?sdm_process_download=1&download_id=10131
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Chief Rick, Here's another thought. If you Unprotect the Registration Worksheet you can hide the unwanted columns. I advise you to Protect the worksheet again once you're done. Also, make a copy of the workbook prior to unprotecting it in case an unintended change is made you can simply use the backup copy instead of trying to fix the broken one.
PK
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Chief Rick, Glad to hear it's working for you so far. Yes, I included things on this model we don't use either, e.g., side match and warm-up match information. I included them because I've seen others ask about them on their registration forms. As you say, it's easier to have the option to record the information but not need it, than it is to need the option but not have it. Good luck and let me know how the model worked for you when your match is in the history books.
PK
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I just posted my latest video titled: Up Next Ep 6: Large Match Registration and Posse Assignments Made EasyWhen we held our first Illinois State Championship match in 2022 I needed a way to register shooters and then assign them to posses according to their posse requests. Having never done this, I had to figure it out.In this episode I describe the Match Registration and Posse Assignment program I developed that simplified registration and posse assignments taking into consideration every shooters' Posse With requests. The program as currently configured accommodates match sizes of up to 200 shooters and 12 Posse Marshals, although it could easily be altered to accommodate 500, 800, 1,000 shooters, and more (although I don't have a need to go that big). As I say in the video, I'm not holding this out as the "best." I'm sure there are several ways to skin this cat. All I know is that this is very easy and works well for me.If you are in charge of registering shooters and assigning them to posses according to their Posse With requests, this may be of some interest to you.I am making this program available free of charge to download to anyone that would like to try it out. The link is in the video description as well as in the video itself.Users should be modestly familiar with Excel.The Aliases have been changed in this video to protect the innocent.
Here is a link to the YouTube video
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BREAKING NEWS
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I recently posted a video status update about the 2024 Illinois State Championship – Illinois Against the World, including:
- a YTD update on the number of registrations, categories entered, and number of states represented to date, and then look at how registrations compare to this stage last year;
- information about our Match Theme and provide images of our Event Program Cover and Name Badges, award buckles and side match pins; and,
- information on the Riverboat Dinner Cruise and the State Record Stage, which we’ll be shooting again.
For more information about how you can join us at the 2024 Illinois State Championship, or check out our Who’s Coming List, go to www.illowairregulars.com and look for the appropriate link in the top menu of our home page.
PK
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Illowa Irregulars are pleased to announce that registration is open for all three of our 2024 Buffalo Shoots which are scheduled for May 18, July 28, October 19, 2024. Shooters may register for one or more Buffalo shoots at the same time. As you can see in the images in the link at the end of this post, the Milan Rifle Club offers a picturesque and beautiful range that is perfect backdrop for a Buffalo Shoot – a herd of 33 Buffalo graving on a grassy field. We’re also one of the few clubs using reactive targets – reactive in the sense that the Buffalo targets fall over when hit. See the video in the link below to get a sense of what to expect.
We are offering three registration options (with a caveat for #3 - Onsite Registration)
1. An online registration;
2. A paper registration form;
3. * On-site registration on match day.
Preregistration is encouraged but not required: Although preregistration is not required, we are encouraging everyone who plans to attend the Buffalo Shoot to submit their registrations in advance. This does two things:
1. It provides us some idea of how many people to expect; and,
2. It guarantees your entry if we hit our maximum number of shooters;
- Although it's unlikely, it's possible we could get close to the maximum number of shooters we can handle in a single day.
- Should we reach our maximum, all preregistrations would be honored, but we'd stop accepting new registrations and limit the number of on-site registrations allowed.
Click here for more information
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4 hours ago, Cullie Halfcock said:
Thank you PK! I’ve been on the site looking around. Very exiting stuff! I’d also like to attend the January Iron Man shoot.
Cullie, we hope you can make it. Check our website the day prior to make sure it's still a go - www.illowairregulars.com. While it's a near certainty to go off as planned, given the vagaries of the weather there's always a possibility it could be cancelled. it's not so much the cold than it would be due to ice that would preclude us from getting gack there. Again, unlikely, but . . . We'd announce a cancellation the day before. PK
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On 1/5/2024 at 3:50 PM, Shawnee Hills said:
The Illowa Irregulars typically have a shoot or two per year. Their range is located west of Milan IL. Not sure how far that would be for you but is an option.
Illowa Irregulars is scheduling 3 Buffalo shoots in 2024 - May 18, July 28, and October 19. Here is a short video taken at our May 2023 match.
Click here for more information about our long-range Buffalo shoots. .
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Printed Shooters Handbooks
in SASS Wire
Posted
2023_Illinois_State_Championsip_ Event_ Program.pdf
Here is a pdf of Illowa Irregulars' 2023 Illinois State Championship Event Program. As I recall, these thirty-two page, 8.5 x 11 inch, four color, saddle stitched booklets cost just under $4 each.
Here are my thoughts on this subject. Event Programs are one of the first touch points shooters experience upon arrival. We want them to have a very positive tactile and visual experience when they pull it out of their registration packet. It helps set the stage for what's to come. We're doing something similar in 2024. www.illowairregulars.com