Reputation - ARPC and Mac

The reputation of the Albany Rifle and Pistol Club (ARPC) has been proliferating throughout the Western Stages, and I can't tell you how delighted I am to report that within the past two weeks I have learned of two out-of-state shooters who are considering a move to the mid-Willamette valley for the primary purpose of joining ARPC.


One is a Practical Pistol shooter from California: time frame is about two years from now.

The other is a physician from Idaho, both a Practical Pistol shooter and a Long Range Rifle Shooter (I'm talking about a guy who brings a .50 BMG to Joe Huffman's Boomer Shoot).

These are people who love shooting, and who are seeking proximity to a top-of-the-line Shooting Club.

The Albany Rifle and Pistol Club seems to meet their criteria, and I can only say that this speaks well for both ARPC and their judgment.

I have spoken frequently and volubly about the quality of facilities, training opportunities, and the wide range of competitive venues at ARPC.


ARPC wasn't always this forward thinking.

About ten years ago, I was living in Portland (80 miles from the Albany club). I would attend an ARPC IPSC match maybe every other month. It wasn't that the drive was so long or so difficult ... after all, it's a straight shot on the I-5 Freeway, and another 7 miles on a well-maintained secondary road.

The problem was that ARPC was experiencing a crisis of leadership, especially in the Practical Pistol Discipline Department.

First, unless you went there in the summer, the six ARPC North Range bays were a literal quagmire.

The bays were not surfaced ... no cover at all to the clay dirt .. and the North Range is immediately adjacent to the north face of Saddle Butte, which is a 200' high saddle butte. The rains would wash the dirt from the hillside onto the bays, and there was nowhere for the water to go when the slurry met the hard-packed access road. It pooled where the road ended, with the inevitable result that the bays were water saturated six months out of the year.

I've known times when it was so mucky that your boots would sink four inches into the mud. Do you realize how difficult it is to move fast (while holding a pistol with the safety off) when your boots are picking up pounds of mud with every step?

Then there were the leadership problems. A couple of well-intentioned guys worked hard to keep the IPSC program going, but they were not organizers. They tried to do everything themselves, and they couldn't attract volunteers to help with such problems as providing stage designs, and showing up early enough on Match Day to actually set up the stages.

Add to that, the only shelter was a 10-year-old shed on skids, which leaked and had no heaters to take the winter chill off the rain-soaked competitors after a match. Few competitors stuck around for an Awards Ceremony, because the just wanted to get into their cars and leave, with the fond hope of drying out during the drive home.

Finally, competitors were often so cold and shivery and disgruntled that they were reluctant to even help tear the stages down and put the props back in the (inadequate) storage shed.

There came a day when the Match Director made an announcement during the pre-walkthrough Shooters' Meeting:

He said "If you don't stay after the match and help with tear-down, all of your stage scores will be zeroed and a zero score will be sent to USPSA for your classifier. I'll be watching you!"

While his concern was not entirely unjustified, I was among those who always stayed to help with the tear-down, and I thought "Why is he tarring us all with the same brush? I do my part. Why should I allow myself to be talked down to this way?"

That's when I decided that this was my last match at ARPC, and I kept that resolution for several years.

That poor guy didn't last much longer, because it appears that I was not the only competitor who was offended by the way he chose to demonstrate that he was burned out.

Burn Out!

There was another brave soul who volunteered to MD the matches, but he didn't last too long, either. He tried to do all the work himself, and burned out in less than a year. The other clubs in the Section announced that ARPC had discontinued IPSC competition until a new Club President could be elected who would either personally take over the conduct of the Practical Pistol matches, or could find someone to do the job for him.

There was a breathless moment (lasting about two months) when local Practical Pistol competitors looked around to see who would volunteer to be the next 'fish in a barrel'. And about the time we had all resigned ourselves to the apparent fact that nobody was that masochistic, Mike McCarter stepped into the breach. He took over the Practical Pistol Discipline at ARPC, looked around, and identified the problems ... and found some creating solutions.

How to put a limping club back on it's feet (Shhhh... it's cheating. But it works.)
First, the equipment (including targets, props, etc.) were old and deteriorating, and there was no money to replace them.

The problem was that the various Disciplines turned all match fees over to the club, and then petitioned for operating expenses. Even though the Practical Pistol club provided more income (match fees) than all other Disciplines combined, the Board of Directors did not, at that time, recognize that it was a primary income source. It was difficult to acquire funding to even replace the cardboard targets which were the basis of competition, let alone replace broken steel targets, build new vision barriers and other props.

McCarter's solution was "we pay ourself first". When he ran a match, he deducted the expenses for the match from the income. Then he bought a couple of steel targets, and put a few dollars into a slush fund set aside to build new props. The remaining Match Fees were given to the BOD ... and then he petitioned for expenses to run the next Monthly Match.

Slowly the quality of the equipment (and variety of equipment, such as Disappearing Target Stands and Bobbers) began to improve. As the quality of the materials improved, the stage designs became more varied ... and more interesting.

As the stages became more interesting, more shooters showed up at the next match.

And with each match attracting more competitors the take from the Match Fees became more lucrative. At a club which had formerly been lucky to attract 20 competitors, ARPC was now fielding 40 - 50 - even 60 competitors to each monthly match.

About then, Mac started recruiting 'volunteers' to help with that match. Mac wasn't lazy; he designed most of the stages himself (still does) but he was ... and remains ... the kind of guy who wasn't shy about walking up to a competitor and asking him to help out with the setup of the next match, or whatever he needed help doing.

In fact, while he was Section Coordinator (see below) it took him about 90 seconds to talk me into volunteering to be Section Competition Director. Me, the consummate "I'm just here to pay my match fees and shoot" guy. It was the most difficult year of my life, and I didn't have the energy to try to keep up with Mac for another year.

Given his proven success at attracting financing (in the form of Match Fees), McCarter was soon seen to be a Money Magnet. The second year of his term of Practical Pistol Director, McCarter was elected President of ARPC (a post which he held for more than three years.)

As President, McCarter was able to apply more funding to the money-making sport. Here's a short list of the improvements made during his tenure as ARPC President:
. Level the 6 bays on the North Range

• Level the 6 bays on the North Range
• Install drainage on all those bays
• Cover the surface with a 'visquine' or other moisture-barrier material, and cover that in six inches of gravel
  
• Built 3-sided building, with roofs, the width of 'some' bays (eventually, all bays on the North Range had shelters) which were set on concrete pads so competitors weren't required to stand around in ankle-deep mud while waiting to shoot.
• Get rid of the 'shed on a sled' club house, and replace it with a permanent building on a concrete pad. This building eventually featured electricity, a 'garage' for storage of moisture-sensitive material (such as cardboard targets), and a good, reliable computer.
• Establish access to an internet-connected GOOD computer, which allows the statistician to confirm USPSA membership and classification during match sign-up.
• Build another (7th) bay on the North Range, improve the berms, improve drainage on all bays
• Design and promote and host new non-club matches, including the Annual Single Stack Tournament and, more recently, the Annual Glock Match. Other matches include a couple of "Pistol Caliber Carbine" matches. Catering was supplied at most of these 'special' matches, as well as prize tables.
• Encourage the participation on the North Range of 'other' disciplines, such as Single Action Society "Cowboy" matches and monthly "Speed Steel" matches (the special targets and props for these disciplines were funded by ARPC ... they repaid the investment in the first year.)
• Added storage for props in several manners, including (eventually) a couple of 'semi' trailers and purpose-built storage shed within the protective 'bay' building.

After a few years, Mac conceded the ARPC Presidency to new candidates ... who just happen to be Practical Pistol shooters, and often adherents of other shooting sports.

Somewhere in here, he was also elected Columbia Cascade Section (CSS) Section Coordinator, where he served with distinction for several years and brought a couple of Area 1 matches to the CCS area.

This didn't slow down the McCarter range improvements. Here's a short list of other accomplishments since his de-evolution to being 'merely' the Practical (Action) Director:

• Bid for, and was awarded (as part of his North American Shooting Sports project, along with USPSA RM Tom Chambers) the 2003 Area 1 Championship in Bend; the 2003 Open/Limited Nationals and the 2004 Open/Limited Nationals in Bend.
• Acceptance of the office of Section Coordinator for the Columbia Cascade Section.
• Hosting at least two Area 1 USPSA Championships (at Bend, and Sherwood).
• Hosting the USPSA Multi-Gun Championship in 2006 at ARPC.
• Hosting the "R&R Racing Area 1 Championship at ARPC.
• Hosting the 2007 "Shootout at Saddle Butte" match at ARPC.

There are others, including 11 years of a Single-Stack Tournament at ARPC, hosting the Glock challenge at ARPC, etc. I've left out many significant matches during the past 10 years, but you get the picture.

Mac Rocks.

Oh, and he also assumed the duties of USPSA Junior Coordinator for the past couple of years, established a flourishing (and sponsored) Junior Program at ARPC, and ran for USPSA President for 2007.

He lost to Michael V. Not our proudest moment, USPSA, because McCarter is a Man of Vision, someone who knows where we need to go and how to get there.

Recent Accomplishments:

Mac is a professional "nursery man" who ran a business for several years and was president of something called something like the "USA Nurserymen's Association".

Mac has retired from his private business, but still he retains his connection as a consultant. He also has contracted with ARPC as the "Executive Director" at ARPC, spending several days a week working at the ARPC range ... making repairs, making contacts, promoting the club and the sport.

Here are some of the things which Mac has done 'recently' to promote the shooting sports, and to promote the local community in the name of ARPC:

Point: recently, a Cypress Sequoia tree was vandalized in the Mid-Willamette valley. ARPC Executive Director Mike "Mac" McCarter and past president of ARPC John M. are nurserymen. They deal in trees, friend. Mac and John combined resources and, in the name of ARPC, offered (and planted) an adult replacement tree at no cost to the community.


Point: Mac attended a recent black-tie dinner at Portland. Mac was an invited speaker, at an event which included movers-and-shakers including Business Leaders, politicians and local celebrities. For the occasion, Mac found, and wore, a camouflage-patterned tuxedo.

Point: In his capacity as Executive Director, Mac is working with Oregon State University's Engineering department to develop a machine which will 'mine' shooting ranges for the lead resources in the berms and backstops. This will not only address a potential problem with poisonous metallic element buildup and pollution of groundwater, which is a situation of interest the the Environmental Protection Agency (E.P.A.) but will also provide lead for recasting into bullets, which may be made available to local ammunition reloaders. The club provides the leadership (Mac), the university provides the technical expertise (this is a multi-year practical training project to the benefit of the Engineering students), and the funding is provided by an Oregon State gun-rights organization.

I regret that this last report is not the result of a formal interview, so my notes are not as precise as they should be. I'm pretty sure that Mac can furnish me with more details later, so I can link to the organization involved in this latest MAC project.
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Here's the important part.

Mac volunteered to take over the highest-potential (but least supported) program in a club with a strong member base, but weak leadership.

In a short time, using good management principles and exerting powerful Leadership skills, he turned the club around from a money-loser to a money-maker, and in the process initiated a program of growth and service to the community which had never been exhibited in that organization.

He accomplished goals which had never been recognized, let alone identified as a target, via a combination of personal vision, hard work, and a recognition that other club members were an untapped resource. He wasn't shy about asking for their assistance, and every person he ever talked to agreed to help ... just because he demonstrated that 'someone' cared enough to ask.

Mac is a visionary and a leader. But there is no magic in what he has accomplished, or in what he may accomplish yet.

Any range, any club, can do as well if some one person is willing to devote his or her energy, enthusiasm and willingness to ask for help in the endeavor to build a club.

It's not that complicated.

But it's not easy.