PAFOA: Past, Present & Future - Now with Question & Answer Time

[danp]

IMO, things like moving forums around and tightening rules are kind of what you guys should be focusing on in relation to the forum. The neg rep thing blew up because it really is something that you guys should not have stuck your noses in, for lack of a better term. Doing so rammed home, for many, the lack of control they have in dealing with the community they have made.

I'm going to be honest in saying that I disagree wholeheartedly and what you are promoting is very unlikely to be the way things ever shape out. The idea that the organization should not "stick its nose in" any area which it operates is unrealistic. The organization has every right to manage it's operations in the way it considers beneficial to the organization overall, even if some people don't much like the changes, and it will continue to do so.

What the organization does have to do however is get it's members more involved in the process of change-making including discussions, polls, etc. with regards to potential changes in the future. Make no mistake I've taken heed people's feelings about surprise changes with no discussion and no warning.

[danp]

Knowing that this is the direction you would like to see the membership take, why just throw it out there and sit on it? Why not just set up a brainstorming session, and get input on how to set up the logistics of organizing regions and localities? Go over the suggestions and then put someone in charge of instituting the structure. Once that is done, you can then look at it and see if is worth putting into limited action so you can gauge results. This is something that can be done right this minute, which would require very little from you personally, and could move your timetable up from ten years to a couple of months. So why not try that?

It is my opinion that this is best done one step at a time (see considerations about "pace"), PAFOA needs to lay down some of the foundations mentioned in my original post before it can start building walls and eventually a roof. I am a firm believer in focusing on one goal at a time because trying to spin plates usually results in all the plates breaking eventually. Unity will continue to be my priority for the time being and I think opening up the blog to volunteer bloggers is going to be the first step in learning how best to manage a volunteer workforce.

[danp]

You currently have all of the counties represented and broken down into regions. Would it be appropriate to take this current organization into your plans?

Yes, it absolutely would. My guess is that if/when we go to the county-representative structure they will end up being the moderators of their respective section of the forum and we will encourage more usage of those forums for local organization.

[danp]

Please note that the question after this actually came out of the middle of this question. Other than that I did not modify it.

Based on what you've written thus far, the impression is that you are leveraging this association into an entity that allows you to stand in front of the media, fellow-advocates and our elected leaders and represent gun owners in this state (or at least, the members of the forum/association). The problem here is that I don't even know you, what you stand for, what you represent, who your benefactors are and who you've allied yourself with. What credentials do you have that would allow you to transfer from a forum owner to a guy that gun owners can trust with their rights? What would compel me to want you to speak for or represent me, especially when that's not the premise that I signed up for and contributed to PAFOA all this time under? Entities need to start clean and have a clearly defined purpose, you can't really go changing that purpose years after you've gotten off the ground and expect people to be on-board.

While I understand your sentiment (which if I remember correctly you've held for quite some time), the idea that PAFOA has "changed it's purpose" could not be further from the truth. The purpose of PAFOA has always been political as evidenced by the original PAFOA mission statement was posted on November 9th, 2006 (which in your case predates your involvement by about 4 months.) It states:

The mission of the Pennsylvania Firearm Owners Association is to preserve the rights of firearm owners in the State of Pennsylvania as guaranteed by Article 21 of the Pennsylvania State Constitution and the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution. To achieve this goal the Pennsylvania Firearm Owners Association will participate, and encourage its members to participate in the political process through activism, lobbying, and voter education.

In addition to our primary goal, the Pennsylvania Firearm Owners Association also seeks to provide the public with the necessary resources to educate themselves on the safe and legal ownership of firearms.

While I understand that you (and possibly others) are not automatically interested in PAFOA speaking for you, I would ask that people simply judge the organization by it's actions from the past and in the future to decide whether or not PAFOA represents you and to associate oneself accordingly.

[danp]

What suddenly makes you qualified to assume such a position in terms of the RKBA movement in this state?

Absolutely nothing except for that I took the initiative to start something and so far people have decided to follow that lead. My guess is that just about all people in my position got into it in a similar way. I fully expect people to judge PAFOA and myself by respective actions and associate or disassociate themselves as they see fit.

One of the major reasons I have been so slow in moving things forward is out of recognition of the fact that I am not ultimately qualified to run out into the wild with no background and start making choices that affect everyone's lives. I have a lot of learning to do over the next few years which hopefully will prepare PAFOA to properly represent gun owners in Pennsylvania if they continue to support our offer to do so.

[danp]

How do you feel PAFOA would accomplish the activity of volunteer member management in order to capitalize on the shared collective strengths and enthusiasms, yet assure that those volunteers' efforts are focused on activities that are inline with PAFOAs vision statement and goals?

I honestly don't know yet and that's largely why it hasn't been done. But the truth is I need to either suck it up and move into the unknown or admit defeat. Obviously the latter is not an option.

As I mentioned in response to one of the previous questions I think our first trial is going to be getting the blog going with a team of volunteer bloggers. I've always wanted the blog to become more used and I think it would provide a great testing ground for the first attempt at this.

[danp]

How will checks and balances be incorporated? Should a Mod also be on the "Peer Review Team" or "Ethics Committee", as this would be COI? Whatever the title, how could some form of an "Operations Strategy & Leadership Team" (OS&LT) allow PAFOA to both offer member feedback and guidance back to the association's leadership (you and others yet to be appointed/elected/etc.) (I recommend appoint, with you having final buy-off as well as one other person.) as well as ensure that the associations leadership's decisions and vision is flowed-down to the general membership?

While I think it's a good long term goal and will be absolutely necessary as we grow, if I'm being perfectly honest, I feel as though this level of bureaucracy at this point would hurt the organization far more than it would help.

I would encourage people that have concerns to simply talk to me, I really do try to answer every email and PM (although I will admit I miss a few.) I'd like to think that anyone who has not worked with me in the past but has been following what is going on has realized that I'm pretty open to being called out, asked tough questions of, and giving honest answers even if I know the questioner isn't going to like them.

[danp]

Ok guys, I have to call it quits for the night.

All in all I got pretty much all the questions I thought I was going to get and I sincerely hope that people appreciate the honest answers (even if they don't necessarily agree with them.)

People are free to send me more and followup questions that I will do my best to answer tomorrow night after I get home from work (if I go.) although I can't promise and specific times like I did today.

At this point I want to get some rest to see if I can get whatever bug has bit me beaten before tomorrow.

[danp]

Do you at some point in the future forsee PAFOA ( or a spin off entity ) activating a PAC Group to vet and endorse candidates , be it local , City , County , State or Congessional level ?

At this point no, I do not.

[danp]

One thing that I personally believe would be welcomed with open arms by a large number of members would be some sort of annual " dinner ". Hardly anyone here really needs anything more then a suggestion to all get together for camraderie and meeting each other , it could certainly act as a not insignificant fundraiser ( sort of like the regional NRA dinners ) and would eventually be likely to attract candidates for office seeking our endorsement , which pays off dividends in spades in terms of "access " to the halls of power. I understand the complexities involved due to the huge geographical region of the State , and planning such an event , but that can be addressed in a regional manner as one option. I also believe most people here would happily part with 50 to 100 bucks or so once or twice a year to get together with a hotel ballroom full of friends and good food.

Many people have talked about this and while I agree it would be a totally awesome event, I think it's probably a long way off. The amount of planning that would need to go into something like this would be far more than PAFOA is capable of handling right now and probably for a while. PAFOA is a digital organization, operating in the physical world is going to be a massive, mentality shift full of challenges we've never even had to think about.