Dear Wyoming State Shooting Association members,
As you select the people that will join the leadership team of WSSA, I offer my willingness to serve, and I have prepared some thoughts that will tell you a bit about my weaknesses, strengths, availability and worldviews as they relate to shooting and the WSSA. Please feel welcome to reach out via email with any questions. While I am willing to serve, if anyone else puts their name in the hat, I suggest that you vote for them! Shepard Humphries.
Please do NOT vote yes for me unless you think I am the right person for the job. I suspect that my primary focus, while in line with WSSA Purposes, is not completely in line with the primary focus of other board members, and if my interests and direction is not in line with what YOU want, I humbly suggest that you vote NO. 😊
The job of VP, as I understand it, includes a number of tasks, however as with any board position, 95% of the job is providing global strategy and making higher-level decisions. I am quite busy in my businesses and do not have much time to donate for management-level, supervisory-level or actual tasks. Most boards seek people that are either “money” or “workhorses” and I offer neither. I very much want to under-promise and over-deliver as I maintain my reputation for absolute integrity. Following is full disclosure of my good, bad and ugly. 😊
The pros of me serving as VP / CV / About Shepard Humphries
- I am honest, intellectually consistent, unconventional, creative and am very good at customer service.
- With the help of my team, I am responsible for introducing about 7,500 people to shooting in the last 10 years and am responsible for helping another 5,500 improve their shooting skills through the business I started in 2010, the Jackson Hole Shooting Experience. We are proud to be the highest rated TA business in Wyoming and surrounding states.
- I recently started Nomad Rifleman.
- NRA Appointed Training Counselor & Instructor in Rifle, Pistol, Personal Protection Inside the Home & Shotgun.
- I think most people are good. I like humans and other critters and most like me.
- NRA Chief Range Safety Officer
- Experienced and comfortable as a Public Speaker, some say I am good at it (when they wake up afterward)
- I have some experience and expertise in marketing, advertising, PR, website design and management, SEO and related.
- I have competed (though not well) in F-Class long range a couple times, IDPA, long range tactical & falling plates matches a dozen or so times in each discipline and have competed in a few USPSA and Benchrest rifle matches.
- My LinkedIn profile.
- Former SWAT Entry Team member and later Sniper Team Leader for the Teton County Multi-Jurisdictional Tactical Team.
- I have developed, organized and managed Turkey Shoots (that were successful but not sustainable) for our local shooting range, a Youth Shooting program (that failed), I have organized many shooting events (NONE failed) through our business for groups of up to 40 people.
- I have served as Secretary of the Jackson Hole Shooting Sports Foundation Board of Directors for over 5 years.
- I have had the good fortune of being with my awesome wife Lynn Sherwood for 18 years. My three grandkids, Lyla, Violet & Charlie live in Tucson, AZ as does my daughter Cayla, my son-in-law George and my son-in-law Dylan. My other daughter Lauren died last May of lung cancer at 25.
The cons of me serving as VP – candidate transparency
- My “focus” is not on official “competitive” shooting matches as much as it is on recreational shooting. I would get more joy seeing a family take up shooting sports as a fun recreational family activity and to defend themselves than to have their teen son become a competitive shooter. This personal preference would only be a “con” if YOU want the focus of the WSSA to be on “sanctioned competitive shooting matches” versus general growth of shooting sports and improved safety and skills.
- Time limitations. I work 80 to 90 hour weeks, and have not had a day off in the last 60 days, meaning I don’t have a lot of time to give WSSA to develop and conduct competitions, travel to many meetings, etc. On the other hand, “If you want something done, ask someone who is already busy.” 😊
- My “busy time” is between May and October each year, and it is unlikely that I will be able to travel to meetings, though I will generally have time to conference in by phone. In the winter, I generally work from out of state for a couple months.
- While I might be able to do more, please only assume I will be able to donate 15 hours a year, with none of those being May thru Sept. If this is not enough to do the job well, I understand.
- I trust the free market 100% and I am a proud capitalist. Donating my time to help get more people into shooting sports is in line with my free market philosophy, as is making money in the shooting industry. I mention this under “cons” because I understand that many people have a worldview that pastors, firearms trainers, mentors, competition directors, teachers and others that are passionate about a thing should never earn money for their efforts in that thing. I believe that the profit motive (both for financial profit and “warm and fuzzy feeling profit”) is a motive that accomplishes much more than an altruistic collectivist motive accomplishes. If your worldview falls more on the socialist side you should view me as a horrible choice for VP.
- If you like the idea of government gun snatching, love regulation of private firearms ownership, if you think the 2nd Amendment was written to protect people’s right to hunt ducks, if you think government is groovy and you want it to be big, powerful and strong, we have very different worldviews. You do not want to vote for me.
- My strengths are in “ideas” and entrepreneurship. Unfortunately, my weaknesses include having a messy office, bad dad jokes and administering long-term rote tasks and projects. In other words, I am great at creating a vision and developing an incredible program, but I am NOT the right guy to run that same program for the next 30 years, I will have moved on and started 20 other programs, 10 of which will have failed, 8 of which are OK, and two of which are home runs. 😊
Summary – Shepard Humphries WSSA Vice President?
I am proudly “not normal” in my philosophy, work ethic, initiative etc. I don’t have much time to give. I don’t live in the middle of the state, I live at the “far left” border of Wyoming in the San Francisco suburb called Teton County. 😉 I am not active in official sanctioned shooting competitions. I am a philosopher with strong principles. I am only 45 years old. I am an entrepreneur “starter” and NOT a “maintainer.” I have learned a lot in my life and I still know very little. I am not the most skilled shooter in the room.
Shepard Humphries WSSA Vice President? I might very well be a lousy choice for the open WSSA VP position. I am offering to serve in this position if you want me. I am not asking for your vote, I honestly wonder if YOU might be a better choice? 🤠 If you agree that you would be a better choice and if you are willing to serve, please contact secretary Nick for more information on putting your name in the hat: wssa.sectrea-spector@wyoming.com
Best regards and bang … ding,
Shepard Humphries
shepard@shootinjh.com
