Report from Outdoor Writers Association of America (OWAA) 6-15-09

gengberg June 15th, 2009

Report from OWAA National Conference
More than 300 members of the outdoor media and supporters are meeting this week in beautiful Grand Rapids, Michigan for the Outdoor Writers Association of America annual conference.Despite a tough economy that has strapped travel budgets for some editors, writers, supporters and natural resource agency regulars who could not attend this year, the general mood is positive and focused on productivity. Regulars like Browning, Coleman, Thompson-Center, Toyota, Smith & Wesson, Wolverine and dozens of others showed their wares inside the Amway Grand Plaza hotel on registration day and will provide hands-on opportunities at the local shooting range and Break-Out Day site Monday.

Between craft improvement and newsmaker seminars and meetings, the networking that goes on in the hallways and hospitality suites is among the biggest benefits of the annual OWAA conference.

One of the hits of the first two days was 15-year-old Jessica Nystrom.

Tom Bennett introduced her during the opening banquet sponsored by Safari Club International and its partners, Outdoor Channel and National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP). As he unveiled new research about how the school archery is improving student attendance and grades while reducing behavior issues, NASP’s Bennett explained that the Michigan teen shot 298 out of a possible 300 to out-shoot 4,564 youngsters from 35 states and one province who competed in the recent NASP national tournament. He announced that he and NASP’s Roy Grimes recently completed training instructors who will teach hundreds of teachers attending SCI’s American Wilderness Leadership School, which will be the largest single source of new NASP instructors for schools nationwide.

Jessica’s father, David Nystrom, and her Hartland High School archery coach Rob Jellison, who is an AWLS graduate and on the local SCI Chapter board of directors, beamed with pride at the lengthy applause for the teen and the interview requests that followed.

It came a time, one week after the NSSF Shooting Sport Summit, when it could put an exclamation point behind some of the Summit’s key action items. OWAA members recognize that the SCI, Outdoor Channel, NASP collaboration is an example of partnerships aimed at mentoring youth to move them step-by-step toward lifelong activities afield. As Bennett explained it, the new research shows that the student archers move on to buying their own archery equipment-mostly hunting bows– and spending more time in the outdoors.

It was a message that resonated well with OWAA conference attendees, who will be here through mid-week.

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