36 The Firearms Instructor Issue 50 sibilities, and I was still working on range facilities but we finally decided in January to host something at the end of July. We agreed that 6-7 months would be a good lead time to get things in place and for me to get my ranges exactly IALEFI® ready. To get the ball rolling to host an RTC, you have to get in touch with the IALEFI® RTC coordinator, Mike Boyle, so I had a jump start. Once the dates are decided, you will need a range facility that will handle the types of shooting classes that you want to put on. You need to get the instructors lined up. You may want to pick out a theme or areas of concentration on what you would like to see taught for your area of the world. I already had some instructors in mind that I would like to see come. The amazing thing is that everyone that I asked had no problem coming to help out and instruct. What I have generally found is that IALEFI® members are more than willing and able if you offer them a chance to come help, teach and shoot, NO PROBLEM. Once you have the instructors commit- ted, get their lesson plans sent to you, keep a copy of them with you in case you need an instructor substitution. Get your lesson plans, course descriptions into IALEFI® HQ along with instructor bios, and they will get your RTC listed and assist you with whatever else you need. Hotel accommodations are very impor- tant, try to pick a hotel that will work with you on pricing. They all will, but I had a little help on that, my significant other, Maria; she will “negotiate” ad nauseam until she gets her price. Use your best “negotiator” when dealing with hotel, if you are a good negotia- tor then by all means do it yourself. Maria tells me that I am not tough enough. You will need to give the hotel an idea of how many rooms you will need, they will set aside a block for you at that rate and hold that rate until a certain date. FOOD, very important, there are two things that firearms instructors like to do, the other one is EAT. Since our location was a bit remote in regard to restaurants and eateries, we decided, and our facility allows for it to have barbecue meals. Lunches con- sisted of burgers (Maria’s special recipe) and hot dogs, chips, water soft drinks, etc. We also decided that we would also do dinner at the range immediately after dinner. I am sure that the majority of readers know what it is like to be in class all day long, trek back to the hotel room, everybody is showering, somebody always has to take their sweet time and by the time you get to dinner, you are ready to eat a horse. We had a “Steak Bake” which included a NY strip steak (what else?), salt potatoes (small potatoes boiled and soaked in butter), salads and deserts. I promised Phil Messina a steak dinner if he taught a class for me. This may be useful in securing instructors – BRIBERY – all legal and all good. Dessert was Boyle’s BRIBE, he held out for Italian cannoli. We are still get- ting requests for the burger recipe. GOODIES, no conference is complete without goodies. We gave it a valiant shot and we got some response from corpo- rate sponsors and local businesses which resulted in some give away items to everyone and some raffle items to our participants. Actually every participant got some kind of raffle gift thanks to some added support from the IALEFI® HQ. If you are going to request goodies, many sponsors will ask for a 60 day advance notice and may require a request on letterhead. Range help is also important, and my motley crew consisting of volunteers, both friends and family. We assigned each instruc- tor a range knave to make sure that the range was set up for their specific needs, which included putting up and changing targets and policing brass. It is also important to feed the help, AGAIN FOOD. Setting up my first RTC was not an all consuming effort for months on end. It was actually pretty easy, contact your RTC coordinator, secure a range facility, hotel, instructors, lesson plans and get them to IALEFI®. Secure your range help, make good on your BRIBES and have enough food to keep everybody happy. The only thing that I had NO control over was the weather, but we were fortunate enough to have sun and warm but not scorching temperatures. Would I do it again? HELL YEAH. I think my range helpers and I had as much fun as everyone who attended. Every attendee told me that they would be back next year, if only for the food. RTCs give our members a chance to get out and experience some of the same things that are taught at the ATCs that they may not be able to attend due to distance or cost or shrinking train- ing budgets. I would like to give a special thanks to Mike Boyle, from IALEFI® Board of Directors, Phil Messina of Modern Warrior, Marshall Schmitt and Chris Gagliano from Lasermax for stepping up to teach, Maria, BBK, Joey, Teddy, Larry and Jacki for the kitchen and range help. Linda Davis and Kim Bossey from the IALEFI® HQ for their marketing support. As I said in the beginning of this article, host- ing an RTC is more fun than impossible. 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