WHY ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS SHOULD BELONG TO SCI
Our single most effective method of increasing membership is when members like you tell their friends that they should belong. When you talk to a hunter who is not a member, here are some great responses for when they ask:
“What do I get out of joining SCI?”
How to answer:
Response #1: SCI is completely dedicated to protect your freedom to hunt. We spend between $2 Million and $3 Million a year on that mission.
Response #2: Our activities to protect your freedoms are done primarily in-house, through our staff in Washington, DC. We also use contractors, such as our lobbying firm, and we provide grants to organizations like the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation that shares our views and adds important weight in Washington and in the state capitals.
Response #3: We bring lawsuits to assure hunter access to federal lands, for example, or we help federal and state agencies defend against lawsuits that are brought by anti-hunting groups to shut down hunting. Our staff analyzes thousands of pages of proposed laws and rules every year, in the Congress and in the states, which might affect hunting. We develop positions, write detailed responses and lobby to support laws and rules favorable to hunters and to oppose those that are not.
Response #4: Be assured, the anti-hunting organizations do the same thing except that they want to bring an end to our hunting freedoms.
Response #5: Besides the direct activities in the U.S. at the federal and state level, we do many other things designed to protect your freedoms, worldwide.
Response #6: We have chapters and governing body that works in Canada. We have chapters in Europe and elsewhere and we work with them to address hunting issues in other countries.
Response #7: We are the most active and knowledgeable sportsmen’s organization on treaties (such as CITES and in the U.N.) that affect international hunting, the shipment of hunting trophies, and the carriage of firearms.
Response #8: We also work in the court of public opinion. We all know that social media is used today to whip up emotional frenzies with phony information to try to end hunting. SCI has a communications program that aggressively combats mistruths about hunting. We are developing a pro hunting communication campaign to put out the word on hunting without waiting to be attacked.
Response #9: There are a lot of other benefits to belonging to SCI, such as the Annual Hunters’ Convention and the many SCI chapters that provide fellowship and local involvement. We fund conservation of wildlife, directly and through our sister organization, the SCI Foundation. But at the end of the day, we protect your hunting freedom.
Tell your friends to join us in this worthy cause. They should also support all the other wonderful hunting organizations dedicated to keeping game animals like elk, wild sheep, turkeys, deer, quail and other wildlife strong and abundant, and to protect your rights in the U.S. to own and use firearms.
