INSIDE with the Festival Nomad (No. 36)

 Over the years I have attended, worked with and organized hundreds of festivals and events. With this new series, "INSIDE with the Festival Nomad", I want to give you an "inside" look at some of the festivals and events that I have been involved with or that I have visited. Along the way, I have had a lot of fun and sometimes frustration, but I have never been bored!

The Biggies and More...

Judi and I have attended and volunteered at a number of fundraising auction dinners. These are a lot of fun and, of course, raise money for worthwhile causes. In the next few articles, I am going to tell you about two of the larger and more interesting fundraising dinners we have visited and about some of the funny things that we have seen at other fundraising auctions we have attended!

National Rifle Association Annual Meeting (Pittsburgh - Continued)

The Protest...

The NRA (National Rifle Association) is an American institution dedicated to preserving the rights of gun and rifle owners. Its mandate is based on the Second Amendment (Amendment II) to the United States Constitution being part of the United States Bill of Rights that protects the right of the people to keep and bear arms. It was adopted on December 15, 1791 along with the rest of the Bill or Rights. It is, as you can imagine, a controversial organization.  Each year, as I mentioned in last weeks blog, the NRA holds a national conference. This draws attention to the organization and people against gun rights are drawn to the conference to protest. It was under these circumstances that Judi and I entered the Pittsburgh Conference Centre where the event was being held that year. Fortunately, we were with Sam Pursglove, the then Executive Director of the Ruffed Grouse Society, USA. Sam is a rather large (tall) individual with a booming voice (being a little deaf!), so we were pretty confident that we could safely passed through the protesters to enter the building. Although it was quite intimidating, we did pass through without any problems. The biggest challenge was the noise from the crowd that had gathered. Even from inside the Conference Centre we could hear the protesters! This was democracy at work.