Good Afternoon All,

I am acutely aware of the SMGC Club Member’s concern over delays to operations along with the new DBIDS entry requirements.

LICENSING AGREEMENT: Here is where we stand, after extensive discussions and several meetings, to quote current Gov.speak “the long pole in the tent…” is, The Environmental Conditions of Property Review which is required to be completed before the Licensing Agreement can be executed.

Think about the walk around you do when you rent a car or equipment before you operate it. When we last spoke, the Real Estate Specialists informed me the current turn around on this is 90 days and we have 60 days to go. The last remaining issue with the Licensing was some verbiage with regard to operations of the new Range, R223B. All that was needed was its insertion into our Licensing Agreement, last I was informed.

Wilcox Range has damage with the last storms by the recent flooding of the Santa Margarita River. So, Wilcox and R102 are closed until sometime around late March or Mid-April, which happens to be the same time the Navy finishes the Environmental Review. The fact that Range 117 will be severely leaking and muddy ‘till then; that leaves us with the possibility of conducting a GSM at R116. MCCS has control of R116 now and we are actively seeking an agreement with MCCS and Range Control about utilization of 30-06 on R116A. This is the last hurdle for us there.

DBIDS: The situation will be worked out and the sponsorship will switch from the graciousness of Military personnel vouching for you all, to an official status with SMGC and the expiration date of 1 year for passes. We will also work out an infrequent, weekend day for those who cannot come during the week to process a DBIDS pass.

I assure you all that in the very near future we will resume operation on a level that I, the oldest and longest participating Member of SMGC, have never seen. A lot of historic hitches to operations have been sorted out and we will have a robust and varied program for your participation. A lot of new shooting disciplines (such as PRS and Pistol) will be added, and I’m sure you will find yourself challenged and growing in your skillsets with what we have planned.

What does that leave us with? Well the next opportunity for us to fire on the outstanding facilities aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, will be the Pac Fleet and All Navy Matches. There is the possibility of the Licensing Agreement coming though sooner than the 60 days remaining on administrative work by the Navy. Once I have the agreement signed, I will be depending on all of you to pull together and participate in the calls that we put out to not only have fun and shoot, but also the necessities that have been neglected for nearly 2 years.

CONEX BOXES and TARGET SUPPLIES: There will be work parties for a multitude of tasks starting with maintenance of our Target Sheds and target inventory. The integration of banks of electronic targets and steel for our new future PRS Matches will also be an area of work. With the re-opening of the Club’s operations, there will be a need for additional and new Assistant Match Directors, and a call for other discipline’s experts to participate in the expansion of our options.

A lot of you have remained loyal to the operation of the Club and have hung in there with me and the rest of the team that have put in A LOT of effort to finally bring us back on line for you all and most especially, to preserve the basic competitive disciplines and currently evolved methods of their employment. I depend on you to support our reengagement with vigor and spread the word to develop our participation levels.

I hope this answers everyone’s concerns and you have my assurance that we will be on the firing lines soon.

See you all on the Range,

John Hermsen,
President/CRSO
SMGC Inc.

Attention All Hands,

One unfortunate outcome of the government’s shutdown is that just as the License to operate was literally days away from completion, the processing has come to a dead stop.

The addition of Range 223B to our inventory was the last process to complete, the check was cashed, and all was in readiness for our resumption of activities on the 19th and 20th of this month.

Many, MANY man hours of work was done this last year and a half (now more) to engage the Club’s operations and improve our programs. As many may know, we did our best to coordinate with SOI and it’s leadership to bring you occasional events and develop the PRS discipline for the Club and it’s Members.

We value your participation and loyalty, and your rewards are forthcoming. I want to apologize to you all for the length of the process and the impression some may have developed that we would never reopen; but, at the same time I would like to impress upon you all the massive scale of the efforts involved.

Without the direct and invaluable efforts of several influential members of the Marine Corps, all our efforts would have been in vain. I’m not going to identify them directly at this time, but I will soon. Please make a special effort to congratulate and thank those individuals in the future because without them, as I said, we would be dead in the water.

I am hoping in earnest that our politicians will recover from the rampant Rectal Inversion that infects our representatives, the government will get back at it, we will resume the good work we do, and I can say again…

See you on the Range,

John Hermsen, President/CRSO
SMGC Inc.