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I want to thank everyone for coming, especially since a lot of you folks drove a long way! I also appreciate the great presentations our speakers developed for the conference. Thanks Ed Williams (Skiprr) on developing your business, Frank Simonton, III on tax issues, Linda Watson (Crossfire) and Marty Groves on tips for running a class, Asst. Dir. RenEarl Bowie with DPS, Jeff Hewitt on insurance for instructors, and NRA/ILA's Chris Cox (by video).

I hope everyone enjoyed the conference and found the topics useful.

Chas.

There are only 35 seats left and an email is going out by the NRA next week.

Chas.

You guys are fast! The email flyer just went out late yesterday.

Yes, the Texas Firearms Instructor Conference is on. Initially I had thought it would be an informal gathering of instructors to talk about issues and get a feel for what is going on and how we could approach changes during the 2013 Texas Legislative Session. After getting a few emails and talking to range owners at the Texas Range Protection Laws Seminar, I expanded the Conference to other topics that are important to instructors. The Conference will cover legal issues important to instructors, tax issues including information on the impact of various business structures on potential tax liability, and other subjects. (You can get more information at http://www.InstructorConference.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.)

I'm very happy to have DPS Capt. RenEarl Bowie present the DPS segment of the Conference. Capt. Bowie will probably bring other DPS personal to the Conference as well. RenEarl is responsible for the entire CHL Division as well as other areas within regulatory services. He's a great guy who worked hard to reform and upgrade CHL application processing. I'm sure his presentation will be excellent.

Chris Cox, Exec. Director of NRA/ILA will make a video presentation. I wish he could join us and he tried to work it into his travel schedule, but in an election year, it just wasn't possible.

We also have a CPA, Frank Simonton III, who will talk about the subject we all hate, but need to understand -- TAXES! Your choice of business structure and the way you pay yourself and "helpers" has significant impact on your ultimate tax liability. Frank will cover those topics and field questions.

Our own Chris Smith will also present a segment on building your business, a subject near and dear to everyone's heart. With a record number of instructors in Texas, promotion takes on even more importance.

Jeff Hewitt from Lockton Affinity will talk about insurance available to instructors through the NRA endorsed plans. Serving as a firearms instructor without insurance is like walking through a minefield! As many defendants in civil cases learn, having an insurance company pay for your attorney is every bit as valuable as the coverage itself.

I'll be handling the legal issues segment. We will cover potential liability firearms instructors face, as well as the limitations on the partial immunity granted to CHL instructors. I'll also cover the importance of choosing the proper business structure (corporation, LLC, etc.) in terms of potential liability, and the pitfalls that can trap an instructor.

At this point, the only promotion of the event is has been the email flyer that went to CHL instructors listed on the DPS website. Although there appears to be 2,900 people on that list, there are numerous duplications because people list themselves in multiple counties. When the duplications are removed, there are about 1,100 instructors with email addresses.

Later this month, the NRA is going to email the flyer to approximately 400,000 NRA Members in Texas, so the Conference could fill up very quickly. While we have some room for expansion with the hotel, there are deadlines for committing to additional space and if we don't contract for that space by the deadline, someone else can book it. So if you want to attend, please don't delay registering.

If you are flying to Houston for the Conference, the Hobby Hilton is only a few blocks from Hobby Airport and they have a free shuttle.

Chas.

If you are interested in an instructors' conference, please ask some of your instructor friends of they would be interested. In order to make this worthwhile, we would need a large sample of instructors to get input and exchange ideas.

Chas.

Crossfire wrote:Absolutely in. But, if you hold it on a Sat, many instructors will already have classes scheduled. We have already booked our 2012 class dates. Plenty of advance notice on the date, please.

It will probably be on a weekday or evening for just that reason.

Chas.

The thread on lowering the time requirement for CHL classes leads me to believe that CHL holders and prospective licensees, as well as current CHL instructors, could benefit from holding an instructors' conference. We could discuss several issues in addition to the time requirement and ultimately provide useful information to both the NRA and TSRA.

With Board approval, we can host about 60 people at PSC. If we have greater interest, we'll have to rent a conference room so there will be a fee to cover that cost.

While the target audience for this conference is CHL instructors, it will be open to anyone interested. In fact, it might be helpful to get opinions and observations from CHL's. I have extended an offer to attend to one of my DPS contacts and he will attend if his schedule permits. He may chose to bring others in his division also.

I have no idea if there is any interest in this concept or not, but if there is, I'll put it together.

Chas.