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Usually at this time, I will be checking that I have everything I need packed ready for travelling to Bisley for the Trafalgar Meeting tomorrow. This year I am staying at home. This is the first time I have missed this meeting since I first attended in 1988 when it was the the SLRC meeting before it morphed in to the Trafalgar Meeting. The reason I am staying at home is the cancellation of the Arms Fair. That is my main reason for attending as several of the firearms in my collection I found at the Trafalgar Meeting arms fair. I enjoy the shooting but the meeting last year felt very flat and empty without the arms fair to look round. I have let the NRA know of my reason for not attending. The NRA have had all year to plan for the Trafalgar Meeting arms fair so I think their excuse for not organising it is due to a lack of staff a bit of a lame excuse. Rightly or wrongly, I got the impression that they can't be bothered. If the arms fair is back on next year, then I will probably attend again, but until the arms fair returns I will retire from attending the Trafalgar Meeting.
Regards
Peter.

They do have a lack of staff.

What does the staff do to facilitate the arms fair?

Set up the marquees?

I am in exactly the same frame of mind: the marquee is set up by the contractor that supplies it and there is very little for NRA staff to do. I have been to every one of these meetings until last year. I enjoy the shooting a lot, but the Arms Fair is the icing on the cake and justifies hauling the caravan down to Bisley. No arms fair = no attendance.
Fred

The NRA has a huge turnover of staff and just lost a fairly senior man in Rick Wells.

The tent is erected by contractors .
All the electrics are installed by contractors .
The tables may be dropped at their location by NRA staff , but dont bet on that .
At the end of the show the tables do seem to be collected by the same contractors who lay the flooring .
The traders information packet may be given to them by NRA staff , or it may just be thrown onto the flooring in the rough area that the trader has paid for , or the security man (non NRA staff) might have it .

Of course NRA staff handle the bookings , allocate the tables , issue invoices and spend hours telling the shooting community that there will be a trade fair .

Only 21 Trafalgar meetings for me & no trade fair means I'm pretty certain to have a less expensive day

David

Scrumbag wrote: ↑Sun Oct 17, 2021 6:38 pm ..and just lost a fairly senior man in Rick Wells.

May help the situation slightly.

Must agree, the trade show has been a great miss, lots of people have said to me they did not go because it was missing, the NRA say that number of cards shot over the weekend were up on previous years, did not see any sign of that though actually on the ranges, it was very quiet this year.