Ralph Harris
Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Indiana
We have been in the Business of building archery targets for over 30 years, and have exhibited at literally hundreds of tournaments, our targets are used by archery teams around the world.
An organization promoting school archery programs started up about ten years ago, at that time we attempted to become "approved" by their board, and was told they were not interested. Today it has grown to the largest single aspect of archery, with over 2 million kids shooting every year.
Four years ago we began producing a line of targets designed specifically for this type of archery, based on the targets we build for various training centers, we did this at the behest of local schools who complained the targets sold by the national program were too costly.
Again we sent samples to the national program, attempting to become an "approved" product, and we asked the criteria the targets needed to meet, i.e. target life, ease of arrow removal, cost etc. I assumed as will all major organizations we supply targets to, they had standards to meet, which I was confident our targets would.
We were told they already had three manufacturers and did not want to "confuse" the parents, who know nothing about archery with too many choices for targets. Manufacturers were chosen by the "board". That was the only criteria.
We decided to promote the targets, since the national organization, cannot dictate the type of target mat that is used, first we contacted the local state coordinators, immediately the national organization sent out an email, informing the state coordinators that our targets were not "approved" and they were not to purchase our products.
Our only other venue to talk to parents that do these programs, at the local schools, we began exhibiting at the local and state tournaments, and then the National and World tournaments at the end of the school year. The National Organization puts on the two large tournaments at the end of the year, the last two years we have purchased space and exhibited at them.
Our sales on this target has skyrocketed, and we have now refined it even more, making it the most cost effective target schools can buy, and it is taking sales from them.
We were informed today that they would no longer allow us to exhibit, severely curtailing out access to the parents that do the buying for the school programs.
This program has turned into a multi million dollar enterprise, that is run by a 503c, all 50 states participate, using tax money as grants to start up the individual schools. And all of the initial equipment is supplied through the national organization, using only manufacturers they allow. Manufacturers are required to pay a percentage of sales back to the National Organization.
Since the parents are not archers, they do not watch any of the archery shows, do not read archery magazines, and do not visit archery websites, being unable to exhibit at the large tournaments damages our ability to market our product, making it almost impossible to make school programs aware of us.
After all of that my question is simple.
Is it legal for this organization to prohibit us from selling our products, and to work to make sure we cannot sell them.
Thank you
We have been in the Business of building archery targets for over 30 years, and have exhibited at literally hundreds of tournaments, our targets are used by archery teams around the world.
An organization promoting school archery programs started up about ten years ago, at that time we attempted to become "approved" by their board, and was told they were not interested. Today it has grown to the largest single aspect of archery, with over 2 million kids shooting every year.
Four years ago we began producing a line of targets designed specifically for this type of archery, based on the targets we build for various training centers, we did this at the behest of local schools who complained the targets sold by the national program were too costly.
Again we sent samples to the national program, attempting to become an "approved" product, and we asked the criteria the targets needed to meet, i.e. target life, ease of arrow removal, cost etc. I assumed as will all major organizations we supply targets to, they had standards to meet, which I was confident our targets would.
We were told they already had three manufacturers and did not want to "confuse" the parents, who know nothing about archery with too many choices for targets. Manufacturers were chosen by the "board". That was the only criteria.
We decided to promote the targets, since the national organization, cannot dictate the type of target mat that is used, first we contacted the local state coordinators, immediately the national organization sent out an email, informing the state coordinators that our targets were not "approved" and they were not to purchase our products.
Our only other venue to talk to parents that do these programs, at the local schools, we began exhibiting at the local and state tournaments, and then the National and World tournaments at the end of the school year. The National Organization puts on the two large tournaments at the end of the year, the last two years we have purchased space and exhibited at them.
Our sales on this target has skyrocketed, and we have now refined it even more, making it the most cost effective target schools can buy, and it is taking sales from them.
We were informed today that they would no longer allow us to exhibit, severely curtailing out access to the parents that do the buying for the school programs.
This program has turned into a multi million dollar enterprise, that is run by a 503c, all 50 states participate, using tax money as grants to start up the individual schools. And all of the initial equipment is supplied through the national organization, using only manufacturers they allow. Manufacturers are required to pay a percentage of sales back to the National Organization.
Since the parents are not archers, they do not watch any of the archery shows, do not read archery magazines, and do not visit archery websites, being unable to exhibit at the large tournaments damages our ability to market our product, making it almost impossible to make school programs aware of us.
After all of that my question is simple.
Is it legal for this organization to prohibit us from selling our products, and to work to make sure we cannot sell them.
Thank you
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