When Lattimer retired in 2000, the board named Jay McAninch to replace him as president and CEO. McAninch took over Aug. 1, 2000, and soon closed the AMO’s Gainesville office. He began running the organization from his home office near Washington, D.C. This allows him to work closely with the lawmakers and national organizations to promote and protect archery and bowhunting. Over the next few years, McAninch hired staff and built an organization with offices around the country, including a main business and trade-show office in Salt Lake City.
McAninch was the first “outsider” to run the organization. Pete Shepley, founder and president of Precision Shooting Equipment, was one of several Board members who thought the sport’s greatest innovations often came from outsiders, and that it was time to take that approach with the organization’s top officer. With McAninch’s hiring, the AMO become a service-oriented trade association whose primary mission was to support the archery and bowhunting industry and ensure its future.
