The planned May open day has vanished?

[paulbradley]

I can no longer find any reference for the NRA open day planned in May. I have several interested parties asking me about it. I think it is very important for these days to occur as for the non shooter its likely the only cost effective way of trying the sport out. Anyone know if its still happening?

[dromia]

It has been cancelled. From what I have heard they are looking at one in 2015 to allow more time for planning.

[paulbradley]

Gah!! I feared as much. Thanks for the info.

[mag41uk]

That's a bummer!
Had a few young uns interested.
Tony

[Mr_Logic]

Yay! Let's all close ranks and ignore the non-shooter. What a wonderful way to promote our sport. FFS!

[Alpha1]

Why would they want to promote our sport they are the NRA after all.

[Watcher]

NRA journal arrived this morning and says its still on?

M

[paulbradley]

I wrote to the NRA asking about this. I feel very strongly that the best thing for all shooters is to encourage more people to have a go. Even if they don't take it up as a hobby they will at least have an understanding of shooting sports. That way when they read some tripe in the Daily Mail they can make an educated desicion about the story. We need more shooters and we need an educated public. Open days are essential. Thus far they have been poorly advertised. My understanding is that the NRA are only allowed a handful of open days a year. They use the majority of these for corporate days. That is short term thinking. It might generate a little quick cash but it doesn't do much for our sport. Properly advertised open days complete with pavilion and snack bars OPEN for business would also generate money

[rox]

Open days are essential. Thus far they have been poorly advertised. My understanding is that the NRA are only allowed a handful of open days a year. They use the majority of these for corporate days. That is short term thinking.

They are sufficiently well advertised that they are normally fully subscribed, so any additional advertising would effectively be a waste of money.

Like any club, the guidelines suggest a maximum of 12 open days per year (from memory). NRA open days trade heavily on the goodwill of volunteers to act as organisers, instructors, coaches and stewards, and it takes a huge amount of volunteer effort. The days are roughly break-even before you even consider that the entire complex is effectively closed for normal business for 2 out of a very limited number of available high-season weekend days each year. If you start to have more open days like the current ones you will soon run out of volunteer goodwill, displace fee-paying events and reduce profitable range usage, not to mention that there are very few days available when there isn't some match, meeting or other event which would be disrupted. The clubs etc are open and trading whether there is an open day or not, and in high season they probably do more business on regular weekends. Don't get me wrong - I agree that open days are important to promote the sport, but having more than the current number in the current format is almost certainly not viable, even if it were desirable.

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[Christel]

The Pavilion is run by Shaun, anyone who books a stand through Shaun is not supporting the NRA.