Lessons from other clubs

[TattooedGun]

Likewise we have a waitinglist at our club at the moment. Primarily due to there only being a few of the committee members willing to give up their time and open and close, as well as keep the club running. As an example my dad is the secretary, he's there up to 5 days per week to open up and look after members old and new. Those are the only days we open. One might argue we could open Saturday and Sunday too, but it's also about having willing people to help and who are competent enough to teach new members.

We used to run pathfinder day's a couple times a year for the scouts, but our local lot have recently given it up, I'm not sure on the details, but I think it was something to do with manpower at their scout group.

We have the same thing with Wednesday nights, however it's not just retired people, and for folks like me who are shooting county cards and trying to improve the standard of shooting for the whole county, I revolve my life around being able to shoot on a Wednesday night. Everyone who knows me, knows I'm not available that night since it's when I go and do my competitive shooting, extenuating circumstances permitting. To ask generations of people, possibly those who built the very foundations of the club (as in my case) to move their night is insensitive at best. Let's not forget that they are clubs, and clubs are often built on traditions.

[andrew375]

If you get the chance to own the land on which your range is built, take it! There is really nothing a club can do to better itself than owning its own land.

Get involved with the local community if possible. Invite them down on guest days. Members who live locally are invaluable. One of the clubs I belong to got the local police neighbourhood liaison team to visit and also managed to get the police and crime commissioner down when he popped by on a tour of the area in the company of the local police commanders. No shooting going on, it just happened that one of the members was carrying out some maintenance work on the range when the party walked by.

Place serious emphasis on competitive shooting; particularly the small bore postal leagues. This builds up an esprit de corps within the club that will engage new members and give a feeling of sense of achievement and make members more involved and committed to the club. There is a lot of slagging off about small bore shooter here and elsewhere but this is something that has been proven to work over the last 100+ years. It will also raise the standard of shooting considerably.

Get involved with your county association. Offer your facilities for use for county competitions.

Don't bring in members just for their subscriptions! You need members who will get involved with the club as a body, not just to come down, take up space on a firing point, put lead in to the backstop, have a moan about how things are being run and then go home!

Use all your allowed (12) "guest days" and encourage all your members to bring someone!