Hi JohnJohn MH wrote:Reduce the Membership Fees and Range Hire Costs, its a gamble that might encourage more attendance.
The Membership Committee issued a promise about 4 or 5 years ago to get membership down from the then £85 to £50. Of course, the Committe is subject to the whims of the Trustees. Membership Ctte did it in easy stages and membership went up pretty much proportionately (ie we had more members but no more money). The Trustees bottled the last reduction from £55 to £50 last year, and membership cost is on the up. It will be interesting to see the mid-2012 membership stats.
Range hire is one area I'm going to argue the NRA position. My view is that the NRA should provide just about everything else at Bisley as near cost as possible, and rake the profit in on the range hire. Apart from anything else, range space at Bisley is a valuable commodity that we do not have enough of. If users have to pay a steep price for it, they will get on and off the point in a hurry, give up discussing obscure problems on the point, shoot three to a target so it's going up and down every fifteen seconds, and so on. All of these behaviours contribute to "the encouragement of marksmanship" because we get more people shooting more rounds in the same space and time. That said, the corollary is that the NRA should drive every other cost down as far as possible.
iain