What is it with the NRA?!

[dromia]

Even at the risk of being again called an NRA basher I've just got to post this as I still cannot believe it.

I have just returned from Bisley after attending the HBSA IHAM gun fair.

As usual I booked a cabin for myself and no problems there keys were waiting for me at the front office although the girls there didn't know the prices so I had to come back to pay, no big inconvenience there. I did hear however over the weekend that keys were not left out for some late arrivals with people having to sleep in their cars or in with others but I have no first hand knowledge of this.

Anyway my beef is about the showers and toilets in C block where I was staying. Now it appears that the NRA have spent some money on "improving" these, on first inspection they are clean and bright and new. However the design of the showers are such that when they are used they flood the whole place.

The shower head will only depress about 20% below the horizontal so when they are turned on they spray directly onto the curtain, one of the good points about these showers is that they spray the water with some meaningful force, the curtains are just flush with the wall and the shower tray is raised above the level of the floor but is quiet shallow so there is not much to tuck the curtain against at the bottom.

So when the showers are turned on the water goes straight out onto the floor and floods the whole place, all the showers, toilet and entrance floors were awash all week end, it was drier outside and that is saying something. You couldn't sit on the toilets as your trousers got soaked on the floor the whole place was unusable. I had to use adjacent showers and toilets.

So how come these disasters were signed off as fit for purpose? I hope that the contractors have not been paid and if they have then whoever was responsible for this needs to be sacked for incompetence. The NRA have tried to make things better and instead they have made it worse, it is a disgrace, reflects badly on the whole organisation and adds to the grimness of the Bisley "experience".

Come on NRA try and get something right.

[Sim G]

Lowest bidder, I'd imagine.....

[Rich]

What is it with the NRA?!
Everything imho,
a bunch of self serving, money grabbing back stabbers. Only marginally better than that total scum Coe. A very good letter in one of the last issues of Target Shooter. I think the last line went something like this, 'Watch them like hawks.' Unfortunately I no longer have it.
Who, may I ask, put them in charge. Not me, that's for sure.
Just glad I don't have anything to do with them, except for my once yearly trips to Bisley, and of course the range certification fee I'm required to pay which goes up every year. Thanks very much NRA.
I know some of this forum's prominent members are NRA officials but I don't care. I've broad shoulders.
Bring it on.
Rich.

[karen]

Oh I do SO like constructive criticism

Karen

[dromia]

Can you tell me Karen how that was allowed to be put in and who is responsible for it and what is happening about it please?

[targetman]

Truth to tell, this is historical. The NRA are basically broke. Their finances were left in a mess some years ago. The reasons for that state of affairs has been gone over many times and the culprits named and shamed but at the end of the day there is very little money available to make improvements to the infrastructure.
I am embarassed at the state of the place, I am used to it having been going there for so many years, but what facilities there are, are getting worse with each passing year and I am sure visitors for the first time must wonder at the run down state.
Membership of the NRA is pretty static and the fees frankly not raise nearly enough to sustain the place. The Ranges are largely under used, especially during the week when I shoot there.
How do the NRA raise extra revenue? Increased subscriptions, increased range fees? I suggest that this would be counterproductive, so what can they do?
Increased membership would be a good start....I hear quite a lot of critisim from people using Bisley who turn out not to be members....which is a bit unfair.
I don't have the answer, I wish I did. I also wish that Bisley was the place it should be, the heart of British shooting.

[Mike357]

I'm pretty sure that most folk who are not members are realistic enough to realise that if the NRA offer what people want (excluding investment in Bisley) the improvements to the facilities at Bisley will follow.
I'd sign up to that!

[karen]

Can you tell me Karen how that was allowed to be put in and who is responsible for it and what is happening about it please?

How the f*** would I know? I don't work there any more

[Sim G]

Membership of the NRA is pretty static and the fees frankly not raise nearly enough to sustain the place. The Ranges are largely under used, especially during the week when I shoot there.
How do the NRA raise extra revenue? Increased subscriptions, increased range fees? I suggest that this would be counterproductive, so what can they do?

Membership static? If so, I think it would be wrong to then hit that loyal membership with an increase in fees. But is that not a British disease? Times are tough, charge more. Numbers fall, charge more again to make up for it. Numbers fall further, it all goes down the pan.....

Slash the membership fees and slash the range fees. Make it so attractive people will feel they've missed a bargain if they don't. Three people on a range each paying half price, is far better than one paying full!

I don't shoot at Bisley as it's a 200 mile round trip and I live in the South East and I get days off during the week! Make the NRA very attractive price wise. Make the NRA absolute simplicity in joining for FAC holders. Live this and Live that, expecting people to pay through the nose, won't get the NRA out of financial strife. Ordinary shooters, day in and day out.

[Sim G]

How the f*** would I know? I don't work there any more

Oh $hit, what happened?!