promoting a Rifle club

[Harrier1980]

Hi All

I have just gone onto the committee of my rifle club, and at the last meeting we were discussing how to attract new members.

I was told at the meeting that we are not allowed to advertise, is this correct? if so what do you, or can you do to get new members?

or could someone point me in the right direction of where to look.

I know we can have open days, but can we advertise these?

we only shoot air and .22LR, can we advertise the air side then lure them into the .22 side?

I am sure that other clubs have the same issues, so any advice gratefully is received and could help others too.

,

Richard.

[dromia]

When we were looking to increase our membership (it was around 30 members then) the most effective way was through open days as a guest day.

We "advertised" this through word of mouth and invitation from existing members because as a five lane indoor facility we had to be able to manage numbers so as be able to control who was attending and ensure that their experience was positive.

We only ran the one as this was enough to boost our membership (currently around 100) and it took us a good while to be able to process all those people who wanted to join as a consequence. We don't hold them now as we cannot manage the influx of new members it generates. We just get a steady stream of new members through from word of mouth or the usual national body listings.

For us the open day did work but be careful it is not a rod for your own back both on the day and also in creating expectations for people to join which you perhaps cannot manage immediately.

[M99]

Richard.

A good website is a must - we have a capped membership of 55 currently and a list of prospective members (We have a poor website in comparison to others!)

If you are NRA affiliated, make sure you are listed with them on their website too - then get people talking about the club to friends and work colleagues.

Mike

[Watcher]

Get in touch with your local Scouts. Find out the name of the County Commisioner, Assistant County Commissioner - Activities and the Explorer Scout Units (14 plus age group). Write and offer them a 'taster session'. I could probably get you these details but it would be more appropriate if you found out through Scouting HQ at Gilwell. PM me and I'll give you their details.

[IainWR]

If you are only air and .22", then S11(4) Firearms Act 1968 applies, and you can legally take people in to shoot straight off the street. If you are also HO Approved, a little careful admin is required to keep the two legal exemptions separate.

There is no bar on advertising, but many clubs are rightly cautious about how they do it because of the security implications of announcing yourselves and your firearms to the world.

[Blackstuff]

There is no bar on advertising, but many clubs are rightly cautious about how they do it because of the security implications of announcing yourselves and your firearms to the world.

I'm pretty sure there's a ban on radio/tv adverts for shooting/firearms if that is the sole activity/product (but not if its ancillary to a larger event e.g. a game fair), but then which gun club in this country could afford a radio/tv advert anyway!! :roll: :lol:

Word of mouth and open days get my vote

[Tower75]

I was told at the meeting that we are not allowed to advertise, is this correct? if so what do you, or can you do to get new members?

I'm not sure if it's "not allowed", but no media outlet such as newspaper or radio will touch shooting events, 'cos they're all

My club does, or used to, run an annual public openday which was open to the, wait for it, public.

Most years we had a great turn out with sometimes 100+ people turning up for the day.

As others have said, get a good website, add yours to all the "broker" websites out there. There's a few websites that list rifle clubs in "your area" etc.

Print up some flyers or posters and stick 'em up in local post offices and shops and around local village notice boards etc.

[jcdj]

TBH I found most of the clubs local to me to be very closed to the public even though they advertise visitor evenings yet they wont let you go anywhere near the range or give you a cheeky go or offer a taster session like 2-3 hours half on safe handling and stoppage drills then get time on the range, alot of people would join the sport if it felt more open and less hard work to join.

[Gaz]

I have just gone onto the committee of my rifle club, and at the last meeting we were discussing how to attract new members.

I was told at the meeting that we are not allowed to advertise, is this correct?

To the best of my knowledge this is not true. A quick scan of the Advertising Standards Authority website doesn't show anything relevant to do with shooting. Then again, it's important to remember that the ASA has no formal legal standing and zero powers of enforcement. They tried censoring the Guido Fawkes political blog for carrying adverts from a pro-traditional-marriage group; he just published their snottograms and laughed at them.

Contact your local newspaper or radio station's advertising department and negotiate a good deal - there's precious little money in local journalism these days and, if they're at all switched on, they shouldn't turn you down. If they do reject you out of hand, post it on here and shame the buggers!

You could also send the local media a press release - I'd be happy to help with that, just PM me. If you're feeling brave you could even invite them down to write about the club. Provided you have a tight plan of what they will do and see and which members they will be able to speak to (which the journo doesn't necessarily have to know about) this could help raise your club's profile and avoid the cost of taking out an advert.

[Mike357]

I'd recommend a good web site.

After domain name purchase (around £10 for 2 years) and set up (ours is £60 a year) you have no other costs such as printing posters or leaflets or indeed expensive radio ads. As an NRA affiliated club, we have ours listed on the nRA web site and a fair chunk of our traffic comes from there. Play about with Google Analyticals and build up a good base of key words and if people are really serious about finding out more they will find you. Posters etc is too indiscriminate and can attract undesirables.

Ours brings in a couple of enquiries a month and in the last year it has brought in about 10 new members. This is a managelable figure as the last thing you want is to be swamped!