Gun Club Closes Membership

The club I belong to has always had relatively few members. This is a pleasure. Most of the time when I come out to shoot there are only a few people present and often I am the only one there. In the last few months, along with the sudden increase in demand for ammo, components, and guns, we became flooded with applications. So the board of directors decided to cap the membership and we have now reached the limit. If someone wants to join they have to go on a waiting list until someone else is gone. I would be interested in knowing if other clubs have had a similar experience.

Our club has a membership cap of 225. We do have a generous guest policy and all of our matches are open to the public though. We have a 3-4 year wait.

There is a gun club near me that for the past 20 years or more has done this. It is almost impossible to get in because no one leaves unless they die.

Lazy club leadership!

As a former BOD member of our club....the more the merrier! A larger membership is more work for the club leadership, but that's why you ran for the job in the first place! Yep, more members mean higher demand on the club resources....so you expand the resource-base, not limit the demands on it! We've increased our club acreage twice in the last 20 years and are about to do it again, expanded our ranges 4 times and added 2 new ones, more than tripled the size of our club-house in the same time frame....all while keeping the dues highly affordable. We are running MANY times more shooting programs today than we ever could have back when we were a much smaller, far less responsive organization. Heck...my own little CMP Highpower Clinic that usually had about 3-4 takers "back in the day" has grown into a weekend event with our ranges full and a waiting list! Our Ohio Hunter's Safety Courses start in July and run through October....all are usually full by June in spite of our "minting" several new Instructors every year and adding more classes! We are an acknowledged asset in our community, and so have far fewer "neighbor problems" than other, more exclusive/reclusive clubs in our area. AT THEIR REQUEST, we're now partnered with the County Park District to purchase a bankrupt commercial pheasant hunting club that adjoins our property and run it as semi-public hunting area! This partnership will expand our club-owned property by another 240 acres! Not bad for what was a small, dying trap club with a membership of around 25 (current membership over 600) when I joined 30 years ago!

The club I belonged to has been trying to expand and even build a club house and indoor range. They spent 10,000 on plans and trying to get go ahead from county building commission. No go. Objections were thrown up at every turn, clubs lawyer holds little hope. I think they have given up. Complaits from people who live in area (built YEARS later, after club was there) complain of noise and block everything. Now in MI clubs are grandfathered in, HOWEVER they must comply with NRA directives for range developremnt., where it has to do with safty, NOISE abatement, etc. Last NRA survey they had was 5-10 years ago. Club even has a self-imposed rule of no shooting after 6PM and a start time in AM.

Also with membership comes clout.
Bob

Limiting your membership, limits your support in the community, your funds to improve your range, and helping the education of new shooters. The range I belong to, has increased it's membership by a couple of hundred members since concealed carry was given to Ohio citizens. We have improved our indoor pistol range and are starting to inprove the outdoor range. We've got the trap range up and going after a 6 or 7 year lull. They just had a youth day at the range, 94 kids attended. Big increase over past years. It's all about public relations, getting people to realize firearms are not evil.
Start talking to the leadership of your local range. With larger membership, comes the ability to remove the politicians that stop your progress in improving the range.

With our club it certainly isn`t lazy club leadership.

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Originally Posted by Sid

The club I belong to has always had relatively few members. This is a pleasure. Most of the time when I come out to shoot there are only a few people present and often I am the only one there. In the last few months, along with the sudden increase in demand for ammo, components, and guns, we became flooded with applications. So the board of directors decided to cap the membership and we have now reached the limit. If someone wants to join they have to go on a waiting list until someone else is gone. I would be interested in knowing if other clubs have had a similar experience.

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I think clubs that do this sort of thing to the extreme are hurting the shooting hobby. If folks can't find a place to shoot legally and safely they will either do it illegally and unsafely and give shooting a bad name or give up and take up golf (shudder) instead. That flood of new members will eventually trim itself down as the enthusiasm tempers a bit and the range line will go back to a reasonable level. Without a steady supply of new shooters the shooting hobby will dwindle and die away all in the name of not wanting others on the range. Clubs should encourage membership rather than turn folks away. I see too much of this exclusion attitude in other parts of the shooting crowd too (wrong type of firearms, wrong type of shooting, etc) and it is a shame.

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Originally Posted by Kerwin Law

With our club it certainly isn`t lazy club leadership.

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Yeah? Then why limit the number of members? If you've got a waiting list, you've got enough new people to make things expand, so what's your leadership's/membership's excuse? We have events with more than 225 members present!

It`s more of a reason than an excuse. Our club thought about raising the membership awhile back. It has some advantages. It also has some disadvantages. Advantages being, more funds for the club, potentialy more people to help out etc. Disadvantages, in our opinion seemed to outweigh the advantages. We run a very efficient club with low dues ($45) and make every dollar count (we don`t get spend happy with other peoples money like the leadership of other groups, although we have no problem spending on improvements/upkeep when necessary), so we are not hurting for money. Adding more members will likely add more helpers, but it will still be a low ratio of people willing to help against those who won`t/can`t. (maybe 15% helpers and 85% can`t/won`t help). I go around and shoot at about 10 ranges a year and I hear the same story about the few doing all the work, so it`s not just limited to us. We have limited space at our range, with no ability to expand, so overcrowding would be a problem. I`m not saying that increasing a clubs membership is always a bad thing. If you have room to expand and have a better motivated membership willing to help with the added work, I say Bravo. It unfortunately just wasn`t a good idea for us.

There has never been a cap at our club. When you count the family members in a family membership plan along with the other members we have over 2,000 members. You would think that would make things very crowded but it's not. During the week you may be the only one there. Some join just to camp a few times a year, others just for the pheasant stocking/hunting. Others like to take out their ATV and others sight in their rifles or pattern their shotguns ( two separate ranges) for hunting season. Not eveyone is in to target shooting (different types) but the high power rifle shoots have resulted in waiting lists when just as John's club there was a time when the guy running it was asking me to shoot because he couldn't get four people to come out and shoot.

Like most places a small number do most of the work. Cliques form from time to time and there's the occassional bossy know-it-all but they usually don't last very long after being ignored by everyone else.

The "old guard" in our club would like to impose a membership ceiling, but they don't have the votes to make it happen. Most of our club's shooting activity takes place on the weekends. I have a flexible work schedule and like to shoot during the week, when I have the place mostly to myself.

If a club has a membership ceiling, it will have to have more frequent dues increases to keep up with operating costs, if it doesn't have an expanding membership base as a source of increasing revenue. More new members also means more cash for new and improved club facilities. New members also bring new ideas, skills, enthusiasm and different experiences to the table, all of which has worked out real well at our club. If your club is considering a membership ceiling, do your best to disabuse the members of that notion. You'll be glad you did.

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Originally Posted by Kerwin Law

It`s more of a reason than an excuse. Our club thought about raising the membership awhile back. It has some advantages. It also has some disadvantages. Advantages being, more funds for the club, potentialy more people to help out etc. Disadvantages, in our opinion seemed to outweigh the advantages. We run a very efficient club with low dues ($45) and make every dollar count (we don`t get spend happy with other peoples money like the leadership of other groups, although we have no problem spending on improvements/upkeep when necessary), so we are not hurting for money. Adding more members will likely add more helpers, but it will still be a low ratio of people willing to help against those who won`t/can`t. (maybe 15% helpers and 85% can`t/won`t help). I go around and shoot at about 10 ranges a year and I hear the same story about the few doing all the work, so it`s not just limited to us. We have limited space at our range, with no ability to expand, so overcrowding would be a problem. I`m not saying that increasing a clubs membership is always a bad thing. If you have room to expand and have a better motivated membership willing to help with the added work, I say Bravo. It unfortunately just wasn`t a good idea for us.

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As a general rule, in just about any volunteer organization such as gun clubs, fraternal organizations, etc., 90% of the work is done by 10% of the members.
We used to have low turnout for monthly gun club workdays, until we started having a burger and hotdog burn afterwards. Now we have plenty of help most months, and a lot of stuff gets done.

Sorry, but this practice makes no sense and borders on stupidity. Members equal revenue to the club. Revenue equals expansion of offerings to attract different types of shooters and more members and exposes more people to shooting sports. The club I belong to has thousands of members and is actively promoting to increase membership.

Sounds like the club you belong to, as stated above, is just plain lazy.

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Originally Posted by smle-man

I think clubs that do this sort of thing to the extreme are hurting the shooting hobby. If folks can't find a place to shoot legally and safely they will either do it illegally and unsafely and give shooting a bad name or give up and take up golf (shudder) instead. That flood of new members will eventually trim itself down as the enthusiasm tempers a bit and the range line will go back to a reasonable level. Without a steady supply of new shooters the shooting hobby will dwindle and die away all in the name of not wanting others on the range. Clubs should encourage membership rather than turn folks away. I see too much of this exclusion attitude in other parts of the shooting crowd too (wrong type of firearms, wrong type of shooting, etc) and it is a shame.

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FWIW you can be a shooter and a golfer. Think hand eye co-ordination.
And often I do both in the same day.

The local range I belong to still has open membership and we were approaching 1000 quickly. But we have a local I. Walton branch that limit's members to 100 and there is a waiting list. On the other hand a member can bring as many quests as they please and I've never seen more than a dozen people there at any one time and that was for a bowling pin shoot, and even then it was a comfortable and relaxed atmosphere. At the club I belong to it's sometimes impossible to get a station to shoot at and any quest has to practically be in your pocket all the time and though we all want to be safe shooters some take it to the rediculous. With just my guest and I shooting that day and two others BS'ing 30 yards away my friend says well I have 3 rounds left I may as well shoot them.
BANG
BANG
BANG
He removes the magazine and locks the bolt back. I stepped in front of my bench to pick up the brass as he picked up his rifle to case it and one of those 30 yards away had a large litter of kittens

Just an example but a true one.

If the front of the bench is the firing line and you stepped in front without benefit of checking that the whole line was indeed clear, all firearms empty, I woulda had a kitten on our range too ! We have a hole in a 6 x 6 support for the roof over our concrete benches - obviously put there from one table down by someone not exercising proper muzzle control/range safety. So even if you verified your friend's mag was out, bolt back, and chamber empty, there are still others around and EVERYONE needs to be informed when ANYONE is going forward of the firing line. So, yeah, some of us are anal about this kinda thing, because EVERY range is only one shot from being closed.