Gun Club Closes Membership

[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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[Greg H. in Virginia]

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.