Gun Club Closes Membership

[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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[Kerwin Law]

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.

[glocke12]

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.

[John Kepler]

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!

[Dave]

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.

[talucah]

Also with membership comes clout.
Bob

[n64atlas]

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.

[Kerwin Law]

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

[smle-man]

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.

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.

[John Kepler]

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

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!