Best club to join

[bladeracer]

I'm not aware of any club where the exec do not pay membership fees. I still pay mine.

Then I think you need to raise the idea at a meeting. Surely you don't believe your club members would be against supporting those that run the club for them?

[marksman]

funny thing is that at little river range (a non for profit org) they dont rely on volunteers, the staff and RO's for the public range are paid very well
the hierarchy are paid an enormous amount but the fools on the front line are intimidated into free work for the good of the club until they are no longer useful
when you look at the sub clubs at little river there are the usual 3% who put in and the rest are as you say dhv "customers"
not everyone wants to be a member in the sence that they are obligated to work for nothing, these people are there for there hobby
I have personally seen many good people who have put in so much at a club then to be burnt and treated like they were a hindrance when not needed
not everyone who joins a club is interested in even shooting at the club, ssaa have probably less than 5% of members who actually shoot at there ranges
eg... at little river it was a big day to have a few hundred shooters through but out of many hundreds of thousands of members (customers)
it's the public that puts the money in the till as well as the membership money, that does not include donations and government funding

I get what you are saying dhv but we are living in the real world and if you put these expectations on new people a hell of a lot will turn around and not look back

anyway clubs suck, I won't even be a customer

[dhv]

It's usually a constitutional thing. Lots of rules covering not for profits,.

You become a member by paying the nominated membership fee. If you don't pay you aren't a member, and if you aren't a member then you cant be on the committee nor does any insurances the club holds cover you should you hurt yourself whilst working for the club.

The only way to do it would be to pay a wage, and that raises a whole bunch of other complexity.

[mickb]

I’m from the northern suburbs of Melbourne and 17 just wanna join a club for more benefits and to have a genuine reason on my lisence when 18

OK, straight up attitude adjustment required. You sound like a complete user. It's all about you.

Clubs are mostly run by volunteers and wont survive unless members bring a contributory attitude with them from day 1. Start thinking about what you can do to help as well as what you want your membership to do for you.

Next, are you a hunter or a shooter? If you want to hunt (as your name suggests) join a hunting club. If you just want to shoot targets, join a range based club. Better yet, join both and add to their numbers.

Not sure why there is any attitude adjustment needed for some guy needing a club to do something. I mostly use clubs for my own purposes, gym, boxing, archery, rifle ranges etc. I pay the fee required, support the club with my patronage, choose my level of involvement(which is my choice alone). I think an attitude adjustment would be not jumping on new shooters looking to enter the sport...

[SCJ429]

I agree, it is difficult to get young blokes interested in the sport, the average age appears to be close to 60 for most clubs. If we could get this bloke into shooting for life you have forty years to get him to contribute. What teen do you know who wants to join a club looking for what he can do for the club?

If your business model gets as many people to visit the range as many time as possible, buy some ammo and targets. The more successful at doing this you are the cheaper you can make the experience. If you could increase the number of casual users by 10% year on year you could subsidise the memberships paid by members who contribute to the running of the club.

How do successful US clubs run their facilities?

[bladeracer]

It's usually a constitutional thing. Lots of rules covering not for profits,.

You become a member by paying the nominated membership fee. If you don't pay you aren't a member, and if you aren't a member then you cant be on the committee nor does any insurances the club holds cover you should you hurt yourself whilst working for the club.

The only way to do it would be to pay a wage, and that raises a whole bunch of other complexity.

The committee members are financial, it's just that their fees are paid by the rest of the members, I don't see a difficulty with that. All volunteers get something out of volunteering, just not money.

[Sturmmann]

Outside of Eagle Park Range, are there any other ranges where you can shoot higher than a .22 in Victoria? Seems like everywhere I have found only allows .22.

Cite troll here, First post,

"where can I shoot any where else"

If you don't know, you probably have not done a firearms safety course.

Not a troll, just wanted to find a range where I can get comfortable sooting something higher than a 22, I picking up a 223 in a few weeks and would like to be comfortable shooting a calibre higher than a 22.

Thanks for your help anyway. I see this community if full of people willing to help out newbies.

[Sergeant Hartman]

Mate generally ssaa reaches around ballarat/Bendigo. The vra range are cost but they are limited to only open one or two Saturdays a month. Look at vra website. You will need to be a member of vra club to use their range.

In short apart from little river there is no range that will allow you to shoot greater than 22lr.

[Sturmmann]

Cheers, I think I'll just stick to little river.

[sungazer]

The comment I have seen about VRA Ranges only open one or two days a month while may be correct is also not the entire truth.

All VRA clubs are allocated to a District just like your Rural Football clubs. Like the football clubs there are competitions organized within the DRA a Home and Away match system if you like/ This can be the reason for a range being closed. On Top of the local competitions there are also competitions put on by the individual clubs themselves. These will not be on a weekend that is designated and interclub shoot. The VRA give the clubs guidance as to what weekends traditionally competitions have been held and the what weekends will be reserved for the planning of interclub matches and if none of that is happening then more than likely there will be a At home practice shoot or a At home competition.

In fact some clubs shoot twice a week both on the traditional Saturday and a weekday such as the Armed forces Wednesdays sporties or the Medical and Law profession Wednesday Gold days.

[Member-Deleted]

Great post, brings to light the poor simplistic out dated attitude of day's gone by clubs, don't waste your time on these clubs unless of course your happy to join and proceed direct to the working bee "do not pass GO" Join the SSAA pay your range fees and do your thing. Lighten up on the young fella guys, he is 17 with probably little exposure to the shooting game.