Pro-active Gun Clubs - what u do?

Collioure

I am a first year member of a Gun & conservation club.....as of the last few weeks a few members have made the initiative to have fortnightly clay shoots and fortnightly pen construction. So as of late these weekly meets have been working out and may encourage other idea's like:
1/ Game Fair outings
2/ Meetings with dogs (maybe dummy practice)
3/ Vermin shoots
4/ Clay shooting instruction
5/ Meeting on engaging the community (PR initiatives)

I would like to put it to all Gun club members here and ask

What idea's and initiatives have worked for your club

pullandbang

All of the above and none of the above!

I'm in three clubs and they couldn't be more different.
One has a great interest in clays while the other two have absolutely none.
Two have great interest in the local communities while the third has little or no interaction.
Vermin shooting takes place in all three but is not that well organised.
Dog meetings have happened but not on an organised basis - just a couple of members getting together for mutual benefit.

It really boils down to the commitment of the members and the commitment of the committee. It also usually comes down to the same small core group within the club to get things moving.
You'll see over the coming years of your membership that the same few faces show up for the meetings, the work, the raffle ticket selling etc.
The other 80% just want to pay as little as possible and shoot as much as possible.

Collioure

pullandbang wrote: »

All of the above and none of the above!

I'm in three clubs and they couldn't be more different.
One has a great interest in clays while the other two have absolutely none.
Two have great interest in the local communities while the third has little or no interaction.
Vermin shooting takes place in all three but is not that well organised.
Dog meetings have happened but not on an organised basis - just a couple of members getting together for mutual benefit.

It really boils down to the commitment of the members and the commitment of the committee. It also usually comes down to the same small core group within the club to get things moving.
You'll see over the coming years of your membership that the same few faces show up for the meetings, the work, the raffle ticket selling etc.
The other 80% just want to pay as little as possible and shoot as much as possible.

Yes, it takes a few to get things started.....most memebers just will not bother doing anything.

Our club has tried one week clay to get the numbers and one week pen construction.

terminator2

I think ive heard that story all over the country just the same few lads doing most of the work .

cavan shooter

pullandbang wrote: »

All of the above and none of the above!

I'm in three clubs and they couldn't be more different.
One has a great interest in clays while the other two have absolutely none.
Two have great interest in the local communities while the third has little or no interaction.
Vermin shooting takes place in all three but is not that well organised.
Dog meetings have happened but not on an organised basis - just a couple of members getting together for mutual benefit.

It really boils down to the commitment of the members and the commitment of the committee. It also usually comes down to the same small core group within the club to get things moving.
You'll see over the coming years of your membership that the same few faces show up for the meetings, the work, the raffle ticket selling etc.
The other 80% just want to pay as little as possible and shoot as much as possible.

Have to agree here with everything said, I am also a member of three gun clubs and all are different even down to subs. two I pay €20 subs, the other €85. Insurance in one of them
100% agree that it's always down to a small core of members. I have also noticed that its the 80% that have the new lads who want to join and then they end up doing nothing as well. You cant force people is what they say.:mad:

There is an apathy to work that appears to be contagious and a selfishness that really annoys me. Always the serial moaners and **** stirrers in the 80%

So I stopped trying to turn guys and now I'll organise a days clay shooting or a trip to the Game fair or a send a text and only deal with those that show interest. When the others whinge about something, I ask them if they "know where the 5 lamps are"

Fund raising is a joke again down to the same crowd AAAAAAGH:mad:

Collioure

cavan shooter wrote: »

Have to agree here with everything said, I am also a member of three gun clubs and all are different even down to subs. two I pay €20 subs, the other €85. Insurance in one of them
100% agree that it's always down to a small core of members. I have also noticed that its the 80% that have the new lads who want to join and then they end up doing nothing as well. You cant force people is what they say.:mad:

There is an apathy to work that appears to be contagious and a selfishness that really annoys me. Always the serial moaners and **** stirrers in the 80%

So I stopped trying to turn guys and now I'll organise a days clay shooting or a trip to the Game fair or a send a text and only deal with those that show interest. When the others whinge about something, I ask them if they "know where the 5 lamps are"

Fund raising is a joke again down to the same crowd AAAAAAGH:mad:

Yes, it's a pity that it's always the same people making the effort

There must be some success stories here???

cavan shooter

The success as I see it is that the core group of folks over the past three years have increased the birds on the ground and enjoy themselves despite the knockers and me feiners

Terrier

Well we have 50ish members you don't see from one end of the year to another, but at least the few of us that do a bit can use club funds away to buy pheasants, larsen traps, mink traps etc we even managed to introduce a prize for the most vermin which is between 4 of us every year!

Collioure

Terrier wrote: »

Well we have 50ish members you don't see from one end of the year to another, but at least the few of us that do a bit can use club funds away to buy pheasants, larsen traps, mink traps etc we even managed to introduce a prize for the most vermin which is between 4 of us every year!

Ya thats a great idea, must suugest this at next years AGM

What prizes do yee get

Sparks

terminator2 wrote: »

I think ive heard that story all over the country just the same few lads doing most of the work .

Yup. If anything folks here are being optimistic saying 20% of the people do all the work. I've been calling it the 2% rule for a while now - 98% of the work done by 2% of the people

Donalmit

Good idea Terrier. We have used the same incentive for the past number of years. We give 3 cartridges for each grey and magpie caught/shot and 5 cartridges or 3 bullets for foxes. A few of us have shot for free since it was introduced and the number of wild clutches last year really proved it worthwhile. One of my traps (4 catch one) has caught 17 magpies this year so far and it hasnt been moved once (set-up is beside the breeding pen using pheasant eggs as food for the call bird.) Every predator caught saves multiple song/game birds.

Rgds,

Mitch