FAQ: I'd Like To Start Target Shooting - Where Do I Begin?

rrpc

Sparks wrote: »

Then you need to advertise that.
I mean, I've known Rathdrum for a decade, and you for nearly as long, and I never knew before now that you could pay your RRPC membership fee by installments! And if I don't know, how's a graduate who's been to RRPC maybe once or twice supposed to guess?

It's in our rules and is explained to all prospective members. if you don't express an interest in joining you won't need to know will you?

Sparks

But I won't express an interest in joining if I don't think I can afford it, because it would be humiliating to draw attention to myself only to admit that I couldn't afford what every other member was able to afford.

rrpc

Sparks wrote: »

So a reasonably optimistic guess would be that that figure should now be 50...

That's *all* firearms owners Sparks, not club members.

The average age in Rathdrum is 45, but that's been dropping for the last year.

rrpc

Sparks wrote: »

But I won't express an interest in joining if I don't think I can afford it, because it would be humiliating to draw attention to myself only to admit that I couldn't afford what every other member was able to afford.

In my experience people have had no problem saying it's a bit much in one payment if they're joining for the first time, existing members have often asked to spread the payment over time as well.

We don't advertise it because quite frankly some people have abused it in the past and ended up using the clubs facilities and not paying anything at all or only a small proportion of the sub. That's not right either. We're a club, not a debt collection agency.

fourtycoats

Deleted User wrote: »

as NO CLUB SEEMS INTERESTED IN TAKING THEM!

.

Not strictly accurate Zaraba. ECSC Roundwood when it was known as The Fassaroe Sporting Club, always had a good relationship with the TCD and UCD clubs. We facilitated their 50/100 metre competitions on our range in Enniskerry and we have always had concessions for students. This relationship fell by the way side when we lost our range . However, now that we have developed our new range in Roundwood we fully intend to revive the relationships. During the course of this year, we will be upgrading our rifle firing point to enable us shoot the target disciplines and competitions again for up to 8 shooters simultaneously, In the meantime we can handle a limited amount of ISSF rifle shooting and are well set up for up to 10 pistol shooters at a time .We still make concessions for students.

rrpc

Sparks wrote: »

Look at Bank of Ireland - they have operating costs like every other business (or shooting club); but in college they charge no fees and make a loss on students.

Yes, lets look at Bank of Ireland. They have assets measured in billions, they have hundreds of thousands of customers of which students make up a tiny minority and who typically take up a an even tinier proportion of staff time and resources.

btw, the banks make a loss on most personal customers whether they pay fees or not. The only money is made on loans and mortgages. In reality, the bigger corporate and commercial clients subsidise the personal customer who has a credit current account or ATM card.

In fact, if you use your ATM card in another banks machine, your bank pays that bank more than they charge you for the transaction.

Not really a good analogy.

In fact it's worse because a club has *very* finite resources in terms of equipment and firing points available at any one time, so giving one person free use over another person who has paid starts getting unfair once a queue develops.

Sparks

Hey RRPC, if you don't have a problem, then you don't have a problem.

All I'm telling you is what I've seen since 1993, having lived through the process myself and then seeing it from the other side of the admin line.

WTSC has taken the line for the past decade of minimal entry barriers. Club firearms, kit found, begged, borrowed or bought for members, usually with nothing asked for in return, and the full cost of membership was about 20 euro if you had your own insurance for the last few years. We did an enormous amount of work for our members. We're in the middle of nowhere, we're not on a train line, haven't got a regular bus route, and started as a hayshed with a platform to stand on and targets halfway up the wall on the far side of the barn. Given those limitations, I think the results have shown that the approach works for bringing in new shooters (in this case from the pony club, but we've gotten a few from the colleges as well).

Whether or not you want to take the same line is entirely your choice.

(and fourty, I remember seeing FSC's student fees pinned up on the wall of the firing line shelter back when I was a student - they were set at over a hundred pounds at a time when five pounds was my weekly food budget. FSC was very good to the club in allowing the use of its range for matches (once a year), but it wasn't a real choice for a new graduate at the time).

IRLConor

Sparks wrote: »

FSC was very good to the club in allowing the use of its range for matches (once a year), but it wasn't a real choice for a new graduate at the time).

And for training, I know I was out there for a training session at least once.

Sikamick

Surely what IRLConor is trying to do here is to give basic information for new people to the sport, to know How , when, where, are clubs. Not the high tech stuff lads. Formula 4 before Formula 1. Think (Newbies)

No disrespect meant in the above
_________________________________________________________________

IRLConor wrote: »

I've started work on a wiki page to help answer the frequently asked question of "How do I get into target shooting?". Hopefully it and the club/range list should help more people (or at least boards.ie members ) to join our sport.

Please have a look and do one or more of the following:

• Edit the page and add more detail.
• Edit the page and fix my mistakes.
• Send me suggestions for more detail.
• Send me corrections showing where I've screwed up.
• Flame me unmercifully for "doing it wrong" (Strictly by PM only please ).

Please also have a look at the page for your club in the club/range list. If it's missing details please either fix it yourself or PM me the details and I'll add them in. If your club isn't mentioned, please let me know and it can be fixed.

rrpc

Sparks wrote: »

Hey RRPC, if you don't have a problem, then you don't have a problem.

All I'm telling you is what I've seen since 1993, having lived through the process myself and then seeing it from the other side of the admin line.

WTSC has taken the line for the past decade of minimal entry barriers. Club firearms, kit found, begged, borrowed or bought for members, usually with nothing asked for in return, and the full cost of membership was about 20 euro if you had your own insurance for the last few years. We did an enormous amount of work for our members. We're in the middle of nowhere, we're not on a train line, haven't got a regular bus route, and started as a hayshed with a platform to stand on and targets halfway up the wall on the far side of the barn. Given those limitations, I think the results have shown that the approach works for bringing in new shooters (in this case from the pony club, but we've gotten a few from the colleges as well).

Whether or not you want to take the same line is entirely your choice.

I agree with you Sparks. The only proviso I'd enter to all of the above, is does it work for the long term? And from what Geoff is saying at the moment, the jury's still out on that.