Club Member Benefits

[Splitear]

The "Keeping Muzzleloading Alive" thread got me curious as to what benefits come with being a member of anyone's respective clubs. I've been thinking about this a lot, and outside of having a place to shoot and participate in competitions, I'm not sure what my club offers. It may have more, but I'm not aware of them, and I cannot find where they are announced. We are too far from Friendship to take part in most of what the NMLRA does on regular basis, so I'd like to see some opportunities come closer to home. Some ideas of benefits that I would like to see my club offer, and will be brining up to them are:

1. Bi-Annual or Quarterly Powder Orders: Members can place orders for BP, and a larger order can be placed to help with the cost of shipping and Hazmat.
2. Equipment/Resource/Book Lending Library: Members can borrow items from the library, with items ranging from tools to help new shooters (powder measures, short starters, etc.), books, building tools, etc. Anything to help new shooters stay engaged as well as helping other members explore the sport more fully.
3. Club Guns and Equipment: Items that can be used under direct supervision for folks who would like to learn more about the sport and have no experience or equipment of their own.
4. Muzzleloading "Discovery" Day: Open to the public to come out and see what Muzzleloading is about and hopefully spur interest in the sport.
5. Quarterly Meat/Fun Shoots
6. Club Workshops: Having folks lead workshops to teach members how to "make" things. Anything from simple leatherworking to possibly even a gun build.

Obviously, these come at a cost to the participants, but using a club to facilitate makes sense to me. Does anyone have any advice on working with their club to expand opportunities to members.

 

[MSmith]

Yep, get elected to the board and then start implementing the changes you would like to see.

 

[TDM]

A worthy cause, those would be nice resources.

 

[Timber Wolf]

You have some great ideas and I would love to belong to a club that implemented them. Unfortunately we are lucky to get a Quorum (7) at our club meetings and don’t get that many folks at the monthly shoots. Work days turnout is pretty bad as well. Good crowds at a couple of annual ‘vous (Fall and Early Spring) though. It is what it is and I enjoy it and the guys and gals that do participate.

 

[dave951]

Get it GOING!!!!! It'll probably start small, but make it fun, work with kids and the public, hold shoots where the public can enter. All the stuff you listed is great. It will not be an easy road however because of the sorry state of affairs in general muzzleloading but if we don't start to build, the decline will continue. Negative curmudgeons need not apply.

 

[Sean E Bug]

I hope you will be able to implement those changes. the club I am a member at only has the benefits of a yearly due and being expected to show up for work days. I should see what it would take to do an intro to muzzleloading class.

 

[ohio ramrod]

Our local club does all of the things listed except having workshops. Yet the membership is still declining as no younger members are replacing us older members. We get a lot of people at our annual"open house" with the boy scouts, but have had only one family join in the last four years!