Club Membership Fee - What's yours ?

[riggers2647]

The club in Gloucester that was mentioned at the very start of this thread has had the audacity to raise the basic membership from £150 last year to £258 this year ,with massive increases across the board and nothing worthwhile to show for the increase. The idea was supposed to raise a massive amount of cash in a short time, but if you want my opinion, there will be a large number of members refusing to renew their subs thus defeating the whole objective.

[Coney2]

It's really difficult to compare what you get for the money when comparing the prices given here, as several people have already mentioned.
The new fees at Glos are apparently higher than others here but then the facilities are reasonable. Indoor range 30 meters with 10 and 20 options with target spotlights, 50 meter floodlit outside range with covered firing point, small club room area with drinks and snack facilities. It's open every evening Mon - Fri, Wed afternoons and Sat & Sun mornings with access for members anytime they want to use the range(s) outside of the "open" times. Air, rimfire and centre fire plus a crossbow section. Membership is for all disciplines with no extras like range or attendance fees. Targets and other "consumables" are not free.
The large outside range takes a lot of maintenance to keep it in good order and there are structural problems with the building that houses the club room and internal range that needs money to repair, and costs like electricity and heating are far from cheap.
If fees are paid in one amount then the cost is £240pa or £4.61 per week. Is this really an unacceptable amount of money to have to pay for the resources available? I cannot speak for anyone else but I personally don't think so. I also have to say that just paying a range fee of £2 per session would cost me over £300 per year which perhaps influences my judgement in this!!!!!
B

[doctordoom]

Having to resurrect my old thread here..... (unfortunately!)

And then a year later it jumped... from £150 to £258.00 per annum ! Really!

Struth mate that's quite a jump! Bit more than inflation!
Our club has gone up to £ 140 for full senior membership from £ 135 for this one can shoot almost every day of the week except thursday ( range is rented out) and there is no extra "green Fee" or target fees.
ATB; safe shooting; John

[salisbury]

My club membership is £140 each, inc discount, still have to pay extra for range fees, targets, teas and other refreshments and ammunition on top of that.
Okay we have got a covered firing point and it's cow free, but we still get the free insults from the owner.

[Jus]

Going to my other club tomorrow back up north, £80 / year.

70m range for fullbore & smallbore, 25 metre range for air and rimfire etc with covered firing points, bench rest areas, running boar, turning targets. Area for clays. Large heated club room with kitchen.

All targets are free.

Joint membership £120 / year.

[steveP07]

Surely the key thing here is what are the running costs of the club. My club leases its land off the Local Authority - we have to pay a substancial ammount of money for that per year, even with the CASC discount.

Your accounts must be open to inspection - ask to see them. Ask questions at the AGM - you do attend dont' you ?

If you are lucky enough to own the land which you shoot on, then all well and good, but even then the maintainance and insurance costs must be covered, and also a buffer built up in case of unforseen costs.

We all know that shooting clubs are not run as money making ventures, so if you think you are being asked for too much money, find out why. You may be alarmed at how much the club costs to run.

Steve

[steveP07]

Coney,

I'm with you. If I could pay £240 all in for those kind of facilities then I'd bite your hand off. I pay that in "attendance fees" alone, with nothing like those shooting options.

Believe me, you won't know how lucky you are until you lose it.

S

[Coney2]

Coney,

I'm with you. If I could pay £240 all in for those kind of facilities then I'd bite your hand off. I pay that in "attendance fees" alone, with nothing like those shooting options.

Believe me, you won't know how lucky you are until you lose it.

S

Your last point is indeed all too true, I have a friend who lives some 40 miles away who can find nothing at any price between there and here!

It was a big hike but those attending the AGM heard why the increase was necessary.

A perspective on this is the bill I got for 2 Costa coffees yesterday (don't buy their lattes - hot milk no discernable coffee flavour!!). If I bought 2 cups each week I would need to find at least £266.
So - 2 cups of flavourless hot milk or 3+ visits to the shooting club to shoot pistol and rifle with options for crossbow and rimfire each week? Not many choices in my life are that simple but as I said before I can't speak for others and everyone has to consider and decide what they think membership is worth for them.
regards
B

[JackieM]

Small Bore Club £130.00 a year all in.
This includes 25 yard indoor range, an airpistol range and both 50 and 100 outdoor range.

[steveP07]

25m outdoor, 50m, 100 yrds (but daylight only for the long ranges). Covered and cosy firing points, massive room. 10m air range

£100 per year, plus £1 per visit. £60 if you only want to shoot air.

we sell ammo, but only make about 10p profit per box.

open 3 evenings a week (and another evening specifically for beginners), and Sunday am.

S

[thejokerman]

Just interested what others pay for their club membership per year / 6 months etc.

One of my club's just increased their rate from £120 - £150 per annum.

Hi All,
Is there a forum here were we can list our Club ? Or a Club list

[Hemmers]

£125pa. No per-visit range fees.
25yd (14 lanes) & 10m (4 lanes) indoor
50m & 100yd outdoor. Gehmann boxes for ISSF style 50m shooting coming soon.

Large, well appointed clubroom, kitchen area, pool table, disabled access, good stock of club guns and oodles of 1-2 gun cabinets in the armoury that members can be assigned for their own personal firearms.

.22 Target, Lightweight Sporting Rifle, 10m Air Rifle, 10m Air Pistol, LBP

Concessions for juniors, and for air-only shooters (about £85 for the air-only I think).

As has been said, membership rates can be misleading. Depends on where the club's priorities are and how they spend their money. Plus, some clubs save money for capital investment from fees, others make more efficient use of funding sources such as Awards for All, meaning they don't need to rely on membership fees to fund capital projects, so costs to members are lower as a result.

[target_master]

£258?

http://glevumtsc.co.uk/Membership.aspx

[Coney2]

£258?

http://glevumtsc.co.uk/Membership.aspx

yup...

[pennineway.fswo]

My club have superb indoor and outdoor facilities for air and rimfire
Annual membership cost is £120 with no other fees to pay except targets and ammo.The club is open on 5 days a week.

This is dirt cheap and those members who are switched on to the true running costs would pay double if they had to.
Just compare membership costs with golf for example

In fact, if it was not for the massive efforts of just a handful of members who give up many, many hours of their time each week to run and maintain the club buildings and grounds then we would have to pay a groundsman and contractors at least £10000 a year to do this work.
Membership fees would then have to at least double

Some club members have no idea as to the efforts necessary to manage/run and maintain/insure a shooting club These same members are often the ones who sprint a mile in record time, whenever the words 'working party' 'grass cutting', 'painting,''cleaning' etc are mentioned.

We have had members in our club in the past, who complained that £120/year was too expensive and yet they are buying and selling very expensive shooting kit on a regular basis (usually buying).
It would appear that club membership was not high on their list of priorities. Thankfully and fortunately they don't stay with us for long and disappear to burden others with their flawed attitudes and laziness.

Sorry to go on fellas, but shooting clubs are closing down on a regular basis and sometimes this is due to lack of adequate funding and complacency among members.

Hopefully we will never get to the stage where air guns have to be licenced (and so membership of a club is mandatory for most of us), but if that happens then £285 will not sound like a lot of money to continue in our splendid hobby/sport.
ATB
John