3D Membership Prices

[Dusty Britches]

I think Madisonville closed due to lack of help.

Navasot and Bryan are available, though.

[bowhuntntxn]

Maybe he is showing that only a few folks per club are willing to help out. That is a MAJOR reason prices seem to need to go up IMO. Not enough members offering services such as mowing and construction, and range prep, forcing the clubs to go to outside sources for these services, and driving up operating costs for the club.

Sponsorship is a great idea, but outside of members who own companies that can be helpful to the clubs, why would anyone do it? Since archery is such a niche sport, it really has no benefit for Joe X landscaping to donate time equipment and labor to mow the common areas of a clubs, for the tiny amount of exposure it would get for his business. Now if he is a member, then he gets the benefit of his companies hard work by having a neat and clean looking place to shoot.

Personally I would love to hear how clubs approach the general public and private businesses to secure sponsorship. If it is working for BCAC, then surely it can work other places!!

[SaltGrassMama]

Hi all, thought I'd throw in my two cents on this one. I have held several positions at Salt Grass over the past decade. I have been the membership director from the beginning and I am the webmaster from the beginning of our website, plus I have handled registration, concessions, scorekeeping and purchasing for the club. When I came on board at Salt Grass we had probably 20-25 members. By the 3rd or 4th year we had a membership of 100. We had a range crew of about 15-20 and every shoot was like a big family reunion. Everything was done with volunteer labor and the income from the membership and the shoot fees went to targets, playground equipment, bow racks and other range improvements. We were charging 50.00 a year for memberships and 10.00 shoot fees (non-members were 15.00).

We had a lot of families that came out and shot and we had a blast.

Now we have about 20 members and we have to pay to have the targets set out, pay to have someone cook and run concessions. We have 2 or 3 members that come out and help when they can, but we are still utilizing paid labor for most of what gets done.

On top of everything else, we are in a county park so we are limited as to what we can do about security. The range has been burglarized at least three times. We lost hundreds, perhaps even thousands of dollars worth of targets, plus we had vandalism damages to clean up and repair.

We wish we had membership that was willing to work, but sadly, that is not the case. We would have preferred to NOT go up on shoot fees and membership, but it was either that or close the club.

We are working hard to try to bring more attention to the sport and to our club, but with the economy being what is has been, it has been an uphill struggle.

When Hurricane Ike paid us a visit (we are in Galveston County) we lost the electricity to the range (pole snapped in half) and had significant damage to everything from the target butts and stands to the playground equipment and picnic tables.

Then the Parks Department tore down the existing pavilion, promising that we'd get a new one. That fell through due to budget cuts in the parks department. The parks department does a good job of maintaining the road and cutting the grass in the practice range and concession area, so that helps, but we still have to have people who will keep up the shooting lanes.

[The Greek]

hi all, thought i'd throw in my two cents on this one. I have held several positions at salt grass over the past decade. I have been the membership director from the beginning and i am the webmaster from the beginning of our website, plus i have handled registration, concessions, scorekeeping and purchasing for the club. When i came on board at salt grass we had probably 20-25 members. By the 3rd or 4th year we had a membership of 100. We had a range crew of about 15-20 and every shoot was like a big family reunion. Everything was done with volunteer labor and the income from the membership and the shoot fees went to targets, playground equipment, bow racks and other range improvements. We were charging 50.00 a year for memberships and 10.00 shoot fees (non-members were 15.00).

We had a lot of families that came out and shot and we had a blast.

Now we have about 20 members and we have to pay to have the targets set out, pay to have someone cook and run concessions. We have 2 or 3 members that come out and help when they can, but we are still utilizing paid labor for most of what gets done.

On top of everything else, we are in a county park so we are limited as to what we can do about security. The range has been burglarized at least three times. We lost hundreds, perhaps even thousands of dollars worth of targets, plus we had vandalism damages to clean up and repair.

We wish we had membership that was willing to work, but sadly, that is not the case. We would have preferred to not go up on shoot fees and membership, but it was either that or close the club.

We are working hard to try to bring more attention to the sport and to our club, but with the economy being what is has been, it has been an uphill struggle.

When hurricane ike paid us a visit (we are in galveston county) we lost the electricity to the range (pole snapped in half) and had significant damage to everything from the target butts and stands to the playground equipment and picnic tables.

Then the parks department tore down the existing pavilion, promising that we'd get a new one. That fell through due to budget cuts in the parks department. The parks department does a good job of maintaining the road and cutting the grass in the practice range and concession area, so that helps, but we still have to have people who will keep up the shooting lanes.

i tall you i will come back thanks saltgrass mama