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We want to hear what your club is doing to bring in new members. Tell us what works, and give credit to those who are making the effort.

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Quincy
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Article submitted to Clay Target Shooting News

#1 Postby Quincy » Wed Jun 23, 2010 10:46 am

Morning all,

I wrote the below article for the Australian Clay Target Association for publication in their monthly magazine (Clay Target Shooting News). It is equally as applicable for other shooting sports. Feel free to have a read and maybe see if its something your club could employ? It's a bit lengthy but the basic principle should be adaptable where legislation allows it.

Cheers
Matt

*******************************************************

Growing your club and growing our sport

If you look around the demographic of our sport, let’s face it, the average age is on the older side of 40. When it comes to Canberra International Clay Target Club our average age has been close to 55 for a while. When I took on the role of President last year I had my own ideas on which direction we should start heading. As such I gave an undertaking to actively market the club in an effort to increase our membership base. I will share with you what the Canberra International has achieved in the last 8 months or so.

The legislation in the ACT permits unlicensed shooters to actively participate if they are under direct supervision of an “authorised instructor” (authorised under the ACT Firearms Act), provided they are using the instructors gun or a gun the instructor is lawfully entitled to possess. To start the ball rolling we managed to get six committee members to complete an instructor’s course and gain their authorised instructors qualification.

Once that had been completed we advertised via word of mouth in the workplace we would hold a “come and try day” at the club. The instructors generously donated the use of their personal firearms and we had about forty people come to the day at short notice. On offer was a basic 5 stand setup, DTL and Skeet. The process was simple – the participants purchased a ticket at the office and went to whichever layout most appealed to them and shot their round of targets. An interesting observation was the 5 stand layout was very crowded, the DTL attracted very few and skeet was somewhere in the middle of the two. From this day we received some feedback on how to improve things and we took that on board for continuous improvement.

Next came updating our website. In the 21st century, just about everyone has a website. We listed on our site the fact we could host “corporate days”, “group shoots” and we encouraged new shooters to come and have a go with one on one lessons. We took it a step further and offered “gift vouchers” for birthday or Christmas presents which proved a hit. We hosted our first “corporate day” which was a work group of 10 wanting some “team building”. They spent the morning using the clubhouse to do work related activities; they used the BBQ for a social lunch and then finished off the day with two rounds of skeet each. This resulted in one person taking up membership.

Word had spread, and soon we began to field enquiries on a regular basis. It became apparent word of mouth was a very powerful advertising strategy, although the website enquiries continue to tick along quite nicely thank you. The next step was club guns, so we approached Fyshwick Firearms and Highland Sports and purchased three Miroku Model 10 sporters with screw in chokes, along with a safe to keep them in. A “corporate” shooters licence was also obtained during this period.
During the lead up to the Christmas period we fielded a lot of enquiries regarding hosting of work Christmas parties. We became solidly booked during this time, with our instructors putting in a lot of time and effort hosting groups ranging from 8 to 30 people. Bucks parties are also very popular, obviously a strict no alcohol and drug policy prior to shooting is in place. The club decided to obtain a liquor licence and began offering cold beer and pre mix spirits at the conclusion of shoot days. This has been a great success and provides a much appreciated service to both members and visitors.

We have seen quite a lot of residual business from our group activities. Participants at buck’s parties and work functions have come back out to the club and taken up membership. We then started to offer firearms safety courses to equip people with the necessary qualifications in applying for their shooters licences. For those that join the club this has been conducted free of charge, for those that don’t join the club there has been a fee attached.

As it stands I am receiving at least one telephone call per day from people wanting to come and try our sport, either individually or as part of a group. It is a lot of effort to travel to the club and set up for one person to shoot a round or two, but I am a firm believer we must make this effort. A lot of people are quiet shy, and are scared of failing in front of a crowd the first time. One on one coaching has paid huge dividends, with many people making return visits or joining our club. In addition to the phone calls, emails just keep rolling in with enquiries. I estimate in total I am probably getting 15-20 contacts per week by people wanting to arrange trying clay target shooting. It is getting the stage where demand is starting to outstrip our ability to host the numbers we are being requested to. This is a very nice position to be in from a club perspective.

Mostly we use Skeet as the discipline to introduce our new shooters. The reasons for this are simple – we have 4 layouts with the corresponding number of guns. We can also have 24 people “shooting” at once with just 4 instructors and most importantly there is only a single gun loaded with one cartridge on each layout. It goes without saying safety is absolutely paramount.

Since commencing this endeavour we have offered the opportunity for unlicensed shooters to come out on competition days and shoot with a squad under the supervision of an instructor. This has also proven to be a massive success, with a number of licensed shooters bringing their friends and family out for the day to have a go.

The benefits of putting in the time and effort, and believe me there is a lot of that, far outweigh the negatives in my opinion. The more members we have the more enthusiastic hands we have to make less work. The more membership fees we receive the more financial clubs become which provides an ability to upgrade club facilities and equipment. Clubs must remember this part - if people pay membership they deserve to get returns on that investment. If clubs are prepared to take people’s money and not upgrade their facilities their members will rightly become disillusioned with them and either seek another club or leave the sport altogether.

I will leave you with a couple of things to think about with regard to your club facility. Almost all of them will sit there vacant for at least a week or even a month in some cases. Give some consideration, if the facility is in good order, to offering it as a function type facility – even if there is no shooting undertaken. People will pay to use a decent clubhouse for work functions, and you will be surprised at the number who appreciate rural or semi rural settings for this activity.

With regards to hosting group shoots and prospective new members – make every effort you can to provide more than one discipline to choose from. People appreciate choice, and as can be seen from the first ever day we held they will gravitate to what appeals to them most. We have had some start their shooting career with skeet and go across to sporting clays. Some start out and go towards DTL. A lot have stayed with skeet and it is important to not be a “one trick pony” when it comes to growing our sport.

As an idea, I will give you some rough figures as to what we have done in the past essentially six months. We have had over 300 first time shooters come through our facility - and thrown about 15,000 targets for them. We have increased our active membership by 20-25%. In particular lately we have seen incredible interest from ladies and younger shooters wanting to get involved.

A final thought for you – however you choose to conduct your clubs activities for new shooters they MUST walk away with a positive exposure to clay target shooting. It is absolutely detrimental to your club and the sport to give someone a shotgun, a box of shells and tell them where the target comes from. You MUST spend time with people coaching them to get them hitting targets and you must supply a friendly person to make them feel welcome. Although the money from these new shooters supplements a clubs income, to take their money and have them get no assistance in achieving any sort of results will hurt you in the long run. I have seen this occur at other clubs and in my opinion it is disgusting. We have received overwhelming positive feedback from everybody who has ever visited us and this must be your goal if you want to go down this road.

Promote your club and provide a friendly face and encouragement to prospective participants. Grow your club and grow our sport. Let’s encourage participation and let’s get the next generation of clay target shooters walking up to stand on the podium. I don’t believe in keeping secrets when it comes to raising the profile of clay target shooting, and as a result I am happy to share this whole experience in much more detail with clubs wanting to expand, all you need to do is contact me.

Kind Regards
Matt Dwyer
President
Canberra International Clay Target Club

Mirage
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Jun 14, 2010 2:18 pm

#2 Postby Mirage » Wed Jun 23, 2010 9:23 pm

Does anyone know of any organisation who holds similar events/circumstances in South Australia ? Myself being green to the shotgun would be very interested.

Quincy
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Jun 14, 2010 2:20 pm

#3 Postby Quincy » Thu Jun 24, 2010 7:48 am

Mirage - get onto the SA Clay Target Association they should be able to point you in the right direction - www.sacta.com.au

Cheers
Matt

timothi3197
Posts: 191
Joined: Thu Oct 16, 2008 9:46 pm
Location: Australia

#4 Postby timothi3197 » Thu Jun 24, 2010 4:25 pm

Well done Matt =D>

It is only by people getting out and having a few ideas and acting on them that clubs grow.

dhv
Posts: 32
Joined: Mon Aug 21, 2006 5:40 pm
Location: Bungendore, NSW

#5 Postby dhv » Thu Jun 24, 2010 5:03 pm

I'm not a member, but I have been to CICTA a few times. Top facility and seems well run. More of it please!

M12LRPV
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Joined: Wed Aug 05, 2009 9:52 am
Location: Sydney
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#6 Postby M12LRPV » Fri Jun 25, 2010 1:48 pm

Doing similar things with my club at the moment.

The biggest thing has been getting the web site up and going but more important than anything was making sure the site was written specifically for it's target audience.

We needed to keep in mind that the site is not for the members or the club it's for the people who aren't members or gun owners.

It has to be inviting.

You need to use terminology that your target audience uses and that is wrong such as gun instead of rifle, firing line instead of mound that sort of thing because that's what people search on.

The majority of search hits on our site come from that have typed in "xxx gun club"

Your web master will need to fight with members to write the site properly and will spend a lot of time saying "The site isn't for you..."

Get it right and it pays off though.

From last year to this year we've had a 257% increase in visitor shoots and have converted a few to members. That's with a site that's been running since November.

There are often also benefits for the rest of the club. The revived activity can wake up some of the old guys sleeping in the corner and get them active again :lol:

Quincy
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Jun 14, 2010 2:20 pm

#7 Postby Quincy » Sat Jun 26, 2010 9:35 am

M12LPRV - great work and keep at it! A very good point you make about getting some people motivated again. Fresh faces with new ideas and enthusiasm definitely changes some old attitudes and also the "energy" around the club. We have noticed some of the newer members have come with a willingness to take on active roles in organising and supplying labour necessary to set up / packup. Everybody appreciates that!

Cheers
Matt

Lynn Otto
Posts: 1121
Joined: Mon Jun 20, 2005 2:56 pm
Location: SA

#8 Postby Lynn Otto » Sat Jun 26, 2010 10:06 am

Quincy wrote:We have noticed some of the newer members have come with a willingness to take on active roles in organising and supplying labour necessary to set up / packup. Everybody appreciates that!

Cheers
Matt

Sadly, this willingness to take on active roles and do the work needed by the club is not always appreciated, and the 'older, established' members can feel threatened. They are initially happy to hand over the work but not any perceived control and won't allow any change that threatens their comfortable existence. This leads to them stymying any new ideas and making new members feel unwelcome and unappreciated, strangely enough most new members don't stay very long.

I'm just very glad to see that this attitude is not present in all clubs because this attitude is the fastest way to kill our sport. :(

Congrats on the great effort and well done to your club.

timothi3197
Posts: 191
Joined: Thu Oct 16, 2008 9:46 pm
Location: Australia

#9 Postby timothi3197 » Sat Jun 26, 2010 3:14 pm

Lynn Otto wrote:Sadly, this willingness to take on active roles and do the work needed by the club is not always appreciated, and the 'older, established' members can feel threatened. They are initially happy to hand over the work but not any perceived control and won't allow any change that threatens their comfortable existence. This leads to them stymying any new ideas and making new members feel unwelcome and unappreciated, strangely enough most new members don't stay very long.


This is such an accurate statement, the other issue is the invincibility factor that leads some older members(but not limited to age) to feel they are right when often they are patently wrong but unable (or willing)to accept another view.


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