Granby Bow And Gun Club #2

Vym

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Has anyone else been having trouble with this range lately? I know several members and no one ever knows whats going on. The best the club does is send out long but low info email blasts once every month or two. They are constantly changing procedures and codes. First it was a pin and gate code, then a keyfob then a log in page you had to complete every visit, then a disposable wrist band that needed to be remade every single visit. Now the keyfobs are gone and the gate code is back (no they dont tell you what the gate code is unless you can attend their meeting, how youre supposed to get to the meeting house with no code I have no idea). The login page collected all your info including your membership number, full name, and when you used the range, this info was accidentally PUBLICLY posted on one of their two websites. For a while they had two websites at the same time with contradictory info. The memberships and how bringing guests works is completely unclear and seems to have changed, apparently the more expensive guest membership allows you to bring one guest one time and nothing more. There are several different contact points for them many of which dont work, they reply to emails seemingly 5% of the time and apparently the “contact the board” web form on their site isn’t functional.

Between the constant code/fob/access changes and the latest shutdown the range has been functionally unusable for the majority of the year.
 
Has anyone else been having trouble with this range lately? I know several members and no one ever knows whats going on. The best the club does is send out long but low info email blasts once every month or two. They are constantly changing procedures and codes. First it was a pin and gate code, then a keyfob then a log in page you had to complete every visit, then a disposable wrist band that needed to be remade every single visit. Now the keyfobs are gone and the gate code is back (no they dont tell you what the gate code is unless you can attend their meeting, how youre supposed to get to the meeting house with no code I have no idea). The login page collected all your info including your membership number, full name, and when you used the range, this info was accidentally PUBLICLY posted on one of their two websites. For a while they had two websites at the same time with contradictory info. The memberships and how bringing guests works is completely unclear and seems to have changed, apparently the more expensive guest membership allows you to bring one guest one time and nothing more. There are several different contact points for them many of which dont work, they reply to emails seemingly 5% of the time and apparently the “contact the board” web form on their site isn’t functional.

Between the constant code/fob/access changes and the latest shutdown the range has been functionally unusable for the majority of the year.

Yes. Ditto on much of what you've noted.

Since the new BOD, they've been a complete shitshow. Haven't been able to use the range because ... no membership card, no fob, no gate code, whatever the thing of day is, received a site login that they randomly disable, can't recover the account because it hasn't/doesn't work, it takes months for them to respond to an email if ever. If someone does respond it's like having a conversation with the MSP assigned to the Karen Read case, spotty mass email blasts where you need to be a mind reader, leaves you wondering if they're into day drinking, or just WTF. Only evidence that I have a paid membership is by the bank receipt ... doubt they even know who is/isn't a member.

Been a member for years. Paid throughout the shutdown years, made numerous cash donations in support of their legal expenses, and even attended the town hearings. With the new BOD, took nearly 12 months for them to fix and accept another renewal. Had to send them photographic proof of prior membership. As soon as they took the money, silence. I can no longer log in and no longer receive any club emails. Can't leave them a phone message either since the message box is always full.

To this day, despite numerous attempts, I have not been able to utilize the range a single time since renewal. Add in the shutdown period, it's been years now ...

I did reach out to Andy at one point, and he was willing to assist, but am trying to avoid bothering him much. He had stepped down from managing things and he's been dealing with a family illness.

If there are multiple individuals having the same problems, maybe we could compose a letter together and submit it to Andy and the BOD.

" all your info including your membership number, full name, and when you used the range, this info was accidentally PUBLICLY posted on one of their two websites"

Uhh, what?!

They still have a FOB request status on-line which reveals the full names of everyone that has requested a FOB. Last updated February of 2024.
 
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+1 to the club being f***ed. New BOD must stand for Bag Of Dicks. Because they suck. I also can't even get in anymore. And the lack of communication is sad. Monthly meetings are always when I have work. AFAIK they still have banned all rifle shooting. I'm not renewing when the time comes.
 
The club has gone to absolute shit the past year or two. Their recent changes are incredibly concerning, on top of raising prices $100 a year unless you dedicate something like, 8 hours to join one of their inconveniently timed work parties. Their most recent was was held on a Wednesday from 8am-2pm. On top of that, their rifle range has been essentially closed to non PSR shooters for almost a year, the only times its been open was a saturday in may for 45 minutes, and a monday for about 2 hours.

This range is absolutely unuseable now, if anyone is interested in a membership, LOOK SOMEWHERE ELSE, There are so many better ranges in the area.
 
on top of raising prices $100 a year unless you dedicate something like, 8 hours to join
When the f*** did this happen?
Haven't received an email or seen anything on the site.

And yea, I quite literally havnt been able to use the club once this year. The 45 minute window was laughable. I'v never wanted a club to fail so bad.
 
For sure sounds like a mess, but keep in mind that clubs run on the backs of volunteers who are also paying dues. Nothing wrong with venting, but if you haven't made any attempt to help with a solution I have little sympathy for you. That said, when someone volunteers to help run a club the minimum requirement is to process payments and ensure members have access.

The pool of people willing to step up seems to get smaller and smaller every year. The loss of one or two key officers due to health, family, job, etc. is always going to happen and without someone in the wings who is ready to cover the gap, this is what you get.
 
For sure sounds like a mess, but keep in mind that clubs run on the backs of volunteers who are also paying dues. Nothing wrong with venting, but if you haven't made any attempt to help with a solution I have little sympathy for you. That said, when someone volunteers to help run a club the minimum requirement is to process payments and ensure members have access.

The pool of people willing to step up seems to get smaller and smaller every year. The loss of one or two key officers due to health, family, job, etc. is always going to happen and without someone in the wings who is ready to cover the gap, this is what you get.

Talk to some friends that are members there and they had a huge influx of members once the 1000 yard range opened back up. I have to imagine that helped out funds wise. Though not sure if their current legal issues have put them back in the red again. I've never been a fan of a Range Officer policy in order to shoot, but I guess with the range situation there and how you can launch one into a house, there has to be some monitoring. Though you need to set hours to make sure it's available.
 
Talk to some friends that are members there and they had a huge influx of members once the 1000 yard range opened back up. I have to imagine that helped out funds wise. Though not sure if their current legal issues have put them back in the red again. I've never been a fan of a Range Officer policy in order to shoot, but I guess with the range situation there and how you can launch one into a house, there has to be some monitoring. Though you need to set hours to make sure it's available.
An RSO might help, but I'm not a fan of RSO policies either.

One rule / habit I'd mercilessly flog would be never dismount and rest your rifle butt on the ground until the chamber is empty and a empty chamber flag is inserted. Doing that with a bipod sends accidental shots up, up, and away.
 
Ah, they have a professional paid staff running things. My bad.

I welcome your refunding of my renewal fees. They were paid for in November. It is now July of the following year.

Or, provide an access code, a fob, an ID, respond to the regular queries trying to get information, something, something. Anything, ffs.

No problems taking the monies, I guess. It's not the BODs fault. /s
 
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I welcome your refunding of my renewal fees. They were paid for in November. It is now July of the following year.

Or, provide an access code, a fob, an ID, respond to the regular queries trying to get information, something, something.

No problems taking the monies, I guess. It's not the BODs fault. /s
Agreed that's pretty terrible. I realize it's a pain but going to a meeting is the best way to sort out things like that. Somebody in this thread said how do they get onto the grounds for a meeting w/o a code? Their parking lot for the club house is open access & you only need the code for the building if you show up and are the only one there.
 
I realize it's a pain but going to a meeting is the best way to sort out things like that.

Typically. It's an hour drive one way and we have already spent way too much time trying to get a resolution for something that should have been simple. Just getting the renewal fees completed was a bizarre exercise in persistence which was never problematic in the past ... and that was when one person was handling all of it.

We have supported the club through the years including attending all of the town hearings, making donations to their legal funds, and keeping our membership fees current even throughout the shut-down period.

The 1K range was worthy of effort and support from us but I think we're past that now. They've been aware of the issues and it does not appear to be a singular instance. I find it unfortunate. I also don't take posting my experience here lightly. I do thank you for providing your thoughts.
 
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Somebody in this thread said how do they get onto the grounds for a meeting w/o a code? Their parking lot for the club house is open access & you only need the code for the building if you show up and are the only one there.
The have long since added an electronic gate at the property entrance that blocks all entry to the parking area without having the code
 
just a heads up for any members, its “attend a meeting or too bad” in regards to communication with the club, people are making similar complaints to the ones in this thread on some granby shooting pages and it seems that the board doesn’t see emails or other remote means as valid communication method. This was a response by the current club president (I think, at least) to the various complaints with the “communication issues” being them never responding to emails etc.

IMG_0684.jpeg
 
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just a heads up for any members, its “attend a meeting or too bad” in regards to communication with the club, people are making similar complaints to the ones in this thread on some granby shooting pages and it seems that the board doesn’t see emails or other remote means as valid communication method

View attachment 893874

He looks snazzy. Who is Ryan? Is he part of the new BOD? Haven't a clue because we can't even access the page that lists the BOD ... password protected. No password was ever provided ... I know, shocking.

1720124380813.png
 
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Signed up and paid both the membership and long range last year. Only on Feb I found out that I needed to send a special email to Donald Timpanaro <[email protected]> which I did about 10 times including filling the form on the side. They do not turn their zoom on monthly meetings anymore. I cant go there just to ask for a keyfob because its far away from where I am.
According to their spreadsheet of keyfobs my request has been recorded 5 months ago and there are others hanging there too.

Its been 8 months since I have been a member (paid over $500) and still cant use the club!!!!!!

Looks like scam to me! Does anyone know them. How do I get through to them?

Thanks.
 
There's atleast threads about Granby on here where a few of us share out shitty experiences with them the last 2 years.
I'd do a charge back ASAP. The club is doomed with its new leadership.
 
Has anyone else been having trouble with this range lately? I know several members and no one ever knows whats going on. The best the club does is send out long but low info email blasts once every month or two. They are constantly changing procedures and codes. First it was a pin and gate code, then a keyfob then a log in page you had to complete every visit, then a disposable wrist band that needed to be remade every single visit. Now the keyfobs are gone and the gate code is back (no they dont tell you what the gate code is unless you can attend their meeting, how youre supposed to get to the meeting house with no code I have no idea). The login page collected all your info including your membership number, full name, and when you used the range, this info was accidentally PUBLICLY posted on one of their two websites. For a while they had two websites at the same time with contradictory info. The memberships and how bringing guests works is completely unclear and seems to have changed, apparently the more expensive guest membership allows you to bring one guest one time and nothing more. There are several different contact points for them many of which dont work, they reply to emails seemingly 5% of the time and apparently the “contact the board” web form on their site isn’t functional.

Between the constant code/fob/access changes and the latest shutdown the range has been functionally unusable for the majority of the year.
These are the reasons that after being a member for years, since before the lawsuit, and donating money for the lawsuit, I finally stopped this year.

Email communication is extremely confusing.

I live 1.5hrs away and couldn't go pick up the fob the one day it would be avaliable and they made a big deal of shipping it. Then the communication changed, then it changed again ... a complete mess.

Finally, the one Nazi about a year back that said he was in charge of the long range and started making up rules and yelling at people turned me off.

I Emailed a few people here on NES and those people are awesome, nothing against them. They actually clarified the rules and that I was right and were very helpful. But I can't keep bothering those people every time the club announces something or I need something shipped.
 
The club has gone to absolute shit the past year or two. Their recent changes are incredibly concerning, on top of raising prices $100 a year unless you dedicate something like, 8 hours to join one of their inconveniently timed work parties. Their most recent was was held on a Wednesday from 8am-2pm. On top of that, their rifle range has been essentially closed to non PSR shooters for almost a year, the only times its been open was a saturday in may for 45 minutes, and a monday for about 2 hours.

This range is absolutely unuseable now, if anyone is interested in a membership, LOOK SOMEWHERE ELSE, There are so many better ranges in the area.

New strategy to kill gun ranges in MA, get the Granby BOD elected to every range.

These sh*theads can't figure out something as simple as a damn gate and card.
 
Its been a couple of weeks.
Id imagine the BOD knows about this thread, and/or, all the complaints.
Anyone here get any resolution to their access issues?
 
I still haven’t heard back from my inquiry email about a renewal. Hesitant to do it online if they aren’t responding.
 
I considered re-joining the club ... looks like the gate access is still a huge pain in the a**.

I will eventually re-join when they get their sh*t together again. I hope that happens soon.

From the Oct 29 Email:
FAIR WARNING when the gate goes back into operation there will be a delay in receiving your access badge. PLAN ahead, please.

That is not the entire Email.

Looks like they also have some safety briefing people have to attend and have to submit a picture for the badge ahead of time.

I understand they are all volunteers, and I respect that. I just have never seen a club have such an issue with a damn gate, and all the clubs I belong to are volunteers and have more members than Granby.

It is too bad, I was a member there for years, since before the lawsuit and remained a member during the lawsuit, even donated money to help fight it.
 
It is too bad, I was a member there for years, since before the lawsuit and remained a member during the lawsuit, even donated money to help fight it.

Same. Went to all of the hearings and maintained dues payments during of the years where things were shut down and sent extra donations for their legal fund, as well.

They didn't have a problem with taking renewal money for last year, haven't been able to utilize the range. Not once. Nothing to do about 'volunteers'.
 
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Clubs utterly f***ed. I can't make it to a single meeting to get my badge and they aren't offering any other pickup time. Still in the camp of not renewing
 
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