How active are you within your club?

[GOAL C.M.]

Over the last few weeks many of us have been calling for change and have expressed frustration and curiosity over the difficulties involved in getting people more active politically.

As with any group the percentage of people willing to work to make change is small, and in our case, much too small.

We get many requests from the NES board members, and from other sources to get the "clubs" involved in issues, often the battle cry is "GOAL should get the clubs on this"!

That leads to the title of the OP. We have some fantastic clubs out there, and some fantastic members that are very involved with the issues. That being said however, we need to and can do much better, so here is the question;

How active are you within your club? Do you go to meetings? Do you vote? Do you help organize events and make your members politically aware? Do you know who your clubs GOAL Rep is? Do you have one?

If we can get our clubs more involved with GOAL we can get more done, more training, more members, a louder political voice to be heard at the State House.

We need to make this change from within. As this New Year approaches I'd like to ask all of you to get involved with your clubs, go to the meetings, make sure all of the club members belong, make sure your club rep is communicating with us, make sure your club is hosting a GOAL educational event.

We need each and everyone of you to be our advocates at your clubs.

I think if we all work on this, just a little bit, we can capture some of what is missing, and build a stronger base for all of us.

Happy New Year everyone.

 

[Navy Moose]

I'm new to my club, only a couple months. I plan on helping out at events. I attended an NRA RSO course this past month and I plan on becoming an RSO at my club.

 

[drumenigma]

I'm possibly looking at joing a club closer to my house like maybe Mansfield so my position may change. It's hard to be involved when my club is not close.

 

[Jose]

I used to be very active and became match director for two disciplines. But club politics and their no CCW on club grounds rule convinced me to stop and to drop my membership.

I still go shoot matches there occasionally, but I don't need to be a member for that.

I am a member now at a much smaller club because it is close to home and allows a lot of freedom WRT pistol shooting. They have a bay where you can draw from the holster, shoot while moving, etc, which is rare in the world of fudd clubs.

For the most part I am not a "belonger".

 

[Baldkat82]

I've been guilty of just going to shoot and going home. I work late and cant attend the scheduled meetings and I bought a house this year so I've been busy workign on that instead of going to the weekend work parties.

Well, now i'll have an earlier shift and the work on the hsoue is done. I'm going to try to be more active.

What is the deal with the club being or not being affiliated with GOAL? I dont think my club is.

 

[lord1234]

yes, I'm not sure if the club I belong to is affiliated with Goal.

 

[Dirtypacman]

Meeting times are not the most convenient for me at my club. I do attend a few times or more a year. I try to be there for any votes that I am aware of. I do attend as many club related outings that I can.

Due to working 60+ hours a week I can only be as active as my time allows.

 

[pdm]

I go to about 90% of the meetings, but I'm not as otherwise active as I'd like to be.

 

[ochmude]

I don't know if my club even has meetings. I never see anyone there.

 

[Mike S]

Here is a link to GOAL's web page with information about the benefits of a clubs affiliation with GOAL

Here is a listing of GOAL Affiliated Clubs

 

[bob68]

i am currently an officer of my club and have been an officer for many years.

 

[jkelly]

I’m pretty active within my shooting discipline at multiple clubs, most of which I don’t belong to. Every year I travel hundreds of miles, to work dozens of hours, and run hundreds of shooters.

Of the two clubs I belonged to last year, I helped a little at one (maybe 4 or 5 matches) and at the other club, I did nothing.

Respectfully,
jkelly

 

[Cuz]

I'm on the Executive Committee at my club and thus attend all meetings. I also work on the team that organizes intro action pistol shoots at my club to introduce members to the different action pistol games.

It's a RI club and is not Goal affiliated.

-Cuz.

 

[Pilgrim]

President.

 

[Jasper]

yes, I'm not sure if the club I belong to is affiliated with Goal.

yes. we are. (GOAL's recieved a couple of VERY large checks from us in the past)

 

[Joe G]

The night I joined my club they were taking a vote on whether or not to impeach the president. Right then and there I decided that I didn't want to get involved with any of the petty politics. Ever. I belong to the pistol team which is refreshingly void of the infighting between the shooters and the bar crowd. I use the outdoor ranges in good weather and am usually the only one there when I do. The limit to my club activity is that I vote in the annual election in an effort to ensure that shooters are represented, but that's it for club.

Politically, I get involved based on GOAL alerts and more recently NES.

 

[Tim94gt]

My club is more of a Bar than a Gun club, I usually go afterhours when nobody is there. So I mainly just use the range and that's it. I will be joining Southboro Rod and Gun soon and will most likely participate more.

 

[SKS Ray]

I attend meetings except for the winter ones, and I'm pretty sure the club is affiliated with GOAL and who the rep is.

I've set up and organized 2 NES shoots where we donated to GOAL.

 

[RIFLEMAN1000]

Before my shift changed at work i never missed a meeting and always helped in the Kitchen, i voted and helped out on work details . Now i work meeting nights so i only help out at the range during shooting events. The highlight of my helping out is the Kids Day we hold each year , i still enjoy it alot.

 

[qmmo]

I used to be on my club's B.O.D.; I used to help organize and run events such as Action Pistol shoots, Blackpowder shoots, Women On Target(s) and others; I used to donate $$ to the indoor range fund of the club (~$3400 before I gave that up) and I used to participate in most every event the club would sponsor. These days I just go to the club to test/chrono ammo and maybe spend an hour or two shooting once every other month or so. Things started to "pucker up" a few years ago during the cowboy reign at the club and have been slipping ever since despite the demise of the cowboy shoots at the club. Smells like Massachusetts politics sometimes...maybe some FUDDie thinking here and there...just disappointing, nothing more. In a span of just a few years the club went from an open, 'freedom' oriented club to flashing yellow lights, a bell, a loudspeaker, a very restrictive machine gun policy, photo IDs and video surveillance. Still, this isn't as restrictive as many other clubs out there. I guess I should be thankful....yeah....thats the ticket...

 

[houdini]

I help out my club when I can, I go to every meeting to see whats going on, I try to help out goal when I can.

 

[jkelly]

I used to be on my club's B.O.D.; I used to help organize and run events such as Action Pistol shoots, Blackpowder shoots, Women On Target(s) and others; I used to donate $$ to the indoor range fund of the club (~$3400 before I gave that up) and I used to participate in most every event the club would sponsor. These days I just go to the club to test/chrono ammo and maybe spend an hour or two shooting once every other month or so. Things started to "pucker up" a few years ago during the cowboy reign at the club and have been slipping ever since despite the demise of the cowboy shoots at the club. Smells like Massachusetts politics sometimes...maybe some FUDDie thinking here and there...just disappointing, nothing more. In a span of just a few years the club went from an open, 'freedom' oriented club to flashing yellow lights, a bell, a loudspeaker, a very restrictive machine gun policy, photo IDs and video surveillance. Still, this isn't as restrictive as many other clubs out there. I guess I should be thankful....yeah....thats the ticket...

CHANGE, you can believe in.

Between losing the Action Pistol group, Cowboy group and your donations (from your ammo profits) they’ve lost a lot of income. To bad there were so many conflicts.


Respectfully,
jkelly

 

[Len-2A Training]

Currently:

"Home Club" - I am an RO, attend and vote at all meetings (unless conflict with Town Meeting), unofficially assist in providing legislative info. Served one year as Legislative Chairman, but learned that due to 501c3 status I couldn't mention club name to legislators or provide written testimony, so I served out my year and let someone else take that position.

"Secondary Club" - Offered a few times to be GOAL Club Liaison and Legislative Chairman, no interest in taking me up on that offer (which has since been rescinded by me). Served on the BOD in interim position for a few months, chaired a ByLaws Committee and a committee to figure out how to raise funds for an indoor range. I used to attend all meetings, but have stopped attending them after an unknown (to me) person attempted to cause me some trouble so I've decided that out-of-sight/out-of-mind is a safer thing to do. So now, I just go there to shoot, clean up and go home.

On the side, I volunteer for GOAL to cover the Marlboro and Braintree gun shows.

In the past:

At my first club I was the Legislative Chairman (and thus on the BOD) for 14 years as well as the GOAL Club Rep for at least that long. I attended all meetings (BOD and member meetings).

At another club I served as Legislative Chairman and GOAL Club Rep for a few years until they decided that they no longer wanted either function. I attended all member meetings up to that point and then stopped going to meetings and shortly thereafter didn't re-up my membership.

 

[boomerang]

I go to meetings, organize matches and try to help out around the club as much as I can, which could still be more.

 

[qmmo]

CHANGE, you can believe in.

Between losing the Action Pistol group, Cowboy group and your donations (from your ammo profits) they’ve lost a lot of income. To bad there were so many conflicts.


Respectfully,
jkelly

Profits???? Are you kidding me?

I don't do much more than break even. I just used the ammo sales as a mechanism to come up with a number to donate to the indoor range fund (10% of gross sales every quarter). The actual $$ came out of earnings from my real job that I don't have anymore. I travelled a lot and wanted to help the club but couldn't commit any time because of the work schedule I had. Donating some cash seemed like a good idea in the beginning. I F'd up I guess...live and learn.

 

[jkelly]

Profits???? Are you kidding me?

My mistake, sorry.
I always thought that you didn’t get the credit due to you for your generosity.

Respectfully,
jkelly

 

[MisterHappy]

Since my boys are getting older, and are more "useful" around the Club, I'm more active: I'm the Trap chairman, and that's been a lot of fun...especially with the kids' help!

One of my sons (11 y.o.) is now a regular attendee at the monthly meetings, and is accepted by the members (he often gets detailed to run the raffle, etc.)

Southborough is a very family-friendly club, and rightly sees the kids as the future of the sport, as do I. That's one reason to get them involved as much, and as young as possible.