PS: Guys that don't want to do work weekends and such:
Somebody's got to do it and those 5 or 6 somebody's get tired of being the work force for the rest of the club. Especially since the "complainers" are usually the ones that don't show up and lend a hand. We have lives too.
(Sorry for the rant. The guys complaining about work requirements hit a REAL raw nerve with that one)
Guys who think that the work requirements are no big deal hit a raw nerve, too.
As I've pointed out, the ranges so far away that many of us barely have time to go
use them, much less take time from our busy lives to go work. I would like to join gun clubs to relieve stress, not add to it with another obligation.
I can join a health club about the same amount of money -- yet they don't require members to show up several times a year to clean and maintain the place. Why is that? I would think that the maintenance requirements of a club with an actual building, machines, an HVAC system, pool, hot tub, etc., would be greater than a nearly empty piece of land with a gate and some target stands.
How many country clubs require the golfers to mow the grass and pull weeds?
I think the work requirement is just another example of a gun culture that's stuck about 30 - 40 years in the past. If they want to keep it a "good ol' boys network," fine.
But the gun culture is not going to survive if we fail to attract new members -- and the people we need to attract are urbanites and suburbanites with other obligations. They are probably going to be turned off if told they have to drive one hour each way to work, and decide that taking up shooting is just not worth it.
God knows I don't like many of the people in my clubs. I sure as hell don't want to spend any time with them.
Hopefully, there are enough people here that
some of us can think of some new ways to do things -- rather than the "this is the way it's always been done" mentality I keep encountering.