Gun Clubs average age.

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Alpha1
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Gun Clubs average age.

#1 Post by Alpha1 »

I was thinking that's all ways a dangerous pastime for me leads to all sorts of issues.
I am 71 this year I am Club Secretary of my main club. I am a committee member of my second Club. The second Club has its AGM on Thursday this week I was thinking its may be time to step down. I think we should be encouraging young people to step up. The average age of the committee must be 70 years old. I wondered if this was the case in other Clubs. What is the average age of your Club Secretaries, Chairman, treasurer and committee members. Is it the same in other Clubs.
My main Club of which I am the Secretary has a few younger members but the bulk of them are retired I have asked the younger guys if they would be interested in taking over as Secretary or getting involved with committee stuff. They looked at me as though I had just slapped them in the face.
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RDC
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Re: Gun Clubs average age.

#2 Post by RDC »

Committee roles end up getting typically held by retirees because they have potentially more spare time than younger members.

I was a committee member of one club because I wanted to see positive change. I eventually resigned because of reasons I don't wish to disclose on a forum.

These days I simply don't have time with both a baby and part time study for a degree on top of a hectic full time job.
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TattooedGun
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Re: Gun Clubs average age.

#3 Post by TattooedGun »

Our sec is 70 this year, the chairman(myself) is 35 and our treasurer is early 30's.

It is very difficult to find people who want to be on the committee at my kind of age, life tends to get in the way - the chairman role is fairly non-invasive, but with a new baby, a full time job and wanting to actually participate in competitions, it can be a hard job to juggle, generally retirees have more time and can manage that time better for the more onerous roles.

Unfortunately we're seeing that more and more people don't want to volunteer their time to the club. Attitudes seem to be moving towards treating the facilities like a commercial range without care for the running of the place - save for the minority who put the time and effort into upkeep and day-to-day tasks.

We're down a few committee members for various reasons this year - it'll be interesting to see at the AGM who, of our membership, steps up to the plate.
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Polchraine
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Re: Gun Clubs average age.

#4 Post by Polchraine »

I have to echo the comments above - time.

For 19 years, I was Chair or vice-chair of a school governing body and the load was hard to manage. I would find myself landing back from a trip to the US in the early afternoon and straight into a meeting that evening. Or dealing with goverment policies and edicts took a lot of time.

Now, I have two voluntary roles - one of which can tick over with nothing for weeks and then suddenly an avalanche of work/documents. Being oldr with less family commitments and time to spare, I can deal with it.

What older committee members need to remember is that they need to ensure all age groups are catered for and dealt with equitably.


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Sim G
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Re: Gun Clubs average age.

#5 Post by Sim G »

Polchraine wrote: Mon Jan 24, 2022 11:14 am

What older committee members need to remember is that they need to ensure all age groups are catered for and dealt with equitably.

We have a club/committee just like that! Some have been a member for 50 years!! Regularly there will be friction. Most can’t grasp how the sport has changed.

We have just built a 50m outdoor range. The guys that pushed this, sorted funding, organised works and actually did most of the work themselves are having great difficulty coming to terms with the reality that this range is their legacy…

One cold snap and we’ll be looking for replacements for half of them!
In 1978 I was told by my grand dad that the secret to rifle accuracy is, a quality bullet, fired down a quality barrel..... How has that changed?

Guns dont kill people. Dads with pretty Daughters do...!
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20series
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Re: Gun Clubs average age.

#6 Post by 20series »

Pretty sure I'm probaly the youngest committee member of Oundle and I'm 49. We have an official mebership of over 450 yet at the agm probaly 35 people were there which is fairly average even pre covid.

It's alway been a struggle in any club to get people to step up and take on committee positions.

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Blackstuff
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Re: Gun Clubs average age.

#7 Post by Blackstuff »

I'm a club secretary at 42, thankfully its a PSG only club so not Home Office approved so aside from organising insurance any other officialdom is entirely of our own choice, as such its kept to a minimum.

As others have said committee positions need people with plenty of time to devote to it which 9/10 times means retirees.
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Pippin89
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Re: Gun Clubs average age.

#8 Post by Pippin89 »

Blackstuff wrote: Mon Jan 24, 2022 1:01 pm its a PSG only club so not Home Office approved
Out of interest, can membership of your club be good reason to have an S1 SG? For a S1 rifle/pistol it has to be a Home Office approved club.
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Re: Gun Clubs average age.

#9 Post by Les »

Our Chairman, Treasurer and Secretary (me) are all in their seventies. The other (4) Committee members are in their 40's/50's/60's.
As already mentioned, the 'head table' supposedly has more time on their hands (yeah, right!!) to do the mundane day to day stuff, but our other Committee members - and club members - are regularly quizzed about how things could be changed for the better. Some of the suggestions are usable, and some are physically impossible :squirrel: , but at least we try! ;)
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Re: Gun Clubs average age.

#10 Post by Jorden »

You are right about this thinking lark being dangerous, I have just sat down and worked out the average age of our members, 40 members; average is 58 (which to be honest is younger than I guessed)
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