NRA News 7th Feb 2012

[karen]

Do you want to shoot TR or F Class in this year’s Imperial Meeting?

Are you not sure what its all about? Do you think you might not be good enough? Don’t worry - help is at hand!

Anyone remember the 2010 Imperial Meeting Online Survey?

Although it asked several questions, the critical one was targeted at people who said that they attended the July Meeting rarely or not at all (676 of you). We asked What reasons do you have for not competing in the Imperial Meeting (click all that apply)? and offered 13 alternatives and space for comment. Now we had our suspicions about what the common answers were likely to be, but we were seriously wrong. The two most common reasons were Do not know enough about it (259) and Do not consider myself good enough (211).

Both of these can be addressed by a bit of education and some practice! So, the Bisley Clubs Easter Meeting, run this year by the North London Rifle Club, will include an introduction to the way the Imperial Meeting runs and a chance to experience Imperial style shooting in a relaxed environment with advice available at any stage.

The Bisley Clubs Easter Meeting (7, 8 & 9 April 2012) features a great shooting and social programme, whether you shoot TR, F/TR or F Open. The meeting is run in the style of the Imperial, and it represents a chance to blow out the cobwebs and get back into the competitive swing at the start of the season.

Download the entry forms and details below:

http://downloads.nlrc.org/Easter-Meeting-Entry-2012.pdf

For more information contact: easter@nlrc.org

Please let the organisers know if you are a first-timer.

The meeting will start on Saturday morning with a First Timers Briefing (attendance optional!) including interactive presentations for anyone who is unsure of the procedures involved in competitive shooting. There will be many experienced shooters available to assist and help you both in the classroom session and on the range. Shooting will start on Saturday afternoon and the competitions are:

Competition 1: Saturday 7 April commencing at 13:30
2ss + 15 to count at 300 and 600 yards

Competition 2: Sunday 8 April commencing at 08:30
2ss + 10 to count at 300, 500 and 600 yards

Competition 3: Sunday 8 April commencing at 13:30
2ss + 7 to count at 300, 500 and 600 yards

Competition 4: Monday 9 April commencing at 08:30
2ss + 15 to count at 900 yards

Competition 5: Monday 9 April commencing at 10:20
2ss + 15 to count at 1000 yards

Don’t worry if you can’t attend the entire weekend – you can enter any or all of the competitions.

Full dining facilities, open to all competitors, will be available in the North London clubhouse during the meeting.

The Easter Meeting is, for the first time, set up to be an opportunity for the newcomer to have a gentle and guided introduction to competitive shooting. It remains the first major competition of the UK target rifle season. Come along to find or regain your competitive edge.

If you would like to know more about the Imperial Meeting, we would be happy take your questions in response to this email.


Did you know you can support the National Rifle Association every time you shop online – at no cost to you?

With Give as you Live, thousands of brands including Amazon, John Lewis, Tesco and Expedia have signed up to donate a percentage of every purchase you make online to us. All at no cost to you and at no cost to us.

Simply visit http://www.giveasyoulive.com/join/natio ... ssociation and discover Give as you Live today. If you sign up by 31 March 2012, Give as you Live will donate an additional £5 to us after you spend £10 or more through Give as you Live.

It costs you nothing to raise much needed funds for us every time you shop online. Please visit http://www.giveasyoulive.com/join/natio ... ssociation today and discover Give as you Live.

Give as you Live is part of Everyclick – a search engine that donates money to the NRA every time you use it. If you haven’t already signed up to Everyclick please visit their website at http://www.everyclick.com and sign up today nominating the National Rifle Association as your favourite charity.

Thank you!


2012 Charges

Please note that the 2012 charges for accommodation, range hire and firearms hire and storage have been updated on our website. Please visit http://www.nsc-bisley.co.uk/common/asp/ ... p?site=NSC to download details. We apologise for the delay in posting these charges.



Continuing the process of restoring the NRA

In the last Journal, I described some of the steps we have taken in order to restore the finances of the organisation. I would now like to share some of the further steps in that process, covering both restructuring and redundancies within the organisation and also price increases for 2012.

Previously I have described to you that we had made a number of staff redundant and were putting a number of other staff at risk of redundancy. We have continued that process with a number of staff given notice of redundancy in January. I will not list those staff here as it is a private matter for them and in any event, the process is not wholly complete at this time. Clearly this is a difficult time for the organisation and in particular those individuals.

By the time this process is complete, we will have reduced the staff establishment from 62 in June 2011 to 50. This is a very substantial change in organisation and has been weighted towards non-customer-facing roles so as to minimise the impact on our delivery to Members and other customers.

In order to further minimise that impact on our ability to deliver to our customers, and to eliminate inconsistencies between staff, I am changing staff terms and conditions. Previously some staff were on a 35 hour week, whilst others were on a 40 hour week. Once we introduce new staff contracts, all staff will be on a standard 40 hour week. This will be without any increase in pay. I will also be introducing a rota for managers (including myself) such that there is always a manager on duty during shooting hours at the weekend. This will be to address any issues from customers at the weekend.

I hope that you will therefore understand that the Trustees and the staff are serious in our efforts to restore the position of the NRA. These are very substantial and painful changes and we are determined that they will be successful.

It is not, however, enough. Eliminating our financial deficit is our first objective, but we must generate a sufficient surplus to finance our strategic objectives both at Bisley and in the wider national landscape. Rebuilding our facilities at Bisley and supporting the development of facilities elsewhere costs money and ‘break-even’ hardly meets this need.

Consequently we have approved a series of price increases which average 10% for 2012, although almost 5% of this simply reflects current inflation levels. Full details are on the website. Clearly these will not be welcomed, and indeed we are implementing them with great reluctance. It is difficult to see how we can avoid this. We have taken cuts in the wage bill as far as we can, we are going through the rest of our cost base as aggressively as possible, but need to be mindful of continuing to deliver to you. We are looking to increase non-shooting revenues wherever possible but recessionary pressures constrain that. Equally many of those opportunities would conflict with the shooting calendar. That leaves us with the unpalatable but necessary step of increasing our prices.

We will continue to keep you posted with the changes we are initiating, and I very much hope that we will be able to start giving you good news soon.

Derrick Mabbott
Acting Chief Executive

[karen]

Arggghhhh why has this autofilled a wrong date in the title?

Can someone change it as it wont let me amend it!

Love

Karen

[dromia]

Done.

[karen]

Ta muchly

[Dangermouse]

This is a good email from my perspective and I do not mind getting similar in my in box.

As someone who needs to plan many months ahead, almost definitely having to put in my annual leave request in the Sept of the preceding year, I need lots of time to see what is on the horizon.

At around Octt last year I had to badger a number of people for this years diary and that was just the shoots I know that I am going to enter. Comps like the 3 gun, which I would have loved to have entered, have no chance of getting my money if I only see them advertised 2-3 months ahead of the date.

I know that the NRA/NSC web site does run a calender, but in my case, it is a case of needing to know about a competition to go looking for it, not a case of blindly looking to See what is coming up. Clearly an example of needing to be spoon fed, but I would not mind a monthly email outlining all comps for the next 12 months. A big workload to initially set up but there after it should be reasonably simple to delete the comps that have been ran and add the ones that have been announced.

Just my ramblings,

DM