Starting a USPSA Club?

[leam]

Anyone got any pointers on starting a USPSA club? We have a range to shoot at and the range owners are willing to add some more bays as we need them. I'd like to start the club right and learn from other's mistakes before we jump in, so any wisdom you all have to share would be more than welcome!

Most other "local" matches are 2-3 hours away but I'll still see about scheduling around them.

My perception is that local matches are usually $15 with sometimes a discount for range members.

Other thoughts?

Thanks!

Leam

[Avezorak]

Our club has been round about 15 years. I have been around about 2 years. I will share my thoughts, but please keep in mind they are only worth what you paid for them

Make sure you have plenty of help. Its a lot of work running a club. I would say it takes at least 5 experienced guys to run a 4-6 stage match.

You can do a lot with taget stands, target boards, targets, spray paint and a few pcs of steel. Build up your collection of props as you go.

As far as match fees go, most clubs around here charge 20 for non members and 15 for members. Club membership runs from 35-50$ per year.

Hope this little bit of info helps. Good luck!

[Mark R]

According to the Georgia Section bylaws dated July 16, 2000...

3.2 CLUB MEMBERSHIP

A USPSA affiliated club that wishes to become a member of the Section must apply to the Section Executive Committee, which will vote on its application. If accepted, the club will sign, by its President, the Section Bylaws, signifying its acceptance of and intention to abide by Section rules, policies and procedures.

Upon acceptance, the club will begin a one year training period during which it will develop a cadre of Range Officers and train its members in USPSA rules, safety standards and match production.

3.3 ASSIGNMENT OF CLUB MATCH DAYS

The Section Coordinator shall coordinate the monthly match day for each Section Club and shall attempt to resolve any scheduling conflicts between Clubs in the Section. Because of the many factors involved in setting match dates at some ranges, no Club shall be excluded from the Section because of conflicts of match dates. No Club match shall take place on any day in which the Georgia State Championship match is held.

Hope it helps.

[shootingchef]

I'll chime in.

We started our club 4 years ago with 2 officers, we've added 3 officers, and use club members for MD's and we assist the MD's with match operations. We are now at 64 members and going strong. However burn out is a serious problem and one we did not address from the beginning. You MUST be training your replacement and growing your club continously or you face death. Our policy now is NO MD,no match. There is no cure for the "shoot and scooters" and I want to either become one or hurt one.

[leam]

We have enough area for a small match, I think. Nothing spectacular but there's also room to grow. I also have a request to Val for information to pass around to prospectives. It will probably take us a whlie to grow the group locally but there are some good clubs within a 2-3 hour drive that we can learn from.

[Hi-Power Jack]

Never tried to run a club, but two biggest problems I've

seen are:

1. problem with shooting on the property - owners, neighbors might shut

you down after you've built up the club (zoning, etc) - check that

all out before you invest the time/energy

2. As others mentioned, you will Need Help - a LOT of help. Cannot

count on local shooters to help you out with all the work needed.

You need to come up with a plan to address that - and get the

help you need.

Some clubs offer free shoots to help set up the day before, or have

a party after it's all set up. I loved one club that offered to

let everyone who helped set up on Sat, shoot the entire match on

Saturday, and then of course again on Sunday - that brings out th

best shooters who want the extra trigger time.

3. As I've said, I've never done it, but always wondered why I've never

seen anyone try hiring a few 17 year high school kids for minimum wage to help

with all the setup, take down, etc??? Not looking to provoke a

major problem here, just wondering if it might work???

Good luck - hope it all runs smoothly for you.

Jack

[McGunner]

You should also contact your Section Coordinator, he(or she) would be able to offer advice and recommendations to you about getting your club started.

[leam]

Sent a note to the SC last week, but used the "SC@blah blah" address. Just sent one to his personal address listed on the USPSA site.

In our case the range is generally set up for this style of shooting, it would be more a matter of moving things around. I do feel the "harvest is ready but workers are few" issue is going to be a big hurdle. Especially in our GA heat! Maybe setting up the day before, letting workers shoot before and the day of, for those that want to do their best. A question is, would you keep each "match" separate, Friday and Saturday? Or would you take the best scores of either day?

Also, on a different note, I plan on running classfier heavy for a whlie to get things going. Can someone shoot the match twice on the same day, in different divisions?

Leam

[Poppa Bear]

First if you get your club up and running you will find a core group of 5 to 6 that do 95% of the work. Work hard to bring in fresh blood or they will burn out quickly.

If Friday and Saturday are the same match then it is all scored the same. If you run classifier heavy you can decide to allow them to shoot through twice, shoot separate divisions one on Friday the other on Saturday. You can also do like we do, anyone who wants to shoot the classifier in another division just pays an extra fee and shoots it twice. We will frequently set these shooters up so that they shoot early so that they can go back and change guns. They then shoot the re-entry after everyone else has completed their first run.

[leam]

Cool...already got a useful response from the SC! Looking at scheudles and finding the core group now.

[Poppa Bear]

When looking for the core group spend time finding those who are also good at woodworking, steel fabrication etc. They may not necessarily be part of the core group but knowing that you have someone who can do some welding or build some props can really come in handy.

Most clubs have 3 tiers. Core group who do a lot of the match work. The workers who are good at building stuff or helping out with the occasional setup. Those who are there to shoot and who might lend a hand breaking down but many times are gone almost as soon as the last shot is fired.

Edited June 19, 2011 by Poppa Bear

[wgnoyes]

... but many times are gone almost as soon as the last shot is fired.

Yeah, and that can be a huge problem, especially that "class" of people that, month after month, match after match, are running for their cars as soon as their last "range is clear" command is heard.

[Mark R]

... but many times are gone almost as soon as the last shot is fired.

Yeah, and that can be a huge problem, especially that "class" of people that, month after month, match after match, are running for their cars as soon as their last "range is clear" command is heard.

Heck...I have one who leaves before everyone is done shooting. Nothing said, just gone.

[leam]

Bill sent me a link to the old manual on clubs. Very interesting reading! And yes, the "folks are gone when their last bang is done" problem will be one to work through. Not sure how yet, but we will.

Leam

[wgnoyes]

Heck...I have one who leaves before everyone is done shooting. Nothing said, just gone.

That's what I meant. These slicksters get them put up in the shooting order on the last stage and they run just as soon as THEY'RE done.

[Poppa Bear]

I should expand a bit on some of the shooters who disappear before the last shots are fired. We have a couple who are gone before the last shooter has shot, BUT we know they are leaving and they are some of the hardest workers when it comes time to set up. We know that given a choice they would stay but they have other commitments they need to take care of. We also know that many others would say I do not have the time to spare and would not show up at all.

Just this year we have had several people show up just to help set up even though they needed to leave shortly because they only had an hour to spare. We've had others who have shown up announcing that they did not have time to load anything up for the week or who just got back into town and didn't have time to run home and grab their gear so they were going to be the designated RO for the evenings practice match.

So find some good people, let them play to their strengths, thank them when they do things like I mentioned earlier in this post and try not to burn them out.

[paul788]

For the ones who run away at their "ULSC", make sure they are the last shooter each time. When they ask why, let them know its a volunteer sport and they are on the verge of not being welcomed back. Or discuss with the club having a second fee for those who don't help, like doubling the match fee.

Paul

[Graham Smith]

You should also contact your Section Coordinator, he(or she) would be able to offer advice and recommendations to you about getting your club started.

Yup.

Also, try and get a list of emails for shooters in your area and find out how many you have that would be interested. In particular, find out how many RO's are interested enough to be there at every match. If you don't have at least 2 RO's per squad, you will find it tough to run a match. Find out if there are any CRO's that would be able to come as well - they can be a real help.

Find out if you have anyone experienced in designing stages - it's harder than you think to design stages that are both challenging and safe. You don't need a ton of props to get started and you can build a bunch of target stands out of 2x4's and a few walls with some 2x4's and particle board.

Lastly, you need to get a firm commitment from at least a half dozen people who will be there for most every match early enough to get things set up.

[leam]

Should leadership positions be tied to labor? That is, maybe the VP is the primary stats officer, the P the 'usual" MD, and folks move around throughout the seasons so that they are both trained in all roles and have a say in how both the club and the matches are run. Since we're starting up, is it a good idea to make Officership dependant on USPSA, NRA membership and RO certification?

If the USPSA club is shooting at a membership based range and the range owners are supporitng the club with equipment, etc, should the club still be a separate legal entity from the range? I know the range I'm looking at working with are interested in the potential income a USPSA club can produce, but I'm not sure where the line shoudl be drawn between the range owners and the USPSA club. Non-members of the range are still welcome to shoot at the matches, but I'm not sure if range membership should be a requirement for officership in the club.

Thoughts?

Leam

[MI_Packer]

Last year I was MD at a brand new affiliation. Money wasa bit of an issue getting poppers, target stands, nails, pasters, and targets.We were able to borrow poppers form the other club that I was a co-MD at and that was a huge help.

The club members built a bunch of walls before the firstmatch and then built more before the second match. They really came through with the effort.

We did a dress rehearsal the weekend before the firstmatch. Setup all the stages, ran the ROs and interested club members. Thefollowing weekend (1^st match) was much easier because of the time we had to fix things that went un-noticed during setup.

We held an RO seminar at the club before the seasonstarted and that gave us some ROs. This was a help for sure and I think it wasthe right thing to do. However, most of them only had one or two matches under their belts as competitors. One thing we did is let people know that we needed help with ROing the squads, so they were not surprised by it when they showed up. Our SC helped finance this class, maybe your SC has some funds available, don't hesitate to ask.

Don't forget to get someone (or two) trained onEZWinScore and how to submit scores. Helping the stats guy at another club might be an option.

Stage design from these guys was really interesting. Someof it you would never see at different clubs. Keeping it fresh becomes achallenge after a while. But for new guys it just comes naturally.

I think we had 5 matches and two 3 gun matches. By theend of the season we had purchased target stands and a half set of steel challenge steel. We used this steel on the long range rifle shots and ran asteel challenge stage in one bay during the regular USPSA match. There were mixed reviews from the shooters, they either loved the mixed format or hated it(most feedback was positive).

The club has a kitchen in the clubhouse so they sold made to order breakfast and around lunch time they sold lunch until the match wascleaned up. The kitchen folks really worked independently of the match, but in perfect harmony. It's really a nice touch having meals and refreshments available.

Setup and teardown went pretty well. We had a tractorwith a trailer and could stack most all props on the trailer. The next month we would just unload what we needed at each bay.

We asked the shooters to tear down the stages and simplystage the props at the end of the bay. It's not hard to do and we had a ton of co-operation.

There were few shooters who left promptly and didn't helpteardown. It happens. I never tried this but I have thought about charging theshooters an extra $5 for not helping to tear down. When they register just ask,if they are going to help it's one fee, if not it's a little higher fee. Another idea might be feeding those who stay and help tear down.

One last item, a website with your schedule and as muchas you can tell the shooters is a great way to communicate. Collect email addresses and send the shooters a reminder about the match and try to get the scores out quickly. Some email programs will allow you to write emails in advance and mail them on a certain date and time. Wednesday before the match was my usual reminder message.

Have fun and good luck.

Edited June 20, 2011 by MI_Packer

[leam]

We met last night and I pitched the USPSA club and handed out the flyers and magazines Val sent. We can probably find the 10 members to sign up, but there's going to be some fun writing up the charter and such to add USPSA to the existing club structure. A question did come up that I don't know the answer to. If we have a club but are really limited on certified ROs, can we still submit scores? How many certified RO types do you need for an "official" club match?

And now the fun begins...

Leam

[Chris iliff]

Don't know if it's been said, but have your stage teardown material out and handy during your shooters meeting. Make a point of pointing it out to all shooters and ask them to tear down and carry all props to the front of the bay.

Remind all shooters that USPSA is a volunteer sport.

Building a WAR WAGON is very helpful. This trailer holds all props and makes things easier (lots).

My home club has a trailer and all props (except walls) STAY ON TRAILER. A welder (hopefully also a shooter) can weld up brackets and stuff for poppers//target stands

etc.

Good luck.

[Mark R]

Don't know if it's been said, but have your stage teardown material out and handy during your shooters meeting. Make a point of pointing it out to all shooters and ask them to tear down and carry all props to the front of the bay.

Remind all shooters that USPSA is a volunteer sport.

Building a WAR WAGON is very helpful. This trailer holds all props and makes things easier (lots).

My home club has a trailer and all props (except walls) STAY ON TRAILER. A welder (hopefully also a shooter) can weld up brackets and stuff for poppers//target stands

etc.

Good luck.

Fourtrax...can you get some pictures of your trailer? We have been thinking the same thing, but not sure where to start.

[colt]

Fourtrax...can you get some pictures of your trailer? We have been thinking the same thing, but not sure where to start.

Here is the trailer you are asking about. These were taken when it was new. We have add to the back 4 round rings to keep 5 gal. buckets for spikes. It holds 50 target stands, 10 P.P with frames, 10 USP with frames in racks and 10 P.P frame less and 10 USP frame less on the sides.

Like 800 ft of fault line. 20 up right for walls. A spot in the back for stars, swings , drop turners in the back.

I hate to guess at the hours Phil and I have in it. Mostly Phil. I need to take newer pictures of it.

I can tell you its a life saver !! Ask the shooters of are match.

Brent

Edited July 12, 2011 by colt

[Mark R]

Awesome...thanks for the pics.