Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Canada Membership increase! Ouch!

Seven or eight years ago, I posted that one of my gun clubs was going to initiate a full member and associate member format. At the time, many of us talked with the board, thanking them for creating a caste system that would alienate some of the membership. We also suggested that there would be a revenue drop. "Not at all." was their answer.

There were ups and downs to being an associate. More ups than downs IMO. Associate members could not vote in elections. They could not sit on the board or be a range officer. The up side was no politics and it cost less for annual dues. You just showed up and shot.

Well, it appears that their grand experiment failed. We are going to return to the regular members only status, and in December there will be a membership fee hike. A sizable one too!

We had 400 regular members before the change. Since the associate member was created, revenues have dropped. I am told that half the membership are associates. If that is true, then revenues are down by at least $6000 annually.

Prior to the announcement, it cost $200 annually. Last week, they announced a doubling of the annual membership dues coming this winter. Oh my! Effective 1 Jan 24, annual dues increase to $400 + $52 (13% HST) Total - $452

We can expect another $45.20 bump to that if the board changes our insurance from the Shooting Federation of Canada to the Canadian Shooting Sports Association (CSSA). Our annual membership would then reach $497.20.

Happy times!

Edited to add: I forgot the one time initiation fee for new members of $400 + GST. More happy times for newbies. It will be almost $1000 for their first year of membership. Please pass the doobie...

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What is your annual club membership cost?

Ouch!!!!
That's going to hurt membership as well as your wallet.
The range I belong to in Med Hat is $150.00/year. Outdoor but very well laid out with 600 meter, 100 meter plus several shorter ones for handgun and rimfire.
I likely missed a couple.
Also Cowboy Action range. Very active in most disciplines.

I looked briefly into one in Calgary a few years ago, indoor. They were $500.00/year.

Jeff

I think it is going to hurt a goodly portion of the membership. The shotgunners are mostly older guys. I don't know what their income is, but unless they have something other than CPP and OAS, that extra $300 is going to bite hard.

We have a couple of outdoor rifle ranges. Trap and skeet and indoor and outdoor handgun. 100 yd rimfire range.

Unrelated to this, my wife is in Redcliff this week. Her sister died and a few of the siblings are visiting.

Hi Steve,

Condolences to your wife and her family. Sisters are often tight with each other.
I seem to recall you mentioned a while back about Redcliff connection.

Yep, that is going hit the older, retired guys or even just younger guys on a limited income trying make ends meet.
Just when we need more shooters to join clubs too.

The shotgun guys here have a club/range across the road, unrelated to the rifle/handgun club.
I have meant to check it out but most activities there are team related with limited access to just go
shoot. My work schedule hasn't jivved so far. Hopefully when I can retire, again.

Jeff

Our membership fee is $140. Rifle to 400 yds, pistol and rimfire range to 100 yds. Both covered with concrete benches. Also a prone shooting shack for the bipod guys.

The two major outdoor ranges around Cgy are in the 400.00 range, C&DTSA just donated 100,000.00 to CCFR, so you can at least see where some of their cash went. Years ago they had to do some serious range improvement to stay open, people built a subdivison about a mile down range of them, then a few yrs ago they built a big new range SE of Cgy. The ones I belong to here locally are 80.00 & 100.00/yr, one is 200yds, one is 300 yds. The one has a wood stove and enclosed benches for winter as well. All the indoor ranges are in the 400+ range in Cgy area. Edmonton is pretty similar.

Thanks for the inputs. It seems that my club is going from average cost to "crowding the high side". I have written the board, but doubt that anyone will respond.

Ours went up, we got an electronic gate and so needed electronic pass cards. These cost. Instead of daily green fees, we got a yearly fee, so this year it increased. I'm a senior , so there is a discount., but I think it was between $150 and $175. I use the shotgun and our 300yard rifle ranges. The cost of clay pigeons keeps rising, at this point, it's $7 for 25.

Why are the fees so high Steve? Property taxes? Insurance?? Profits? Wages?

$52 GST on $400? 13% GST tax??

I've never been a member at a range. For what I do we just couldn't justify the expense. We target shoot a couple times a season to sight in our hunting rifles, so even $150 seems pretty steep for a couple of hours using a bench. That being said I hate paying taxes [see the gst question] and would be much more likely to access/join if it could be done by donation, avoiding the tax and putting in $ inline with the amount of usage we would get. I'd be happy donating $20 per hour, per shooter but putting out 400-1000$ just wouldn't happen.

I'm not really sure. Like most clubs, what's talked about by the board, stays with the board.

Some of it had to do with the club shutdown during COVID. We had fewer volunteers helping with maintenance, so the jobs had to be given to contractors. We don't have any employees. It's all volunteer. The board is looking at changing our liability insurance from the Shooting Federation of Canada to the CSSA, but as far as I know, everything else - taxes, utility bills etc. are about the same.

Ontario, like most other provinces, has the 13% HST. I typed GST, but meant HST.

In my letter to the board, I suggested that we look at money raising activities to help defray costs. I suggested 50/50 draws, club gun shows, "buy a brick" for new construction/maintenance and that they should consider canvassing the general membership for more ideas.

I don't like to speak unkindly of the board, but they are unwilling to listen to the membership about anything. If they didn't think of it, then it's not a good idea. A common theme with many club boards.

Many times, we "gun people" do more to alienate potential "candidates to the cause" than do our enemies.

I fall into the category of a former member. I haven't joined in the last 2 years due to age and medical problems. Our club is relatively large, approx. 1,400 members. Also we have a large variety of activities situated on about 84 acres of land. 24 acres of that is used for sporting clays layout.

The last annual statement I saw said operating costs ran about $300,000. Taxes, insurance, utilities and some staff wages. This last is related to trap boys and some work that must be contracted out. None of the directors are paid and there is a large contingent of volunteers.

This may sound like very high overhead (it is) but nearly all of it is beyond our control. For several years I was treasurer at the club so know personally that the expenses are legitimate. I suggest that anyone who feels the costs are too high to try joining a golf club, curling club, tennis club in a metropolitan area.

In some rural areas there may be low cost land available, satisfaction with a limited number of activities and a willingness of members to do all of the necessary work as volunteers. In some provinces such as B.C. and Alberta there may be more extensive opportunities to hunt rather than shoot at a club.

Here in southern Ontario hunting lands are limited due to private ownership and large populations. Locally the demand is so high for places to shoot that a LGS created an indoor shooting facility with limited facilities (and at higher cost ) and it is quite succesful.

The point of all this is to say that, like many things, locale has a lot to do with what is available and what is accepted. Don't look at a fee that is higher than your own and automatically assume it is a ripoff.

Jim

My club (trap only) will increase from $75 to $100 per year at the end of this month, plus $1. a round more. That, plus the current coast of shells ($16 per box with tax) makes it hard to attract new members.

We often are our worst enemy. I am trying to understand how anyone could afford $1000 for the first year at our club. It is small, not particularly well equipped and in need of repairs. That could be the catch-22.

I imagined stopping in for a facilities tour as a prospective member. The place is in need of repairs and there isn’t anything notable about the clubhouse or facilities.

I believe that membership will drop after this year. Some current members will refuse to renew. Others will not be financially able to renew.

I do not believe newbies will see value for money when asked to pay $1000 for their first year.

I really hope this is the board’s way of shaking up the membership, but that’s unlikely. . I am not seeing their end game.

Besides Mission R & G,thanks to my wife, I'm a member of a lapidary club and a community hall association.The lapidary club has a workshop in the basement of the hall. That's the tie in. My wife is on the boards of both, so I get to hear the goings on with both boards. What are husbands for but to listen ? At each club meeting the treasurer's report is given . That should be given at each club meeting. Questions taken and answered. The community hall was folding until a new board was elected. There was an old boys club that just wanted to coast along.

$1000 to get in the door is pretty steep for sure. When I was working I'd convert to pre tax amounts, that 1000 is closer to 1900 before income tax and then the govt takes another 13%. For me to join something like that I'd have to be spending some serious time using the facility to justify that expenditure.

Average around here for club membership out to 300 is 175.00 per year. Clubs that offer 600-1000 are wow. 1 is 450 + 200 initiation fee +32 hrs club work or an additional 200.00. Another is a flat 600 bucks with 250 initiation. The last one I think went under as they were a flat 750.00. Needless to say I didn’t join. I pay 100.00 per year.

I think Steve your club needs a through house cleaning. The two part membership was a ploy to keep voting membership limited. Every thing you have mentioned are ploys to keep the club very exclusive. Welcome to politics on a club scale.

Our club has dues of $40. Plus an extra $400 if you don’t nothing. You can eliminate the 400 by selling raffle tickets. We have a monthly drawing. And a summer fest drawing for 6 guns and 22 money prizes. Thea raffle for by bow season. Then you can get credit for a club sponsored event . I have never paid the 400 yet. Just the $30.

That was my contention when they created non-voting associate members. We had a webpage at the time with an area where you could raise issues with the board. (That website has since been deleted.) At the time, the board was getting pushback from the membership in an area that discussed club policies, announcements and decisions. They were polite posts, but no one supported the regular/associate decision (except the board).

I don't think that is the case with this latest announcement. If it was solely about control, then the board already had it. Half of the membership are non-voting associates, so that means of the 400 members, 200 cannot vote and have no say. I believe it is because of a revenue drop, created as a result of that caste membership decision from about 10 years ago.

Part of our dues were set aside every year in a futures account. I will ask about this account. It is there in case the club needs a large amount of money for an emergency or a large cash outlay. It may have been exhausted because of the revenue drop. I don't have the financial statement handy.

Or it may be that there are a number of overdue maintenance projects that the board wants to get done and they want to gather as much money as they can up front.

Either way, I hope they consider my suggestions and canvass the club for other ideas.