Writing a booklet for Probationary Members. What to add...?

[greenshoots]

malfuntions needs to be under safety

greenshoots

[greenshoots]

sorry management head on

greenshoots

[TattooedGun]

Good points.

However from first hand experience I've seen people assume that people know how to use sights and completely miss the target area causing damage. I'd rather keep them in.

Familiarisation of different firearms is good, but I think would work better in person as we take each member through each different type of firearm (realistically theres only 3 to think about, semi-auto, bolt action and air PCP - as that's all the club has).

[Marmite5]

Eating and Drinking and taking visitors.

[nickb834]

7 a. How the club coach takes his tea (milk, no sugar)



Looks pretty decent. I'm sure without reinventing the entire wheel you could pinch some ideas for content from the NRA probationers book, although that's a slightly different focus.

Probably worth a 'general' or 'tips' section covering things like bringing a notepad and pen to write down scores, which kit used etc, what to do if they have a problem, who to ask for questions etc.

It's daunting being a newbie at a shooting club so that seems like a great project :)

Thanks,

Its currently at 20 pages and will be printed in booklet format.

our club has a 3 week "cooling off period" between a probationer filling out their form and then being allowed to shoot whilst the police are notified of a new member.

We've seen many people drop off probation and never come back after the 3 weeks, despite being reminded.

I think it might be good to send them away with a booklet knowing what they'll be in for and give them a good grounding for whats in store, and what they'll be taught.

it's also an absolute nightmare at the minute because only the Secretary is bringing on probationers as we don't have a set course, so once this booklet is written, I'll move on to writing the checklist that all new members must go through and check off multiple times. so we can at least make sure all new members are proficient in each of the rifles and the way in which the club operates, so theoretically once they become a full member they could teach the next wave - all that would need to be done would be some kind of check session with the secretary at the end of the probation before signing them off and offering full membership.

I don't want to miss anything, but I don't want to make it completely daunting at the same time and scare away those newbies.

It's a fine line between teaching all the ruels so they're safe and legal and scaring them away because there's too many rules... >.<

I wonder if you need to change the cooling off period? As in get rid of it - what purpose does it serve?

Any probationer filling out a S21 declaration can shoot legally after he has filled out the necessary paperwork to join the club - you don't legally have to wait for the police to return an opinion.

Equally - a 20 page booklet is likely to scare off a significant percentage of prospective members - there's a lot to take in for a novice, and fretting over a 20 page booklet and the rules the first time you have a firearm in your hands isn't great. I think perhaps give the booklet after the probationary member has visited a couple of times, received some guidance / instruction and can put a lot of what's in there into context?

FWIW the way we do it on probationers night (at one of my clubs) is as follows:

1. Proby member books online with a 10 quid deposit (stops people booking slots out on proby night and not turning up)
2. They attend club with paperwork for S21 declaration and application to join as proby member
3. They get a safety brief from an RCO explaining what you'd expect
4. They get on range after said brief, they're allocated a firearm already on a firing point - and shown the controls and drills
5. Quick brief on range procedure (when to approach guns, how to commence firing, reminded of stop commands etc)
6. Done safety gear, check it's applied and commence shooting
7. 3x details later probys taken off range - shown paperwork as regards sigining off each of the 12 visits required
8. Probys leave and hopefully come back next week.

In practice we're seeing 3 to 4 new faces every wednesday night at my club, most will complete 6 visits (at which point if competent they're cleared to attend the range on other nights - thus freeing up wednesday night). Somewhere around 50% will complete the 12 visits, and of that lot I'd say something like 10% ultimately will become full members.

We think our conversion ratio is low because of club fees and we're an indoor range without qualifed NRA RCO's (we're working on that latter).

Regardless - having this volume of shooters coming through means there are more folks out there local to us who know what goes on at the range and are broadly in favour of what we do (hearts and minds and all that) and we make a little profit on the ammo used.

[Chuck]

Personal hygeine after handling ammo / firearms. Ingestion of lead / field stuff etc etc..Washing hands etc

The 4 basic safety rules - right at the front! (You can edit this of copurse )

Treat EVERY firearm as if it is loaded. It probably is!, Believe no one who says it is unloaded. Always check it yourself – then check again.

Never point a firearm at ANYTHING you do not wish to destroy This includes yourself, dog or other loved ones

Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on target and you are ready to take the shot.

Always be aware of your target and what is behind it. The liability lies with YOU for where the shot goes…and who or what it hits!

[ordnance]

Just attending for a year was all you needed to do in any club i was in, obviously safety etc was part of the years probation but nothing formal.

[TattooedGun]

7 a. How the club coach takes his tea (milk, no sugar)



Looks pretty decent. I'm sure without reinventing the entire wheel you could pinch some ideas for content from the NRA probationers book, although that's a slightly different focus.

Probably worth a 'general' or 'tips' section covering things like bringing a notepad and pen to write down scores, which kit used etc, what to do if they have a problem, who to ask for questions etc.

It's daunting being a newbie at a shooting club so that seems like a great project :)

Thanks,

Its currently at 20 pages and will be printed in booklet format.

our club has a 3 week "cooling off period" between a probationer filling out their form and then being allowed to shoot whilst the police are notified of a new member.

We've seen many people drop off probation and never come back after the 3 weeks, despite being reminded.

I think it might be good to send them away with a booklet knowing what they'll be in for and give them a good grounding for whats in store, and what they'll be taught.

it's also an absolute nightmare at the minute because only the Secretary is bringing on probationers as we don't have a set course, so once this booklet is written, I'll move on to writing the checklist that all new members must go through and check off multiple times. so we can at least make sure all new members are proficient in each of the rifles and the way in which the club operates, so theoretically once they become a full member they could teach the next wave - all that would need to be done would be some kind of check session with the secretary at the end of the probation before signing them off and offering full membership.

I don't want to miss anything, but I don't want to make it completely daunting at the same time and scare away those newbies.

It's a fine line between teaching all the ruels so they're safe and legal and scaring them away because there's too many rules... >.<

I wonder if you need to change the cooling off period? As in get rid of it - what purpose does it serve?

Any probationer filling out a S21 declaration can shoot legally after he has filled out the necessary paperwork to join the club - you don't legally have to wait for the police to return an opinion.

Equally - a 20 page booklet is likely to scare off a significant percentage of prospective members - there's a lot to take in for a novice, and fretting over a 20 page booklet and the rules the first time you have a firearm in your hands isn't great. I think perhaps give the booklet after the probationary member has visited a couple of times, received some guidance / instruction and can put a lot of what's in there into context?

FWIW the way we do it on probationers night (at one of my clubs) is as follows:

1. Proby member books online with a 10 quid deposit (stops people booking slots out on proby night and not turning up)
2. They attend club with paperwork for S21 declaration and application to join as proby member
3. They get a safety brief from an RCO explaining what you'd expect
4. They get on range after said brief, they're allocated a firearm already on a firing point - and shown the controls and drills
5. Quick brief on range procedure (when to approach guns, how to commence firing, reminded of stop commands etc)
6. Done safety gear, check it's applied and commence shooting
7. 3x details later probys taken off range - shown paperwork as regards sigining off each of the 12 visits required
8. Probys leave and hopefully come back next week.

In practice we're seeing 3 to 4 new faces every wednesday night at my club, most will complete 6 visits (at which point if competent they're cleared to attend the range on other nights - thus freeing up wednesday night). Somewhere around 50% will complete the 12 visits, and of that lot I'd say something like 10% ultimately will become full members.

We think our conversion ratio is low because of club fees and we're an indoor range without qualifed NRA RCO's (we're working on that latter).

Regardless - having this volume of shooters coming through means there are more folks out there local to us who know what goes on at the range and are broadly in favour of what we do (hearts and minds and all that) and we make a little profit on the ammo used.

See, we don't have a probationers night. folks tend to come down on any given night the clubs open which means an official safety briefing is unattainable.

I'm not even sure what our conversion rate is at the minute, but theres no set regime of what happens when a new probationer joins. which is what we're working on.

I'm sure we won't get it right straight off the bat, but we think a booklet which people can go away and read is the right way to go.

I'm not sure about the 3 week cooling off, which was inherited as procedure when the club secretary job got passed over.

Some food for thought, but again not totally practical when theres no night specifically for probationers. it would be nice, but unfortunately we don't get any volunteers when it comes to trying to put something like that together :(

[HALODIN]

What about...

- Include a copy of your range certificates
- Shooters cards and shooting at other ranges
- Additional insurance benefits - loss/damage to shooting equipment, legal and medical expenses resulting from a shooting related incident and legal assistance in the event of a dispute with your firearms authority.

[Robert303]

I'm doing a review of our club rule book and operating procedures so would like to pm you to compare notes. At the risk of being controversial I would suggest a warning NOT to believe everything you are told or read on the internet!