Saturday, February 16, 2013

Another "New Policy" from Tri-County Gun Club

Another "New Policy" from Tri-County Gun Club:

From another email, not from Columbia Cascade but as a courtesy from a TRI-CO member:

HEADS UP. For those of you that are shooting Tri-county Sunday, AND ARE NOT MEMBERS, you will NOT be able to get in using the old 6 digit code.
These codes are no longer being used, so they can keep non-members that are not with members from entering. Soooooooo, if a club member has NOT made arrangemnets [sic]to have the EXIT gate OPEN so you can drive in, you will want to pull to the LEFT and wait until you can TAILGATE someone inside. This goes for both gates. Once inside you will be OK to shoot the match. Members can only get in using their cards now, no more 6 digit codes. This goes for the police as well. The intent is to issue a match director a one day code that can be used for that match only, as codes will change daily. The club coordinator will then issue that code to all particapants in advance. HOW THIS WILL WORK has not been determined yet. GOOD LUCK, see you Sunday,
"How This Will Work" .. .sounds like a total disaster.

Frankly, I don't understand how a gun club can expect to stay in business if it deliberately makes it difficult for non-members to participate in 'public' matches.

Well ... okay, so they can become a strictly private club, which means that they don't actively encourage non-members to attend their matches.  Which, given their current ruling on the "Over The Berm" rule, is beginning to sound suspiciously like a hidden agenda.

Of course, much of their income currently derives from non-member fees at 'public' matches.  That seems likely to change, though.

The alternatives are either that their match participation will decline drastically and immediately (leaving them a long-term shortfall in their funding), or they can increase their annual dues.   Since these dues are already pretty darned hefty ($225 initiation fee, $170 annual dues) and an NRA membership is mandatory,  they may have to work hard to maintain their current membership let alone attract new members.

On the other hand, perhaps they're expecting that non-members will be strongly encouraged to join, given their new policy on gate-admission.

On the "Third Hand", given their new policy on 'over the berm rules' (which just resulted in their de-certification from USPSA, including the Columbia Cascade Section of USPSA),  they have cut themselves off from a program which results in tens of thousands of dollars in match fees alone, annually,  from both club matches and Level II and Level III USPSA matches.

Can anybody who still has a Tri-County Gun Club membership please explain this to me?  Just WHO is responsible for this Train Wreck at which was once the premium gun club in the state of Oregon?

5 comments:

Mark said...

Judge them by their actions not there words. There seems to be an anti-USPSA sentiment at TCGC.

The anti-gunners only need to be patient. We will destroy ourselves.

MauserMedic said...

I went from a club in Iowa with no initiation fee at $135/year to a $600 initiation fee and what looks like $160/year. Apparently there are very few decent outdoor ranges around. Although this one has multiple shotgun ranges and around ten individual pistol bays. Still, that ain't cheap.

Anonymous said...

There does seems to be an anti-USPSA bias at TCGC. It's sad because shooting the action sports was what got me to join TCGC. Heck I practised for 6 months on the standard pistol range before taking the safety course and attending my first match.

Wonder when this will end? Seems like lately I'm in the "group" that get maligned and or villified; uspsa at TCGC, gun owner in USA.

Anonymous said...

On some of the local shooting sites (and Enos), some of the BoD from TCGC have stated that USPSA needs them more than they need USPSA.

Anonymous said...

According to their website, the TC club is affiliated with "IPSC". Why IPSC, and not USPSA? Or does the gun club not know that there is a difference?