238 arrived and I devoured it rapidly per previous issues. Great to see the executive opening a discussion on the future of the organisation etc. Mitch refers to 15% of the membership being active of the competitive shooters of which many of these are on the board of directors. A common theme even in my part of the world. My club has the thick end of 400 members now and on a good working bee 20 will turn up. Far too many people are happy to let someone else do all the work and short of draconian measures this situation is rather difficult to change. In terms of getting greater participation in competitions the primary factor here surely is the motivation for folk to join the CBA in the beginning. For me, living in little old New Zealand at the bottom of the world, the reason for joining was to be involved in an organisation that specialises in a discipline that I have embraced with gusto; shooting lead alloy bullets and the experimentation that goes with said. If you think CBE shooters in the US are a small group you should try being a lead chucker in a population of a little over 4 million in the South Pacific. I am quite the crank (and proud of it). Short of postal matches I can't compete and with a family on the go even the postals are a challenge. I guess what I am trying to say is that a membership of the CBA does not indicate a desire to compete per se. Worth considering also is a fundamental change in our society. Everyone wants everything NOW and the fix and repair culture is all but dead. The vast majority of shooters here, and I suspect in the US also, want a flashy new shootin' iron and cheap factory ammo to use, abuse and discard. Evidence of this is the amount of spent steel cases at my range. Buy a black rifle and a case of cheap ammo, blaze away, go home and do something else. They want to shoot but not necessarily to go beyond that. I suspect most don't or worse, CAN'T clean their firearms. In addition you have the economical side of cast lead bullets. My start was 50/50 an extension of handloading and a desire for economy. People these days appear to have more disposable income so possibly the economy side is not an issue to them. Certainly a lot do not handload judging by the amount of brass I collect at my club and cash in to invest in powder and primers (yes, a thrifty crank). Anyways, I am interested to hear from others on the subject and future of the CBA. BTW, I am 46 years old. What is our average membership age; do we know?
Cheers from New Zealand
