Organization
or·gan·i·za·tion [awr-guh-nuh-zey-shuhn]
A definition
- the act or process of organizing.
- a group of persons organized to accomplish for some end.
- the administrative personnel or apparatus of a business or group
- Informal . conforming entirely to the standards, rules, or demands of an organization, esp. that of one’s employer: an organization mentality.
So you join an entity like NRA, USPSA, IDPA, SASS, ATA or the like with the desire to participate in a certain type of shooting event.
Within your local group or shooting club, who handles administration tasks? Who sets up the web site? Maintains the mailing list? Assembles, publishes and posts results/scores? Puts together and sends out a newsletter after each event? Writes and submits press releases before the scheduled event to announce it and another press release with a story of what happened?
If the host organization you and your group/club belongs to requires you to remit membership, sanctioning or classification fees but does not perform these tasks for you and your club, you are paying a TAX as they provide NO service to you. They are a useless organization because they force local shooters and group/clubs to do their own organizing.
A good organization provides resources that does this work on behalf of its members.
Firearm User Network 
Apr 27, 2017 @ 07:36:52
John, you make an excellent point. I’ve tangled with the NRA for years about their competition’s department mandated “pull yourself up by the boot straps” mentality. Heck, they even get into your face about it. Unfortunately their policies have ostracized them from their members.
They cry poor, and then swiftly cash the check.
What we’re seeing here are organizations that have lost their way, and don’t even remember what their original mission is.
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Apr 27, 2017 @ 08:07:13
Formed by New York charter in 1871, the National Rifle Association defined its original goal as “To promote and encourage rifle shooting on a scientific basis,” as stated by NRA founders General George Wingate and Colonel William C. Church.
“Promote and encourage” would include helping local groups, ranges, and shooting clubs to handle administration tasks, web sites, publishing/posting event results/scores, sending press to local media, etc.
Despite this being the reason the organization was created, this is not the case, especially given that less than two percent of the current NRA members ever attend NRA shooting events.
https://firearmusernetwork.com/nra-classification-fall-off/
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Apr 27, 2017 @ 09:49:59
For several years I was an NRA instructor and I was putting an average 25 young men and women through the NRA Smallbore qualification course. I was able to do this because the club I belonged to at the time was a DCM as well as NRA affiliated club. We provide our young men and women both the firearms and ammunition that we got thru DCM (Now CMP). After several years of running the program I received a letter from the NRA telling me that because I wasn’t teaching an NRA course and sending in the required fee I had six months to run a course and remit the fee or they would pull my instructor certification. I wrote them a nice letter explaining that although I was teaching their course I was not charging for it because the guns and ammunition were provided by DCM for free to be used for the promotion of rifle practice. They took a zero tolerance policy and repeated that I must teach the course and remit the fees or lose my certification. I then called and got into a somewhat heated exchange with the training division trying to explain that I thought the goal was to teach young people to shoot safely and promote the ownership and use of firearms. In the end they were unwilling to give an inch on their requirements so I told then they could stick my certification in exactly the same place I would deposit their next letter, the trash can. They did, I did and the only losers were the kids as our club insurance would not cover me without the NRA certification. Big organizations become Corporations and the rules cannot be waved or altered even if it means losing your mission. I’ve worked for companies that have suffered the same problem as they grew over 100 employees the lawyers take charge and the mission becomes “make money safely” rather than “Serve the customer’s needs”
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Apr 27, 2017 @ 10:07:12
Kudos to you! Too bad the NRA didn’t follow your good example.
Just to summarize, as an NRA-Classified competition shooter (and paying NRA member that also paid match fees remitted to the NRA for each Sanctioned/Approved Tournament you attended) you were volunteering your time to teach marksmanship based on NRA curriculum and using DCM-provided equipment at no expense to the NRA at a range paying for NRA-provided insurance.
Because you didn’t give the NRA more money after volunteering your time and experience to new shooters, they told you to stop helping them and pulled the insurance to make sure you did.
Yeah, that’s a great way to promote and encourage…
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Apr 27, 2017 @ 16:37:45
Just to be clear I am an NRA Endowment Life Member and still support the organization. Just because I support their efforts in Washington does not mean I march in lockstep with everything they do. I’ll be volunteering at the NRA Bianchi Cup in a couple of weeks helping out at the practice range. They still do a lot of positive things but like all big organizations sometimes the right hand doesn’t even know there is a left hand let alone what it is doing.
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Apr 27, 2017 @ 16:57:54
I’m with you there. Same situation with me. I still compete in NRA disciplines and support them. The NRA does a number of good things for gun owners, however, that doesn’t mean they do everything well.
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