Well I waited this one out to let everyone have their say, (plus I was enjoying the weekend camping)and now I thought I’d pipe in as I am the topic of conversation:
Firstly, I’d like to thank the majority of the posters for remaining civil in this tread. I can take criticism as it can usually lead to positive changes. If anyone has anything constructive to add, or suggestions to improve Target Sports, I’d really like to hear it.
Unfortunately, the problem is that everyone wants a private personal range with the minimum of members… at a reasonable cost. This is why most clubs are not taking memberships. But building new facilities are hugely expensive and any new facilities being proposed now fall under incredibly daunting new rules and OH&S guidelines. Old existing clubs that are not-for-profit are to the large extent, grandfathered or flying under the radar. My OH&S bill in Ontario is over $100k per year alone.
1) Target Sports is definitely a member focused range: We totally renovated the bays 3 years ago and added almost a third more lanes. We have members only times on weekend mornings and that gives them full run of the house. We also divided up the membership into full and associate to give people a choice on both their “spend” and range use. Weekends are a premium time and the full members should get that time. We also try to clearly communicate any closures in advance and limit the number of agency / school bookings. We also NEVER take agency bookings on weekends.
2) The ventilation is not “crap”: It’s not perfect, but we have the employees tested monthly or quarterly, the general air going and the exhaust annually, the air in the classrooms and retail are also tested and we have pressure gauges on the filter banks. We also have to do surface testing. As we know it’s not perfect, we have hired yet another HVAC engineer to see what to do. There is lots of air coming and going, but it’s not “flowing” properly. But in the end, we know it’s safe. We also know the classrooms, retail and prep areas are also safe.
3) Members cannot let unlicensed guests shoot unattended. If you see this; point it out to one of the range officers as we’ll sort that out ASAP. We try to run a very safe and functional facility. That being said; if you don’t tell us, but come on here to complain; we cannot help. For those here that do tell us, I hope we sorted things to your satisfaction. I have noted that a couple posters here have indicated we did not... I'll be bringing this up as that is just poor management. Also, keep in mind, we do try to be discrete when we speak with people, so you may not know that we have dealt with things as well.
4) Damages in the facility: They are not caused very much by the walk-ins. They are caused by full members. The same members that have PALS, a CLSC and profess to be the “safest” shooters out there. We do try to police members. However, there is a line when the ROs become range Nazis and in some ways that is actually worse than missing a few infractions. What was interesting is that the moment we stopped allowing licensed people to just show up and shoot, our range repair costs dropped 50%... YUP 50%
5) Costs: Yes, it is expensive (relatively) to have a membership at Target. But once you are a member; that is all you have to spend. You also have no volunteer hours and are perfectly in your right to bug us if something is not working. Lanes should be up! Lights should be working, etc… This is not a club where there is only a groundskeeper on staff and everything else is done volunteer. It costs a small fortune just to staff the place, handle memberships, scrub the place down, etc. I’ve seen the posts promoting TIRPC and it looks nice. During the summer it will probably be a great place to shoot. If I lived in Ontario, I’d probably get a membership, especially as I love skeet and sporting clays. But it’s not the same to compare my costs with them, when I heat (and cool in summer) 24 lanes; 365 days a year. I hope they do well and would be happy to promote them… the more clubs the better!
Costs to run a commercial facility are huge. If it was this fabled "license to print money", there would be a lot more ranges popping up. There is also a ton of ongoing issues that continuously cause heart ache and head aches. This industry is not for the weak of heart or thin skinned. ;-)
I also want to address the issue with the familiarization walk-in crowd:
These programs are essential to growing our sport. As annoying as you may find them. If we do not expose large numbers of Canadians to our safe and accessible sport, we will lose it. We have to dispel the image of the “angry old white guy”, “the gang-banger” and the “mall cop, swat team wanna-be”as the typical target shooters. The only way to do that is for them to come in, be surrounded by a variety of people from all walks of life, safely enjoying their sport.
There is also a direct correlation between the numbers of people trying to shoot in commercial ranges and the increase in people taking their PAL courses.
If we don’t accept this inconvenience, we’ll stay an elitist closed off sport; ripe for the picking by the libs.
I’m proud to say that over the past 19 years I have run ranges in Canada, we have exposed almost 500,000 new shooters to the sport (yes… half a million). Except for Ken at Wild West; I do not think anyone can say they have done as much as us to promote the shooting sports as us.
And finally;
The Swiss Arms thing is a very complicated issue in itself and I’ve long since apologized for my part in inadvertently walking into a RCMP trap. We all make mistakes. But to say that because of this, I should somehow be vilified for every other thing I did and continue to do for the shooting sports is unfair. I have put a lot of my money, time and energies into many shooting disciplines and government lobbying as well. These efforts far pre-date the entire Swiss Arms saga. Unlike 99.9% of posters on CGN, I am an easy target. If you really have a problem with me, call me. I am not that hard to find.
But in the end…
Is Target Sports perfect… hell no!
Can we do things better?.... hell yes!
But challenges bring rewards and after 19 years, I still look forward to "work" everyday. Not a lot of people can say that. Please keep the suggestions coming and I’ll keep working with the team to make it better. If I missed someone's point on here, I'm sorry, but I'm trying not to write a novel. We will be dissecting this thread tomorrow though and we have a full staff meeting scheduled next weekend to work through these and other points.
My direct email is jr@theedgegroup.ca
Cheers and enjoy the rest of the weekend!
JR
