AGB Membership

Whitehart

Well-known member
I like many archers have not really picked up a bow for many months, my plan was to use all the spare time not competing over the past 18 months to sort out all those shooting issues, get even fitter and watch my scores go up, this was working great until the end of June last year, then I lost all enthusiasm due to the lack of competitions to prove that I was progressing so I decided to take a break and quite literally I am now back to square one.

So far the weather for 2021 has been poor to say the least, its been cold, time is at a premium at the moment and the likelihood of getting enough practice in to make shooting national competitions worthwhile is diminishing day by day. I thought I would use the rest of the year with the promise of good weather from this weekend to enter a few local shoots - but wait my membership has lapsed, the offer of annualised membership for direct members was as quickly removed as it was offered, so I am now faced with paying £55.00 for 4 months of shooting and AGB wonder why people are not re-joining. After the annualised membership offer debacle it is a bit of a case of principle not re joining - petty I know but, I could join a club and get pro rata club fees and AGB fees, but not as a direct member who has no need to join a club. I think I will give it a miss this year and start again in October after all I don't need to be a member of AGB to practice on my own privately insured ground.
 

Kerf

Supporter
Supporter
AIUK Saviour
Page 36 of the Yearbook is the place to find this - https://www.archerygb.org/archery-gb-launches-yearbook-2019-2020/ - £2.18 per member goes on insurance.
Now, bearing in mind that I am crap at maths, allowing that the average fee (not including the comparatively small number of direct members) is £47, the £1.3m in subs equates to a membership of 27,650. This is at odds to the year book which claims AGB has 36,979 members (a 9% decrease on the previous year).
Taking the first membership figure, the insurance cost is around £60,300 per annum. Taking AGB’s membership figure, the insurance cost rises to £80,614.
It would make matters clearer if AGB published the actual cost of the insurance premium. I presume it shops around for cover because with that kind of level of premium you’d think insurance companies would be falling over themselves to get the business.
 

Kernowlad

Supporter
Supporter
@Whitehart - sort of similar here although I (and my son) have rejoined both NFAS and my club but the fees are so low, I actually wouldn't mind if we don't make any use of it. We have a few tournaments we could go to but I just want to get back into it at our range which is currently closed due to rail/forestry contractors. Add a long term injury niggle to my right shoulder/back and our bows are gathering dust. Our shooting interest is being kept high with an air rifle we bought last November. Much less faff and no worries about the shoulder. I keep flitting between thinking about selling it all (my son's interest has also dipped but probably because of mine), trying an "easier" bow or just hanging onto it all until we can shoot in the woods. I'm fairly sure that my reasonable competence has probably all but gone so a tournament just doesn't appeal (they're all a long drive away too) - a whole day (and four hours driving) spent shooting badly or having my shoulder spoil it all just isn't doing it for me. A shame as we've really enjoyed the ones we've done.
It's also a shame as everything else is fine with the shoulder - I swam 1.1 miles in the sea yesterday, been surfing lot, doing yoga, weights, etc but when I did a bit of bow training it caused me quite a lot of aggro. It's the only thing I am struggling with but to risk the other sports for something that's an occasional hobby is currently not appealing. I feel bad about all the unused kit and I'm missing it but hey ho, people have far worse issues.
 

malbro

Instinctive Archer
Supporter
AIUK Saviour
Now, bearing in mind that I am crap at maths, allowing that the average fee (not including the comparatively small number of direct members) is £47, the £1.3m in subs equates to a membership of 27,650. This is at odds to the year book which claims AGB has 36,979 members (a 9% decrease on the previous year).
Membership services are £812,024 see page 35, on page 36 we have a breakdown of membership costs and a figure of £19.29 (or is it £19.49 shown in the text) per member, so AGB have 812,024/19.29 = 42,095.59 members. So where are these extra 5,000 members assuming the quoted membership of 36,979, alternatively using the quoted membership of 36,979 members each costing £19.29 means a membership services cost of only £713,324 thus there is a shortfall of £100,000 in accounting for the Membership services.
 

bimble

Well-known member
Supporter
Fonz Awardee
Ironman
AIUK Saviour
Kerf, my guess is juniors are a sizeable chunk of membership, they pay less?
Plus I believe that university students still have a block membership (ie - they pay a set amount for all their members, however many members they have)
 

Eugen

Member
Membership services are £812,024 see page 35, on page 36 we have a breakdown of membership costs and a figure of £19.29 (or is it £19.49 shown in the text) per member, so AGB have 812,024/19.29 = 42,095.59 members. So where are these extra 5,000 members assuming the quoted membership of 36,979, alternatively using the quoted membership of 36,979 members each costing £19.29 means a membership services cost of only £713,324 thus there is a shortfall of £100,000 in accounting for the Membership services.
I think the key is in ‘membership’. is This a person, or club, or etc.
membership services , I believe, it is not ‘insurance’ only.
without understanding the structure of pricing it is difficult....
 

chrisgas

Supporter
Supporter
@Whitehart - sort of similar here although I (and my son) have rejoined both NFAS and my club but the fees are so low, I actually wouldn't mind if we don't make any use of it. We have a few tournaments we could go to but I just want to get back into it at our range which is currently closed due to rail/forestry contractors. Add a long term injury niggle to my right shoulder/back and our bows are gathering dust. Our shooting interest is being kept high with an air rifle we bought last November. Much less faff and no worries about the shoulder. I keep flitting between thinking about selling it all (my son's interest has also dipped but probably because of mine), trying an "easier" bow or just hanging onto it all until we can shoot in the woods. I'm fairly sure that my reasonable competence has probably all but gone so a tournament just doesn't appeal (they're all a long drive away too) - a whole day (and four hours driving) spent shooting badly or having my shoulder spoil it all just isn't doing it for me. A shame as we've really enjoyed the ones we've done.
It's also a shame as everything else is fine with the shoulder - I swam 1.1 miles in the sea yesterday, been surfing lot, doing yoga, weights, etc but when I did a bit of bow training it caused me quite a lot of aggro. It's the only thing I am struggling with but to risk the other sports for something that's an occasional hobby is currently not appealing. I feel bad about all the unused kit and I'm missing it but hey ho, people have far worse issues.
Is the problem with the shoulder with all types of bow? If I remember in one of your posts you are pulling in excess of 50 lbs. Have you tried something lighter and perhaps not holding at full draw for more than a few seconds. Is Gordon Moynahan and Dartmoor Archery anywhere near you guys, because I think that guy would be an interesting person to talk too.
 

dvd8n

Supporter
Supporter
AIUK Saviour
Is the problem with the shoulder with all types of bow? If I remember in one of your posts you are pulling in excess of 50 lbs. Have you tried something lighter and perhaps not holding at full draw for more than a few seconds. Is Gordon Moynahan and Dartmoor Archery anywhere near you guys, because I think that guy would be an interesting person to talk too.
I've got to the point where I have a 20lb 'rehab' bow set up all the time now. I started with just a set of light limbs but having to retune all the time was putting me off so I just bit the bullet and bought the bits to set up a whole second bow. It didn't even cost a lot as I had a lot of the bits in my spares box.

It works fine on the field course. I even shot with it at the Oban Scottish Open last time. I did really badly, admittedly, but at least I was there having fun.

I'm a big advocate for having a light bow to shoot when you're not feeling 100%.
 
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Kernowlad

Supporter
Supporter
Is the problem with the shoulder with all types of bow? If I remember in one of your posts you are pulling in excess of 50 lbs. Have you tried something lighter and perhaps not holding at full draw for more than a few seconds. Is Gordon Moynahan and Dartmoor Archery anywhere near you guys, because I think that guy would be an interesting person to talk too.
I haven’t but I think that would be a good idea. I’m quite interested in a basic AFB.
 

malbro

Instinctive Archer
Supporter
AIUK Saviour
Is Gordon Moynahan and Dartmoor Archery anywhere near you guys, because I think that guy would be an interesting person to talk too.
I can recomend Gordon, a great instinctive archer who is adept with a wide range of bows, I have known him for around two years and visit his range regularly to get coaching from him.
 
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