An established club might have members who don't shoot much any more but who turn up for the social aspect and help with the running of the club. Possibly they could help with increasing the variety of events on a club night? We have various games we play such as speed rounds with 3D targets. If you don't have people like this then nurturing younger archers becomes a chore that prevents you from developing your own archery in the precious time you can spare away from home and work.
That may be harsh but even though it can be fun, it negates the entire purpose of taking up archery in the first place.
That sounds like a great idea.
We started off dead keen (me and my 10 year old son), we got some great coaching, we attended fairly regularly. We spent a fortune on kit but that was okay. Then we shot an all day round and my son (8 at the time) was put in the wrong category - poor thing had to shoot 144 arrows mostly at targets he could barely reach. Meanwhile an older girl was happily pinging away at 20 yard targets. It was so tiresome, I found it mind numbing and my son was actually in tears partly because two ends weren't even scored because of someone else's mistake with order of shooting.
This dipped our enthusiasm a fair bit and it was also clear that while new kids (some of my son's friends - we drummed up a fair few) were encouraged on one day a year, they weren't contacted again. There then followed a thoroughly depressing AGM where someone that utterly hates anything but longbows became the head of training and a person that really doesn't like kids became the "safeguarding/kids" person. And my comment about there being no kids was more or less rebuffed with "we tried, we gave up."
So my son shot pretty much on his own - winning the odd thing but mainly because he was the only one in his category.
Meanwhile our enthusiasm waned more but we were given key access to the (rather lovely) range. But a spare three hours is hard to come by; the Winter indoor season came and went (both club nights clashed with Coastguard training and drama for my son) and then I shot a Frostbite. Came first by a fair margin, was chuffed to bits but I clearly put several noses out of joint, no one said well done, no one ever suggested we shoot for the club, no badges, nothing. Meanwhile another club asked us to shoot for them and we had got into Field archery; a long trek away but we enjoyed it.
So that was the last straw - it was clear it was so cliquey (a big fuss was made if the regulars got almost any score) that we were just an irritation and it contrasted heavily to the field club that was very encouraging, very kid friendly and simply much more fun. Hence shooting for them next week and whenever we can.
So despite really really trying, the AGB format just hasn't worked for us while the NFAS one is much much cheaper and far more interesting.
However it's dressed up, spending hours pinging arrows at the same static targets just isn't what many people want to do - mix it up, make it more interesting, encourage, welcome people, make them feel wanted; ditch the stuffy old cliques, don't just immerse yourself in your own scores and your closest mates latest string issue, stick to short rounds, be creative, don't be painfully pedantic.
This is why numbers are falling and if any of the above sounds a little too familiar, it's time to have a re-think.
Ben - it's quiet, very quiet. I'm clearly not the only one who thinks so.