SSAA NSW

4 Sporting Shooters Association of Australia (NSW) Inc. From Diana's Desk Another busy year full of challenges, achievements and opportunities… There are many benefits to being the largest and most diverse shooting body in New South Wales. With a membership in excess of 55,000 and being the only shooting body in New South Wales that offers members the opportunity to participate in almost all of the many and varied activities including target shooting, recreational hunting and collecting, SSAA NSW is continuously working to deliver benefits for our members. Membership… Membership continues to grow by a steady 5.5%. Interestingly, there's been a shift in the age demographic of our members. There's been a long held belief that our membership is aging, but in fact it's getting younger. Figures show that over 50% of our members are aged between 31 to 50, with 20% of total membership being 41 to 50 years old. Juniors… Our first junior target shooting camp, held at Silverdale Range in January, was a success which saw 21 juniors participate in field rifle, shotgun, benchrest and metallic silhouette. Next year we're off to Batemans Bay in January and the camp is already fully booked, with quite a few juniors asking if we'll be holding a second camp. Something we're currently exploring for later in 2017. We often hear the comment "juniors are the future of our sport". Over the years SSAA NSW has introduced a number of initiatives and opportunities to encourage and assist junior participation. These include subsidies for juniors to assist with the expense of attending State Titles and National Championships, financial assistance to Branches for their Junior Development Programs, the establishment of a Junior Discipline and the introduction of camps and postal competitions. In order to find out just what junior shooters want, SSAA NSW recently sent a survey to all our junior members. The results were very interesting: • Over 80% indicated they were involved in target shooting and two-thirds in hunting. • Nearly 90% became involved in shooting because of a family member, 96% have family members who are also shooters and for a fair majority, 90%, dad is a shooter. • 95% want assistance to improve their accuracy, 80% want to learn about maintenance and cleaning, and 75% want to know more about sighting in a firearm. • Benchrest, shotgun, pistol, lever action and metallic silhouette were the top 5 preferred disciplines. • There is strong interest in camps for both target shooting (90%) and hunting (85%). • Identifying target animals, stalking, map reading & GPS, shot placement and skinning & butchering were the top 5 topics juniors would like to learn more about. We'll now use these results to further refine and adapt our junior activities into the future. Thank you to all our junior members, and parents who participated in the survey. Congratulations to Andrew Papandrew and Brent Pradhan, the lucky winners of a place at the Junior Camp in January; and to Shaun James and Vincent Ingram, the lucky parents who have won their SSAA membership paid for a year. Affiliate Clubs… There's been a considerable interest in affiliation with SSAA NSW over the past 12 months. Clubs are attracted by the numerous benefits offered including extensive insurance coverage which includes visitors, access to subsidies, cheaper fees for their members, access to a variety of shooting disciplines and a strong representative voice for all shooting sports and recreational hunting; all provided without any affiliation fees payable by clubs. Feedback also indicates the flexibility and freedom afforded to clubs to manage their own affairs and ranges, as well as SSAA NSW's culture of inclusivity and its grass roots focus are strong attractions. Ranges… Access to ranges continues to be a high priority for SSAA NSW. We've learnt, establishing new range facilities takes time and requires the assistance of professionals for major projects. We've been working with town planners and are pleased that lodgement of the Development Application for our shooting complex in Dubbo is imminent, and all going well we're hoping to start work early next year. Part of our long term strategy to future proof ranges also includes the upgrading of existing ranges. Over the years SSAA NSW has provided funds to assist Branches with major range development works. We assisted Wagga Wagga Branch with the upgrade of their range to a limited danger range and Gunnedah Branch who are upgrading their range access road. SSAA NSW also provides annual funding through our Development Grants to Branches and Affiliate Clubs for range development work. Funding has been provided for installation of solar power, upgrading of stop butts, installation of eyebrow and ground baffles, range upgrade for metallic silhouette, purchase of portable toilets and 44% Printed version only

• Cover