Membership is capped at 450 active member families. (But we also have life members - like me, senior members, youth members, and student members which brings it up to roughly 700 actual MEMBERS, 450 of which are whole families which adds even more to the total).

Last year, we had only I think it was 40 openings (people who didn't renew their memberships, passed away, aged up to Seniors, or whatever) and we had almost 150 applications... On New Years Day, all those applications go into a big tumbler and we draw for new members and alternates.

The problems is getting them to show up for MEETINGS where they can be involved in club decisions, find out about events, get to know other members, etc. On average, we only have maybe 30 people show up each month... and that's ridiculous. Historically, we've kept dues down because of volunteers who do a lot of club maintenance free of charge but we aren't getting any younger & we can't seem to get the younger members to show any interest. They only come out so they can shoot....

It's sad.

But... YES, I'm heading to the mountains for the 4th! I can't wait. I'm nervous about the drive by myself but it'll be fine. And I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone. Well almost everyone. I'm worried about offending my "new" nephew and calling him by his "deadname"... AWKWARD!!!!! I think I'll just apologize in advance because I know it's gonna happen and hope that covers me....

Have a good weekend, Becky. T and Meg are heading your general direction after work. Somewhere NW of South Bend IN from what I understand. Meg's grandfather lives there and hasn't been doing well.