Club Information

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Club Membership

If you have decided to join Northern Archers, full membership offers many advantages.

Membership allows you to use any of the Club equipment, including bows, arrows and accessories, at no cost for a period of one month after joining. This is of vital importance in the period leading up to buying your own equipment, which is explained under "Equipment"

Club membership allows senior members, unsupervised, to shoot at any time during the day on the range, as Northern Archers has an exclusive lease of the archery range for 365 days a year (see range times and clubhouse access). We are one of the few clubs in NSW with seven day access. Also Northern facilities must be rated as one of the best in NSW.

Membership of the Club affiliates you with Archery Australia and therefore, enables you to shoot on any of the grounds of other affiliated clubs, after payment of a small visitors fee and naturally within the times and regulations of that particular Club. Also you are eligible to participate in the various tournaments and other events conducted by the Archery Society of NSW or its affiliated clubs.

In addition, Northern Archers has several qualified Coaches and Judges as members and also various State and National level archers. These people are always happy to share their knowledge with you and give you individual tips and advice. For those with a search for knowledge we have an extensive book and video library covering the intricacies of bow tuning, arrow making, style and form and various others.

Further details about Club Membership are available from any Committee Member or other Members present. A list of the current Members of the Committee of Management and Coaches is displayed on the notice board in the clubhouse.

Club fees are due July 1, each year. Fees for those joining later in the year are calculated pro-rata. Further, fees for juniors, full time students, family groups and those of 65+ enjoy reduced rates. You must be financial within twenty-one days of fees falling due to remain an affiliated member.



Range Times and Club House Access

All Senior Members joining will be issued with a container key for a small deposit, which will give you access to the target container for target faces, safety flags and danger sign and the attendance register, which must be signed by all Members and visitors shooting on the range.

The range is available to our Members 7 days a week, during daylight hours. However, the Club House will be officially open on Saturdays and Sundays from 10 am - 4 pm when a Duty Officer is attendance. The Duty Officer will provide access to club equipment and besides general specified duties will be in charge of range safety.

Keys to the Club House are issued to:

*    Members of the Committee of Management
*    Members on the Duty Roster 

The Committee of Management may at their discretion issue club house keys other than to the above, but this is by exception only.

Under the current Rules, no Member with less than one year standing is to be issued with a club house key.

Please remember it is mandatory to sign the attendance register in the Club House each time you visit the range.

During the week, when or if the Club House is closed, an attendance register is located in the target shed for your use.

Safety Flags and signs are located in the club house and the target shed and must be used when any shooting is taking place on the Range. The Council Park Ranger has the authority to request you to leave the Range should you be shooting there without having hoisted the safety flag or displayed the safety sign.



Duty Officer

All members eighteen years and older and holding membership for six months are required to perform the role of Duty Officer at limited times during the year. A duty roster and the specific responsibilities are located on the notice board in the Clubhouse. A weekly highlight board is located beside the sign in attendance register to remind all members of the Duty Officer of the day.



Qualifying At Various Distances

During the Beginners Classes you have qualified at various distances and have been rewarded with the appropriate distance medals. The Rules of our Club requires you to score at least 400 points out of a possible 900 on a large, 122 cm target face, with 90 arrows.

Although the rules allow you to move back 10 metres each time you achieve this, we suggest that you do not increase your shooting distances too quickly, and not necessarily because you have shot the required 400 points only once.

The reason we suggest this is because we have seen so many people qualify at 20 metres, return to the range after a few weeks and immediately start shooting at 30 metres.

This often results in low scores and sometimes arrows missing the target, which in turn causes the Archer to become disappointed and lose heart. It is also potentially dangerous.

Our advice is to consolidate your shooting at 20 metres until you have scored over 500 points several times.

There are various rounds, at varying distances, that you can shoot. There are score sheets in the clubhouse to record your achievements on, but please don’t forget to put your name, date and round shot on the score sheet and put it in the score sheet receptacle left and below the signing-on register. The Club Recorder can then list you on the computer, establish a handicap rating and he will advise you when he feels you are ready to add another 10M to your shooting distances. This handicap rating system is tied to a classification system starting with 3rd class Bowman, 2nd and 1st class, Master Bowman and the ultimate, Grand Master Bowman. Medals can be claimed for these classifications and also shooting an end of 6 gold, at any distance, is rewarded with a medal. These medals can be purchased at a small fee from the Club Recorder. As you can see there is plenty to aim for, if you so wish or on the other hand you can shoot the bow purely for enjoyment.



Committee of Management

Your club is managed by a group of ten volunteers known as the Committee of Management. It consists of one President, one Vice President, one Secretary, one Treasurer, one Recorder and five ordinary committee members. Names and contact details of the COM are displayed in the Clubhouse. If you have any questions concerning the club, please feel free to contact any one of these people.



Safety

The Club has a specific and detailed Safety Policy, which is located in the club house and must be read by all new members and be signed off on in the Safety Register to indicate that you understand and will abide by this policy.

Safety is the responsibility of all archers on the range. If someone acts in an unsafe manner, advise the Duty Officer who has the authority to remove any unsafe archers from the range.

Like with all issues, safety is common sense. However, some specific issues from the policy are worth repeating here.

* If you have to retrieve arrows that have missed and are behind the butt it is imperative that you wait until it is safe to do so, meaning all shooting on the range must stop, before anyone is allowed behind the target butts. Equally if someone indicates he is going behind or you notice trespassers behind the target butts you must stop shooting.

* The safety flags and signs must be displayed, before any shooting is to take place.

* Never change distances without double checking your sight setting for that distance.

* Do not raise your sights above the top of the target butt when drawing the bow.

* Do not shoot on a set of adjacent targets, if the distances being shot varies by more than 30 metres.

* The target butts are spaced sufficiently apart to safely retrieve arrows from the target whilst others are still shooting on adjacent pair of butts. However, when shooting on any of the three butts located on the far most right hand side of the range, all archers shooting on these butts must go forward together when retrieving arrows.

* Never put an arrow in the bow unless it is pointed towards the target

* Bare feet, thongs or open-ended sandals are not permitted on the Range for safety reasons.

* It is advisable to wear a hat and a firm fitting shirt and don’t forget to put on sun protection cream, which the Club provides for the Members.

If you notice people acting in an unsafe manner, you must inform the Duty Officer who has the authority to remove any archer acting in an unsafe manner from the range.

Archery is a safe sport, please help to keep it that way

Good Shooting and above all, Enjoy yourself!