Home Office requirements for shooting clubs

[The Gun Pimp]

Did we speak on the phone? If so, sorry for the repeat.

We use a system called EZ, its not cheap (£200 a month) but its an all encompassing software package designed for gyms (we are the first in Europe to use it for a gun range but its more common in the USA) and covers everything from membership to invoicing. We record all FAC details and membership (with photo) is recorded onto a barcode id card which members have to show each visit.

After each visit each member completes a round count which records how many of each calibre fired and what lane they fired it on, thats then recorded onto the members record, when the cops ask we download a spreadsheet for each member which shows what days they attended, how many rounds of each calibre they fired and on what days, which can be compressed into a simple total per member over a given period.

Electronic copies of the membership details are kept hard copy in a safe and in the cloud via encrypted software, we even only use laptops at the range office (which are kept in the safe in the main building) so that there are no PC's to nick.

Its expensive for a small club but record keeping is going to get tougher and tougher so gun ranges/clubs need to be mindful I feel.

Hi John - I think our Chairman spoke to you last week about your system.

You appear to be the only club using this type of software - although yours is probably more comprehensive than we need. If possible, we wanted to avoid going it alone with a brand-new system if there was already one in use.

Cheers
Vince

[The Gun Pimp]

Thanks to all who responded.

The suggestion by 'the running man' is feasible for a small club but, with around 100 visits over a weekend, the inputting of all that data from small cards would be a couple of hours work for someone - and, like most clubs run by volunteers, we don't have any spare 'someones'!

[the running man]

Thanks to all who responded.

The suggestion by 'the running man' is feasible for a small club but, with around 100 visits over a weekend, the inputting of all that data from small cards would be a couple of hours work for someone - and, like most clubs run by volunteers, we don't have any spare 'someones'!

Yeah we dont get that many, probably around 70-90 per week it is logged on an excel weekly by 2 alternating volunteers, its good because nobody can access the shooters details or vandalise them, as said the visit is logged that's it the card is then stored in the members plastic wallet and all is accessible, we did look at some expensive products but it was all prone to people wrecking it or it not working suddenly and a volunteer having to attend which would be a pain, at the moment we record what we are required to and its secure.

Another club local to us has top top it boys in its midst and they have a ipad on the wall connected to a hard drive, the memBer record's their firearm and date etc, all goes onto a database, all pretty good but with 230 odd members someone has to edit the members details everytime there is a variation, that seems to outweigh the point...

We pondered this for years and our current system suits us for now...

[Mattnall]

Thanks to all who responded.

The suggestion by 'the running man' is feasible for a small club but, with around 100 visits over a weekend, the inputting of all that data from small cards would be a couple of hours work for someone - and, like most clubs run by volunteers, we don't have any spare 'someones'!

If the amount of visits is too much for one person to input get a small laptop or pad and get each visitor to maintain their own records. A simple database of users and their firearms with logins and done.

It's similar to what the NRA use.

You'll need to find a teenager to code it all but they work for iTunes vouchers.

[Blackstuff]

I might be missing the obvious here but does the legislation state that you/the club have to be able to retrieve all of a individual members details and provide it to the police?? I thought it stated that you had to record members details and make them available to the police.

i.e. If they want the information, they'll have to send someone over to plod (pun intended) through your files!

[The Gun Pimp]

I might be missing the obvious here but does the legislation state that you/the club have to be able to retrieve all of a individual members details and provide it to the police?? I thought it stated that you had to record members details and make them available to the police.

i.e. If they want the information, they'll have to send someone over to plod (pun intended) through your files!

The Home Office legislation merely requires the club to maintain a record of visits/calibres/serial numbers - however, the purpose of that is fairly obvious and we get frequent requests for this information - usually when a member has a variation application in.

Yes, we could use (have used) the "records are available - come and look yourself" but, often, the applicant is asked to supply the information - so he then has to look through the records.

We have now gone for a touch-screen/swipe-card signing-in system which is the same basic technology used in many schools. It can also deal with visitors/competitions etc. Yes, like all computer-based technology, I'm sure it will fail occasionally but the paper version is always available as a back-up when this happens. We already have a member ID card which is embedded with a unique number so that makes it a bit simpler.