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The NMLRA is very out-front and honest that membership is declining; I recall a few years ago their magazine (Muzzle Blasts) had circulation of about 15K, now, it's down to about 11K. Some of this may be due to the thought that youngsters don't seem to have hobbies anymore, other that staring at a gaming screen! Anyway, the normal membership with the magazine is $50/yr., but for 2023 they have a 3-Year Membership for $100 flat-out, a nice savings for annual members like me. The NMLRA is an important part of the Muzzleloading hobby, weather or not you're a member! I always enjoy the monthly magazine and have gotten many good tips therein.
 
Lots of peoples experiences here are the reason I’ve not joined the NMLRA. Most folks don’t have anything good to say about it.
 
Covid and no shoot years hurt them by almost 2,000 members alone. We are aging, face it. Some simple ways to help them and I am doing it this year is to give some of their merchandise as prizes. I can say a lot as I run a charter club, probably not as much as most of you, but their do have nice coffee mugs, travel mugs etc as prizes for our monthly shoots. Is this going to turn things around and offset the aging and other issues? Nope I am not so gullible, yet. But nice, simple prizes at our shoots keep em coming back for the health of my club. I will be looking at the 3 year deal soon.
 
Here's some thoughts. I dropped my membership because all you get is a magazine for $50 per year. Ridiculous. There are no shoots in my area so the rest of the "benefits" are irrelevant. In my opinion if you engage in the competitive shoots, you ought to pay the full cost and the annual membership drop down to $25-30 per year. I live around Orlando and I've gone over to Tampa (Alafia) to a couple of shoots. I would have no problem paying more at the shoots to cover costs.
In the business world you are supposed to price your products until marginal revenue and costs balance out- to maximize the dollars, not necessarily profit margin. This seems to continually escape the minds of the leadership. What I am saying is if membership increased by dropping the annual to $25-$30 the total dollars coming in ought to go up.
I was in the magazine business a million years ago. The bulk of the money is advertising. You could give the magazines away for free as long as you were selling a lot of ads. The subscription price was often a matter of "prestige pricing", if it was free no one would value it. In any event the annual membership is too high.
 
If you don't like the cost, the magazine is available in digital format and the membership price reflects that. Why insist on dead tree format when you can download it and print out only what you are interested in?

As for dropping membership, I'm sure Covid had some effect but I'd also like to examine the demographics of the membership. If the bulk of the membership is over 65, then the mortality rate will be high and new membership will have to be at least keeping pace with that just to break even. That is just one more reason to REACH OUT TO YOUNG PEOPLE!!!!! We have a similar demographic problem in the N-SSA and hopefully our BoD is cognizant of that fact but at times I don't think some of them can find their backsides with either hand.
 
If you don't like the cost, the magazine is available in digital format and the membership price reflects that. Why insist on dead tree format when you can download it and print out only what you are interested in?

As for dropping membership, I'm sure Covid had some effect but I'd also like to examine the demographics of the membership. If the bulk of the membership is over 65, then the mortality rate will be high and new membership will have to be at least keeping pace with that just to break even. That is just one more reason to REACH OUT TO YOUNG PEOPLE!!!!! We have a similar demographic problem in the N-SSA and hopefully our BoD is cognizant of that fact but at times I don't think some of them can find their backsides with either hand.
My understanding the average age is close to 75. What does the NRA get us besides a magazine? A free hat for renewing?
 
Ah, it is fun to bash the NMLRA, but not the NRA for some reason.

The OP posted about the price reduction for 3 years and now it has turned into "lets bash the NMLRA", it only took 14 posts to get there this time..
 
I'm not bashing either. I have my own beef with the NRA, but none with the NMLRA. I see membership in both as a method to strengthen the shooting communities regardless of receiving a publication.
 
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