Rubber-handed syndicate members.

RED-DOT

Well-Known Member
I am getting distraught with many of our syndicate members. We had trees down on two pens a week ago and i suggested the work party will be pen damage and repair... two turned up with a bowsaw and one with a pair of pliers... the work is just not coming along and to be honest i blame them totally for a poor season last year but they blame the snow. Poor shooting and lack of vermin control kept the later bags low... I produced a Fenn trap and no one knew how to set it. Any ideas how to sort 'em out?
Alex.
 
give em some creosoting to do had ours do my pen sections one year ,they hated it !they soon buckled down to the other jobs i threaten them with a creosote bucket ,the boss makes them do a day each, one guy travels from cornwall to northampton every2 wks during the shoot season he dont come for the work party but brings fresh pasties each shoot day :lol:
 
Simple cure for this no show's mean no shooting ! They'll soon turn up or charge them double what members pay that do turn up !
 
hi alex show the how to set fenn traps and take them one at a time when you go on your vermin control or have vermin control days no excuses for not turning up and persistent offenders get the worst pegs on shooting days
atb tom
 
two turned up with a bowsaw Alex.

Fairs fair, Alex, at least they were heading in the right direction ;) and not everyone has a chainsaw lying about!

It might be obvious to thee and me, but if your guys are not from a construction or agricultural background you need to tell them that the pen repairs are going to need hammers, staples, nails, fence wire, pliers, snips, tie wire, cable ties, mesh - and that's assuming that the posts and doors are OK. You need to task individuals to bring specific items or organise them yourself.

It is just as frustrating as a syndicate member to give up time at the weekend then achieve very little because of lack of planning, preparation, and communication.
 
the syndicate i am in has chainsaw, bowsaws, hammers staples etc in our cabin, we found it was a simpler exercise to buy the tools out of available funds keep them on site. Then all the members have to do is turn up at work parties.
However nobody has yet found a way to get some of them to actually use a spade, rake or whatever they have in hand for anything other than leaning on.:mad::mad::mad:
CW was right when he said depends on your work background!!
Sinbad.
 
Been there, suffered it and now resolved. Our shoot fees are $700/season plus $150 deposit refundable after 3 days work party, payed back pro-rata on attendance leftover in to the kitty:D.


Hammy
 
RD, After several years of running a DIY shoot it all comes down to one thing - organisation by whoever is running the shoot. That person must determine what needs done and how it is going to be done, they must then instruct the members (more leading by the hand) on what they should bring. Not everybody has a chainsaw but most have hammers, loppers, saws, spades and can be told to bring wood, staples,nails, cable ties etc Chasing up your members prior to a work day is unfortunately also your task - that's if you want a successful work party.
Organising a clay trap for after the work is done is sometimes a good incentive.

Running a syndicate shoot is a huge task - having a couple of trusted members who can be relied upon to share your burden is a great help.
 
Tommy Walsh was around somewhere's, along with the Ikea people,:D, seriously though, work parties in some parts of the world are PROPERLY attended, there were upwards of 40 bodies in total, in several locations, we just lent a hand for an hour before travelling home, our real accommodation had suffered from the recent dry weather, & water for flushing & the like was all dried up, less than pleasant temperatures in the sleeping areas were withstood stoically. Excerpt from a previous post.
 
Red,

get them together as a group and put your cards on the table, even a DUMMY should know how to use

basic hand tools. If all else fails maybe a HARD BOOT UP THE ARSE, will get them to pull there weight.!!

Rgds, Buck
 
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Get a meeting organised tell them all this is your shoot, if you want to produce good bags they will have to produce good work, your lucky that they turned up at all ,been there done all the crap myself ,produced them 10 days shooting with 6 of them over 100 bird days which they had "never" had since the shoot started .

Theres doers and sayers, what the shoot done was those that didn't turn up for work days lost a days shooting, which was delegated on the day of the shoot, surprise, surprise( went down like a lead brick ,or they simply payed a extra £100.00 shoot fees again lead brick scenario .

But both methods worked they all turned up, those that thought that manual labour was a Spaniard were put with members that new what the script was tasks were delegated and completed without any problems ,members were told the night before a work day to call each other to save cash on phone bills and stamps if they couldn't turn up all the information was collated and sent out to everyone so they new that on a shoot day within the season they were going to turn up and beat all day .

Retribution for laziness.
 
Easy way is to get shut of them there are plenty of guys on here who will give there right arm just to have a part in a shoot and be prepared to put there backs into it.:stir:
 
Good luck mate I hope it works out. I packed in bothering with syndicates a few years ago as we have the oposite problem here, every one is a bloody expert and you end up spending more time arguing about the best way to do something in stead of just getting it done. I did find that keeping a Vermin record book helped though and the lads did get quite competetive about the amount of stuff they killed/caught. A mate of my brother rang me last season to ask me to go and look at his trap line as it wasnt catching. He had made lovely boxes for his Fen traps and had them sited in good spots, unfortunatley he had made his boxes about 3/4" to narrow for the trap to spring.

Good luck, Ezzy
 
It seems i am not alone..... yesterday was a work party day and very few turned up and half of them achieved nowt. I was cutting rides and a fit lad was behind me texting his cybergirl while i was snowed under with cut branches....
 
Not a good advert for your last two gun places that you were pushing. Time to have a syndicate get together and a few things ironed out. No doubt all your members will turn out on shoot days and if the shooting is not as good as it could be due to the lack of preparation through work days they will blame everything but themselves.
 
I had the same problem with the syndicate that I 'keeper for. Hardly any syndicate members showed up on work days, and those that did were no more use than a chocolate fireguard.
In the end I started getting my beaters to help, in return giving them pigeon and rabbit shooting, and a walk up day at the end of the season.
They were excellent on work days, and very grateful for the shooting in return.
 
Syndicate

Many shoots have a system of fines, say £25, for shoot members that don't turn up for each work day. Obviously people will have legitimate reasons for staying away on occasion, but the fines should be agreed as a condition of joining/staying on the shoot and should be enforced.
 
Not a great situation to be in.. I think a good team of guns is the way forwards and for those who cant make work parties (after plenty of opportunities) then you make them pay. A way to get round this situation in the first place is to say that in order to join the syndicate you must do your allotted work days before the season. If theyre serious then they will be there.

Regarding their ability, well less and less people are practically minded or so it seems. Your job as a shoot captain should be to tell people what needs doing, co-ordinate materials and tools before hand and then demonstrate to them if needs be.. Most people after the above will be able to get on with most jobs around.

I find organising people, materials and time a pretty hard task. Im lucky that theres a good mix of blokes in the syndicate who always seem willing to help.

Also, get the work done early, before cover gets up and crops (if applicable) dont allow you to get near the pens. I send round robin emails to keep guns informed about the shoot and what needs doing. By doing this and listing how many work days people have (or havent) done tends to 'name and shame' people into getting stuck in.
 
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