How many have left BASC?

Left BASC?

  • Still with BASC and staying there

    Votes: 53 25.6%
  • Left BASC

    Votes: 91 44.0%
  • Was never with BASC

    Votes: 11 5.3%
  • Going to leave BASC or seriously considering

    Votes: 52 25.1%

  • Total voters
    207
They're useless, it's amazing they still have any supporters. Just a boys club, nothing to do with supporting shooting.

Just remember that half of their income goes out to their employees and not supporting shooting. Bill Harriman is never off the TV and was completely non-plussed when I challenged him at the Game Fair. I surmise he was expecting adulation when all he got was some direct questions. The SE Regional rep then intervened, promised to set up a meeting with her and the parliamentary lobbyist. Still waiting by the way. BASC "Long on Promises - Short on Results".
 
What do they do that's so bad? I'm with them; have been for years. There stalking schemes are good, as are the members offers on vehicles.

I realise that one or two of them has not hit the right tone with social media and give the impression BASC are in effect maintaining their lifestyle. I say impression, as I don't think they are.

Maybe the governance structure isn't to many people's liking. Quite frankly, I couldn't care less if it is run by people who like to dress up as unicorns.


Maybe you need a closer look - never wise to ask those who find BASC useless, like me. I've done my research over many years.
 
The thing is that SACS doesn't purport to "big itself up" by claims to be "an authoritative voice for shooting"! Nor do one sided "deals" to been accept GP and "welcome" medical input in exchange for a ten year FAC/SGC that was then never delivered whilst GP medical input has now been used by some forces to demand that which was never the original remit of it.

Yet this same BASC then won't pro-actively spend the huge cash reserves it has to challenge this by any judicial review process. So we shooters look and see how Natural England basically capitulated to the mere threat of a judicial review by Wild Justice yet BASC didn't even make that gesture let alone actually carry it out.

BASC has become a cracked bell. It may make a lot of noise but it's an empty noise that doesn't effectively ring.


Totally agree with u Enfield. Not defending basc but just the choice to go to sacs seems a bit hypocritical to me, esp when other decent orgs u could join for same money.

To be honest half the problem is they don't seem to be making ANY noise most of the time

Do sacs even have a bell??
Probably just his mum's front door bell.
 
I left BASC last year which meant I had to give up wildfowling as BASC have clauses which state that all clubs with crown foreshore leases have to be affiliated to basc. I negotiated lease renewals for our club only to find out basc was stitching us up., going behind our backs to make agreements with NE and NRW. I refused to have basc present and carried on the negotiations myself and had most of the restrictions agreed by basc removed or improved.
I refuse to give my hard earned money to an organisation which lies.
 
Yes this is true so why would you want to be in a shooting organization that has No Voice.

Well I'm in SACS as a compulsory syndicate thing, for insurance purposes. But that apart, I'm not. I disagree BASC has "No Voice". It does, it just doesn't use it. At least not well. Used to be a member, but not now.
 
If you assume BASC has 140 employees, BASC wont get much change from £5.0 Million for staff running costs alone - whats that at current subs rates 70,000 members ?
Total income must be of the order of £10 Million and according to last account comments they are stacking money away.

Naturally I dont have a set of accounts so I could be way off.

For BASC to get the jitters, assuming it has 140 K members, it would need to see a slide in old and new memberships of 3% per annum plus. Otherwise, it can suggest all is well and stand on the quarter deck at attention, as the lower decks sink below the water level.
 
I don't think, in the short term, that BASC's membership will shrink to any extent that gives them cause for anxiety (or change). Most shooters do not concern themselves with shooting politics. We, on the Stalking Directory, are probably at the politically outspoken end of the continuum.

That's why I do wonder whether we should in fact be engaging more rather than less with BASC. Surely, that organisation belongs to us; not to the ineffectual and to the comfortable?
 
I don't think, in the short term, that BASC's membership will shrink to any extent that gives them cause for anxiety (or change). Most shooters do not concern themselves with shooting politics. We, on the Stalking Directory, are probably at the politically outspoken end of the continuum.

That's why I do wonder whether we should in fact be engaging more rather than less with BASC. Surely, that organisation belongs to us; not to the ineffectual and to the comfortable?

I think Carl makes some good points. But! I don't understand how anyone that is not a member, can complain about the BASC? It doesn't make sense. Especially those that say they left years ago. How many of the disaffected members actually vote (or voted) in elections or take (took) any active part in the BASC? (not many from what I understand)
Surely if you are unhappy with the way it is managed you have two choices. Leave, so it doesn't have anything to do with you anymore or take an active part in your organisation and try to achieve change from within. My choice would certainly be the second one.
 
I think Carl makes some good points. But! I don't understand how anyone that is not a member, can complain about the BASC? It doesn't make sense. Especially those that say they left years ago. How many of the disaffected members actually vote (or voted) in elections or take (took) any active part in the BASC? (not many from what I understand)
Surely if you are unhappy with the way it is managed you have two choices. Leave, so it doesn't have anything to do with you anymore or take an active part in your organisation and try to achieve change from within. My choice would certainly be the second one.

As a current but 'disappointed' member, the dilemma you describe is the one I am currently struggling with.
 
You actually need two different approaches.

1) You need media savvy organisations and voices that can put our side of argument, not only to the shooting community but who will stand up to and be part of the much wider media.

2) Then you need membership organisations who can quietly work in the background with policy and decision makers in Government and Westminster - the ones who say yes minister, excellent idea but........................

I am a member of the BASC, but I am also a shareholder of Fieldsports Britain, and suggest that SD members should also become shareholders - spend a box of ammo's worth with them a year to fund them to keep doing what they are doing - more details at - Fieldsports Nation – explained
 
It's like this, sooner or later the gubment is gonna take the guns, the antis will lie and disregard any evidence or reasoning contrary to their own agenda, as will xr,antifa, etc, etc, they have nothing to lose, unlike us they want to get arrested, it breaks the system, basically we're all metaphorically speaking gonna get kicked in the face repeatedly and largely take it because we want to keep the tickets, then someone comes up with an idea, for xx quid a year you get to choose the colour of the boot, and a lace up or zipper. hell we can even find a few more ways to make a few quid before it all go,s to sh1t. and we don't have to actually do anything we say we are, just like politicians, and just ride it out with a nice fat pension at the end.
there's been a lot of talk lately about the end of the world, mass extinction, and guess what,, yep someone has figured how to make money from that too.
feck'em and the horse they rode in on., I'm off out with a gun, to do the job I love, legally, while I still
 
I am still with BASC and I am feeling desperately sad about them. I can't decide whether to leave or to stand for council!

I've a mate who is a big union man - he is a committed communist and before the fall of the USSR they brought him to Russia every year for two weeks in the summer to see the success of the revolution so he's doing it at a level well beyond your average commie in the street :) When I was a kid I would spend the summer in a local amusement arcade and his kids would spend their summer in a meat packing plant in the Urals.

However, when it comes to unions he also makes a very good point which is that the union isn't an insurance company where you simply pay your subs every month and then expect the union to pay out or bail you out of trouble if something goes wrong. In the end a union is only as good as the sum of its members, in fact the union only is its members, and the same also applies to BASC - it is basically a union for those who shoot.

With this in mind I think that running for council is a good idea and moves you away from the "insurance company" model to appreciating that BASC is only as good as its members allow it to be. If the members don't like it then the thing to do is change it, not leave in search of another "insurance company" as you will never find one that exactly reflects your personal views. I fear, however, that even if those on this forum who are dissatisfied with BASC were to run for council and "seize" control that very little would change as they could only achieve what the membership allowed them to achieve plus what could realistically be achieved in the current wider political context. What you have is a huge inertia of membership who are in an "insurance company" where they pay their subs and sit around hoping that the company will carry out their wishes when they decide they need it. That's never going to happen.

So staying in and becoming active is always going to be a better option than moving to another "insurance company" and sitting around until you become dissatisfied with it, as you eventually will. It is possible you could, as CarlW is considering, make very useful changes but with such a large and diverse membership (and this is important for political reasons) making huge changes is always going to be difficult as most of the membership are operating on the "insurance company" model and they will only want to hear from you when they want something, at which point they'll want you and the large organisation to do exactly as they say regardless of the other members.
 
You actually need two different approaches.

1) You need media savvy organisations and voices that can put our side of argument, not only to the shooting community but who will stand up to and be part of the much wider media.

2) Then you need membership organisations who can quietly work in the background with policy and decision makers in Government and Westminster - the ones who say yes minister, excellent idea but........................

I am a member of the BASC, but I am also a shareholder of Fieldsports Britain, and suggest that SD members should also become shareholders - spend a box of ammo's worth with them a year to fund them to keep doing what they are doing - more details at - Fieldsports Nation – explained
Thanks for the plug. We try to do just one thing at Fieldsports Channel, and that's produce media (in this strange, post-truth world) that does shooting sports good. BASC does tons more than us. Leaving aside work like its stalking schemes, its insurance and its gamekeepeing/firearms/wildfowling departments, it helps stop bans by lobbying politicians and working with police/judiciary/civil service. It's not perfect. I would like it to be more outspoken on hunting tourism, and nobody could predict that the general licences truck would hit us in April. But for those two reasons I remain a proud member of BASC.
 
Thanks for the plug. We try to do just one thing at Fieldsports Channel, and that's produce media (in this strange, post-truth world) that does shooting sports good. BASC does tons more than us. Leaving aside work like its stalking schemes, its insurance and its gamekeepeing/firearms/wildfowling departments, it helps stop bans by lobbying politicians and working with police/judiciary/civil service. It's not perfect. I would like it to be more outspoken on hunting tourism, and nobody could predict that the general licences truck would hit us in April. But for those two reasons I remain a proud member of BASC.

Welcome CJ.....good job on stage with the WJ gang....

Only one post in 9 years...nearly a record.

Just need P Carr to step up on SD lol

Tim.243
 
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