The vice secretary has a many and varied role it seems. I have therefore broken up my activities for our first year as best as I can. One thing that is clear however, with the amount of individual talent around I will not be club champion in all disciplines as like years gone by.

Role:-

Tour organiser 2003. This year's tour is to be a shoot in Northern Ireland. Having switched the dates at the request of the membership to September, it is unfortunate to report a drop in the usual attendance for this sort of shoot. Despite flying, the cost has been very low and should work out to be cheaper than the IofM trips. Flights and accommodation has been booked, though transport from the airport to the hotel and back will be required. At the time of writing, this has not been done.

Competition secretary. The club has run two competitions to date, both well attended - due to compulsory entry. No real surprises with the winners so far, though overall, the standard has been quite high. Next year, it is proposed to run a series of competition shoots along side the existing normal shoots for gallery and fullbore rifle events. Captains are expected to organise similar one off events for the lesser attended disciplines such as air pistol, smallbore rifle etc. I would expect a days clay shooting and Archery competition to be more highly attended. Fullbore pistol to be shot on tour as usual.

There are a number of perpetual trophies available for these competitions, these will be awarded at the annual dinner (date suggested is around end of October). Medals may be awarded on the day, subject to entry.

Communications officer. It seems to have become the norm for myself to be the one keeping the general membership informed about the next shoot, including organising accommodation etc. THIS IS NOT MY JOB. From the next shoot onwards, I expect the Captains to be keeping the shooters (and the Secretary) informed as to what is happening. With regards to accommodation, I suggest that 'some' future shoots be booked around accommodation availability. Minimum accommodation to be booked in advance. Those wishing to stay over will be offered accommodation on a first come first served basis, payment up front. Any additional accommodation should be booked by the individuals themselves. I will continue to seek out new members and invite accordingly, as should we all!

General News. I have now joined Tetbury rifle and pistol club. I have been nominated Gloucestershire County captain for the senior team. I have also been selected to be the county's NSRA rep which means I also sit on the NSRA shooting council on behalf of Gloucestershire. I have requested to undertake the County coaching qualification and have submitted my name accordingly. I believe the course should be in October.

Competitions entered. I have entered four pistol competitions under the club name to date, culminating in the British pistol championships at the end of August. The results of the first three include two third place finishes and a trophy at the SW championships (class D). The last comp saw a new personal best in competition and a move towards the top of class C. The goal is to win class C at the end of August. Pete and I have also entered and won gold medals at the NSRA mobile air range. The scores were actually quite hard to achieve and by the end of the Phoenix meeting, only five people had succeeded in achieving the score, Pete and I being two of them. I would take this opportunity to wish Simon good luck in his first? attempt at the British smallbore rifle championships.

In summary. 2003 has been a good year for the club in so much as we can now shoot under our own name within the UK. The shoots have gone well and have been well attended. In general, it's been okay. Things could definitely be a lot better however. We need to be more organised, we need to attract more members and we need to build on our reputation as a club. We have a saying, 'here's to us and those like us'. Pete and I had a conversation about this on one of our drunken nights out. The reason we all get on so well (most of the time) is because we are all essentially the same, we are each a dying breed of 'individual', that's why we work as a group, we each compliment one another. The catch, we need to find more of us if we are to survive. It's up to us to find them and invite them to join until eventually, our reputation is such that they will find us. Lets hope that in 2004 there'll be a few more of us left and that the next AGM will always have more members than the previous meeting, but not as many as the next.