What does your club do if they don't get enough members to cover expenses?

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Turn the lease over

or raise the prices per person to cover the expense!

Yep, done that too.

We have been struggling with getting members. There are two things against us, #1 We are a young club with 2013-2014 season being our second year and #2 We are a Dog Hunting club.
We run ads in all the local papers and hometown news, I am on every hunting forum that is local and we are at every hunting expo that we can find. It's a lot of work but if you are passionate about your club and hunting, then it's all worth with work and effort you put into it. Once we become more established, I hope that it becomes easier to find members.

For a dog club you will always have heavy turnover.

Does your dog club have plenty of turkeys. Many serious turkey hunters could care less how you choose to hunt deer. That includes me.

Our club has a lot of turkeys. There are a lot of folks who for what ever reason do not like or care to hunt with dog hunters. That is their preference. We enjoy the bond that we have with our dogs and we welcome anyone to come and hunt with us.

Where is the land located?

WHere is the club?

Turkey Neck, why do you say Dog Clubs always have heavy turnovers and they do you think that is?

What county is this club in.

Turkey hunters would be a major plus. How much are your dues relative to other dog clubs? Look at your facilities do you have power, water, a camp house, and camper hookups? Do you have anything else like access to a lake or river that someone may be willing to pay to use during the summer months? Does your club have enough land to set aside some of it for stalk hunting because believe it or not if you are in a good area and the dues are low there are people who would be willing to join to stalk hunt it only. The club I'm in was a dog running club for years until it was outlawed in Tuscaloosa county, and there are 3 men who are still in it who did nothing but stalk hunt during that time.

The biggest thing I've seen is some stalk hunters join and realize they are in a dog club. Another reason I believe unless you have a lot of deer and good dogs some people get frustrated easily. The last dog club I was in was in berry and the people who ran the club were sorry people. After experiences like that some people that might be open to dog hunting will get a bad taste for it. I love to go on a good dog drive but it is just too difficult to do these days. If you don't have at least 5,000 acres you are over hunting the property. The only way you can hunt the smaller tracts is two drives on Saturday and holidays. Just my opinion though.

I think that in some clubs the problem is not he price, it is the rules. I had 2 different clubs in Bama I wanted to join this year. The first was very inexpensive but they would not allow anyone under the age of 18 to drive an atv or utv at any time for any reason. The 2nd club was perfect in all aspects but one. The harvest limit. 5 deer per membership. 3 bucks 2 doe. That is insane! I have a 7 year old son that loves hunting and I also like to take a couple friends each season.

Another killer for me with most clubs is the number of members in a club. I will never understand why someone will have a 1000 acre club and try to have 9 or 10 or more members. Yes you keep the price down but you keep the pressure high. I just read an ad on craigslist for a club that does not allow hunting on Sunday. Absolutely rediculous! If that is your life style and religious beliefs then that is fine but why try to be so controlling over paying members? I believe they will have a hard time filling their spots.

Another huge issue is not having a camp house/ club house.

I think just maybe those guys are real Christians, unlike those who say they are then proceed to bait, tresspass and act very greedy overall.

I totally agree with some of your concerns. We are a club located in Berry, AL and some of our members used to belong to a club with some VERY shady members. This is why we formed our own club, to get away from all the rif raf, dishonesty and silly rules so to speak. We try to run a wholesome honest family orientated club. We want our kids to grow up to appreciate hunting just like we did. We want to carry on the tradition while respecting nature. Certain clubs have certain rules for whatever reason....we have some rules but try not to have petty silly rules. I understand concerns but some clubs take it too far, I agree.

We allow hunting 7 days a week because not everyone is off on the weekends and people work different hours. We do however dog hunt on FRI SAT & SUN but our members are free to stalk hunt, coon hunt etc during the week or whenever the dogs aren't on the ground.

Is your club located at the end of union grove road reason I ask is a new dog club started up last year and that is where they are located even though they hunt Fayette county.

no we are located in Berry