Membership Turnover
When it comes to bird dog hunting upland birds most members have dogs that honor and retrieve as well as being steady to wing. If these terms are Greek to you then perhaps our buddy hunts may interest you at teaming up with an upland hunter to experience hunting behind pointers, flushers or retrievers.
With the number of youth hunters on the decline, we're always glad to see success from those that continue to participate such as 17 year old Matt K, who also hunts waterfowl and upland birds with his father. Anyone that has shot clay targets with Matt will testify he can keep up with the best of the shooters.
Always room for a picture of a couple of good looking bird dogs. Two Setters on break during a late season Kansas pheasant hunt.
One of our duck blinds and one of the Associations more ardent duck hunters showing his partners how to call them in.
Membership turnover is a question often asked as an evaluative tool on a hunting club organizational quality.
Previously, we did track turnover and have not for years as the percentage is non-impacting to the overall operation. We would rather concentrate available time and effort on more productive tasks. So the answer to the question of what our turnover is, we do not know exactly. We do have hunters that quit, we have more that are sponsored in my current members.
What all should agree to is that between the two Association partners, the Association full time secretary and Bruce who helps part time on the wetlands, that is the entire staffing of the Association. It takes all the time and road miles we have to keep the land and service member needs. Work such as database maintenance to track turnover is one more task on the nice to do list that just will not get done.
A better decision criteria would be to read our rules, hunter testimonials and then talk to us directly (John Wenzel 913 773 8110). After that talk to some current members.
Developing questions that focus on value gained for cost, potential for a good hunt, organization method of operation and staff customer service would serve most at getting to a better decision to apply for membership or not rather than on a narrow criteria of turnover.
Mid-America Hunting Association has a high retention rate as we are a hunting business and not as a hunting club. Hunters respect and approve our method of operation focused on hunt quality. While we have much going for us as a self guided hunter organization hunters will come and go over time. Reasons why members quit do include bad hunts, however reasons are more likely related to a life change such as divorce, jobs , health or injury. There is also a category of those who quit not due to any of the before reasons and simply no longer wish to expend the energy to travel to hunt.
Feedback that the MAHA staff is doing a good job comes in several forms. The first which is strongly watched, is the percentage of new members sponsored into the Association by current members. More members are sponsored in than come in on their own wherewithal through the application process. And, we take this as one of the grading points on our personal report card of organizational performance.
Another source of pride in a job well done are the photos and letters sent in by members. With each photo and letter the Association staff achieves a feeling they are successful at providing the hunter the opportunity to have a good hunt. There is more, however by this point most have the idea there is more to review about our operation than just turnover or success ratios or any other single focus criteria.
Hi Everyone!
You probably don't remember me, I've only been a member for two years and scheduled few trips. I hunt a lot in northern states and just didn't have time to do all the club hunting I had expected.
I'm writing to tell you I won't be renewing this year. I just received notice that I will be laid off from my 14 year tenure in July with no recall expected.
I'm sure you hear this often but I saw two of the largest whitetail bucks of my life on two trips on club land. I just plain missed an easy B&C buck in [location deleted] with my muzzleloader at 125 yards my first year. The first deer I ever missed.
Then last year in [location deleted] I had a B&C contender in the predawn at 30 yards in an open pasture, but could not see my sights. On the last day I ended up passing seven bucks and taking a small one in comparison, 140" deer.
I'm going to miss the anticipation of hunting your land as much as the hunts themselves. I love walking "new" ground. I hope to renew in the future when I know where my job search will take me. Thank you! I'd recommend your club to any ethical hunter who wants to feel like he personally earned every opportunity of his/her hunt. I am a hard core, do it all yourself, knock on doors hunter. It wasn't easy for me to accept joining your club and even allow someone else to do the "knock on doors" work for me, but I am so glad that I did. Great hunting to everyone and I hope to contact you again in the future. I'll still be a weekly visitor to your web site so please keep posting all the great information and photos, they make my day!
Sincerely, Randy [last name deleted]