Welcome to this edition of the SSAA NSW E-Shooter.

The stop press news for this edition is the announcement of our new CEO for SSAA NSW who we can now confirm is Andrew Macaulay.

Andrew is a lifelong shooter, having been introduced to the sport by his father and he is a member of SSAA NSW. Andrew has coached competitive rifle shooters, including his sons who are avid hunters. He is a keen hunter, harvesting game across Australia, as well as a firearms collector, and a regular pistol and occasional sporting clays shooter. Andrew’s wife is also a pistol shooter and hunter.

Andrew’s professional background in Australia and internationally covers Government relations, technology, and services businesses in primary industries, gaming, finance, print, and packaging.

Andrew is looking forward to engaging with SSAA NSW members and advancing our great sport.

As you can see Andrew ticks all the shooting boxes for SSAA NSW. He is licensed for long arms, pistols and collecting and shoots in all our main competition types, namely rifle, shotgun, and pistol. Andrew then rounds out his bona fides with his interest in hunting.

Andrew’s interest in shooting is both gratifying and important, but the most important role he will undertake for us is the role of CEO.

Governance, strong finances and strong relationships with government, regulators and the firearms industry are essential for the leading peak body for civilian ownership of firearms in NSW. Andrew is well qualified to provide the leadership required to protect our sport with skills in training and a strong respect for public safety, both of which underpin our commitment to the broader NSW community. Most importantly, engaging with our membership and continuing the strong membership communications is well suited to Andrew’s personality and skills.

I was particularly gratified by the quality of applicants for the position of CEO of SSAA NSW. The recruitment company shortlisted a large group of applicants that had the necessary skills to meet our requirements. The employment committee resolved to interview only 5 of the best of those applicants, and even then, we ended up with 6 applicants that we wished to interview.

Our brand, SSAA NSW, is respected and considered an influential company for high quality managers to aspire to work with. I wish to thank our Board for their commitment to develop and drive our high quality culture, and I thank our outgoing CEO Jai, for his huge contributions in getting us to this position which Andrew will now grow for a stronger SSAA NSW.

Andrew will start on the 22nd March and will get his induction at our Board meeting that weekend. A tough start, but Andrew is keen to jump in at the deep end.

Andrew and I will do a week of Branch committee zoom meetings ASAP to introduce Andrew to your Branch leaderships.

I wish to thank our employment committee, chaired by Rob Austin, and made up of Scott Wagner, Alison Worldon and myself. These directors are all in working life positions where they employ and manage staff and Rob has great skill in all matters HR and workplace health and safety and under his chairmanship the process was smooth and professional.

While I am thanking people, I would also like to thank our disciplinary committee and our review committee. December 2023 is the first time we have had a discipline matter under our new state CLG constitution, I believe it is also the first time the review committee (previously the appeals committee) have had cause to meet, which was in January this year.

The discipline committee is made up of SSAA NSW Board members, in this case chaired by Scott Wagner, while the review committee is made up of what I call our “wise and respected heads”. Both the Board and the Review committee are elected by the AGM. The difference is that the review committee is constitutionally empowered to override the Board discipline committee, while the previous Appeals committee model could not override the Board. This is a discipline model that ensures someone is responsible for difficult discipline matters (the Board) while the Review committee ensures that the disciplined member is protected by a second level of review.

Scott and his committee of Directors did an amazing job for our first Discipline hearing. It is a difficult task with strong legal ramifications, and if done professionally, legally, and compassionately it avoids costly legal disputes within our membership. The amount of investigation undertaken by the Board before the hearing was prodigious and as this was the first such hearing those investigations were reviewed for accuracy, completeness, and legality by a lawyer.

The appeals committee met on this matter and found the Board and the Discipline committee had investigated and proven the matters and as such the appeal was rejected. The appeals committee had to meet quickly based on review timelines and I thank them for being available so quickly, and for their diligence and integrity in this very important role.

Just a quick note on mandatory attendance. Although we have made what will likely be successful moves to reduce mandatory attendance to a total of 2 for long arms (both target and hunting combined) the regulations still have long arms target at 4 attendances and long arms hunting at 2 attendances for this year. Pistol and collecting remain the same and will not vary in the proposed change to a minimum of 2 attendances for long arms.

You have until June 30 to complete your attendances (4 target, 2 hunting, 1 collecting for long arms and as per your pistol ownership for pistol attendances) for the 23/24 financial year.

SSAA NSW is working to modify your membership so that you can opt in to auto renewal of your SSAA NSW membership. This is becoming very important as NSW firearms registry continues to develop Gunsafe.

Firearms registry Gunsafe program is being prepared to roll out for clubs and members. This program is in use for dealers but will be expanded to include firearms owners and will automatically inspect your genuine reason in real time.

If your genuine reason is SSAA membership, then the day your membership runs out means so does your license expire. Hence the need to protect you from inattention around membership and the safest way we can do that is to provide an opt in auto renewal that ensures your membership is always up to date.

I would like to finish this report with a special thankyou to our staff. Jai finished up in January and Andrew starts in March which left our staff without a CEO for a crucial period. The Audit process, the preparation for the AGM, and the issues surrounding ranges, and membership issues with registry have all continued full steam ahead. Our office staff led by Tracey and our range management led by Peter have managed increased workloads and pressure with good humour, hard work, skill, and diligence.

Andrew inherits a wonderful staff and I hope that the membership appreciates their efforts and thanks them when you have the opportunity.

Thank you and stay safe,

Lance Miller

SSAA NSW President

Andrew Macaulay – SSAA NSW CEO

The post SSAA NSW President’s Message – Lance Miller appeared first on SSAA NSW.

It has been an extremely busy year and as the last report for the year, I thought I would update you on some important matters.

SSAA Shot EXPO.

The SSAA Shot EXPO is back, and you can look forward to attending in October 2024. Save the date for the weekend of 19th and 20th October. It will be held at the Melbourne showgrounds.

Although it is SSAA NSW’s turn to host the SSAA Shot EXPO, SSAA Victoria are better positioned to co-host the EXPO with SSAA NSW.

Firstly, we will be much more cost effective if we do not use a conference facilitator. The impact of Covid has seen our preferred conference facilitator move into other employment and the SSAA Victoria staff did a great job running the last SSAA Shot EXPO along with some facilitator input. I am confident that their experience will ensure a successful relaunch of Shot EXPO.

Secondly, best facility available at the best time for our relaunch is the Melbourne showgrounds.

I wish to thank Winchester Australia for signing on as our Platinum sponsor. Clive Pugh, Winchester Australia CEO is a great advocate of consumer trade shows and was very quick to sign on to the top sponsorship level. I hope all members and all shooting sports enthusiasts support Winchester Australia, and their import brands, as a show of industry solidarity.

It is in the best interests of a successful SSAA Shot EXPO that SSAA NSW and SSAA Victoria co-host the Expo. It is likely that the 2025 SSAA Shot EXPO will be in Sydney, but will still be co-hosted by both SSAA NSW and SSAA Victoria.

Our brand in NSW parliament.

I am pleased to report that our interactions with the NSW Labor Government are strong with communication and logic being the key positive contributors. Our brand is recognised and respected because of our positive approach and our engaged membership.

Maintaining this brand strength is why we communicate with you in as many ways as we do. Keeping you informed is what helps you to be aware of issues facing our sport and your engagement makes our advocacy so much stronger.

NSW Firearms Registry.

We now have a date when Registry hope to turn on their club’s portal being July 2024. That is just 6 months away now. This portal will give registry real time updates of your memberships, genuine reason and eventually your attendances.

The importance of this date is how you achieve your genuine reason to support your firearms licence. If membership of SSAA NSW is your genuine reason, then a lack of membership will immediately impact on your licence. Currently SSAA has grace periods for membership renewal, but that has to stop based on NSW genuine reason laws.

The best way of ensuring your membership, and thus your licence does not expire if membership is your genuine reason; is to have an auto renewal for your membership. In our recent membership survey undertaken to gather your input for our strategic plan, we asked the question “who wants auto membership renewal?” and the answer was very strongly in favour, in excess of 90%.

We are working to introduce auto renewal for all members who want it. Some may not want to participate and there will be an opt out version available for those who have other methods of genuine reason.

Important SSAA NSW advocacy issues like range approvals, match approvals, licence reviews for disability to name a few important membership issues have all undergone review by Registry and the Firearms Registry Consultative Council (FRCC) and have changed for the betterment of our members. Additional reviews are still taking place and are progressing in a positive manner.

Law Abiding Firearms Owners.

We can participate in our sport and own firearms because we are law abiding. Another term used by police and regulators is “fit and proper person”. I believe our members are more focussed on being law abiding than most non shooters – we have more awareness of our responsibility.

I mention this because SSAA NSW will not tolerate bullying and/or other abuses or inappropriate behaviours. The Board must investigate and, if warranted, must action complaints of this nature from members.

You may hear rumours of activity around the Boards responsibility to protect our members. If you have any questions, please contact our office or, if you wish, contact me directly on lancem@nsw.ssaa.org.au

Also, we have taken steps nationally to minimise the effects of sex, age or disability in our national competitions. Equality is a process that requires some support and time to transition so while there is international competition that does discriminate on sex or age, i.e. have competitions that are for women only or have age restriction, we should identify competitors that can compete further in these competitions, but at our SSAA core, competitions we should try to shoot shoulder to shoulder rather than in discrimination groups.

CEO transition.

I will close with the truism that the only true constant is change. In this case the change for SSAA NSW is that Jai is finishing up with us in January to take on a larger role which is very well suited to his skillsets.

I’m very sad to see Jai go, but it is important that he continues to develop his skillsets and his potential to deliver best outcomes for him and his family. He is continuing to work very hard to transition all of his roles to our skilled staff and some onto our board members. The handover will be seamless and although he did a lot of work and held a lot of positions; that load will now be shared until our new CEO picks up the reins.

Jai gave us plenty of time to ensure an effective handover and to assist in finding his replacement. I am happy to report that we have quite a large list of potential candidates with strong skill sets and strong passion to take on this role after we interview. Our brand is very strong in the community and in the professional spaces like government. This is contributing to candidates with strong skillsets applying to be our CEO. Personally, I wish Jai the very best, we have worked very well together, and it has been a pleasure to work with him. I am sure we will remain good friends and I know that Jai intends to assist whenever we need input from him to continue the changeover, even after he has left. He will assist the new CEO to pick up the reins. Jai will continue to serve as a volunteer director with SSAA Mutual Pty Ltd for the benefit of members and the shooting sports; so he does intend to stay within arm’s reach of SSAA.

Jai leaves us in a much better place than where we were when he started.

*Our relationship with government is good.

*Relationship with the firearms registry is likewise very good.

*Our brand is strong amongst the industry and through the levels of politics and regulation that applies to the shooting sports.

*Our finances are improved.

*Our governance and our strategic vision are much stronger.

*Most importantly our communication with our members has grown and developed to the point where we have an engaged and informed membership that can collaborate on big projects when required.

Change can be opportunity. In my next report I hope to report to you more details for our next SSAA NSW CEO and management leader.

I hope everyone has a great Christmas and new Year. Please stay safe.

Best regards,

Lance Miller

The post SSAA NSW President’s Message – Lance Miller appeared first on SSAA NSW.

It is with sadness that SSAA NSW farewells Jai Rowell as our CEO effective mid-January 2024. 

Jai has been a transformative leader for SSAA NSW working with the Board and myself as President and in the past 5 years has: 

• Ensured the highest levels of governance for SSAA NSW, 
• Led the conversion from being an incorporated Association to a company Limited by Guarantee, 
• Run our advocacy ensuring that SSAA NSW is known positively across Government, Opposition, and the Crossbench to the point that SSAA NSW is regularly contacted for advice by Government and its agencies, 
• Ensured that SSAA NSW has stopped unintended consequences on proposed legislative changes, 
• Stabilised our financial base so more funds can be spent on Member benefits, 
• Secured record amounts of funding for range improvements, 
• Secured new ranges, 
• Improved the performance of various units within the organisation, 
• Introduced improved systems within SSAA NSW, 
• Assisted with the Industry Training Specialist – (Registered Training Organisation), 
• Developed a talented team of staff supporting members, 

Jai has worked above and beyond in his substantive role and has held the following roles: 

• CEO / Executive Director – SSAA NSW, 
• Company Secretary – SSAA NSW, 
• Director of SSAA National, 
• Member SSAA National Finance Committee, 
• Member SSAA National Legal Oversight Committee, 
• Member SSAA National Legislative Action Committee 
• Member SSAA National Disciplines Committee 
• Founding Director of SSAA Mutual Pty Ltd – The discretionary Mutual fund that has already seen 80,000 customers in its first 12 months operation, 
• Director of SSAA Insurance Brokerage Pty Ltd, 
• General Manager – St Marys Indoor Shooting Centre, 
• Company Secretary – SSAA Pty Ltd, 
• General Manager – SSAA NSW Auburn Shooting Centre, 
• Board Member – NSW Game and Pest Board – DPI – NSW Government, 
• Regularly appointed to ad-hoc groups within Government agencies to assist the shooting sports, hunting and game and pest management, 
• and the list goes on and on. 

The above is just a small snapshot of what Jai has achieved, and the work undertaken. With his legal and financial skills, he has saved hundreds of thousands of dollars and provided strategic direction for SSAA NSW. 

Jai is highly respected amongst the Board, Members, Branches, Affiliate Clubs and stakeholders and has been instrumental in improving the culture within SSAA NSW and the perception of SSAA NSW externally. 

Whilst we are sad to see Jai leave the role as our CEO, he leaves with the SSAA NSW’s best wishes for his new external employment opportunity. We also take this opportunity to thank his wife Belinda and sons for sharing him with us. 

Jai has indicated that he is happy to assist SSAA NSW wherever possible albeit as a volunteer. He will continue to be a member and keep up with his shooting. 

Jai will work with myself and the Board for a smooth transition and ensure it is business as usual.

Working with Jai has been an absolute pleasure, and I am sure that everyone will join me in thanking him for his fantastic service to SSAA NSW and the shooting sports. 

Jai will write to members separately soon and please do not hesitate to send him an email and join us wishing him well for the future. 

The SSAA NSW Board are meeting this weekend to discuss a transition to a new CEO, and we will keep you updated. 

Thank you,

Lance Miller

President, SSAA NSW

The post President Announcement – CEO Resignation appeared first on SSAA NSW.

The last couple of months have been an excellent time of development for SSAA NSW, and to be a member of SSAA NSW.

In that time, we have completed our strategic plan. We have also completed a comprehensive member survey with a huge response of over 6,300 members responding in less than 9 days, and on top of that, we have assisted 2,000 member attendees from the hunters and collectors longarm categories of NSW firearms licencing to achieve their mandatory attendances with online training and communication.

Strategic Plan

Our strategic plan was developed by the Board with the intent of including as many members and branches as possible to provide input to achieve a strategic plan that supported all levels of SSAA NSW. This includes the individual member, through our branch and affiliate club structure, the NSW board, and the governance of our association.

To achieve this outcome, we started with a board strategic planning day in late 2022. This was followed up by the membership survey which was sent to every member’s email address which resulted in the spectacular result of over 10% of members responding to a 20-minute survey in less than 9 days. Most surveys of this type only achieve a 2% response.

Finally, we assembled our branch delegates for a face-to-face meeting to go over the board outcome, the member survey outcome, and the branch delegate input to deliver our final and very consultative strategic plan. A special thanks to the branch delegates for their input and the positive way they contributed.

The net result is a strategic plan that over 6,500 people have directly contributed toward. My buzzword on the day when we held the strategic plan with the branch delegates was “engaged”. The engagement of the SSAANSW membership is the reason we have such a strong advocacy position and is the reason we can achieve such a consultative strategic plan.

I am very pleased and proud of the engagement that has got us to this point, and I hope that you feel the same way about the strategic plan that has been produced. The short version of the strategic plan will be presented to your branch executive very soon.

The importance of this strategic plan is the direction it gives your board, and the strategic plan is the core of how we develop the business plan and the budget for SSAA NSW in the future.

Member Survey

As mentioned above, the member survey was conducted to support input to the strategic plan and to gain knowledge of the member’s satisfaction, what they would change, and how they thought SSAA National was performing on their behalf.

Our previous research was quite an extensive piece of research conducted six years ago and there are some similarities, but there are obvious places where improvement has been made.

The research was broken into sections, one section to find out what members like or dislike about what we’re doing currently, and a second section to find out what members are prepared to pay for.

We were pleased with the very high satisfaction level with the services that SSAA National provides for its members. When it comes to what the members are prepared to pay for, there were three stand-out winners.

1. Ranges & places to shoot,
2. Advocacy – both political and other Shooting entities,
3. Insurance, all rate very highly in the research as what the members believe they would pay for.

A very pleasing statistic that was high on our surveys six years ago and which has dropped significantly on the current survey is the social licence question. Previously over 90% of members felt that the community did not support their sport, and members felt uncomfortable about participating, whereas now just under 50% are still concerned.

I believe this has come about through our communications and the promotion of the law-abiding firearms owner to the government, police, and the media. Criminals are a problem, with or without firearms, whereas law-abiding firearms owners are not a risk to society.

Mandatory Attendance Support

Toward the end of our last mandatory attendance compliance period that concluded on the 30th of June 2023, we conducted online meetings for over 2000 of our members that provided training on hunting as well as hosting two collecting meetings. The result of these meetings means that people who were struggling in the post-COVID environment to complete their attendances were able to complete their attendances. I thank Warren Brown, Tim Barry, and Lance Mitchell for their excellent training and presentations. SSAA NSW staff put these meetings together with short notice and I also thank them for the input and support to our membership.

Membership & Membership Fees

Our membership in New South Wales continues to grow at an excellent rate, achieving 12% growth over the last three years.

Very soon the membership fees will change after no changes for the last four years. One of the changes means you will need to decide if you want a printed Australian Shooter magazine or an electronic Australian Shooter magazine.

If you choose the electronic version, it will be emailed directly to you, and if we do not have your email, it will be sent as a link on SMS. You will also receive the magazine electronically if you choose to get the printed magazine as well.

Choosing to receive a printed magazine will increase the adult membership fee by $15.00 over the adult membership fee for only receiving an electronic Australian Shooter magazine.

The adult membership will become $100.00 with the electronic Australian Shooter magazine and the adult membership will become $115.00 if you choose to receive a printed Australian Shooter magazine.

This is by far the cheapest full-service membership fee for a peak body that provides safe ranges to shoot, genuine reason for firearms ownership, Disciplines to compete in, and hunting opportunities.

Range Officers

I would like to close this message with a special thank you to our Range Officers. These people are volunteers who give up their time to ensure that we have a safe and comfortable place to shoot on our ranges.

The membership survey indicates that virtually 100% of members believe our ranges are safe. Not only that but the Insurers of our Liability Insurance also agree that our ranges are safe. This is a credit to our Range Officers, the range management, and the people who provide the training for our Range Officers.

Please also be just as safe when you are not on the range, your safety with a firearm is always your responsibility.

Thank you for your support and your engagement.

Lance Miller
SSAA NSW President

The post SSAA NSW President Lance Miller’s Message October appeared first on SSAA NSW.

Welcome to the April edition of SSAA NSW electronic magazine: What’s On. We trust you had a happy Easter and hope that if you had time off during the public holidays that you had time to go out to a range or go out in the field and enjoy our sport and recreation.

It has been another extremely busy month for SSAA NSW:

• attending Branch AGM’s,
• advocating legal firearms owners during and after the recent NSW State election,
• supporting Branches and Clubs with grant applications,
• working with our auditor to complete the 2022 audit with a positive result,
• working with our Board and executive on important projects including the finalisation of the NSW Board strategic plan,
• assisting Branches with Range development,
• meeting with the NSW Firearms Registry on important matters,
• planning for the upcoming Branch strategic planning day (More about that below)
• attending National titles celebrating our 75^th anniversary,
• and so much more.

Recently, was SSAA’s 75^th Anniversary which is a remarkable achievement. Our Association no doubt looks very different when it first started all those years ago, but we must extend our greatest thanks to those who had the foresight to establish SSAA, put in an extremely large amount of work and as a result of their herculean effort, has left a lasting legacy for the promotion of the shooting sports.

Some of those founding members are still in SSAA 75 years on. Without them we would not have the sport, Ranges, and the ability to enjoy our sport. A big thank you to them all and you can read about some of these great people and the foundation of SSAA further in this edition.

The culture that our founding members created in 1948 is still with us today right across NSW and indeed Australia, where we find every weekend a large network of volunteers who give their time freely to ensure that our sport is accessible to all. It never ceases to amaze us just how much work goes into the Association by our volunteers and without them we would not exist today.

Two weekends ago saw our executive Lance Miller, Rob Austin, and Scott Wagener along with our CEO Jai Rowell spend the weekend collating the work undertaken by the entire Board regarding the Board strategic plan. There was a lot to do, and your Board are ambitious for the Association’s future. On the Sunday after the work was completed, the Executive and CEO headed out to the Coffs Harbour range to say hello to everyone who was competing at the National Rimfire Benchrest Titles to mark the 75^th anniversary of SSAA. The previous weekend Coffs Harbour also hosted the National Centrefire Benchrest Titles.

Lance & Marie proved popular with cooking breakfast for everyone. At the competition was an additional two Board members Danae Jenkins and Alison Worldon. Danae competed in the competition and Alison helped with scoring the event for the approximately 80 competitors.

The National Titles ran like clockwork and everyone had a great time. A big thank you to Branch President Rod Madeley and his team for their huge contribution to marking the 75^th anniversary.

It was said on the day that we ride on the shoulders of giants in our organisation. We must never forget the legacy of their hard work, but we too must do our part so that in another 75 years, generations of shooters can continue to enjoy the sport.

Whilst the Board and Management of SSAA NSW is working hard to explore plans for the future, our upcoming Branch strategic planning day with existing and emerging leaders of the Association will be the pinnacle of that work for the future.

While Branch executive Zoom meetings and all forms of communications to our members are feeding back ideas to the Board and keeping our membership informed; the Branch strategic planning day will be the most important membership engagement since our large scale research project was completed in 2018.

As you know we want one executive member from your Branch and one young future leader from your Branch to be your Branch delegates to this strategic planning meeting. These delegates will be presented with a lot of possible pathways for our future along with the requirements to make these pathways successful.

The Board and management have worked hard to develop all the ideas that have come forward from the research, the previous Branch meetings, and from the knowledge of the individual directors. Further to that, the executive has met and has developed a matrix for each possible path that ensures the pathways are able to be funded and will be successful if they become an integral part of the strategic plan.

We will be looking to engage with your delegates soon and will be sending out registration forms. They will receive papers to work on, and questions to answer prior to the big day ensuring the Association is fit for the future.

We are in an extremely good place and have strong foundations to build upon. It is truly a fantastic organisation to be part of and the best days of our Association are yet to come.

Just a reminder in case you have not seen our previous correspondence regarding mandatory attendances, that for longarms, this has been extended to June 30^th.  This will be the new reporting period moving forward. If you are required to complete attendances and have done them, that is great. Please keep enjoying your sport and there is nothing else that you are required to do. However, for those that couldn’t quite complete all attendances prior to the original reporting date of 31^st March, fear not as you now have another couple of months to complete. If you are in this situation, you can now attend your local range and complete the attendances to maintain your firearms licence without penalty.

As part of the 75^th anniversary of SSAA, we encourage you all to introduce the sport to a friend or family member and we look forward to seeing you at the range or out in the field.

Lance Miller                                                                    Jai Rowell

President – SSAA NSW                                                  CEO – SSAA NSW

The post SSAA NSW President & CEO Message April – May appeared first on SSAA NSW.

March has been another busy month with more and more competition and activities on ranges, compliance shoots needing to be completed by the end of March, our RTO delivering courses and creating new ones, strong advocacy with the upcoming state election and so much more.

AGM Season

Our Branches and Clubs are heading into AGM season and along with our CEO Jai Rowell we have been travelling the State attending many of them, meeting with our fantastic volunteers and members. Please remember that we are a volunteer-based Association and without our hardworking volunteers we would not have a sport, facilities, or the range of activities that your Branch or Club provide every year. A big thank you to everyone.

Your committees would really appreciate your support by attending your local AGM and seeing how you can get involved. At the very least turning up to your local Branch or Club AGM allows them to remain compliant as they are required to have a certain number of members attending to ensure that they meet the minimum attendees to achieve a quorum.

NSW State Election

The NSW State election is being held on the 25^th March. You may have heard us say many times that SSAA NSW advocates all year long every year not just at elections. This is extremely important to understand and has been a key ingredient coupled with our strong support of our members as to why your Association has been successful on so many fronts supporting legal firearms owners.

With that said, we continue to talk to politicians during election time and are pleased to say that we have had many discussions with the Government, Opposition, and Crossbench Parties. It is very important that we are able to have meetings with the decision makers. Whilst we will not always agree on every issue with politicians, it certainly has helped to make, for example, unintended consequences on legislation not occur and ensuring laws that attack legal firearms owners as has been witnessed in other jurisdictions from ever being introduced.

You would remember that at the last election (some four years ago) or even further back, it was practically impossible to meet with Government and Opposition on matters that are important to legal firearms owners at all. In recent times this has changed and of course not everyone supports  our sport and recreation, but now SSAA NSW is recognised, is invited to many meetings and asked for opinions on important matters and is very well respected.

With less than a week to go to the state election, we have seen that legal firearms owners are not the brunt of negative attack. This is the first election in a very long time that this has been the case. A lot of work has gone into this and so much more is needed. When we are united, sensible and provide evidenced based solutions, we are generally successful and can demonstrate to decision makers that whilst it is important to be tough on criminals, that should not mean unnecessary attack or regulatory burden be placed on legal firearms owners who are enjoying their sport and recreation like anyone else.

I am pleased to say that when we reached out to the various political parties for their views on a range of matters, they responded. I encourage you to read their answers to questions in this month’s edition of What’s On.

Membership Growth

SSAA NSW has seen a large increase in membership over the last few years and even more so in recent times. We have many more women, junior members and people of all ages and geographical areas joining. This is great for the growth of our sport, and we regularly hear of people who have joined the Association sharing positive experiences at their local range.

There is a lot of work to service our large membership and we have a small number of employees who work hard day in, day out, along with your Board who provide the strategic direction. I would like to thank the staff and Board for all their hard work all year round providing excellent service. They are just as passionate about the shooting sports as you, and I can assure you that makes a big difference.

Our online magazine is getting bigger as each month goes on and we love the fact that many more people are sending in stories or ideas for the magazine. If you would like to contribute, please be in touch with the office and they can assist.

Thank you again and I look forward to meeting at the range or out in the field.

Lance Miller

President SSAA NSW

The post SSAA NSW President Lance Miller’s Message March appeared first on SSAA NSW.

It was great to launch our monthly newsletter at Christmas and we are very encouraged by the feedback received. We are excited to be able to provide you with regular updates of what is happening at SSAA NSW, including updates from branches, clubs, and stakeholders.

COMMUNICATION

SSAA NSW values Member, branch and club engagement which gives your Board and management a greater understanding of what you want from your Peak Association and of course helps make better informed decision making.

As you know, we have regular zoom meetings with representatives of each of the branches throughout the year. Leadership across the Association is so important, and we thank all our volunteers for the hard work they do.

To further enhance communication in 2023, we are currently preparing SSAA NSW’s largest shooting sports survey. By surveying our 62,000 members, we will be able to hear from you directly about how you want the Association to look over the next 5, 10, 25 years and beyond. Your responses will shape our future and we encourage you to participate when it is launched later this year and we look forward sharing the results with you.

In addition to the survey, we are also holding a branch strategic planning day which will directly engage the leadership and emerging leadership of the Association. No one individual has all the answers, and by harnessing our Members, current and future leadership; we are confident that we will be an even greater Association providing services to our Members.

ADVOCACY

We are very thankful for our Member’s input and this has been a core reason for SSAA NSW advocacy success. Our strong advocacy is ongoing and extremely important. Please be reminded that the next NSW election is being held on Saturday 25th March. Whilst some may think that advocacy is only about elections; it is important to note that advocacy is effective when it is consistent, evidenced based and meaningful. It is true that we have been effective when we ran an e-petition that became the NSW Parliaments largest e-petition; but it is also true that we have been effective in the many hundreds of meetings and engagements we have had at various levels of Government, bureaucracy and by our own collective conduct.

SSAA NSW, branches, clubs and members are recognised as important key stakeholders and the ability to effect positive change is a result of all our efforts. Be assured we will stand up for our members and all legal firearms owners regardless of the election cycle; working positively for you.

MANDATORY ATTENDANCES

As per our recent reminder to all members, if you are required to complete mandatory longarm, collecting or hunting attendances, they must be completed by the end of March with the NSW Firearms Registry commencing compliance mid April.

If you have already completed your attendances or are not required to, then not a problem; however if you are required to complete mandatory attendances, then please ensure you complete them as soon as possible. For branches who utilise SSAA NSW’s electronic attendance system, members attendances are recorded and emailed to you. This is an easy way to check on your attendances at any time.

CONVERSION TO A COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE (CLG)

Many would know that the Department of Fair Trading required SSAA NSW to convert from an Incorporated Association to a Company Limited by Guarantee. We are pleased to announce that after a lot of hard work, extensive consultation with branches; the Australian Securities Investment Commission (ASIC) has approved the conversion.

Whilst this means an updated constitution, and our regulator changing from the Department of Fair Trading to ASIC and of course an increase in governance requirements; we continue to be a not for profit body and will continue to service our Members.

The final part of our journey to convert was a requirement from AISC to make a minor amendment to the previously adopted constitution. It was fantastic to see our branches respond very quickly with 100 percent of branch responses being supportive, allowing the conversion to occur ensuring SSAA NSW is able to remain focused on core business.

SSAA NSW is positioned strongly for the future with great members, dedicated volunteers and a hard working Board and management, working to a strategic plan. Together we can achieve even more in 2023!

We look forward to the year ahead, working with you and having fun along the way.

Kinds Regards,

Lance Miller
President – SSAA NSW Limited

Jai Rowell
CEO / Executive Director SSAA NSW Limited

The post SSAA NSW President & CEO Message January appeared first on SSAA NSW.

We have three new staff members, Kadeja, Dorothy and Peter Szaak, all of whom have roles that are focused on members and branches. Jai will go into detail about their roles and skills, but I wish to welcome them to our excellent team and congratulate Jai for bringing in desperately needed staff with the high skillsets, the experience, and the understanding of our organisation to make a significant difference to our ongoing support for our members.

I wish to offer a special thank you to the staff that performed over and above during the time when we were very short of staff and had most staff working from home during Covid and as our new office was outfitted. George, Tracey, Katie and Kate delivered exceptional outcomes under very difficult working conditions. If you are talking to them, please thank them; they are a wonderful team, and you are one of the 62,000 members that work with them to make up team SSAA NSW.

COMMUNICATION is a key strength in our new SSAA NSW. This newsletter is a part of a larger strategy to keep Branch executives and members better informed.

We recently completed another round of branch executive zoom meetings that helps keep the elected committee of your branch informed of developments and strategy as well as having each of the branch presidents present their thoughts on the things that we are getting right as well as issues that need further attention. This is incredibly useful two-way communication.

We expect that this newsletter will keep more members appraised of our strategies and the political activities of the NSW Board and management.

A STRATEGIC PLANNING MEETING is being put in place in the first half of next year. This meeting is designed to achieve more than a plan for the future for SSAA NSW and will also actively seek our future leaders while working with our current branch leadership. I have asked your branch leadership on the last branch zoom meeting to identify a current branch leader to attend as well as an engaged and active member of your branch that is under 40 years old. What is the point of a future plan that doesn’t include the future leaders?

If this potential participation appeals to you as an engaged and under 40 year old member, then please let your branch know. Each branch can provide 2 delegates and at least one should be under 40.

We have used the research project of 2017 to provide member based input which has informed how the Board in restructuring our organisation. This coupled with the branch leadership meetings has proven to be a positive journey.

It is now time for the members via their branch delegates to directly input into our future and how we achieve the desired outcome.
There will be more on the member engagement strategic planning meeting early next year.

We have trialled a NATIONAL TRY SHOOTING program in NSW recently. The program was run by Gemma Dunn – the national coaching manager, Alison Worldon – a NSW Board director and on our membership committee, and Kadeja Assaad – now our Communications and Projects Officer.

There have been write ups and memos about the success of this event and the capabilities of this program so I won’t go into detail. Bottom line, it significantly exceeded my expectations and I commend it to all branches to use the professionality of the program and the leaders mentioned above to test your local market yourselves.

Our REGISTERED TRAINING ORGANISATION is now registered and operational. A special thanks to John Ball and Danae Jenkins who have shepherded this project from “this is so difficult” to “success and registration”. John is a volunteer member who accepted the unpaid role of executive director and with his skillsets in managing bureaucracy led us to success, ably supported by Danae Jenkins – a NSW board director with similar skills.

The RTO makes us leaders in safety and training, and this is a powerful tool in modern shooting which opens many more doors to us as the responsible leaders in the shooting sports.

Above all I am focusing on our future, but current and past work is driving us forward at an increasing rate.
St MARYS INDOOR SHOOTING CENTER is undergoing a strategic upgrade now as we look to its future post Covid. Jai Rowell is leading that upgrade while he continues to operate as our CEO. Sydney branch as co owner is working hand in glove with SSAA NSW in this project and the Sydney directors of SSAA Pty Ltd, Peter Thomson and Adam Ryan, are positive leaders in this upgrade along with Rob Austin and myself as the NSW SSAA directors.

NSW FIREARMS REGRISTRY and the FIREARMS CCONSULTATIVE COUNCIL are considering changes that we have represented to both bodies. We hope to report on important changes in the near future.

Our POLITICAL ADVOCACY has delivered some great outcomes for law abiding firearms owners in NSW. Some of those outcomes required strong representation while most require collaborative engagement where everyone gets a win and common sense prevails.

GOVERNMENT COMMUNITY GRANT FUNDING is another ongoing success story managed by Jai and George. We have achieved a large number of grants this year. Grant funding was a commitment from this Board and management 4 years ago and it has been successful every year since.

The BOARD AND MANAGEMENT continue to focus on three core objectives: Sound financial management, supporting current ranges while planning new ranges, and increasing membership.

SSAA NSW is currently the fastest growing state with more new members that any other state or territory.
Our ranges program is utilising our grant funding program to finance existing ranges into sound compliance positions and the inclusion of Peter Szaak as a specialist staff member is accelerating that program already. New ranges are coming, and future ranges are being planned.

Our Budget is tight but our austerity program, our grants program and sound management from our CEO Jai ensures we remain secure.
We manage members money and maintain that in everything we must be is spent in support of delegates and members; this is the reason for the proposed strategic planning meeting where your input will contribute to decisions on what we do to be more successful for the future, and how we fund these plans.

To conclude I want to thank the MEMBERS AND THE VOLUNTEERS. Without you and the members engagement we would be in a very different position now. The Criminal Use Bill that 28,000 of you petitioned against would have seen negative changes to civil liberties for all NSW citizens.
No sporting organisation can exist without volunteers, your board and volunteers, your branch committees are volunteers, your range officers and your trainers are volunteers. There are many more but be grateful to them because of the wonderful jobs they do and because your membership would more than double without their selfless efforts.

Wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a safe and prosperous New Year.

Lance Miller
President – SSAA NSW

The post SSAA NSW President Lance Miller’s Message December appeared first on SSAA NSW.

Lance takes on this important role at a critical time for the National Association. Lance’s leadership at a state level has seen strong membership growth, range development projects being completed and of course a determined and increased focus on advocacy at all levels of Government for Law Abiding Firearm Owners. At a National level, Lance has already hit the ground working, developing strategic goals that will benefit members and enhance the Association.”

We look forward to supporting Lance in his positions as SSAA NSW and SSAA National President and hope you will join with us in wishing him well!

Please click here for the full announcement by SSAA National.

The post Lance Miller Becomes SSAA National President – Congratulations appeared first on SSAA NSW.