Why should I join a club?

shedigz

Elite Member
Joined
Jul 28, 2013
Messages
754
Location
Pittsburgh PA Area
We have several clubs here in my area. I'm still not sure if I should join one or not.
I don't know what benefits I would get from it. I have joined clubs with other hobbies I have had in the past and have had bad experiences with them. One man took the entire meeting arguing with the treasurer over 38¢ that he felt was unaccounted for in the budget. Or things become highly political and stopped being fun for me. Eventually I lost interest.

Iam reluctant to join a club because of this.
What benefits would I get out of a club?
 
We have several clubs here in my area. I'm still not sure if I should join one or not.
I don't know what benefits I would get from it. I have joined clubs with other hobbies I have had in the past and have had bad experiences with them. One man took the entire meeting arguing with the treasurer over 38¢ that he felt was unaccounted for in the budget. Or things become highly political and stopped being fun for me. Eventually I lost interest.

Iam reluctant to join a club because of this.
What benefits would I get out of a club?

Lots of threads about clubs, some have had bad experiences others good, it just all depends on the type of people in the club so you just have to check them out to see.

Some have clubs that are very stand-offish, kind of selfish and not very welcoming and they stay that way.
Others might seem like that but once the members get to know you and realize you are not just there to get information out of them for new sites to hunt they warm up a bit.
Ryanchappell joined the one in Birmingham and they were this way at first, but as he continued to show up to each meeting they warmed up and were way more forthcoming with advice and site information in the area.
A bonus is they hold their meetings at Niki's West, one of the best meat and 3 restaurants you could ever visit for great tasting comfort food.

My club is one of the oldest in the country started in 1976 and I have never felt more welcomed by any place in my life, but that might have something to do with the Midwest sensibility the people have around here.
Being the member of this club has increased the fun quotient in this hobby for me many times over what I would have had without it.

Benefits?
I have made several new friends and hunting partners, and I found a place to show off my finds and brag a little and see other great finds from other members.
I am very competitive and enter many contests we have and win more than my share so that is a bonus.
Almost anything I ask about anything including sites to hunt gets an answer, and nobody seems to hold anything back and neither do I.


One member is very good at asking permission in an old county in Missouri with lots of history and at one meeting he spoke about exactly how he does it and even what areas he targets.

We do have some informative meetings with some nice speakers from time to time from outside the club, and many members speak about their experiences they have had here and also at places like hunting fields over in England which is very interesting.

2 weeks ago we got permission to hunt a site that nobody ever hunted before because it is historical and I found my best coin ever, an 1865 2 cent.
Only one other coin was found that day by one other member but still the high fives and back slapping and congratz flowed even though the other 40 or so other hunters found very little that day...that is just how nice and friendly these people are around here.

Our annual end of the year seeded hunts covers a whole weekend with a couple of fun hunts, too, and even though it costs to enter these hunts I have found enough silver coins to cover my entry fee for the next year and have won some very high quality prizes that totaled up to several hundred dollars.
This weekend is much fun for all members and their families including a kids hunt that is very fun to watch.
Our club is so popular that we now have too many members for the amount of prizes we have available at these seeded hunts, but still more members are joining and they still welcome them and will probably never stop doing that.

Like life, these things are hit and miss...not all are the same.

Most let you show up and watch the meetings for awhile before you join so maybe you should try that and see if maybe your local one is a good fit for you.
 
I agree clubs are all different, I was a member of one club then decided to leave as my experience was not what I wanted.

With the club I was in it was competition for best finds each month and questions were being put out there about finds looking 'too clean' or from previous hunts and held back.

The raffles were good and I won more then my fair share but I didn't join a MD club to go for raffles to win silver.

Also I had joined half way through the year but found out the start of the next year that I was expected to pay the full years membership and that my last years membership only covered me for 6 months but it was a full years dues...that was not good.

The other problem I had was that there was nothing there for new members or rather new to the hobby, it was all for the old timers who tended to win all the silver as they had the spots, so your dues were being converted into silver and then given away to the top 5 hunters in the club..it was like a pyramid scheme.

Experience was killing new beginners outright, people were coming to two meetings then never coming back again but their full years dues were being taken out and once again turned into silver and then the top five hunters taking it..and the year end totals were going to those five with the top one getting a gold coin.

To me that wasn't a club, it was me and other supporting the old crowd who were as difficult to break into as finding a 10g gold ring.

I miss meeting md'ers but I don't miss standing by myself for three hours and trying again and again to break into the clicks, id rather be hunting.
 
Not a great sounding club.
Ours has rules about winning...win 5 first places in any contests and you are locked out for the rest of the year to prevent this kind of thing and give others a chance.
This is fair and I agree with it, even though I usually achieve this Master Hunter status early in the year and all I can do for the rest of the time is bring in finds to show off but not enter any contests.
That's ok, an atta boy is better than nothing and I still get plenty of those on some of my finds.

Also newbies get all kinds of advice if they ask for it.
I am always available to help anyone out that I can to get a little better and find that next great thing with whatever little knowledge I have just like I do on the forums.
 
I would check each of them out. Maybe one has what you are looking for. What do you have to lose, a little dues money? If you find one you like, great. If not, just think of this site as a cyber club - without dues.
 
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