West Shore Sportsman's Association - Member being expelled.

[davidb72]

I wanted to post this for everyone to see and to let everyone know what exactly is going on at West Shore Sportsman's these days.

Mike Beliveau is a respected writer and commentator on firearms. His bio:

Mike Beliveau was born in northern Vermont in 1954. While growing up in he developed a love of history, particularly the
history of the American frontier. In 1988 he took that interest and turned it into a freelance writing career. Mike has done
writing and photography for several nationally distributed magazines. His primary subjects are eighteenth and nineteenth century firearms and frontier history.

Currently Mike is the black powder editor for "Guns of The Old West" magazine and he writes the handloading column for "Combat Handguns" magazine. He also writes feature articles for those magazines and several others.

Mike lives in the rolling hills of central Pennsylvania.

Mike is being expelled from the club for embarrassing the board of directors by posting this video in response to the new range rules they voted in.

http://youtu.be/RuBfYCMHwcI

There is no other reason they could be expelling him - they claim it is because he was unsafe or broke rules in the past in videos that he posted to his YouTube channel. The fact is that he embarrassed the board and for that they feel he must pay.

This is his latest video explaining the current proceedings against him.

http://youtu.be/wubzrfgqQDw

The next club meeting is on Tuesday, October 28th at 7:30 PM. I hope that everyone that is a member, regardless of how you feel about this issue comes out to the meeting to be heard.

[cdi]

There are few things more vindictive and spiteful than an embarrassed Fudd.
Good luck.

[daschnoz]

They're butt hurt. Nothing less, nothing more.

[alpacaheat]

I was planning on joining WSSA at the beginning of the year...will have to watch this situation.

Recently spoke to a longtime member who doesn't shoot there anymore.

[streaker69]

Kind of strange to be expelling such a traditional shooter.

[cuprunner]

Is this the same West Shore club that hosts the Cowboy action SASS shooters? I guess that is over now. I fail to understand how members who are not tolerant of the many types of firearms members like to shoot, get into the leadership positions of gun clubs. Seems like the entire membership should have had a vote on all those changes. I have been shooting and hunting for 45 yrs. and I still like to shoot tin cans with a .22, just like to see the action. I agree, just clean up afterward, it's that easy. Now days if you don't have some reaction targets, see how long a young starting shooter stays interested in punching holes in paper. Got to try to get the young one started. They are the future. Maybe they have some rules that would allow for the recall of this board. Let the membership vote on that! They did it in Colorado to a couple of politicians. Lastly I don't see what he did that was so terrible.

[daschnoz]

Sam, Dave - The gloves are coming off.

I've taken some potshots from the back row, but its time to get in front.

I am the WSSA Membership Secretary. There are 3 Board of Directors (BoD) members in the minority over the range rules issue (I'm one of them). From where I sit, there is nothing about the expulsion of Mike Beliveau that is NOT politically motivated. They can attempt to justify it however they want - if it walks, quacks, and flies like a duck, it's a fucking duck.

Here is the process (in short) as dictated by the ByLaws of WSSA:
The BoD will ask Mike to appear for a "hearing" (I expect this one to be a rail road job). The BoD will then decide whether or not to put the matter of expulsion before the membership for a vote. As a member of the BoD, I am voting on the following question: "Should the issue of expulsion of {member} be put before the general membership?" I will vote yes to allow the membership to have its voice heard.

Ultimately, it is the decision of the membership as to whether a member is accepted or expelled. A 2/3 majority of those present at the meeting is required for either. I (and others in the "opposition" camp) have been in contact with Mike and have assured him that the membership will NOT vote to expel him.

If you are a member at WSSA, please come out to the October and November meetings. Check the calendar at the web site for dates and times.
http://www.westshoresportsmen.org/
BoD nominations occur at the October meeting and BoD elections are held at the November meeting. There are also some amendments to the WSSA Constitution and ByLaws which will be voted on at the November meeting that will hopefully keep something like this from happening again. It's your club. Have a voice in its direction.


As an FYI - 2015 renewal forms should be on their way to members shortly. We've been busy dealing with this mess.

[Don Quixote]

This seems to be the new Normal in many clubs. I've been to meetings at clubs where, if I closed my eyes, I would have thought I was in a "Mom's Demand Action" luncheon

[Lee-online]

I had been a member of WSSA for 10+ years but I did not renew this year. They screwed up the rifle range and made impossible to shoot CMP on it. When this was brought up, it seemed like they didn't care about the cmp shooters because there are only a few of them.

[daschnoz]

I had been a member of WSSA for 10+ years but I did not renew this year. They screwed up the rifle range and made impossible to shoot CMP on it. When this was brought up, it seemed like they didn't care about the cmp shooters because there are only a few of them.

The ones that didn't seem to care about the inability to shoot CMP are defensive pistol shooters.

That seems to be the underlying tone to what is going on with the rules issue - if you shoot like we do, and the kinds of guns that we shoot, you're fine. If you don't, too bad. You can go somewhere else. I'm not exactly sure what they hope to gain with this attitude.