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The New RFI Badge System
Distribution of the new PSC Badges began on Saturday, June 14th at 10:00AM. Several hundred Members came to the Club to pick up their badges and to be perfectly honest, the volunteers handing them out were quite surprised. The weather caused matches to be cancelled and the prospects for rain were high all day long. We expected a few dozen Members but were happy to see the great turnout. We also want to express our appreciation for everyone who waited in line. The schedule for this coming week is posted at the top of the Home page.
These are “swipe” cards, not those that must be pushed into a reader. When you get to the gate, simply swipe the card infront of the new reader. There’s a keypad also, but ignore it. That’s only for non-members attending matches and other events. Also, there will no longer be a generic pin code that opens the gate. The codes will be event-specific and only operational on specific event days and times.
Members are probably curious why we switched to a permanent badge, rather than mailing new ones annually. Mailing of badges has been increasingly problematic. Our overall non-delivery rate is 30% or slightly higher. In some areas, it is much higher than 30%! This means that we have to reprint and remail hundreds of badges and there's no guarantee that those badges will arrive in our Members' mailboxes. We tried several methods of decreasing the non-delivery rate, but nothing made a significant difference. Something had to change, so the Board set out to convert to a new system that would not only solve the mailing problem but also have advantages in the overall operation of the Club and convenience for our Members. The only downside to the new advanced system is that Members must come to the Club to pick up their new "smart-card" badges. These new permanent badges do not have to be replaced yearly, so badge mailouts are a thing of the past. Even without a high non-delivery rate, the new badge system will have thousands of dollars annually.
With the new smart-card ("RFI") system, Members simply swipe their card at the reader and the gate will open. Since badges will be Member-specific, merely opening the gate will log you into the Club. No longer will you have to sign-in, with one possible exception. Members may have to stop at the Sign-In Desk if they are bringing guests so their names can be listed on the sign-in sheet. (This does not apply to immediate family members who are part of the family membership as defined in the Club Rules.) The Board will make a decision on this issue in the coming days. There are card readers on Range No. 1 and the pistol ranges, and more will be added to Range Nos. 3, 4 and the shotgun areas. Members will need to swipe their badges on each range they use so that the Board will have this information when budgeting for maintenance and expansion of various ranges.
So now you know the primary reasons for the switch to permanent RFI badges. There are other benefits that will be utilized as we expand the system. For now, come to the Club once to pick up your new Badge, then enjoy the convenience it brings!
Let Me Tell You How it was back in ought 6.
By: Randy Parker, PSC Rifle Director
I wasn’t around back in 1906, but I was probably around when your grandpa was a kid. Back when I was a kid when you thought about an “air gun” you were thinking about a Red Rider BB gun or a Benjamin pump-up pellet gun. These were used mainly by kids to have fun and maybe kill a sparrow or maybe a rat if you were lucky. Back then you wanted a .22 to do real shooting, and a box of .22 ammo was about $0.50 to $0.60 per box of .22 Long Rifle. Yes, and gasoline was $0.20 per gallon. We have come a long way since then, and “air gun” technology has also come a long way.
Back in 1800 there was the Girardoni air rifle and one or several of these were taken along with the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1803. The Girardoni air rifle was a .46 caliber air gun producing a 1,000 ft per second muzzle velocity and could penetrate a 1” pine board at 100 yards. This rapid-fire rifle could shoot 22 times in less than one minute with high accuracy! Way better performance than the muzzle loading muskets of the time. Some of these air guns were used in European battles around 1790 to 1800. It is kind of amazing that there was not any investment in further development of air guns as a battlefield weapon. Anyway, after the Lewis and Clark Expedition air guns pretty much disappeared and we were left with the Red Rider BB gun.