Southside Archery is an archery club with a bit of a difference. We are a non-affiliated club, that means that we aren’t associated with the governing bodies and instead are governed by our own constitution and policies and provide our own insurance. Now whilst this means we can’t participate in Scottish Archery or Archery GB competitions, it also means our costs are much lower and we have full control of how the club runs. We run for the benefit of our members, to allow them to participate in archery at the lowest cost possible and with a strong focus on wellbeing rather than competition. We are happy to welcome both adults and children over 12. Our club is also very social in nature, and that’s just the way we like it.
At Southside Archery we know that a lot of people who are interested in archery struggle to get involved and we know there are lots of barriers people come across when trying to get started.
Simply finding a club is a huge issue – many clubs are full and have long waiting lists to join them. Then if you are lucky enough to find a club with space, the costs involved are often massive! Firstly you need to pay for a beginners course which is often in the region of £75 then there are the club fees (which will include your affiliation fees) so you could be looking at around £200 just to become a member. You will also be forced to buy your own equipment within a set period of time (and you may need to pay to hire some to complete your beginners course!) and will have fees to pay every year.
At Southside Archery we feel strongly that cost should not be a barrier to taking up sport. We therefore provide all equipment needed for the use of our members – although of course members are welcome to buy their own as well, our coaching team are happy to provide advice on this.
We charge just £20 for our beginners course and our ongoing weekly fees are kept as low as possible for our members – we will never charge you a joining or annual fee and since we are a non-affiliated club, there are no affiliation fees to pay!
We have a fully qualified level 1 coach as well as a group of qualified instructors, so you are in safe hands if you come to shoot with us. Our coach also has plans to complete his level 2 coaching qualification and we are looking to put our instructors through their level 1. We also have welfare and child protection officers and are members of the PVG scheme too.
We run regular beginners courses which you can book from our website, or if you have already completed a beginners course with another club you may be able to join us without needing to complete our course as well, just get in touch with us and let us know about your previous experience.
In order to keep the club running and keep our costs as low as possible we rely on fundraising. We often receive grant support from Glasgow Life and have been lucky enough to be accepted for other grants over the years. We also run our own fundraising events when we can so that we can keep our members costs as low as possible.
One way you can help us do this is by using Easyfundraising when you shop online. When you shop at certain retailers, Easyfundraising will give us a donation based on how much you spend – 100% of that money comes straight to the club there is no fee for us or you to raise money this way and it doesn’t affect the amount you pay. All you have to do is sign up to them and use their site to direct you to where you want to shop, or you can download the handy donation reminder so that whenever you visit a participating site a reminder will pop up asking you to activate your donation. You can find out more by visiting our easyfundraising page https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/southsidearchery/
