ihmsa forums

Curious is that the true number of members at 300 worldwide that was mentioned in a earlier post?

Someone here can correct me if I am wrong. I asked the question 3 or 4 years ago at the delegates meeting and found out that international members are not counted in the total. There actually is no count as the foreign members do not pay membership dues to IHMSA.

The foreign countries pay a country affiliation fee to belong to IHMSA. This allows the foreign competitors to participate in our International/World Championship.

There has never been a worldwide head count. Only those in continental U.S. with the exception of maybe the Canadian shooters. The Ontario bunch was actually included in Region 3.

Jim K

I think back in Gates day, the membership numbers were always inflated. I never believed we had as many members as was hinted at back in the days of The Silhouette paper. And, like him or not, Gates really pushed this sport. I got the 300 number from various match directors in Texas that I personally asked. Is it the real number? Who knows? But I would bet we never get a real number from Headquarters. Hell, we can't even get a financial statement without bitching & moaning until they finally give us one to shut us up, I guess!

I have always felt that the membership numbers were inflated. My brother joined in April 1980, and his number is 11568. I joined 1 month later, and my number is 13794. You will never convince me that they signed up 2226 members in 1 month, and it was BOOMING back then ! When I became Louisiana State Director in 1995 , we had around 80 IHMSA members - today we have less than 10 ! The ship is sinking fast !

i am going to add. There are 600+ Life members listed. this is still being checked to see if they are still alive.

LOCKHART wrote: Wed Jan 20, 2021 3:22 pm I think back in Gates day, the membership numbers were always inflated. I never believed we had as many members as was hinted at back in the days of The Silhouette paper. And, like him or not, Gates really pushed this sport. I got the 300 number from various match directors in Texas that I personally asked. Is it the real number? Who knows? But I would bet we never get a real number from Headquarters. Hell, we can't even get a financial statement without bitching & moaning until they finally give us one to shut us up, I guess!

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LOCKHART wrote: Wed Jan 20, 2021 3:22 pm I think back in Gates day, the membership numbers were always inflated. I never believed we had as many members as was hinted at back in the days of The Silhouette paper. And, like him or not, Gates really pushed this sport. I got the 300 number from various match directors in Texas that I personally asked. Is it the real number? Who knows? But I would bet we never get a real number from Headquarters. Hell, we can't even get a financial statement without bitching & moaning until they finally give us one to shut us up, I guess!

I posted this in the announcements on August 16, 2020. This post sat fairly idle until it recently blew up.

Membership Totals
2018  411 dues paying members

2019  337 dues paying members

2020  274 dues paying members (The pandemic very well may have affected this year’s dues, but the declining trend is alarming. We are working on ways to contact previous members and publicizing our sport.)

Life Members  615 (We are working to find out who may have deceased.)

Doug, none of what I've said is in anyway an attack on you, or your wife. Being match director is usually a THANKLESS job, so I can only imagine what it's like to be President. I take my hat off to anyone being willing to take on positions in IHMSA today. I love this game, and plan on shooting in it to the very end, which may be coming sooner than we think.

You had me fooled.

Ouch!