The Queensland branch of the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia (SSAA) risks being dumped from the national organisation after refusing to pay its subscription fees in what appears to be a growing split in Australia’s largest shooting association.
SSAA QLD recently announced it will no longer provide SSAA’s Australian Shooter magazine to its members, who will instead receive an in-house magazine, The Report.
The state association is no longer providing members’ mailing details to the national body, SSAA Inc, and no longer lists Australian Shooter as a membership benefit, citing The Report instead.
In a meeting of SSAA Inc’s national board last weekend, it was revealed that SSAA QLD was six months behind on its membership subscriptions.
“This puts them well outside constitutional timeframes to remain a member of the national association,” SSAA Inc president Andrew Judd said.
“SSAA QLD will be given a short period of time to bring its payments up to date or it will cease to be a member of the national association.”
He said he was “extremely disappointed” by Queensland’s decision to stop sending Australian Shooter to its members.
“This is a decision of the SSAA QLD executive,” he said.
QUEENSLAND DENIES THERE’S A SPLIT
Tim Bannister, managing editor of SSAA QLD publications, denied there was split, and said the Queensland association did not agree that it was in arrears with its contributions.
Bannister was formerly in charge of publications at SSAA Inc and more recently the organisation’s CEO, and is now one of the drivers behind the changes at SSAA QLD.
“Each state pays for services, it’s just that currently there are no obvious services being provided to Queensland from SSAA,” he said. “They’re not processing our membership, not doing our lobbying, not doing a magazine, not doing the insurance.”
He said Queensland had given notice of its intentions and that as it was not receiving services from SSAA Inc it did not expect to have to pay for them.
He said the changes are not a sign of a break-away but were “more Queensland taking charge of its administration, accounting, memberships, insurance and media”.
He believes The Report is better value for Queensland SSAA members because it can focus on issues directly related to the shooting and hunting culture in the state.
Queensland still has its place on the SSAA Inc board as one of the legal entities that makes up the national body, Bannister said, and would continue its role there.
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SSAA INC AND SSAA QLD?
The federalised structure of SSAA means individual members are part of their respective state or territory associations, and not directly members of the national body, which is made up only of the state/territory associations.
The state and territory associations are their own legal entities set up variously as companies limited, incorporations etc.
Members pay their fees to their respective state associations, which in turn pay approximately half of those fees to SSAA Inc. Those funds pay for Australian Shooter, insurance cover and other services — except in Queensland’s case now.
Queensland has made the decision go its own way for all those services, retaining membership fees for the purpose rather than pooling them in SSAA Inc.
The state bodies have always lobbied on state-based issues, while SSAA Inc has generally focussed on federal issues, but Queensland has established its own national lobbying organisation, the Australian Shooters Alliance.
Queensland has around 80,000 members and millions of dollars worth of assets in the form of ranges and other infrastructure.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
At this point it is not clear how the situation will play out, nor whether it will go to court, but Andrew Judd said “the board cannot allow this situation to continue”.
SSAA Inc will not want to lose those members, which represent almost 40% of the national total. However, what recourse it has will be found in the SSAA constitution and, more importantly, Australian associations law.
“In the event that SSAA QLD do not make good on their obligations, the SSAA Inc board decided on a path to allow Queensland members to remain members of the Australian SSAA family and to retain all of the benefits of SSAA membership should they choose to do so,” Judd said.
“Details of this arrangement will be released when it is appropriate to do so.
“In the meantime, Queensland members should contact the SSAA national membership office on (02) 8805 3900 to indicate their interest in this option.”
He added SSAA Inc was also looking at how to ensure Queensland members could continue to get Australian Shooter.
Reaction from members has been mixed, with some Queenslanders supportive of the changes but others not so.
The switch from Australian Shooter to The Report, along with other recent moves, was approved last year at the SSAA QLD AGM. All the same, many Queensland members say they had not heard the news until now.
In an irony of timing, the change in Queensland magazines comes just as Australia Shooter has benefitted from a major redesign that Queenslanders will not see.
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