An update from CEO Iain Parker and Chairman John Martin

Dear CPSA members,

John and I hope you and your families are all keeping safe and well in these difficult times, after what was an unusually quiet Easter for us all due to the Stay at Home and Save Lives directive. The expression being used is 'We will get through this' and of course we will and I wanted to take a moment and look ahead to busier and happier times for our sport, grounds, and members.

Over the past three weeks of lockdown we have both been talking to many of you with questions over membership, the competition calendar, and topics such as our classification system. 
Regarding the competition calendar, Clare in Championships is working on re-scheduling the events we have postponed to 2021. As soon as we have each one confirmed we will make an announcement and convert bookings from this year to next. The 2021 calendar is a work in progress and we are working with the other associations to produce a draft calendar.

We are looking forward to the summer in the hope that we will be able to shoot again and still plan to hold the DTL Weekend competitions at Bywell, the British Open English Skeet at NCSC, and the British Open English Sporting at Garlands. 

We also working on the idea of a special one-off 2020 Charity competition for our NHS and emergency services. We’ve spoken with some grounds and have interested sponsors and will keep you updated if we can get something in place for the back end of the summer or early autumn. 

We want to thank you for your continued support. As you will know we are a not-for-profit membership association and membership fees make up the majority of our annual income. If our membership numbers drop drastically during this time then the less we can do in terms of regional support, support to grassroots initiatives, England teams, and the annual competitions across the disciplines. Even during this lockdown we are pleased to see members renewing and even new members joining knowing they can’t go and shoot right now.

John and I would like thank every member for your continued support of the CPSA and your sport. Your member benefits still continue during this time including insurance, shotgun certificate revocation or renewal refusal insurance (for Full members), and monthly Pull! magazine.  

We are working on various issues in our sport and shooting that continue even during this time with our fellow associations and with our membership of the BSSC. One key topic we wanted to bring to members' attention is that of shotgun license renewal. All the police forces are under increased pressure with reduced staff levels across licensing departments. Some are suspending new grants of licenses, and certificate holders should expect much longer processing times for renewals. With this in mind we are advising members to be aware of your local police force's procedures – they do differ force to force – and apply in plenty of time to avoid the potential issue of your licence expiring and then having to find suitable and legal storage for your guns. If you have any questions please contact us at info@cpsa.co.uk and we can give any updated advice we have and point you in the right direction.  

We’d like to thank all of those shooters who have sent in videos for our website to help keep us all entertained. If you haven’t seen them please check them out on our Facebook page at facebook.com/cpsauk/videos. We are also working on setting up social media competitions, so keep an eye out for those. 

Our thoughts are with our NHS, emergency services, and all the key workers who are keeping the country going at this time. John and I would also like to send our wishes to all those who have personally been affected and continue to battle this terrible virus. 

Stay safe, stay well and thank you again for your continued support of the CPSA.

Yours sincerely,
 
Iain Parker                John Martin
CPSA CEO                CPSA Chairman