MEMBER'S GUIDE

By ADTA Founding Member Chad Hiatt

Your membership and successful background check permit you to participate in our live-fire range events (more on that, below). As we're a non-profit, volunteer organization, annual or monthly membership dues only go to our club operations -- materials, range agreements, insurance and operations, development programs, community outreach, and so forth.

Your membership in the ADTA is subject to our Membership Terms & Conditions. It's important that you read and understand these terms before participating in our activities, and to indicate you accept these terms via your Profile. In short, we all understand we're participating in potentially dangerous activities, with potentially serious consequences (even death) if we don't keep safety foremost in our minds. I know you'll accept your own important role in that responsibility.

Our operations are governed by our Constitution and By-Laws, available for you to read in the For Members section of our web site.  ADTA is managed by a seven-member Board of Directors, who are directly elected annually from and by the ADTA members. As an ADTA member, you're welcome to attend, listen, and contribute at any of our board meetings.

Free Membership Meetings & Seminars

Every month we hold FREE Public Workshops. Topics vary, and are typically presented by our own members. All Workshops are open to the public; we invite you to bring your friends and family. 

If you normally carry a firearm, you're welcome to do so at our Workshops. Our meetings are supervised by our ADTA Range Safety Officers (RSOs), who will ask you at the door if you're carrying a firearm. If you are, and you don't intend to either exhibit it or participate in any hands-on activities, you're welcome to keep it holstered on you through the meeting. If you do intend to exhibit it, or participate in any hands-on activities, we have an unloading station where you can unload and demonstrate that your firearm is clear. Our Range Safety Officers will then flag your firearm as clear and securely hold your ammunition for you to pick up at the end of the meeting. We use brightly-colored flagging tape for each weapon that's been verified clear by our RSOs. If at any meeting you see a firearm being handled that is not flagged, we ask you bring it to our immediate attention.

Live-Fire Events

As a member in good standing, I encourage you to participate in our live-fire range events. The ADTA maintains agreements with several ranges in the area. On our scheduled dates and times, we book out the entire range area. With our own range safety officers supervising, our member instructors will help you through warm-up exercises, then skill-building drills throughout the event in groups, small groups, or as one-up shooting stages. We don't do competitions; you're only working to learn and improve at your own pace, participating in the exercises you're comfortable with.

We run our events as a "cold range," meaning all firearms must be and remain unloaded, and cased or holstered. You may not handle handle a firearm except under the direction of an RSO, or when you're at the designated firing position and are instructed to, "load and make ready," by the event instructor. You are welcome to carry and load magazines and speedloaders at any time, but you may not insert magazines or rounds into your firearm until you are instructed to "load and make ready". Don't worry -- we're a friendly and helpful group, and we'll walk through our procedures with you at each event. If you have any questions, please ask.

If you'd like to arrive at the event carrying your regular firearm already loaded, please leave it holstered. Our RSOs will give you the supervised opportunity to safely unload your carry firearm before the start of the event's exercises, so we can confirm the range is cold before we begin.

Most of our exercises focus on semi-automatic pistols. We encourage you to bring your semi-automatic pistol, an appropriate muzzle-down belt holster, at least two magazines, a two-magazine belt pouch, and ammunition. We'll supply the targets and event-specific supplies. If you'd like to bring a revolver, please bring a holster for it, and at least two speed-loaders with belt pouches. Most exercises entail discharging ten to twenty rounds per drill, so it's important you can reload at the line to get the most benefit from the event. If you don't yet have your own equipment, let us know ahead of time, and we'll try to make accommodations so you can participate and still learn -- many of our members have extra gear they can bring to help. If you'd like to bring more than one firearm, ask an RSO for help if you'd like to change the firearm you have holstered during the event -- your other firearms should remain unloaded and cased. 

Range Safety Officers and Instructors

We all want to learn, and we all want to ensure we do so safely. Our volunteer ADTA Range Safety Officers (RSO) help out at all of our events that include firearms. Range Safety Officers wear bright yellow vests -- be sure to tell them, "thank you!" for helping out.

Would you like to learn to be an ADTA Range Safety Officer? Each year, we hold a free one-day hands-on class for ADTA members that want to become RSOs. Candidate RSOs then apprentice at events under the direction of an established RSOs. RSOs are then vetted and accepted by the board of directors.

Our live-fire and dry-practice events are led by volunteer member-Instructors. Instructors wear bright orange vests. Instructors defer to the Range Safety Officers, but otherwise, they configure the skill-building portions of our live-fire events, and help you develop your own skills. They're sharing their own knowledge and experience, and are open to your feedback and discussions of alternatives and techniques after the event. Let's all grow and learn!

Do you have firearms skills you'd like to share with the group? Ask any Instructor how to get started.

As an organization, we maintain liability insurance that reasonably protects our organization, our leadership, our volunteers, and our members when helping with or participating in ADTA activities. We have a clean safety record, and we all work hard to maintain an awareness and adherence to safety throughout our learning -- I know you'll do the same.

Online Resources

Because we're all volunteers, we use our website and e-mail for most all of our coordination. It makes things self-service, and we try to continually develop our web content to keep it interesting to members and prospective members alike. If you have an idea for an article or content on our web site, let us know; we'll help outline the idea out and get it up online for everyone to benefit from.

Events are posted online in our Upcoming Events Calendar. Register for events right through our website. In most cases, we can't accept registrations at the door -- by then, we're focused on presenting the event's content.

Membership dues and event payments are also collected electronically, online, via our web site. We use PayPal for electronic payment processing -- you don't need to sign up for a PayPal account, as PayPal lets you pay as a guest with a credit card without requiring registration. You'll receive an e-mailed receipt. We can't accept payments by cash or check. We can accept online payments anytime, and in-person credit card payments at the end of our regular membership meetings (but not at our live-fire events).
 
Each month, we send out an e-mail newsletter update of upcoming events, recent activities, and updated content.

Our online Members Directory is a quick way to find fellow ADTA members. Please update your own Profile with information you'd like to share in the directory.

Inviting Friends and Family to Learn

We think it's everyone's duty as responsible and capable adults to be prepared to defend themselves and their loved ones, to learn to protect innocent life, and to have the means to escape or end an imminent threat should it be necessary to do so. The skills we help each other develop are important to share with your friends and your family.

Forward our e-mail newsletter to other people you know; encourage them to visit our website (armeddefense.org) and click "Get Our E-Mails" to sign up to receive our announcements and updates.

Invite your friends and family to come with you to our regular monthly membership meetings and seminars, which are free and open to the public.

As a member, by prior arrangement and the approval of the event Instructor, you're also welcome to bring a guest to our live-fire events. Guests may not participate or handle firearms at live-fire events, but they can observe to learn if the ADTA would be valuable for them as well. If you'd like to bring a guest to an upcoming live-fire event, please inquire at the end of our regular monthly membership meeting.