2025 Year in ReviewMaryland saw significant improvement in 2025 over the two prior years thanks to the hard work of our volunteers.
- 27 conducted clinics, including 19 standard 25m events, 4 pistol clinics, and 4 200-yard RKDs (the most RKDs we have ever done in one year).
- 247 students on the line, a ~20% improvement over 2024 and a 30% improvement over 2023. It exceeded our goal of 240 and nearly hit our stretch utilization goal. We are still below our average (277 from 2014 to 2025) and our best years which have been in the 300s and 400s. But it is an improvement.
- 11 sell outs (way above our average of 7) and 14 sold out/nearly sold out events (above our average of 10). As you might guess, that meant our utilization was also high at nearly 70%! That was consistent across our ranges – we didn't have any ranges that had trouble filling lines. Our capacity was down a little bit from last year (359 from 390) but we were more efficient.
- Pistol Clinics were back on track this year in terms of utilization (83%!) after a down year in 2024. We had two fewer clinics (we had to cancel one in December due to range repairs out of our control) and hope to add a few more in 2025. We are looking to add a pistol event to an existing range (Sudlersville) to get us to the Eastern Shore with that class type. Thank you to Lycos and kniwolf for continuing to spearhead the Maryland Pistol program
- New range in 2025 after years of pursuit – Federalsburg. It is pretty rural so there is not a huge capacity for students, but an area we have not reached before.
- 27% of our rifle clinic attendees scored Rifleman and almost the same percentage Pistoleer™. While this is not a primary driver of success, we want our students to feel their marksmanship is improving. There were several multi-event attendees that finally broke through this year and their smiles for earning that patch are always rewarding. We also maintained our Distinguished average.
- Two of our SBs were promoted to DSB – Agent711 and Lycos! Phoebe also earned her Green Hat at our Ladyseed. We picked up two new IITs as well.
2026 Outlook and Plan of AttackMost of our events are already on the schedule but we have a few ranges (Thurmont) and event dates (Sudlersville) to finalize. With America250 coming up, we hope to continue to pump attendance numbers. The 250th Anniversary shirts, targets, events, and promotions absolutely helped in 2025.
- We should set a goal to promote 2 Red Hats and recruit 4 IITs in 2026. I know it is the same goal as 2025 but since we missed the mark, lets try again. Our instructor cadre is extremely dedicated and experienced (congrats to Off_Paper for earning his 50 shoot pin in 2025 – Lycos should get there in 2026) but we need to add new blood AND committed instructors to our ranks. We had only 9 Engaged Instructors (3 or more events in 2025 – versus 12-13 the last 4 years) and we need a larger cadre to avoid burnout. Our student to instructor ratio at events went up to 2.7, which isn't too bad (sold out events will increase the ratio), but is increasing and above our 2014-2025 average of 2.4. Our Total Students to Engaged ratio is up to 27.4, the highest since 2019 – that means that same core group of instructors is carrying the load over 6 ranges and 27 events. And that doesn't count Off_Paper's work as a Shoot Boss in southeastern PA in 2025 and 2026 (signed up for 6 events). I know we have a couple new IITs (off our goal of 4) but we need to both keep them engaged to Red Hat (none added in 2026) AND recruit more.
- We should set a minimum goal for 260 shooters in 2026 and a stretch goal of 275. There were years when 300 seemed normal so we need to continue to work marketing and keep students coming back for more.
- Engage with host ranges to fill the lines. We have worked with DSA leadership to ensure that there is an unofficial "waiting list" of RKD participants that they maintain for whenever we need extra bodies or have folks drop out. Berwyn in Bowie bought out shoots and paid for range members to attend through club fees to encourage participation and make it beneficial to members. Getting automatic sell outs is a great!
- Pistol Clinic Relaunch. We need to build excitement about the changes to the pistol program and find new ways to attract students to come back and learn new skills. Even if the changes are not significant, it could help stimulate demand from past students. Probably host an IBC as well.
- Engage early and often with groups. We have a great relationship with Trail Life, Scouts, and The Leadership Institute and those groups sell out lines every time they come out. They have a ton of pent-up demand for at least one more clinic a year. The Gorman family alone should sell-out one shoot every single year. We should look for events with limited or no sign-ups and offer them to groups proactively. One or two more of those will help us drive utilization higher without constraining capacity for individual and family participants. We didn't schedule the Scouts till November – lets see if we can get them to buy an event out earlier.
Many thanks for all of the hard work that our volunteers are already putting in. When I read an AAR or work an event I am thankful for how blessed we are to have enthusiastic patriots on the team that care about setting a good example and delivering the best experience possible to our students. Setting these ambitious goals is about rewarding that hard work, not adding to it.
Open to other ideas, thoughts, and suggestions in this thread or via PM.
Outstanding summary with attainable goals for 2026... I cannot thank every one of our MD Cadre (and border raiders) enough for their continued dedication to the mission I couldn't be more proud of our program and look forward to a super 2026!
Also, for those interested in attending or repeating our mountain UKD weekend retreat, PENCIL the weekend of April 25-26 on your calendar... More comms will be coming via message soon