Minutes: July 16, 2017 – Annual Meeting
The 07/16/17 Annual Meeting of the Wisconsin Trapshooting Association was called to order at 8:11 am by Jerry Farnsworth, President. Pledge of Allegiance
Roll Call – Directors present were N/E Josh Kroeplien, N/E Don Chrapla, S/E Jerry Kaszynski, N/W Tate Barwald, S/W Dan Horkan, S/W – President Jerry (Dewey) Farnsworth, ATA Delegate Kevin Doerring, 1st ATA Delegate Dwight Paulin. Absent for annual meeting was S/E Bill Marsden and 2nd ATA Delegate Fritz Thistle.
Dewey gave an update on Gordy Putman who had some medical issues a few days prior while shooting and asked for everyone’s prayers for him and his wife.
Secretary’s Report –
We do not currently have a secretary. If anyone is interested, please let us know.
Treasurer’s Report –
Jim went over the financial report. Jim received it on Thursday so he did not have time to call the accountant to ask some questions that he has. He also explained the general ledger report. There is $48,000 in one account that is set aside from the fundraiser last year. The $7800 amount is set aside for lighted fields. Before the start of the state shoot, we had $2100 in the account. This is the first year that we have not to beg for money for the facility to run.
The money from Ray’s estate had to go directly to the note. That leaves a balance of $767,000 at Summit Bank. The loan was re-amortized and the payment went from $9500 to $4800. We still owe Recob’s about $100,000.
Dwight asked if we received the money for the kid shoots. We waited 2.5 weeks to get the SCTP payment. As of Wednesday last week, the check had not arrived from Clay Target League. Next year we will change the invoicing and they will pay ahead of time. Clay Target League reported that they mailed the check to the Akron Drive address which we do not receive mail at.
Chops asked about the building fund money that was listed on the financial report. Jim said he has many questions on that financial report and he questioned the same thing.
Our current accounting firm is not willing to keep our business after this year. They want everything separate and therefore are not willing to continue with our account. Jean Reeb looked for an accountant last year and she gave that contact information to Jim who has already met with him.
Paul Becker made a motion to accept the Treasurer’s Report. Mary Bleiler seconded it. Paul withdrew his motion.
Ken Cerney suggested not accepting the Treasurer’s report due to the questions on the report. John Conniff suggested to accept the general ledger as that is very clear and shows our day-to-day activities.
John Conniff made a motion to authorize the BOD to approve the financial report. Dan Horkan seconded it. Two nay; Motion Carried.
Dewey thanked everyone for helping and for everyone attending. Bill Martin made a donation of $50,000 to go towards the building. Hunter Farms made a donation of $30,000 to go towards the general fund. Hunter Farms will be listed on two trap fields. Without donations, we would not be able to put up the building by next year. Thanks to everyone.
Old Business:
- Ken Cerney asked why there was not an event named after Ray Moser. Sandy Jack stated that there was no money to pay for that sponsor fee. Sandy went out to get sponsors for the events. Dewey contacted past directors to see if there was money set aside and they all said no. Paul Becker said that Sandy did what she needed to do. Paul said it is something to think about for next year. Woody stated that Moser’s event should still be listed in the future. John Coniff suggested to put the sponsorship fees on the website right away so that people know how much is costs to sponsor.
- Ken Cerney asked why Denny has not been paid. This has been discussed multiple times in the past. It was voted unanimously in the past by the BOD. Dick Otto stated that this is a bullshit action and he will go to his grave with it. Jim pulled out some numbers for May to Oct 2016, we took in $3000 shells, $9300 trap, $7400 bunker, $4900 camping income = $24,000. Denny was paid the first two months. Arlene stated that it is in the minutes as to what was agreed upon to pay Denny. Dewey stated that he met with Denny and reminded everyone that the BOD already voted not to pay Denny. John Coniff suggested that we take a vote of everyone here and see who wants to pay Denny. Rachel Kroeplien reminded that the secretary and treasurer have not taken a paycheck for over three years, so are they going to be paid too?Ken would like to make a motion to the general membership with ballots whether to pay him or not to pay him and to work out a payment schedule. Bruce Wiegmann seconded it. Mary Bleiler stated that you cannot do it because it has already been voted on.A member asked if you have an employee that doesn’t come to work you don’t pay him…whether or not they were sick or anything. Others stated that we had volunteers to cover for Denny to take his place pay free. We have paid Denny full wage until last year. Paul Becker stated that he isn’t sure legally if the general membership can override the board as they are elected officials. A member asked if we had gotten any legal advice about this. Dan Horkan stated that he spoke to an attorney in Madison about this and said that if he was a contractor he would need to provide his own insurance. Don Larson stated that he doesn’t think we can reverse the decision of the board and we can sling arrows all day long sitting here. So, some simple calculations show that if everyone throws $50 buckets in a bucket and we pay Denny that way. A box was passed around for donations for Denny.
Chops stated that it is hard enough to get people on this board and if you don’t like the decisions that the board makes, get on the board.
Ken Cerney withdrew his motion to pay Denny based on the box being passed around to pay Denny. If you don’t like what the Board is doing, then get someone on the Board that you want.
Andy Hall says let’s get his donation done and the topic never be raised again. We need to support our Board.
Don Larson will collect all the funds for Denny’s donation. Arlene Otto will assist in this. The box was passed around and $3378 was raised for Denny during the meeting.
- Dwight asked about past event winners being removed and worrying about losing the history in the state shoot program. The information needs to be to the printer by February 1st in order to get the books printed before pre-squad opens. Steve Keeley stated that the book might be too fancy for us right now. It is expensive and he thinks we should do something cheaper. In the first two days of the shoot, 600 books were taken out of squadding. The membership would be fine to go back to black and white instead of color books. Rachel asked if it would be fine to not mail out the program to the entire membership but mail a newsletter with the information and also utilize the ATA to use an email list. Everyone agreed with this.Jim asked how many people read the newsletter that was sent out this spring. A large number of members raised their hands. Amy stated that 32 people emailed her to get on the group text and email list.
Bylaws:
Rachel went through the changes to the bylaws.
- Steve Berres made a motion to accept the changes to the bylaws. Don Mittag said that we cannot vote on these bylaws because they need to be sent out 30 days prior by the Secretary. Jim stated that we cannot continue to run with vacant director positions as he has busted his butt this week due to not enough directors. If we are not going to vote on these bylaws he will resign. Steve amended his motion to bypass the current standing bylaw (to not mail out to the membership 30 days prior to the meeting) so that we can vote to accept them today. Gary Witzke seconded them. 11 nay. Motion carried.
- The ATV club wants to put in some additional 4-wheeler trails on our property. Chops is working directly with the club to get this taken care. Glen Hammerly said that the 40 is listed commercial so may want to check into that. Jim will look up to see if this 40 is also in field management. Randy Benverise made a motion to accept the trails going through the property. Don Larson seconded. So carried.
Nominations and elections of Zone Directors.
S/W Zone was Laverne Lehman
S/E Zone was Jerry Kaczinsky
N/W was Tate Barwald
N/E zone was Josh Kroeplien
Bill Boyd made a motion to accept the elections. Reuben Stark seconded it. So carried.
With the bylaw change; if there is someone that is willing to be a director they can step forward.
Rick Tesker made a motion to have Kevin Doerring as ATA Delegate. Bill Boyd seconded it.
Ken Cerney made a motion to close the nominations and to accept Kevin. Gary Witzke seconded. So carried.
Steve Keeley made a motion to have Dwight Paulin remain as Alternate Delegate. Steve Berres seconded it. Dewey would like to nominate John Filtz. John declined. Ken Cerney made a motion to close nominations and to accept Dwight. So carried.
Kevin Doerring nominated Fritz Thistle for 2nd Alternate Delegate. Steve Keeley seconded it. Ken Cerney made a motion to close nominations and to accept Fritz. So carried.
October 14 is National Trapshooting Day. Gary Witzke from Berlin said that they will be holding a shoot that day and all money will be given to the WTA. He challenges the other 31 clubs to have a shoot and give their proceeds to the WTA as well.
Paul Becker gave an update from the Friday night fish fry and auction. We gave away 54 flats of shells for a total of $3375. YZ jewelry booth brought in $930. Sandy’s raffle brought in $1350. The 50/50 raffle brought in $730. Other raffles brought in $1800 and $540; silent auction $4300, Kolar gun brought in $40,000, the live auction brought in $44,000 plus another $50,000 donation from Bill Martin. The total came in at $147,908. Paul’s goal was $150,000 so he passed his hat to see if we could raise another few thousand dollars. We raised approximately $152,000.
DNR has approved the $16,000 for the lighted fields. We have to spend the money first before we can get reimbursed.
Chops gave a short presentation and diagram of the building that we are looking at building before next year. Chops asked for any volunteers that have skills in plumbing, electrical, etc. to help out and save money and to get ahold of someone on the committee. Dewey met with the town administrator this week and the Town of Rome has no problem approving our building. They want to see us succeed.
Amy gave numbers for the weekend for total shooters: 411 in doubles, 676 in singles, and 532 are squadded for handicap today which will be 1619.
Laverne Lehman made motion to adjourn meeting, Bruce Wagner seconded. Meeting adjourned at 1010.
Board Meeting
Kevin Doerring made a motion for Dewey to remain President for 2018.
So carried.
1st Vice President
Josh made a motion for Tate; he declined. Dewey made motion for Josh. Yes, accepted.
2nd Vice President
Dewey nominated Tate he declined. Dewey nominated Jerry. Yes, accepted.