Wisconsin Trapshooting Association

Teleconference Meeting on November 6, 2017

The teleconference meeting of the Wisconsin Trapshooting Association Board of Directors, was called to order at 6:34 by Jerry Farnsworth, President. Directors present were, S/E Dan Horkan and Jerry Kaszynski, N/W Tate Barwald and Phil Challoner, N/E Don Chrapla, and Josh Kroeplien, ATA Delegate Kevin Doerring, Treasurer Jim Kroeplien, Secretary/Shoot Coordinator Amy Jenkins. Absent was S/W Laverne Lehmann. Friends of the WTA present John Coniff.

Meeting started at 6:34.

Everyone was sent an email the other day with the information that Dewey and John met about. The agreement was drafted at the meeting that Dewey and John had regarding the FoWTA and what they were proposing going forward.  Dan said that conversations at the gun clubs are not real positive about this. Dan said all of his checks have been written to the WTA, but apparently his money isn’t going to the WTA. Dan said that his church had a fundraising organization but they never had their own 501C3. It doesn’t make sense to start another entity with the WTA, there is enough bad mouthing of the WTA the way it is already. Dan said it never ends. He thought we were going to build a building and he thought this was all taken care of months ago.

Josh stated that he agrees with Dan and it feels like everyone wants a piece of the pie. He feels like no one wants us as directors to run the organization. What’s to say there won’t be another group that is created to hold money. It looks like there could be multiple groups that hold all of the fundraising money. Dan said if we do this, it is like we are going to compete with each other.

John said he has been in both scenarios. He was involved where fundraising was done internally. Also, he was involved in an organization that the fundraise was done separately. They had their own checking account and paid their own taxes. He states it can work either way. He said it is designed to help the organization; not to cause conflict amongst the organization. Running the WTA is the BOD’s job but raising the money is their job. Dan said if the FoWTA was raising money for us, then why are we being asked to give the $100,000 back. John said that any 501C3 has to have a charitable component in order to be approved for it. If someone wants money from the FoWTA, that has to be approved by the BOD. Jim said that there was never a motion or approval by the BOD to form a second 501C3. Jim talked to the accountant today, to see if there was any benefit to adding a second 501C3. She said there must be some trust issues if someone did that because there is no reason to have a second 501C3. She said your business is nowhere near large enough to need that. She asked how this organization was created if it was never approved by the board.

John said he was sitting to the right of Paul Becker at a meeting and he asked if we wanted to move forward in this direction. John said that the record keeping wasn’t adequate for the fundraising that was being done. Josh said it is possible that the record keeping might be an issue but why would we create a separate organization with the same issues. John said that he got involved to try to help out.

Josh said that we asked for a statement from the bank account months ago. Josh said that we received three different sets of numbers and no one really knew how much money was in the account that the FoWTA had. John said that we have made so much progress since he got involved. Josh said back in March we had an agreement and now that isn’t good enough. Amy asked where the agreement was that was signed by Paul Becker and Jerry Farnsworth. No one knows or has seen this agreement. John believes it was sent to Dewey via the mail. Dewey remembers signing it, but doesn’t recall ever getting a hard copy of it. He remembers that the four members of the FoWTA and him and Jim needed to sign if the money wanted to be spent.

In March, we agreed to have a joint account or else Jim was resigning. One from each side had to sign in order to move the money. At the State Shoot, Jim was there to deposit money and what ended up happening, two of the FoWTA took money home with them and the funds were never turned in to the WTA. Jim wanted to know what would happen if he took thousands of dollars home with him. He knows he would no longer be a part of this organization.

According to the accountant, Jim is still liable for the money that is in the Two Rivers account; however he does not have control of the money. Jim asked where the money came from to set up the 501C3 and now it will cost us more money to pay taxes on that money. According to the agreement it is only valid until July 15, 2018.

Tate said that with only one person on the phone with the FoWTA we are getting nowhere.

Josh made a motion that we end this subject of having a 501C3 organization and another association like the FoWTA services. We will use our own WTA name only for fundraising. Dan seconded.

Don said he thinks we are biting ourselves in the foot if we aren’t going to have their four individuals fundraise for us.

John asked if we would like to go through the agreement before we end this.

Jim said why can’t you continue to fundraise for us without fighting for control of the money.

Kevin asked how long it will take to get the 501C3 for the FoWTA. Dewey said it was issued to them effective July 2017. Kevin stated this takes a long time to get and sometimes it takes at least a year. Tate questioned John that they have been working on this way before anyone knew about this or any motion was voted on by the board. Kevin remembered that Paul said something about this approximately in August 2016. Tate asked why this wasn’t brought up at the annual meeting. John said that he doesn’t run the general meeting. Amy stated that there is no agenda for the annual meeting and anything can bring up as a discussion. Tate said this needs to be voted on by the general membership.

Amy asked why the other members are not on the phone. John said he didn’t know it was not his day to watch them. Amy stated that she sent out the notification for the meeting, but no one said that they couldn’t make it. Dewey said everyone was aware of the urgency of the topic. He said that he talked to Jeff Mainland who said he would be in Tucson and thought that possibly Paul Becker would be there as well and they would call in together. John reported that he received a message from Paul during the call that he had a family emergency at was at the hospital so was unable to make the call.

Tate stated that there are some positives and some gray area. John asked what he meant by this. Tate said that someone needs to contact Chops and some of the other raffles to ensure that they are okay with the people that are donating to make sure they understand that the money is going to the FoWTA.

Jerry K. made a motion to end this phone call. He said that he can’t hear anything that goes on. Jerry doesn’t think this should be considered a formal meeting. Jerry asked about the $20,000 that they want to get money from the WTA so that they can buy the gun from the winner last year and then re-raffle it off. It seems like the guy is just looking to sell the gun and looking for a tax write-off. Tate said that we should just talk to Jeff Mainland and purchase the gun from him. He has been extremely generous in donating guns and we need to continue doing business with Jeff.

Jim said at the state shoot, he deposited Bill Martin’s money in to the WTA account immediately. Paul approached Jim and Dewey and asked where the money from Bill was because that was his money. The check was written to the WTA by Bill and he made it very clear that the money was for the building only.

John said he is hanging up now because he has to go watch football. He said that he has put in so much effort to try to make this right and try to make a better path forward.

Amy suggested that because the FoWTA cannot get a raffle license at this point, all of the tax documents need to be run through the WTA. She suggested that things stay at is until the state shoot, money stays where it is at and it be voted on by the general membership. Jim will have to complete all taxes in 2018 due to the FoWTA not having their own raffle license anyway.

Dewey suggested to have everyone at a face-to-face meeting on December 2^nd. Josh will withdraw his motion that was on the table and continue the conversation at that meeting..

Tate made a motion that all four members of the FoWTA need to be present at the December 2^nd meeting or it will not be discussed. Jim said we have to have a meeting in order to get the money back to do taxes. There is approximately $5000 in their account; however, John said less a disbursement. When asked what that was for, it was for the legal fees to get the 501C3 established. Josh said that there was no motion or vote on anyone spending money on legal fees for the FoWTA in order to obtain a 501C3 status.

Josh said that he was no longer withdrawing his motion. He was putting a motion on the table now.

Josh made a motion that the WTA does not have a second account or a second full-fledged entity. If the FoWTA want to report under the WTA under the shared account, that will be fine; just that it is not a separate entity. It will remain under the WTA as the fundraising committee. The FoWTA and BOD would need to agree in order to disburse money and would require signatures from both sides to write checks. Dan seconded.

Vote:
Don – yes
Tate – no
Dan – yes
Phil – yes
Kevin – no
Josh – yes
Jerry – yes

Motion carried. Tate explained why he voted no. He said that people can put their emotions away. He stated that this needs to be voted on by the general membership.

Dewey stated that we will still have the meeting on December 2^nd and we can get all of the board and all of the FoWTA so that everyone is aware of what is going on. Dewey said that it was voted on at the general membership annual meeting that there was $200,000 and it was agreed to move forward on the building. Dewey said there will be another draw needed soon for the building. John said he would not stab Dewey in the back and the money would be made available for the next draw for the building.

Meeting adjourned at 7:44.

Next face-to-face meeting will be December 2nd at Sherwood Lodge at 9am.