Minutes: February 29, 2020
WTA Meeting
February 29, 2020
Sherwood Lodge
The 02/29/20 face to face Board of Director’s meeting of the Wisconsin Trapshooting Association was called to order at 9:02 am by Fritz Thistle, President. Directors present were N/E Don Chrapla and YZ Weisensel, N/W Keith Lehmann and Rich Johnson, S/W LaVerne Lehmann, ATA Delegate Kevin Doerring, 1st Alt. Delegate Dwight Paulin, 2nd Alt. Delegate Fritz Thistle, Executive Assistant/Shoot Coordinator Amy Jenkins. Absent is S/E Bob Ebbers, S/E Ron Rousseau and Treasurer Taylor Katzenberg.
Also present at the meeting:
Tate Barwald, Chops, Don Wagner, Gary DeSmidt, Glen Grabski, Brian Giese, Steve Genrich
Meeting started at 9:02 am.
OLD BUSINESS:
Wifi/TV/Responder – TV Antennae:
Kevin is still trying to get ahold of Tom and put him in contact with Chops. Tom has not been responding to Kevin’s calls. He will keep trying.
EVR water/electric:
Fritz would like to see the water line get buried at least. The quote from the last meeting was $8700 and we would need to supply the labor and the digging and the posts. We would not be able to do the electric at this time due to the cost. Chops would need five guys to help out. Chops had the quote and Fritz signed the quote and Amy will scan it to the contractor, Van Dreel Plumbing and Heating. We will need 24 pressure treated 4×8 posts. The contractor does not work on Saturdays so this project will have to be done during the week.
Don made a motion to get the water lines buried to discontinue the hoses on east vendor row. Rhino seconded. So carried.
HSCTL National Shoot RFP:
Nothing to report.
Campground Website Development/Online System:
The system is working great. Many reservations are being made at this time. See amount of deposits below in Treasurer’s report. Amy stated that the system is working very smoothly and it is very user friendly. Amy said that she will need a couple of tablets to be used for the camphosts this summer to check in campers. We likely will need a hotspot as well. It was determined that Amy should purchase what is needed. Amy will watch for some deals on tablets and get them purchased before the season starts.
Strategic Plan:
John and Fritz will be finalizing this very soon.
NEW BUSINESS:
Secretary’s Report:
Amy stated that the shoot calendar has been mailed out; Fritz received his yesterday. Amy had talked with Glenn Hammerly and he suggested that the Manager position order the soda for the building. Amy gave the contact information to Glen Grabski to order soda for the 2020 shooting season. Amy stated that the Kolar tickets are now available for purchase. She had them in Tucson and sold over 50 down there. They are available for $100 and 400 tickets are being sold this year. Anyone interested in purchasing a ticket can contact Amy.
Amy reminded everyone that we need to add the double pedestal on 143.75 before the camping season. Chops will try to get a hold of Bob regarding this.
Treasurer’s Report:
Taylor was absent but sent the reports and summary. There is a balance of $31,910.89 in the Homegrounds Account, $104,328.53 in the Checking Account, and $7,843.38 and $5613.86 in the savings accounts. All deposits and payments have been entered to date. Deposits were $12,110.00 for February from the new online camping reservation system. We have received $2,200 for state shoot ads for the program so far Amy still has some that are outstanding waiting to be paid yet.
Rhino made a motion to approve the Treasurer’s report. LaVerne seconded it. So carried.
SCTP/Kettle Moraine:
Gary DeSmidt was present to talk about the price increases. He asked why the prices were increased by $1 for target prices. He asked if there was something that could be done for the price increase; maybe 50 cents. SCTP has the option to pull the registered target fees to keep the costs down, but they are hoping they do not have to do that. He stated they are not in this to make money; everyone is a volunteer for the organization. Fritz said that target prices wasn’t the only reason we raised prices; he stated that we are no longer operating out of the hoop building and have a great new building. Our taxes have increased and we have to be able to operate and be able to make money. Fritz apologized for misspeaking at the conference meeting as he stated no price increases. He stated in addition, the price that we pay for the scorers and loaders have increased as well. Chops stated that many of the SCTP shooters are shooting high end shot guns, have brand new campers and vehicles and asked how many shooters they would lose for a $1 increase and Gary said probably none.
Gary reported that Maddy Bernau is in Tucson right now for the Olympic tryouts and is currently in 4th place.
LaVerne made a motion to leave the target prices the same for Kettle Moraine and SCTP shoots ($1 increase) that were set at the last meeting. YZ seconded.
Noise Ordinance:
Fritz checked on the noise ordinance from the Town of Rome. We will need to ask the town for a variance for our shootoffs. Fritz will see if we can get a variance to end shootoffs at 10pm.
WACO – WTA Campground; Homegrounds RV Park
Fritz will talk to this organization so that they know that our name has changed but that they are still working with the same place.
Campers/Trailers Parking on the Line for Youth State Shoots:
Amy has been receiving calls from schools for HSCTL and SCTP about wanting to park their team trailers on the line for their state shoots. Much discussion was held about how we would be able to reserve sites on the line without knowing how many vendors each organization would need and/or what sites will be available on the line. In addition, the trap assignments have not been assigned so it would be very difficult to reserve sites on the line at this time. The decision was made to offer parking on the line on a first come first serve basis at the time of the event. This may cause some confusion for this year and we may have to change our process for next year but since the sites on the line are not in the online camping reservation system there is not a way to reserve these sites online.
Carts and UTVs:
Rich bought a golf cart for $2300. Don found two gators and purchased them. WTA bought one and the Friends bought one. We now have 4 carts and two UTVs. Amy will increase the rentals to 15 (instead of 10) on the website. Chops said that if we need to add more carts for the SCTP weekend, they can be added as long as he has about a 3 day notice. Carts will need to be delivered on Thursdays before HSCTL and SCTP; for the state shoot Chops will see if we can get them on the Friday prior if possible.
LNPAF Practice:
They will start practice at the end of March. They will likely be practicing on Monday nights. Glen will be out on medical so will need some coverage. They will start practice about 5pm. The batteries are out of the wireless speakers as well. Fritz and Glen will get things ready. The contract was signed last August for the spring league.
State Shoot:
- Shoot Program – The program content was finalized with John and Amy. Amy sent all the ads to Deana this past week. Deana will be placing the ads and then getting it to the printer as soon as possible. The goal will be to have them mailed out by early April. Rhino thought this would not be a problem.
- Camping – Camping is full for the state shoot.
- Trap Mechanic – Myron Bumstad still has not had his shoulder surgery. Fritz talked to Chuck Hilgendorf and he is not interested at this time. Jon King will come over this spring and likely be interested in being the trap mechanic for the state shoot. Al Arner and Dave Miller will be coming up in the spring to go through the traps. Tate gave an update on the springs being tested at Tucson. He went through the traps with Vince when he was down there and got an explanation on how long they are lasting and the pros and cons of them. Tate suggested that we not even think about going to springs at this time; there is just not enough reason to switch to them at this time for the cost.
- Golf Carts – A different quote was received from Master Carts, LLC and the decision was made to utilize them for our rentals this year. Right now, we have reserved 20 carts for HSCTL weekend (2 days); 20 carts for SCTP weekend (3 days) and 40 carts for the State Shoot (6 days). The total was $6800. The amount may change a bit if we need the carts to be delivered earlier. This is a huge savings versus what we received for a quote from Jim’s Carts.
Nekoosa Youth Services:
Brian introduced Steve Genrich who is a math teacher at the school and is a trapshooter and is willing to help out this season. Brian wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to run the program this year due to his vehicle; however, YZ is going to take a look at it and see if he can get it fixed. Brian presented a break down from the costs last year and where the money was disbursed to. He presented a break down for 2020 contracted services. The proposal is for $80,000 for the 2020 season. This is an increase of $10,000 from 2019. Also to consider that HSCTL is scheduled to go an extra day this year and the SCTP bunker championship will be the day prior to the SCTP state shoot.
Rich made a motion to pay the $80,000 that Nekoosa is asking for the 2020 shooting season. YZ seconded it. So carried.
Round Table:
Fritz:
John Denman has a CNC machine and can make some plaques and items for us if needed.
Bunker repair is finished. It cost $2500 to repair the motors.
The new learning center has been assessed at $277,200 and the well and septic were assessed at an additional $2500 each, for a total assessment of $282,200. These new assessments have increased the property taxes by $6000, which is a 20.9% increase. Open book is scheduled for May 18 and Board of Review is June 8.
LP usage for last January to March was $1801. This fall it was filled on 11/12/19 and 01/13/20 of $260. It was only down 10% when Fritz checked it. Electric bills are way down as well. This is the difference since the building was insulated.
Fritz will be attending a wildlife seminar at the end of March.
WAMS report has been filed; this is for the water usage. We will need to run the other well again this year.
Youth invitational – Fritz thinks that we could start something like this at our grounds. Chops said that the Bear Hunters would likely sponsor this. They are willing to donate money for youth shooting.
Chops:
Are we putting a sign down on Akron and Z? Fritz said that it has to be the little arrow one (not big ones like on Hwy 13).
YZ:
He will be painting the golf carts and the gators and would like to have them done by the end of April.
Rich:
He will order the sticker paper and print the labels for the golf carts for the state shoot.
Don Wagner:
He will not be able to be there early when the beer distributors deliver the product for the state shoot/bar. He will be able to help with the bar but would like to have some free time. Fritz said that we would look at hiring some bartenders to ease up his free time.
Don Chrapla:
He asked Don if he and Bruce would be available to help finish the cart path if we could get the grading done. Don said yes they would be willing to help.
He went through the witrapshooters website on things that need to be updated. Amy will clean up as time allows.
Tate:
He suggested determining if we want to do the brine again this year. Fritz said that we will need to do it again. He said if someone comes up to do the grading of the cart path, might want to cut the pot holes in the main drive and then lay the brine after that.
Gary DeSmidt:
He asked if John Coniff had the raffle tickets for the youth events.
Amy:
Gave an update on the food vendors that Glen has scheduled for the season so far.
Updated that we should have a popcorn machine donated for the building.
Next meeting is April 11th at 9am at Sherwood.
LaVerne made a motion to adjourn. Don seconded. So carried.
Meeting adjourned at 12:04pm.