Minutes: May 9, 2020
WTA Meeting
May 9, 2020
Teleconference and In Person; due to COVID-19 Pandemic
The 05/09/20 teleconference Board of Director’s meeting of the Wisconsin Trapshooting Association was called to order at 9:05 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, S/E Bob Ebbers, ATA Delegate Kevin Doerring, 1st Alt. Delegate Dwight Paulin, 2nd Alt. Delegate Fritz Thistle, Treasurer Taylor Katzenberg, Executive Assistant/Shoot Coordinator Amy Jenkins. Absent is S/E Ron Rousseau.
Also present at the meeting:
Chops, John Coniff, Mike Martin, Catherine Johnson, Jeff Recob, Brian Giese, Glen Grabski
Meeting started at 9:05 am.
OLD BUSINESS:
Wifi/TV/Responder – TV Antennae: It is going to cost about $2000 to put up the two towers. Ron is still planning to donate $500 and YZ will also be donating. The tower will be on hold for now.
EVR water/electric:
This is still on hold. There was some plumbing issues when the water was turned on. All leaks have been repaired (3 leaks). A friend of Glen Grabski’s repaired everything. The bill should have been mailed to Taylor last week. The total was $478.31.
Strategic Plan:
No information.
NEW BUSINESS:
Secretary’s Report:
Russ Slaby contacted Amy about his lease. He would like to camp with his group of friends over the 4th of July holiday. He would like to leave his camper there until the state shoot. He would also like to extend his lease another ten years in order to give the WTA some more income. His current lease goes to 2024. If lease prices increase before then, he will owe the balance. Amy checked into the purchasing of a hot spot. She sent out the rates to Fritz and Taylor. However, due to the pandemic, there are no hot spots available. Amy turned on the campground cell phone and will try to see if it will work to tether off the cell phone to run the tablet for the camphost. The current plan has 2GB of data with it, so hopefully that will be enough to cover the tablet usage. Amy reported that she is receiving phone calls and emails on a daily basis asking about the zone shoots and state shoot being held.
Treasurer’s Report:
Taylor emailed the reports out yesterday. Balance is $124,000 in all accounts at this time. All the bills are paid. First half of the property taxes are paid. Chops asked if it would be feasible to refinance since interest rates are so low. Taylor said it could be something we should look into. It could definitely pay off in the long run. Jeff cautioned the possibility of changing banks at a time like this especially since Summit has been so good to us through the years.
Rhino made a motion to approve the Treasurer’s report. Rich seconded it. So carried.
Youth Shoot Schedule:
- The Kettle Moraine shoot has now been canceled.
- The SCTP state shoot scheduled for June is canceled. They are tentatively trying to reschedule for August 14 and 15, which is the last weekend of the Grand American. They would only be requesting loaders. The Friday and Saturday (may only be one day) will be at Homegrounds and Sunday would be at Sauk for Skeet. They would only be using 20 traps and would set up sporting clays on the east end. They are still discussing if it will be registered or not. Brian is willing to get kids to help load the houses if need be. Amy will notify Glenn Hammerly that the dates are tentative for possible food vendors. Brian asked if we should consider contacting someone from Adams County at the Health Dept to let them know about the large gathering. Brian gave the phone number to Fritz. Amy suggested getting a head count of who would be available since the majority of the directors would be at the Grand if it is held. Rich, John Coniff and Glen stated they would be available. Fritz said that Bill and Helen could assist with setting up the traps and Brian and Jim would also be available. Fritz stated he would come home early from the Grand if he needed to.
- HSCTL has requested June 12 and 13, 2021 to hold their shoot next year.
- USA Shooting which controls all international trap, skeet, bunker is completely shut down.
Nekoosa Agreement:
Brian stated that the agreement we had signed is null and void. He is willing to work with us on whatever we may need for the rest of the summer. He just needs to make sure he has enough money to pay the kids that work. He may need to add some additional precautions with PPE gear and taking temperatures. He has no way to give an estimate on costs because he doesn’t know how many kids he will need to work any events that might occur. He will need the money and he will give back any money that he doesn’t need. Brian and Fritz will work together on the prices and billing and then get the invoices to Taylor for payment. Brian stated that he would not be able to have any kids work before June 30th based on the order that Evers has in place.
Don made a motion to accept the new proposal. LaVerne seconded. So carried.
Bunker Repairs/Prices:
Last weekend Bruce Nelson and Tim Mader were up and installed the bunker and programmed everything with the new machines. We had approved an increase of bunker prices at a previous meeting; however, Fritz is suggesting to go back to the original prices to get more people shooting. The price will be $9 a round for adults and $8 a round for youth. Punch cards will be available.
YZ made a motion to go back to the original pricing of bunker rounds. Rich seconded. So carried.
Pat Trap Maintenance:
Al Arner and Bill Boyd were up for two days last week and went through most of the traps changing the bands. They ran out; Fritz ordered more. They replaced a lot of rubbers on the brakes. They will come back up next Friday to go through the rest of them. They are working for free and it will not cost us anything. Fritz will sent the bill to Taylor for the parts.
ATA/DNR Grants:
We need to put in for an ATA grant. Sandra Jo Jack typically puts in for us. Fritz is suggesting to put in a request for new computers. Chops suggested purchasing the system that prints out your sheets and scores like they have in Florida. Fritz will try to contact Tiger Volz as she runs the 3S system to get information and a cost for this.
Fritz stated at the last meeting that you put in for DNR grants on even numbers years. He suggested putting in for the five stand. If we received the grant, the DNR would cover half and the Friends could cover the rest. Jeff Recob said that himself, Bill and Karen personally, would purchase the five stand machines and/or borrow the money to the WTA so that we could get the machines purchased from MEC now. WTA and Friends would then pay Recob’s back next year hopefully with the DNR grant as well, so that we do not have to deplete the Friends account now with no income coming in. Jeff is hoping that we can try to get more business to our grounds since most things are being cancelled due to the pandemic.
Don made a motion to approve the proposal from Jeff and for Fritz to put in for the DNR grant. Rich seconded. So carried.
YZ made a motion to put in for an ATA grant to update the computers. Rhino seconded. So carried.
Zone Shoots:
Fritz stated that his personal opinion is that we do not want to dictate whether or not a club should hold the zone shoot or not. We will let the clubs know it is their decision. If a club says they cannot hold their zone shoot, what happens if only two shoots happen?
Fritz suggested no target requirements for the state shoot and base it on knownability. He said the same thing for zone shoots. Kevin noted that ATA is recommending going back two years instead of one year for state shoot and zone shoots. Kevin said if we cannot run our zone shoots, we can run them concurrent with our state shoot. The WTA would state which event at the state shoot would qualify for the zone shoot. Kevin will call Michelle to see how difficult it will be to program this.
Kevin has not ordered the zone shoot patches at this time. He does have the buckles ordered for zone shoots and the attendance pins for the state shoot.
Conclusion:
We will go back two years for target requirements for the state shoot and zone shoots. If a club cannot hold the zone, the zone shoot will be added to the state shoot. Amy will contact all of the zone shoot host clubs to see what they are thinking about the possibility of holding their zone shoots.
Lengthy discussion about the established requirements and social distancing at clubs and other places was held.
UPDATE: Sauk has cancelled the SW Zone shoot scheduled for June 13 and 14
State Shoot Alternative:
Fritz said that we need to have a plan if we are unable to hold the state shoot as scheduled. He suggested the week after the Grand or the weekend of the Fall Classic. Kevin said that many states are going to championship events and just a few days instead of the full schedule. We will discuss more after the May 26th Safer at Home order is scheduled to end. We do not have enough information at this time to determine if we can hold the shoot. Amy explained that if we are not in Phase 3 of the Badger Bounce Back plan, it will be highly likely that the state shoot will need to be postponed. Currently, we are not even in Phase 1. Amy spoke with the WEDC yesterday to seek some information on the guidelines for Wisconsin opening back up. She stated that with the Bounce Back Plan, if we are in Phase 2 at the time of our state shoot, large sporting events are limited to 50 people. We would have to be in Phase 3 in order to have the size limits eliminated. Amy suggested that we talk with the Town of Rome and Adams County to see if they will support us holding the event and what restrictions we would need to plan for.
Shelter Expansion:
Last year we had a $2100 donation from SCTP to expand the shelter. Fritz would like to get going on this. Taylor suggested not doing this until we know what the status is of holding any shoots.
Gun Raffles:
Three gun raffles for youth shoots are cancelled.
Kolar raffle – John stated that the two top sellers are not able to get out and sell. He sent a letter to the state to postpone until 2021 state shoot. He has not heard back from the state. LaVerne asked if we could raffle off a lower level Kolar. John said he would have to redo everything because you can’t change the prize item so this would not be an option.
There will be no gun raffles this year. Jeff Recob spoke to Jeff Mainland yesterday and he agrees we should not proceed with this year’s raffle especially with everyone on unemployment and businesses closed, etc. He said we should concentrate on next year and for us to do a really good job next year.
John will wait to hear back from the state on what we need to do. We will either need to refund the tickets that were sold or hold them until 2021.
Brine application:
Amy will notify Tim that we will not be able to do it this year.
Homegrounds Safety:
The grounds are open for shooting Friday to Sunday, 9am to 5pm. We are open, but with rules. People are only allowed in the clubhouse to use the bathrooms. Social distancing is encouraged. The campground is open however, the bathhouses are closed. Laundry is open. No visitors will be allowed to sites and campers are not to congregate together.
State Shoot:
- Trophy Pod – Sandy Jack is requesting a trophy pod. She would like to have it set up two weeks prior. Price is $365/month. $125 to deliver and $125 to pick up for a total of $615. Fritz stated the building was designed to have the trophies in main building. She is suggesting with COVID that it would be easier for social distancing. Taylor stated that having the trophies behind the counter creates extra traffic. Taylor suggesting postponing this decision until we determine if we can even hold the state shoot. Dwight suggested moving the trophies to a different location if possible in the clubhouse.
- Event Shirts (Fine Design, Marty) – If Marty wants to make them, he can. Amy has not contacted Fine Design since we are uncertain about the likelihood of the state shoot happening.
Round Table:
Fritz:
Cheesemaker’s is canceled for this year. Fritz has a $600 donation for a bench from last year. He will order the bench. Fritz purchased 10 cases of shells. Two golf carts need to be repaired. Fritz will try to get an estimate on getting them fixed.
Chops:
He is wondering what he should do about clothing for this year’s state shoot. Amy suggested having them done this year but without a date. The supplier doesn’t even know if she can get the clothing ordered.
YZ:
He was donating $1200 towards the tower, he is offering to donate money to cover advertising if needed.
Kevin:
He asked if he should order the patches for the zone shoots. Fritz said that he should get them ordered. If we don’t have the zone shoots, the patches will be given out at the state shoot.
Jeff:
He asked if the money listed above in the Treasurer’s report includes camping income. Amy said yes that the dollar amounts have camper income included. He was just asking about money that would need to be refunded for camping and how that will affect that number.
Amy:
She stated that any campers coming in will need to pay by cash or check until the credit card system is up and running and she can train Helen on the new computer system.
Next meeting is May 29th at 10am via conference call to discuss the Zone Shoots and State Shoot.
LaVerne made a motion to adjourn. Don seconded. So carried.
Meeting adjourned at 11:07 am.