Minutes: March 5, 2021
WTA Meeting
March 5, 2021
Sherwood Lodge and Zoom
The 03/05/21 Board of Director’s meeting of the Wisconsin Trapshooting Association was called to order at 9:03 am by Fritz Thistle, President. Directors present were N/E Don Chrapla and YZ Weisensel, N/W was Rich Johnson, Keith Lehmann (zoom), S/W LaVerne Lehmann (phone), S/E Tyler Buchanan and Bob Ebbers (phone for part of the meeting), ATA Delegate Kevin Doerring (phone), 1st Alt. Delegate Dwight Paulin (zoom), 2nd Alt. Delegate Fritz Thistle, Executive Assistant/Shoot Coordinator Amy Jenkins, Treasurer Taylor Katzenberg.
Also present were: Catheryn Johnson, Glen Grabski, Jim Giese and Beth Schaefbauer.
Meeting started at 9:03 am.
Treasurer’s Report:
The checking account has a balance of $60,000 and there is $51,000 in the camping fund. The savings accounts have been combined and have a balance of $13,500 and $45,000 in trap field donations. Taylor is waiting for one sponsor payment, otherwise all of the sponsorships have been paid for the state shoot.
Don made a motion to approve the treasurer’s report. Rich seconded. So carried.
Secretary Report:
Amy gave an update that the shoot calendar has been mailed out. The calendar is also posted on the website. An update was given on the camping for the state shoot. There is a large waiting list so people will just need to be patient to see if any cancelations come in. The camping online reservation website was turned back on in January. Reservations are coming in for the scheduled shoot weekends. Amy and John have been working diligently on the state shoot program. See update below.
Old Business:
TV Responder/Antennae:
Kevin has not heard anything back. Kevin will reach out to Tom and see if there is an update for the next meeting.
EVR Water:
Fritz talked to VanErt and gave diagrams to Chops and Bob for review. They are interested in looking at this project. They did all of the original work. They will come up and show us where the lines are ahead of time. He lives in the Rapids so he is close by. Chops asked if we were going to do the water. Bob and Chops will have to meet up at the grounds to go over the plans before we start anything. Chops will need three to five guys for the weekend to do the work on the pump house project as there will be some hand digging to be done. Taylor will talk to Bob and they will get in touch with Chops to schedule a time to meet and discuss the plan.
Target Management System:
Fritz talked to Bob Schultz. He will send us five sets of target management systems which will include one set that he is donating to us. These sets will be solar powered and include 400 cards. The cost will be $4700 approximately. The Friends of the WTA will be paying for these. There is a different configuration for using them on the wired vs. wireless systems. Fritz suggested to pull the MEC trap for the state shoot and put our other trap in and use the target management system on Trap 17 and 18 for practice. Cards can also be sold to the vendors to use for gun demos. Brian Pierce will come up and help install them. He has a set that he is willing to sell to us as well, but some work needs to be done with the computer system to make it compatible with the ones that we are getting from Bob Schultz. Any extra targets on the system will automatically delete after a certain period of time which eliminates someone coming in to shoot the remaining free targets.
WTA Staff T-shirts:
YZ said that his contact will match the price that Fritz had. He will get sizes from each Director. Fritz said to order seven shirts for everyone. He will need to order some that say “staff” as well for John Madsen, John Reding, Jon King, Jim Giese, Bill Davis (three shirts for each). He will order Glen six shirts.
West end pavers:
Spring project.
Wi-Fi for Building:
Fritz got another quote for wi-fi on the trapline. Installation and parts is $4700 and a monthly fee after that. It is not worth it for us to do this. This will be tabled for now.
Mowers/Carts:
Fritz will get them to Wisconsin Rapids to get serviced so they are ready to go in April.
New Business:
Nekoosa Athletic Association:
Jim Giese (Brian’s father) and Beth Schaefbauer (Brian’s sister) attended the meeting to discuss the plan for the shooting season. They have no expectation to change the organization and how things have ran in the past. They will use the same process that Brian did. They have the support from the Nekoosa school system as well. They will have a committee as one individual will not be able to be present at every shoot. They have the schedule of shoots for the season. The next step will be for Beth to work with the committee to get the proposal completed. Brian had a spreadsheet that showed who was trained and who was not. This will be very beneficial to their organization and be a great tool for the WTA as well. School ends on June 4th for Nekoosa. Amy asked if it would be beneficial for her to record a trap session and Beth said absolutely. Fritz said that Cassville did this and it is posted on youtube. We will try to find this video to share with the Nekoosa committee. They should have the proposal for the April meeting. A huge thank you to Jim and Beth for taking this project over. They will do their best to run the youth exactly as Brian did.
Program:
Amy and John Atkielski have been working on the program and all changes for this year. Amy, Taylor and Dennis all reviewed the current version while in Tucson. Amy and John made all the changes and a final draft is nearly completed. Last year, since the program was not printed, the ads that were sold will be used again this year. John and Amy do not have programs or the knowledge to place the ads. Amy will see if she can insert last year’s ads in a .pdf format into the current version. Discussion was held about not printing multiple copies and mailing them to anyone that shot the previous year’s state shoot. Amy has the ability to email the program to every shooter in the state of Wisconsin and can post it on the website as well. Amy will take the completed program to her local printer in Tomah and get a quote for printing 500 paper programs to be able to hand out at the shoot. They will not be the glossy books that we are used to, but the money savings should be incredible with no mailing/printing fees.
Fine Design:
Fine Design contacted Amy about attending the state shoot again. They attended in 2019. They pay the WTA a percentage of their sales. However, the contract states that they will be the exclusive clothing vendor. We have other vendors that selling clothing and therefore, she will check this out before signing the contract. Chops will have his clothing available in the building again and there will be other clothing vendors as well.
Kolar Raffle:
Amy handed out Kolar raffle tickets for everyone to sell before the state shoot.
Youth Shooting:
Taylor and Dwight both said that we need to figure out our expenses to determine if we are making any money and use that to determine prices for the events. Taylor said since she has been here, we have added more dumpsters, more porta-potties, more golf carts, etc., and increased our expenses; however, we have not raised target prices so we cannot continue to make money without raising target prices or possibly add a fee for use of the grounds, etc.
Kettle Morraine was approved at the last meeting for $22 per 100 targets for the 2021 season.
SCTP wants to register their singles targets in 2021. They asked us to waive the $10 WTA fee; however, they will pay the $3 WTA and ATA daily fees as well as the $1 maintenance fee. Fritz will talk to Gary and Perry about pricing before the next meeting. They provided some diagrams and grids for review.
YZ made a motion to charge HSCTL $28 per 100 targets for their state shoot. HSCTL will make a decision on April 12th if they will hold their state shoot this year. Practice will be $6 per round. Rich seconded. So carried.
Round Table:
Fritz:
There is a Midway Foundation Grant available. Fritz and Tyler will work on this.
WTA Gold Target of Merit – Fritz had sent out the proposal before the last meeting for review. YZ noted that you cannot be in both the Hall of Fame and this new program.
Don made a motion to approve the Gold Target of Merit program. YZ seconded. So carried.
The Hall of Fame Banquet will be $30 per ticket this year. It will be a buffet at The Ridges on Wednesday during the state shoot. Contact Taylor for tickets. The information will be posted on the website as well.
Fritz was contacted by the Adam’s County ATV club. We will provide an ad for their map.
Fritz provided the layout/design for the traphouses to Don.
The WTA Shooting Complex in Nekoosa made the ATA Mega Target Award list for 2020 with 697,800 registered targets thrown. We were #7 on the list this year; we made the list for the first time in 2019 at #10.
Fritz said that in the past we have had EMTs present at the state shoot. Last year there was going to be a fee to have them on the grounds. Fritz will check with the Town of Rome to see what the price will be. For liability reasons we really need to have them present at the youth events as well. Fritz will get a price.
Rich:
Rich noted a list of things to consider before we move forward on adding additional traps and expanding the business. How long is Fritz going to be able to run this organization? What about the Recob’s? Will there be another target supplier that will deliver the targets to the traphouses if something happens to them. What about the Directors? It is election year and we have struggled routinely to get directors. Is it wise to add on to our organization not knowing who is going to run it?
He said that the targets should not be against the back of the traphouses because of moisture. He suggested putting pallets against the back wall or Don said maybe add a sheet of styrofoam.
Taylor:
She asked that Amy post the Hall of Fame flyer on the website. Tickets will need to be purchased by the deadline date. She gave a shout out to Tyler for getting the added money paid for by the all state team members that are adding additional add ons for their leather shooting bag. She will not be available for the HSCTL shoot.
Chops:
Chops asked when will we be meeting with the operators; Fritz suggested once everyone gets back from Florida. He suggested that we order batteries for the PA speakers. Fritz will check on getting the skidsteer serviced before the season. Chops said when the water line on the east end is done, he will need to get some supplies in order to do it. Fritz said that he should go ahead and get the supplies now.
YZ:
He stated that many times people don’t know how to score doubles. There is an article in the Trap and Field magazine this month that could be cut out and pasted on each scorer’s bench for when issues arise the scorer has documentation to show to someone that is fighting it.
Don:
He is going to talk to Ledgeview Concrete about the cost of building new trap houses. He will get a price on building them and what the cost will be to deliver. Likely would not be looking at adding them for at least another year.
Tyler:
All state team bags have been ordered. He has received some donation money to cover the additional costs. He has about $1000 to cover in costs yet. Anyone that said there were willing to donate money to cover these costs should get in touch with Tyler.
Kevin:
He has no update from the ATA. He sent Amy the link for the Cassville video.
Dwight:
He said it would be nice to have some more help at the grounds. He wondered if some organizations could come learn what needs to be done at our grounds such as FFA, etc.
Amy:
She asked when the grounds will be opening. Glen will open for shooting on April 9. The hours will be Friday, Saturday Sunday 9am to 5pm.
Next meeting will be April 16, 2021 at 9am at Sherwood Lodge. The meeting will be available by zoom as well.
YZ made a motion to adjourn. Rich seconded. So carried.
Meeting adjourned at 11:52am.