Minutes: July 18, 2021 Annual Meeting
WTA Annual Meeting
July 18, 2021
There were 73 WTA members who attended the annual meeting on July 18, 2021 in addition to the Board of Directors.
The 07/18/2021 Annual Meeting of the Wisconsin Trapshooting Association was called to order at 7:59 am by Fritz Thistle, President.
Pledge of Allegiance
Roll Call – Directors present were N/E Don Chrapla and Rich Weisensel (YZ), S/E Bob Ebbers and Tyler Buchanan, N/W Rich Johnson and Keith Lehmann, S/W – President Fritz Thistle and Laverne Lehmann, ATA Delegate Kevin Doerring, 1st Alt Delegate Dwight Paulin, 2nd Alt ATA Delegate Fritz Thistle, Treasurer Taylor Ebbers and Executive Assistant Amy Jenkins.
Programs were handed out to the attendees that included minutes from the 2020 annual meeting and the treasurer’s report.
2018 Annual Minutes:
Tim Thompson made a motion to bypass reading the minutes from 2020 and accepted as written, John Reding seconded. So carried.
Treasurer’s Report:
Mortgage is under $700,000. No other questions were asked. Gary Witzke made a motion to approve the treasurer’s report. Ken Cerney seconded. So carried.
ATA Delegate Report:
Kevin reported that the attendance at the 2020 Grand was down 30% due to COVID. No rule changes have been enforced at this time.
Nominations and Elections of Zone Directors:
Elections were done at the Zone Shoot.
N/E – Don Chrapla chose not to run this year. Ken Michels was elected. Chops made a motion to accept Ken Michels as Director. Ken Witzke seconded. So carried.
S/W – LaVerne Lehmann was re-elected. Ken Cerney made a motion to accept LaVerne Lehmann as Director. Janet Reding seconded. So carried.
N/W – Rich Johnson chose not to run this year. No one ran at the zone shoot. Chops nominated Aaron Katzenberg for NW zone. Don Chrapla seconded. So carried. Aaron accepted the Director position.
S/E – Bob Ebbers was re-elected. Don Mittag made a motion to accept Bob Ebbers as Director. Don Chrapla seconded. So carried.
ATA Delegate:
Tim Thompson nominated Kevin Doerring remain as delegate. John Reding seconded. So carried.
Dwight Paulin chose to not continue as the 1st Alternate delegate. Dwight nominated Tyler Buchanan as the 1st Alternate delegate. YZ seconded. Don Mittag suggested that we try to get another body so that directors do not have to hold two positions. So carried.
John Reding nominated Fritz Thistle as the 2nd Alternate Delegate. Jack Duwe seconded. So carried.
All State Team:
Kevin read the names of the all state team. They were recognized during the Hot Dog Feed on Thursday night. A huge thank you to Kolar for sponsoring the leather bags that all candidates received.
Hall of Fame Inductees:
Sandy Jack, YZ, John Reeb and Paul Becker were inducted into the Hall of Fame on Wednesday night.
OLD BUSINESS:
Central Zone:
The 2020 central zone shoot was held at Homegrounds due to the scheduled club not being able to hold it due to COVID concerns. There are no plans to have the WTA take over the Central Zone. The WTA would like to be in the rotation to hold it in future years. Chops made a motion to have the WTA be in the rotation to hold the Central Zone. Don Chrapla said he would like to see us be able to hold it. We had great attendance last year and we have the camping facility to hold. Al McCord asked if there was going to be a limit to the number of clubs that can get in the rotation. Tim Thompson said that you have to have enough traps to hold it and have some camping as well. If there are other clubs that would like to get in the rotation, the Board would make that decision. Kevin Doerring commented that we saw a lot of non-resident zone shooters here last year because their states did not hold a central zone due to COVID. He believes this skewed the numbers a bit and that number may not continue. Jay Nigbor said that the Director from the zone should discuss with the clubs and come back with a recommendation to the Board. Buzzy seconded. So carried. The rotation will be Sauk, Janesville, WTA.
Expansion:
There are plans to add 10 trapfields in the future. It is on the back burner for right now. The operating engineers from Coloma will hopefully be able to do the excavation work. We will need more funding to get this done. Five traps fields have been donated already with two more pledged for the expansion. Jim Kroplien asked if we are looking to borrow money for this and at this time, no we are planning to look at donations for it.
Don Mittag said that there is an issue with parking on the east end with the addition of the new sites. Don Chrapla said that next year we will have a line on the sites that they pull up further to open parking in the gravel for shooters. Fritz reported that we will try to move campers off the south side of the parking lot to add more parking as well.
NEW BUSINESS:
Annual Meeting Handouts:
Amy asked if it is possible to use a projector rather than paying for the handouts for the annual meeting that just get thrown away when the meeting is over. Discussion held that people still like to review them when they arrive to the meeting. Hard copies will continue to be printed.
2022 Zone Shoots:
S/W – Sauk; N/E – Brown County = June 4 and June 5
N/W – Weston; S/E – Beaver Dam = June 18 and 19
The dates will be opposite weekends of the HSCTL and SCTP state shoots. Al McCord said that the 2nd weekend typically falls on Father’s Day weekend. There was suggestions to flop weekends so the clubs didn’t always have shoots on Father’s Day weekend. In addition, Sauk holds the SCTP shoot there as well. Other years, Janesville will likely be the same weekend as the Illinois state shoot. This will need to be reviewed as we move forward. We are looking at locking in dates for 5 years with SCTP and HSCTL which will make the scheduling of the zone shoots easier.
2022 State Shoot:
The Wisconsin state shoot will be July 12 to 17, 2022. We will continue to hold marathon targets on Monday.
Grant Writer:
We are looking for someone to help write grants and complete everything online. There are many places that we can apply for grants, but we need some help doing it. Please contact the Board or Fritz if anyone can assist us with this.
Friends of the WTA:
John Coniff gave an update. The friends purchased 3 youth guns, a new gun safe, 3 golf carts and 5 target management systems and a dedicated computer to run them. There is approximately $39,185 coming in from the state shoot. Fundraising amounts are: $1900 on the fish fry; $10,000 on live auction; $2200 on the silent auction. The FAB arm youth raffle was a huge success. We will have $5000 to give back to the youth with the money we raised from this raffle. John Reding said that they were able to get grant money from the Friends for the Cassville youth shooters. They were able to buy two guns for their youth to use.
Brian Giese:
He ran the kids for the last four or five years. He passed away in January. He inspired the kids. We will never forget him. We need to do something for him. They are doing a pavilion at the school and they are looking for donations for that. We are working on a program to honor individuals that are not shooters but yet a huge part of the WTA organization that would not be eligible for the hall of fame. Bill Simonar made a suggestion to pass a hat to raise some extra money for Brian’s pavilion.
Chops made a motion to donate a minimum $500 to the pavilion that they are constructing for Brian at the school. Motion was amended to $1000. Tim Mackey seconded. So carried. An additional $2200 was raised from passing the hat around.
Muscoda:
Virgil Bomkamp gave an update on the construction of their club after the fire a year ago. Virgil thanked everyone for their donations.
Storage Building:
Don stated that we are in need of a storage building. He is looking at a 50 x 120 building for future needs for storing targets, golf carts, etc. Jon Denman said that due to the price of building materials we should wait until the prices come down.
Don Mittag stated that when checks are sent out from zone shoots that a payout sheet needs to be included. He also stated that there should be a page on the website for pictures. Amy can add that. Jean Reeb said that it all takes time and Taylor and Amy don’t have a lot of time! Others need to step up and help them. Chops said that Taylor did a great job on the trophies. A round of applause for Taylor!!!
John Halamback suggested that we release pre-squad positions according to what the program says. Positions are to be released by 8:30 each morning according to the program. We need to follow through on this so that squads are not being held when people aren’t paying and you end up with a squad of 3 or 4 people when it comes time to shoot.
Steve Keeley suggested a big round of applause for the Board of Directors.
Out of Zone elections:
You can only vote in your own zone. The rules state this.
Ken made a motion to adjourn. Bob Ebbers seconded.
Meeting adjourned at 9:07 am.
Board Meeting:
President:
LaVerne made a motion for Fritz to remain President. Rhino seconded. So carried.
1st Vice President:
Rhino made a motion for Laverne. No second. Motion failed. Kevin nominated YZ. Laverne seconded. YZ accepted. So carried.
2nd Vice President:
YZ made a motion for Bob Ebbers. Laverne seconded. Bob accepted. So carried.
YZ made a motion to adjourn. Rhino seconded. So carried.