Minutes: April 22, 2023
WTA Meeting
April 22, 2023
Homegrounds and Zoom
The 04/22/23 Board of Director’s meeting of the Wisconsin Trapshooting Association was called to order at 9:04 am by Ken Michels, President. Directors present were N/E Ken Michels and Andy Wondrash, S/E YZ Weisensel, Bob Ebbers, N/W Tate Barwald, S/W Tyler Buchanan and John Reding, ATA Delegate Kevin Doerring, 1st Alt. Delegate Tyler Buchanan, 2nd Alt. Delegate Fritz Thistle, Executive Assistant/Shoot Coordinator Amy Jenkins, Treasurer Taylor Katzenberg (for Treasurer’s report). Absent: N/W Aaron Katzenberg.
Also present were: John Atkielski, Jeff Recob, Dennis Gervasi, Jon Denman, Andy Hall, Jeff and Deb Goering, John King, Pat Taylor
Meeting started at 9:04 am.
Treasurer’s Report:
Account balances are as follows: Checking account $64,655, Camping $79,251, Savings $13,508, Expansion fund is $62,618. Summit Loan as of 4/22/23 is $620,358. Raffle licenses have been renewed. There are 60+ HOF banquet tickets sold already. She is working on the 2022 taxes with the account; hoping to have all of her stuff wrapped up by the state shoot. She suggested having the new treasurer at the May shoot and have everything wrapped up by the end of the state shoot and hand everything over to the new person and she would be done after the state shoot. Taylor cannot take the Silver Seitz off the balance statement until the accountant is finished with the 2022 taxes.
Andy made a motion to approve the Treasurer’s report. Kevin seconded. So carried.
Secretary’s Report:
Amy will open the campground on the reservation system on May 4, 2023. The workers that were planning to stay for the summer are not coming now. The company changed the job schedule and it looks like they will either be here later in the year and possibly not until 2024. People have been calling to find out when we will be open for weekend shooting. Amy will update the website once the decision is made.
Friends of the WTA:
Checking account has a balance of $48, 105. Kolar raffle needs to be paid which is $10,000 and due by 5/15/23. He said that we need to decide how many benches to go under the overhang. Ken said we will hold off on the benches for now. Tate said the overhang is not what the board approved. YZ asked if there is anything we can do now that it is done? Tate said it would have to be removed in order to do anything. Fritz said the Wisconsin sign is not what was approved either. John said that the quote did not include staining. John suggests using Sikkens product or Rymar product. The company will take the WI sign down and fix that at their expense. John said that the Friends would be willing to pay for some gravel if needed for more parking in the undeveloped campground. Jeff Recob is willing to bring two donkeys up for the state shoot. Ken has two pods ordered to store targets. There will be one on each end of the grounds. Jeff said that Fuchs Trucking is willing to deliver a load of targets up here and leave the trailer for the state shoot. There is one pallet jack that works. Jeff will need a count of targets so that he knows how many to bring. Fritz said we will need a pallet of bunker targets. John wants to plant a tree in memory of his father and plant it down by Traps 25 to 27. There would be no issues for him to do this.
Old Business:
Trapline help:
Ken went to the job fair in WI Rapids a few days ago and Ken attended. He said there were over 100 businesses set up at Mid-State Tech. Ken estimated there were no more than 30 people that walked through the job fair in four hours. It was quite a disappointment. Right now it looks like for the spring shoot there are 9 for Saturday and 7 signed up for Sunday. For June, 6/10 there are 7 signed up for Saturday and 6 for Sunday. For SCTP, 6/23 Friday 4 out of 5, Sat 9 out of 15, and Sun 10 out of 15. The State shoot does not look good at all. Fritz suggested that someone call Beth to reach out to the team leaders and see if they can offer any help also. Steve Downs also sent out emails to a bunch of groups in the area last week and will hopefully have some leads from those requests. Gary Witzke got two people from the Hog Heaven shoot in Tennessee that are willing to come and work the state shoot. Tyler has two people and possibly four that will work; Andy has two kids that will work all week as well. Ken said that Sand Valley has some youth that come from foreign countries. Ken is working on a family of four to help out at the May shoot. Tyler said we should have a plan of what we are going to do if we need to ask for volunteers at the shoot – will they volunteer or pay them. The camphosts will share the fliers to others in the area to see if they can recruit more help as well.
State Shoot
- Program: Program is posted online.
- Presquad: The state shoot is now posted on presquad.com and the program is published on their site. It opens April 30 at noon.
- Parking: We have no updates on parking at this time. Tyler will look at the roads today. YZ suggested taking money out of the expansion fund if needed as well.
- Fine Design logo: The logo was approved by the board. Amy will sign the contract with Fine Design.
Bylaws Review:
Ken asked if everyone has reviewed the bylaws that were sent out. John Denman asked about Article 12 and John explained how he went about adding it regarding conflict of interest. The bylaws are posted on the website now and will be voted on at the annual meeting. There will be limited time for discussion on them at the annual meeting; there will be time for a vote only. The bylaws will be posted at the zone shoots in June for members to review as well.
Director Coverage:
Amy went through the list of coverage for weekends. Fritz suggested that this may be a lot for directors to cover. He suggested that we review it this summer and try to hire a manager for next year. Tate says the WTA needs to determine how much we can lose to pay a manager. There is not enough daylight to throw enough targets to pay for a manager. Tate feels it cost the WTA at least $10,000 a year to have a manager here; with the cost of targets and shells, we need to determine what we can afford.
PA System:
Ken took the old PA system back to his house. He doesn’t think we can make it works. He said the boards and connections are all corroded. Tate thinks that we should be able to make the system that we have work for the youth events. All of the announcements are at the building anyway for them. We will have to rent for the state shoot which we agreed at the last meeting. Ken was to get a quote for renting the equipment for the two youth events through the state shoot.
New Business:
Fees for 2023:
SCTP and HSCTL will remain at $30 per hundred. Practice will be $7 for youth events and weekend shooting. Fun events will be $25 per opened case for SCTP. Kettle Moraine will be $26 per hundred.
Jeff Recob prefers to not sell shells by the box at the state shoot. Tate believes that we have enough odds and ends to sell them by the box, but anything by the case they would buy from Recob’s. We will only sell shells by the box. Fritz suggested getting the card readers going.
Tate made a motion to charge HSCTL and SCTP $30/100 and KM $26/100. Practice will be $7 for youth events and open shooting on the weekends. Andy seconded. So carried.
From the March Meeting:
John made a motion to charge $40 plus $2 maintenance fee for state shoot targets. Tyler seconded. So carried.
John made a motion for $8 practice fee. YZ seconded. So carried.
Tyler made a motion to charge $32 plus $2 maintenance fee for marathon targets at state shoot and spring/fall shoots. YZ seconded. So carried.
2023 Event Dates:
May 6 & 7 – WTA Shoot
May 13 & 14 – WI Junior Olympic Qualifier
May 20 – Kettle Moraine
June 3 & 4 – NE/SW Zone Shoots
June 10 & 11 – HSCTL
June 17 & 18 – NW/SE Zone Shoots
June 24 & 25 – SCTP
July 10 – Marathon Monday
July 11 to 16 – Wisconsin State Shoot
July 19 – Cheesemakers
August 18 – Mid-State Technical College
September 23 & 24 – WTA WI Fall Classic
Zone Shoot Elections:
Defer to May meeting. Ken and Tyler stated that we need to have the elections ran the same at every club. Tyler has the ballets made that will be used and will be sent to each club. Cut off is 4pm on Saturday and voting ends at noon on Sunday. This will be clarified at the next meeting prior to sending to all the clubs.
Round Table
Jon Denman:
He handed out a financial plan to get out of debt. He suggested selling credits to WTA members. John said he would buy the first credit of $5000 and Fritz said he would buy the next one. Everything is spelled out. You get the commitments from the people….once you “raise” the money, then the people pay the money. Further discussion will be held on this idea.
Fritz:
He asked if anyone has cleaned the guns in the safe. Ken is going to work on that. He said that some of the scoring stands have rotting wood. The five years is up on the billboard on Hwy 13 that was put up by Matt Harn. We will need to contact him if we want to take it down. Bruce said that he is willing to put up the storage building as part of his museum plan. Fritz has a plan to build a storage building (the quote is from 2022). The quote was for 50×100 for $117,000 without concrete or electric.
Jeff Recob:
He needs to know when targets need to be delivered so he has targets here for the youth shoots. Andy said we need to get a count first. We will get an inventory and call Jeff.
Kevin:
State shoot pins and buckles are ordered. Zone shoot patches are not ordered.
Tate:
Tate offered a suggestion to move the camphost to the entry road instead of site 168. Jeff said that he can see everything from his site. Further discussion was held and they prefer to stay where they are at. They will move to the other site for the state shoot like they did last year.
Jeff/Deb:
He doesn’t know how to replace the windsock. Tate said that someone donated it and we could take it down if it is torn. He asked what we wanted for trees planted. Fritz explained that the trees that were planted were donated. If they are dead, they can be removed.
Andy:
Manitowoc would like to get into the rotation for zone shoots. If Brown County does not hold a registered shoot this year, they would go to the back of the rotation as you have to hold a shoot annually to stay in the rotation.
YZ:
He wanted to thank John as he thinks his proposal is a great idea and he would take two.
Andy made a motion to adjourn. YZ seconded. So carried.
Meeting adjourned at 11:28 am.
Meeting Schedule:
Friday, May 26 – Load traps after the meeting