14 April 2004 Meeting Minutes

The meeting was called to order by President Morgan Montgomery at 7:40 pm. A quorum of officers was present and a good representation of club members. The secretary read the minutes and with one correction to accommodate subsequent events, they were approved as read. Jeff Fleischer, again feigning the excuse of having to work late, had provided the treasurer’s report to Morgan who presented it. Interest for the month was $.09 (Yee Haw!). Jeff expects to have new identification cards ready by the next shoot.

Old Business

Scott Martin reported that he had a bid of $3684.01 for an automatic gate for the property. This was just for the gate as we would have to do the installation, and provide any concrete needed. Tim Lawrence noted that this would be a severe depletion of club resources unless income increased this year and made a motion to defer further consideration until after two shoots to see how much income we generated from them. The motion passed.

Dave Shickle presented a draft American Bowmen Club web page for consideration by the membership. It looked good. He had checked domain names and AmericanBowmen.org was available. He had a quote to host our web page for $99 per year and to register our domain name for $33 for three years. A motion was approved to go ahead with these expenditures. Dave will pay for it on his credit card and turn the bill in to Jeff. Dave asked about work party credits for developing and maintaining the web page. The consensus was that given his being crippled from where Louise hit him with the axe that we wouldn’t get much work out of him at a work parties anyway so that we just as well make the best of the situation and give him work party credits for the web page maintenance.

New Business

A discussion ensued on potential safety considerations if there should be a wildly deflected arrow on the practice range when someone was up pulling arrows from the moose, the first target on the front side. As outdoor range captain, Dale will review the situation and design a correction that better separates the practice range/kids range from the first target.

Noting that some of our less svelte members (names omitted to protect the corpulent) were causing some of the wooden bridges to dangerously bow, it was felt that some of the bridges made from local saplings should be replaced. Scott Martin volunteered some left over pressure treated timbers and Jerry Becay will go to Scott’s place to manufacture the new bridges. Jerry and Scott will place the new bridges.

Bear Creek Archery requested to do a benefit shoot on May 7 at the ABC range. Given how much they do for us and let us use their facility for the annual banquet, we would be pleased to accommodate their request. Members are reminded that to shoot at the range on May 7 will require payment of the entry fee for this benefit shoot.

New Members

Phillip Gaines was put forward for membership. Phil comes from Canyon City, now lives in the area, hunts with the Mullins and is a friend of Larry Welchlen. He owns a plumbing and heating business. He reports that he has been bowhunting since he was born. That brought up some discussion among the membership on the draw weight of his natal bow. Phil swears that it was 70# like he has always shot, though with a somewhat shorter draw length. With this claim and the list of trophies that he claims to have shot, we can see that his veracity will be a good fit with that of most of our other members. Oh well, what is a couple of decimal places among friends. Voted in.

Jeff Mees reports that he is a bowhunter, a CBA member and also knows Morgan. He has three kids, and has taught them to shoot by not giving them their lunch money until they have drilled an arrow through it at 20 yards. He has saved a lot of money for his bowhunting extravagances by only paying $2 for a haircut. Apparently this breaks down to $1 for trimming up the remaining stragglers near the ears and $1 to powder the top to keep the glint from spooking the animals.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:45 pm with a small contingent moving into the clubhouse where Morgan continued explaining the fine intricacies and smoothly committed cooperation of the generous and selfless folks meeting on the wolf management plan.