NETAA Newsletter - January 2002
Greetings fellow archers. It always feels strange writing a column that will not be read for a month. Here I am with a few weeks left in the hunting season, and the hope still burning that I will find that trophy buck this year, and yet I’m faced with writing a column about the season being over and the tournament tour beginning anew. Please bear with me as I try to sort this all out.
BOWHUNTING – While we are a tournament organization, many of our members take to the field each Fall with stick and string hoping to put some meat in the freezer and perhaps a set of horns on the wall. With many of our members being very proficient, I expect there are a few success stories out there each season that could be shared. Why not send in a photo and short story on your hunt? I will try to use these a little here and there to add interest to the newsletter (and on the web!). Don’t be shy, everyone would love to see their fellow members being successful.
INDOOR SCHEDULE – In the last newsletter I said we didn’t have the dates set yet for the annual new England Indoor Championship, but that we would get it done. Everything is taking longer than usual this year, however the dates are set, and the shoot will once again be hosted by our good friends Bill and Ellen Baker at Tepee Archery in Acton. The dates are March 9-10 and line times will run both days. Registration forms will be mailed in December. Mark your calendars, this will be a great shoot, and potentially the only 540 qualifier in New England (although we are trying to get one together for the summer at this time). The indoor schedule has been expanded considerably for this season, giving everyone a good opportunity to get their 540 qualifications out of the way early, as well as getting "tuned up" for the spring 3D season. We hope to see you all out at these events to start building the excitement for this year’s championship early. Here is a quick rundown of shoots to mark on your calendars: Feb 2-3 Lincoln Park Archers – 450 Qualifier Feb 9/10
NETAA INDOOR WINTER 3D QUALIFIER – Perth, NY Mar 9/10 NE Indoor Championship – Tepee Archers, Acton, MA (450 round) Mar 16/17 Pete Rickard Indoor Championship (450 round), Albany, NY We hope to be able to announce a few more events shortly, so keep checking the NETAA website. If any of our members is active in a club that would like to hold a NETAA sanctioned qualifier this season (indoor or outdoor, target or 3D), contact me at the office or via email for information on how to get it done.
WEBSITE UPDATE – The website has received very little attention of late, for which I apologize. We lost the person who designed the site and was keeping it updated for us some months ago. It took a long time to find someone who was both willing and able to take over the job, during which time I thought we had the original fellow back. Unfortunately, other time commitments kept him from accomplishing much to keep the site updated, which is the main reason for the problem. Fortunately, we have found a replacement and he should be on board doing great things before you get this printed newsletter. His name is Joseph Rice, and he worked with us in graphic design at Bowhunting News, so we know he is capable of doing a great job. Welcome aboard Joseph. In the initial meetings with Joseph, he expressed some very good ideas for the improvement of the site, which he hopes to get working on as soon as the updates are completed. Bookmark the web page, as you will want to check it often to keep up with the schedule, shoot results, and site improvements.
ANNUAL MEETING NOTES – every year at the Championship, we set aside an hour just before the awards for an annual membership meeting. While we keep things moving along quickly, we do accomplish a lot, and everyone should try to attend. This is your very best chance to offer input on the organization’s direction for the following year, and to voice your opinion on those things brought to vote. This year we covered the following items: There was a motion made that no rules be changed at the annual championship. This topic arose from the last minute change to allow open shooters to compete in the Grand Championship Awards Program. It was discussed, and the majority voted to accept the motion. No changes will be made to any rules or regulations at any future World Championship. While this may seem strange (the idea of making changes in the first place) the precedent was set in’97 when the members forced a special vote to change a rule mid way through the Championship under the threat of revolt. I allowed the Sunday morning vote to dictate how the issue would be handled according to majority rule, and have therefore felt the "option" was open to make small adjustments as needed to make the tournament the best it can be from year to year. This practice will stop to accommodate the members’ wishes.
A motion was made to require all archers receiving $500.00 or more per year in manufacturer sponsorship support to register in the Money Division at all NETAA events. The discussion brought up many good reasons for this. Sponsored shooters are "supposedly" the better shooters (that is what you tell your sponsors to get the support isn’t it?), so they should shoot in the money division to give the open shooters a better chance at the trophies. Because they are already shooting for money (sponsorship), they should put their toes a little deeper into the water and compete for money with the other top archers. More participation in the money division would raise the purses, which would encourage even more top archers to participate, which in turn would help generate more excitement for these divisions, and income potential for top archers in the region. Finally, if we could get the numbers up in the Money Division, we could encourage more sponsorship support for the awards programs and perhaps even get manufacturer contingency money for some of our events. All this would help promote organized tournament archery in the region, which is our #1 goal. After much discussion, the motion was amended to $1,000.00 in sponsorship support, and passed at that level.
A motion was made that any archer shooting semi-pro or pro in any other organization must shoot the Money Division at NETAA events. This was not voted on because this is already the rule! It was agreed however that more effort would be made by NETAA to spread the word on this and that registration forms would be altered to bring this requirement to everyone’s attention. The concern is that registered pro and semi-pro archers are shooting for trophies at NETAA events, which if true is unfortunate. Once again, a motion was made to have the accumulated scores from Friday and Saturday (at the World Championship), carry forward and be added to Sunday’s score to determine the overall championship standings. A heated discussion followed during which time all the usual comments/arguments were made. When the dust settled, a vote was taken and the motion was defeated. All considered it was a very productive meeting that accomplished what needed to be done, gave every member the opportunity to be heard, and was completed ahead of the scheduled one hour time allowing the awards to proceed early and everyone to hit the road a little sooner then expected. I love when that happens!
CLASSES – For the 2002 season a few minor changes are being made to the classes offered. The FITA or Olympic classes will only be recognized in target games (not 3D), and the men’s class is being dropped for lack of interest. The ladies freestyle limited class is also being dropped. It has been three years since there was more than one person in this class at any event, and this past season we didn’t get that at over 90 percent of the shoots. We will "experiment" with two new classes this year, however and interested archers should call for more information. One is the Compound Unaided (CU) class that was dropped a few years back and the other is a senior ladies class. More on this in the next issue.
ANNUAL MAILINGS – For the past several years NETAA has mailed thousands of packages of flyers to a list of archers that we have built over time. This costs the organization several thousand dollars, and we have not seen a definite return on that "investment". This year we are making a move to change the way we promote the tour. We will still mail registration forms to all members and other archers that have actually competed at NETAA events, however archers that have not competed will get only an announcement letter and questionnaire. If they return the form they will be kept on the mailing list, if not they will be dropped. This will cut our mailing expenses considerably in the future, allowing us to use other means of promotion. The website will always be the best way to promote the tour/organization, however we will begin print advertising to direct more archers to that site as well as specific tournaments. We are hopeful that by providing a little advertising revenue for some of these publications we will get a little favorable "press" that we have not enjoyed in the past, which will further increase visibility for the organization.
Good shooting,
Roy Goodwin