Greetings fellow archers.  The new tournament tour season has begun with indoor target events (450 rounds) in several locations.  The first was the new England Indoor Championship at Tepee Archery Center in Acton, Mass.  Once again, Mother Nature dumped a decent snow storm on our weekend plans.  Attendance was encouraging on Saturday, but only a few brave souls accepted the challenge of 8” of fresh overnight snow to compete on Sunday.  The net result was an increase in attendance of over 50% from last year, but still less than what we should see at this event.  There were some comments that we should hold this tournament later in the winter (perhaps late February?), to increase attendance.  The feeling is that many of our members haven’t tuned up for tournaments after the hunting season by January, and giving them another month to get ready may encourage better participation.  It would also give us a little more time after the holidays to get fliers out so people could make plans.   We welcome your comments on this topic.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS- There is a schedule of events in this newsletter, however more events are always being added.  The very best way to keep track of the current schedule is to bookmark the NETAA website (www.NETAA.org) on your computer and check out the schedule there every couple weeks.  We will also keep trying to make improvements to the site on a regular basis and keep adding more information about your organization.

INVITATIONAL/ELIMINATION ROUND- The invitations are already in the mail for the first NETAA Invitational/Elimination Round.  You must receive an invitation in order to pre-register and compete in this money event.  We mailed the first invitations to archers that have competed in the money division the last couple of years, and/or those that turned in very high scores in open division competitions.  If any member wants to compete, but did not receive an invitation, please feel free to call the office (508-473-6970) an request a package on the shoot.  Also, if any of our members knows of other competitive archers that might like to participate, get us the name and address, we’ll send them the information.  The first Invitational/Elimination Round will be held in Conjunction with the First Leg of the New England Triple Crown at Brattleboro, VT on April 21-22.  It is estimated (based on only 32 contestants) that first place will pay $1,000.00!  Second through fourth places are estimated at $700-300-200, and we will pay $50.00 to each of the four semi-finalists.  These prize amounts will double if we have the maximum number of contestants (64).
The tournament will run in ten target segments with archers paired off for “head to head” elimination round competition.  The winner of each segment will advance to the next ten target segment, where the elimination process continues.  With 32 contestants, an archer needs only beat two archers to make the semi-finals and three to make the finals.  The final round will include the top four competitors from the elimination segments who will compete “heads up” for the four final places in the tournament.  All positions/placements in the tournament will be assigned by a random drawing giving every archer a very good opportunity to make the final round and be in the money.
The second Invitational/Elimination Round will be held in conjunction with the second leg of the New York Triple Crown in Gilbertsville, and the third will be in conjunction with the third leg of the Southern Triple Crown in Lincoln Park, New Jersey.  Invitations for those events will be mailed approximately six weeks before each event.  All members are encouraged to participate and/or spread the word so that others will compete.  If we can build sufficient participation for this round this season, we will expand the program to as many as twelve events next season.  If/when participation reaches maximum levels for each event, we will be able to approach major corporations for sponsorship that will grow the prize money.  Remember, all the big money shoots don’t have to be down south!

ARCHERY – A FAMILY SPORT-  One of the greatest things about the sport of archery is the fact that an entire family can compete together and enjoy, not only the sport, but a lot of quality time together.  Increasingly we see NETAA members spending the weekend with their families shooting archery.  Many of these “archery families” are very successful at the sport, perhaps pointing to the achievements possible when one receives the support of loved ones.  While we may not have room to share pictures of all our NETAA families in this issue (photos appear in North American Bowhunter Magazine), we wanted to share some of the pictures from last year’s Championship in Middleburgh.  We believe these pictures demonstrate that a family can come out and compete with their children in archery and have a good deal of success while building memories and bonds that will last a lifetime.  There are millions of parents in this country worried sick about what their kids are doing most of the time, you have to wonder how many of those problems could be solved if those families shared a common interest/sport together like archery?

SOUTHERN TRIPLE CROWN- Since our last newsletter we have been fortunate to secure a host site for the second leg of our first “Southern Triple Crown.”  The mini tour is now all set!  The second leg will be held at Limerick Bowman, Limerick, PA, bringing the NETAA tournament tour into Pennsylvania for the first time.  With the first leg in Alloway, New Jersey (southern part of the State) we are bringing the NETAA tournament tour to many fine archers in Southern New Jersey and very close to archers in Delaware and Maryland.  With the second leg in East Central PA we should meet/attract many serious archers from that area for the first time.  I believe that the completion of this mini tour will substantially increase membership as well as attendance at the Championship.