BTC Annual Meeting and Board Meeting, March 13, 2016
Treasurer Bill Grafton opened the 2016 annual meeting at 1:05pm. Attendance was taken. Grafton noted that Arvard Martin was in Arizona. He also noted that this meeting was being held under the provision in the bylaws that require an annual meeting on the second Sunday in March.
Grafton outlined the background that allows our presence on this site. We are a private non-profit club in a wildlife overlay zone. The club is run for the benefit of members, and the sheriff is a dues paying member. Controlled access was necessary to get our conditional use permit.
Shooting:
Shooting days and hours for 2016 will remain Thursdays and Sundays 10am until 2pm. 2015 was a very good year for targets thrown with about 290,000 total targets and 220,000 on regular shooting days. The secretary posts monthly target counts with cumulative year totals. Grafton also outlined target cost as follows: Direct cost, target and equipment $2.75 per round. Add in electric, insurance, Bend Bucks for volunteers and the cost per round is up to $3.85. Add in extra targets, broken targets, subsidized targets, turkey shoots etc. and the cost is $4.15 per round. Grafton reported that the insurance covers director and volunteer liability. The club carries no medical liability insurance.
Member discussions:
The meeting was well attended and a vigorous discussion with participation and questions from attendees ensued. I will try to document the discussion as it occurred without attempting to consolidate the discussion into discreet categories.
In response to a floor question, Grafton reports that gold and platinum memberships benefit the club with cash flow and also that platinum members seldom shoot enough to save the additional membership cost thus benefitting the club.
Lead mining requires about 1 million targets and should be feasible in a couple of years.
The markup for components is about 10%. The markup for shells is less, about $0.20 to $0.40 per box. Partain asked if the shell cost should be raised. Grafton would like to keep the cost per box in even dollar numbers. The club is selling about 50-60 flats a month with profit of $2-4 per flat.
Grafton reported that unexpected impact events can have a substantial effect on club finances. As an example he reported details about a well drilled in error on BLM land east of our property decades ago. The expected cost to the club to get this resolved and to get out of annual BLM fees will be about $6000. The expenses associated with upgrading the caretaker’s residence, paid for out of the emergency fund, were also unexpected a year ago. Funding for these events as well as club development needs to be found.
Right now the finances are summarized as follows:
Emergency fund: $17,000, down from $23,000
Target account: $13,000
Equipment account: $2,500
Grafton states the club is in good shape for continuing but has little reserve and no development funding. The emergency funds stated purpose is to allow the club to exist by covering basic costs for two years in the event all shooting ceases.
Annual taxes are $3,600-3,700 for the portion occupied by the club. The portion occupied by the sheriff is tax exempt. As dues the sheriff pays our tax bill as well as one-half of the road maintenance.
In response to a question on membership, Grafton explained the three membership groups; associate, probationary general, and general membership. This membership structure was installed given the Brosterhous Road history. The club has a maximum of 100 general members and they need to be paid up by March or risk a downgrade in membership status. Currently at 134 paid members (153 at this time last year) the general membership total is 80. Board members need to be general members. Any member wishing to become a general members needs to express interest, it does not progress automatically. Sponsor members are a separate, non-voting category, primarily to provide subsidy for youth shooting.
High school league shooting now has a formal national organization and bears watching.
Labor remains a big issue for the club. The history from Brosterhous is that 12 board members had to open 52 Sundays a year with others covering Thursdays. Now with two venues operating two days a week there is four times the work. The burn out rate is up. The Bend Bucks program with $10 or $20 coupons (good for targets) given to volunteers has helped at the skeet end. An alternative is to hire employees, probably through a temporary agency.
Partain suggests raising rates to see if we can raise enough to cover the cost of hiring.
Members discussed increasing the numbers of targets thrown with more open days and more games. It was noted that club bylaws require registered trap shoot capability. Self-promotion is needed for additional activities.
Selb reported that other clubs had high dues with a buy out for labor.
Oeltjen reported the success Hillsboro had with an active dynamic manager who was motivated by a personal financial benefit for more targets thrown. He said that in comparing raising volume or cutting costs that the latter is always a loser. Partain and Reed favor a $1 per round increase now. A dues increase was also favored.
In response to a question from Sanders, Partain suggested a name change would be appropriate and he mentioned confusion in the public as to what a trap club is.
Oeltjen reported that firearm training facilities are doing well, shotgun sales are up, and that recreational shooting is booming.
There was further discussion on getting shooters out to the club and keeping them active. The radio ads for the last two turkey shoots were not effective.
Partain would like to see training for rifle and pistol shooting. Dodd suggests Saturday game shoots make money. Labor remains an issue with the latter.
Partain suggests raising dues and target costs. Curran thinks it won’t work. Sue Emerson thinks a personal request for assistance would help. At this time the members were reminded that a large group from Facebook would be shooting Wednesday, 3/16. Elizabeth Farwell suggests the club is too quiet in communications to members and that more personal attention should be paid to generate volunteers. She also requested that board meeting minutes be sent out to all members. There was then additional floor discussion on game days.
Grafton asks attendees for a show of support for $75 dues and $5 per round for targets with $1 per target round to go to a contingency fund. Although not unanimous the members in attendance were supportive of such a move.
Board election:
Four board positions are open for a new three year term. The board nominated the following slate for these positions ending in 2019. There were no nominations from the floor.
Gary Dodd
Dick Holtz
Bill Mahnken
Arvard Martin
There was one position open for a two year term. The board nominated the following member for that position ending in 2018. There were no nominations from the floor.
Ray Oeltjen
There was one position open for a one year term. The board nominated the following member for that position ending in 2018. There were no nominations from the floor.
Bill Grafton
With no nominations from the floor there were motions to accept the above nominations and all listed were voted in.
Although lacking proper distribution, the minutes from the March 8, 2015 were approved. The board agreed that these 2016 minutes will be attached to the notice for the 2017 annual meeting.
The 2016 annual meeting was then suspended and the board meeting began.
March 13, 2016 Board Meeting:
Board members present: Grafton, Reed, Stenberg, Dodd, Winebarger, Mahnken, Sanders, Partain, Oeltjen
Board members absent: Brooks, Ramsey, Martin, Holtz,
Grafton calls the meeting to order for the purpose of electing officers.
Officer Election:
The following members agreed to accept these positions. Following a motion the positions were filled.
Partain: Vice President
Sanders: Secretary
Grafton: Treasurer
None of the board members present was willing/able to accept the president position. Partain agreed to discuss the issue with Martin with the hope he would continue. At any rate the decision was postponed until the April meeting.
Motions to raise dues and shooting costs were made by Reed, seconded by Stenberg. The dues level will be $75 and the cost per round will be raised $1. After some discussion it was decided to make the shooting increase effective April 1, 2016 and the dues increase June 1. The motions were approved.
The next meeting will be April 3, 2016 at the club.
The board meeting and the general meeting closed at 4:15pm.
Darrell Sanders
Secretary
March 16, 2016