Leavenworth Bass Club

Newsletter and General Membership Meeting Minutes

February 3^rd, 2014

Please note, the next regular club meeting will be on March 3^rd, 2014.  The grills will be ready at 6:00 PM for you to cook your steaks, hamburgers or whatever you want to bring. The meeting will begin at 7:00 PM. Just remember, you cannot affect any club decisions or win a free entry into a tournament, if you do not show up for the meetings! Come early and join us around the bar.

The website is located at the following address: http://theleavenworthbassclub.org/. .  The Web site is back up to include the forum, so please check to make sure your personal information is correct on the members only page.  If your information is not correct, please notify the webmaster and secretary. If you need assistance signing up for the forum, contact the webmaster.

The General Membership Meeting Minutes follows:

 WELCOME:

The Leavenworth Bass Club held its regular monthly meeting on February 3^rd  at the Fort Leavenworth Rod and Gun Club Clubhouse.  There were 19 members present. The president called the meeting to order at 7:00 pm.

 Secretary’s Report:  The minutes for the January 25^th banquet were approved as written.  They were e-mailed to all members and were posted to the club website. Several members were notified that their BASS membership will expire within the next few months.

Treasurer’s Report:   The treasurer reported a beginning balance of $3,853.77 and a current balance of $2247.37. The Fishing for Freedom account has a beginning balance of $20,189.77 and a current balance of $20,991.77.  The treasurer’s report was accepted as read. The proposed annual budget is included as a separate document with this newsletter..

Conservation Committee Report: The conservation chairman was not present, but sent in the following report: The club received 116 packets of re-poured lures from Whopper baits in January.  Six packets were included in the raffle prizes at the Club’s Banquet.  The Youth Committee Chairman will check with the Northwest Missouri State University Fishing Club to determine how many packets it can use. After discussing the idea with Bobby Keenom (Whopper Baits),  the Conservation Chairman will determine if other youth bass fishing clubs exist in the greater Kansas City area and offer them an opportunity to join the lure recycling effort.  Those clubs that join the effort will receive some of the 110 remaining packets of re-poured lures. The next box of recyclable lures is almost full.  Dan encourages everyone to bring your used lures to the March meeting.

 Youth Committee Report:  The club will conduct another casting kids event at Cabela’s on March 2^nd  from 1:00 to 3:30 PM.  Volunteers need to show up about 11:30 to help with setup.

Steve Read and Mike Brooks volunteered to give a class to the NWMSU Fishing Club on February 11^th on crankbait and spinnerbait fishing. We are also invited to talk about jig fishing techniques in March.

I’ll have more information at the March meeting about their 2^nd annual Bearcat Open scheduled for April 5^th.

Check our web site forum for information on ordering a tee shirt to support the fishing club too.

For any club members that missed the youth instructor certification class in December, Mr Kevin Reich from Fishing’s Future will be giving the class on March 1^st at Cabela’s from 9:00 AM to about noon.  You can just show up, no pre-registration needed. Any questions, contact Bill.

Banquet Committee Report: The banquet was held on January 25^th at the Leavenworth Eagles Club. Steve gave a good overview of the banquet and will be happy to assist next year’s banquet chairman as soon as he steps forward.

Webmaster Report:  Ray discussed the problems associated with the current web site and his recommendations to set up a new web site host so he can control it better. Ray will move the web site and forum to a new host site and is asking all of us for suggestions on what else we’d like to see on the site. .  A motion was made and seconded to move our web site to a GODADDY account.  This motion was passed by the majority of members present.

Vice President’s Report:  Steve has come up with some terrific programs for the next few months to include:

March             Bob Jorgensen on Fishing Table Rock in the Spring

April                Swap meet – more information to follow

May                 Ken Hackworth on lipless crankbaits

If you have any suggestions for topics, please contact the VP.

President’s Report: Mike talked about getting the members registered and using our internet forum.  The Club will continue to emphasize the use of our internet site to pass along information as well as platform for various discussions by the members..  If you have not registered for our Forum please do so.  If you have any problems please contact Ray and he can assist you in the process.

MOBASS has a program to save someone money if they’re thinking about buying a Triton or Skeeter boat. Contact Mike Brooks for more info.

Mike signed our club up for 75 raffle tickets for MOBASS for a chance to win a new trolling motor. We should have the tickets in April. Mike discussed using the discounts shown in the restricted area of the web site – remember this is for club members only.

The 2014 MOBASS state qualifier is on Truman out of Long Shoal ,Oct.3^rd,4^th,and 5^th

OLD BUSINESS:  John Matthews brought up the idea of a fund raiser for us by raffling off a new boat or a certificate for a set sum of money. After discussion, the motion was not accepted.

NEW BUSINESS:  If anyone has the club banner, please let the secretary know.

There was a discussion about whether or not tournament rules can be changed once the schedule is set.  Expect more discussion on this topic during our March meeting.

The Treasurer held a discussion about initiating an annual budget for the LBC.  There was much discussion that resulted in the following motion being made to amend our By Laws.

” By Law Change for Treasurer duties.  Add the following:  “The treasurer will prepare the annual Leavenworth Bass Club budget to be presented to the general membership at the November meeting for the period 1 Nov XX to 31 Oct XX.  After discussion, the membership shall then vote to approve the budget by simple majority.”

“Any changes to the budget thereafter must be approved using the same procedures as a change to the club by laws.”

This motion was made and seconded … per our By-Laws we must wait until our March meeting prior to voting on this motion.  Please take a few minutes to review the wording and be prepared for continuing our discussion and voting in March.

New Members: Please welcome our two newest members, Leroy Shull and Jeff Sell to our club.

Tournament Director’s Report:  The TD showed a new tournament card that will do away with the duplicate information on another document. Randy reminded us to check our insurance before the next tournament.

Free Tournament Entry:  Ray Hillebrand  was the February  lucky winner of one free tournament entry to be used in the 2014 season.

There being no further official business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:45PM.

Following the regular meeting Larry Stouffer provided a very informative presentation on the rigging and using the Alabama Rig.  Larry’s presentation included when, where and how to fish the A Rig as well as numerous rigging techniques and examples.  Larry also presented a brief program on fishing the Jerk Bait.  Larry included tackle and rigging information as well as specifics on how and where to employ this technique.  The membership was very happy with both presentations.  THANK YOU LARRY!!!!!

As mentioned previously there are several other presentations scheduled that we are all looking forward to.

SUBMITTED BY:                                          APPROVED BY:

//s//                                                                  //S//

Bill Horvath                                                   Mike Brooks

Secretary                                                       President