Meeting Agenda

MINUTES FOR N.H.B.F. MEETING HELD 4/25/06

Meeting called to order at 7:07 PM

Read/Motion to Accept Agenda (See Appendix A): - agenda was accepted

Roll call: Clubs not present included, Clearwater

OFFICERS REPORTS:

Secretaries’ report:
• The March 2006 minutes, by Dennis Watson & David Duffy was presented and accepted as is. (See Appendix B)

Treasurers’ report:
• The April 2006 Treasurers report, by Dave Duffy was presented and accepted as is. (See Appendix C) • Rob did acquire a laptop for the Treasurer at the April meeting. Rob still needed to do some cleanup work on it before it was ready for use.

Vice President's report:
• Dave talked about the discussions that took place at the March meeting regarding the issues that Outcast Anglers addressed to the Board of Directors. He asked himself for days after the meeting, what went wrong that caused the issues brought up, and he came to the same conclusion on each of the items. Lack of responsibility, ownership, and engagement. His conclusion was that it was much more than just the BOD though that were not being responsible or engaged in the federation that allowed these issues to build and blossom. There’s an expectation that each and everyone one of the members, representatives, and BOD need to be engaged in the federation. That’s why we are here right? Why aren’t the minutes published timely? Well there hasn’t been a federation Secretary for how long? When elections were done there were no nominations. Whose fault is that? Well it’s all of ours, if we were engaged we would all be doing our utmost to find a person or persons in our organization that could effectively support this position. It’s not a BOD problem we can’t fund support, it’s all our problem when we don’t find support. The same can be said for the Treasurer position. If the club reps were engaged at the meeting they would take notes in the agenda package on key and relevant items so they could bring that back to their clubs. They wouldn’t have to wait until the minutes were posted. The whole Expo deal is a classic of lack of responsibility and engagement by all. We all let that happen and didn’t get involved. We were not engaged in the activity. We are all to blame for the financial hardship that came about from the Expo situation. The splitting up of our federation why did that happen? Reps and clubs were unhappy with BOD members’ and stuff that was going on. Had they been engaged at the meetings they could or should have brought this stuff up at the time it was going on and not just stewed about it. There could have been timely discussions, and prudent changes put in place to make everyone happy. How could we have kept our federation together, by being responsible and engaged in the federation. The state meeting are not just for you to show up and be called in attendance. This is all our organization, when we don’t like things that we see as detrimental to the federation then they should be timely and constructively addressed. Everyone is responsible for the results of this organization, by either their engagement or lack of engagement in the federation.

President’s report:
• Rob noted that he has been very busy. After several trips to the Corporation Division in Concord, the name of our Non-Profit organization has been changed to NH Bass Federation. A letter of consent was filed to allow the NH BASS Federation Nation to use the name they wanted. Annual reports are due every 5 years or in the ***0 & ***5 years. Our next annual report is due in 2010. • Rob noted that he hasn’t submitted for reimbursement for several items, including trailer registration, scale calibration, name change Secretary of State, travel gas, phone bills. • The new TBF / FLW logo / Banner is to arrive soon, hopefully we will have it for the spring open.

Youth Directors report:
• Clubs need to provide their scheduled youth events for this year. A list was sent around for each club to fill out, so that Ray can keep track of them. The Public and event promoters want us to put on our Casting Kids events at their venues. These events tend to draw more participants, which is good for our events. • A tentative NH Jr Bass Masters schedule of events was included in the meeting documents. (See Appendix D) • NH Jr Bass Masters, Monadnock Bass and Hawg Hunters supported the first official Casting Kids event held at the Cheshire County Fairgrounds. Here is a perfect example of how TBF and BASS can work together for the kids of this State. I hope to see more of this as the year goes on.

Legislative & Conservation Director, PVA Director, Tournament Director, State Team Rep, Committee Rep reports / updates:
PVA Director Chris Cote – Raffle ticket collections to date $1,285 outstanding collections due from Back Bay, Coastal Six, and Monadnock. Chris noted about this coming weekends PVA event on Congomand in CT. Two tickets & Parking Pass – for Red Sox game donated for raffle. Need boaters to support this year event, projected to have 75 vets, had 19 boats from NH last year, and will need many more this year. The number of anglers interested in participating this year is growing, so more volunteers will be needed to support this event, if you haven’t signed up yet, please do so soon. Contact Gary or Chris to get signed up. Thanks for all your support. Sept. 16th & 17th

• Legislative Director Dick Smith – Dick talked about 1673 Mercury Emissions – good news, many testified, and bill passed. Governor to sign into place very soon. Will also get a reduction in Sulfur Dioxide through the plant modifications to reduce mercury emissions. (Double Bonus) The boater registration fee increase bill was killed; need to look at out of State boaters, Canoes, & Kayak’s, etc. Speed limit bill from Winnie to entire state was killed, critical this year to be extra courteous, and safe, especially on Winnie. Need to talk to our members to make sure we police ourselves; we don’t want this bill to come back.

• Conservation Director Dick Smith – Dick talked about setbacks of land fills from rivers. There needs to be very large setbacks. There is some positive legislation in the works to support this.

OLD BUSINESS:

• Spring Open:
The Spring Open is on April 30th on Lake Winnipesaukee Tournament Headquarters is at Ames Farm. This is one of our State Team Fund Raisers. State Team to arrive at 4:45 AM, Tournament Fee $125, $10 Lunker Pool optional, $10 first losers pool optional, and Ramp fee TBD. Karl to look into Ramp Fee.

7:56 PM break taken

• TBF/FLW:
Conservation Directors meeting @ Divisionals, and during event will support care of catch. Youth programs status unknown. Need to request update on youth programs. Banner with new logo expected to arrive soon, hopefully by spring open. Al Smith former Director of Federation has joined Bass Fan. Rob noted Castrol Oil, Lowrance Silver / Gold Program, Minn Kota trolling motors (9) in total 6 for state team, 1 for raffle Expo, on for Banquet raffle, Quantum, and Ranger. September will be a busy month. TBF STQT 9th & 10th, TBF Divisional 11th – 15th, BASS Divisional 18th – 22nd, both are on Champlain, 2 days practice, and 3 days of competition for each.

• State Teams:
The State Team has the option of fishing both the TBF/FLW Divisional and the BASS Nation Divisional. State Team members need to decide what they plan to fish. This may open up additional opportunities for others to fish, if some of the state team members decided to only fish one of the divisionals. Those that do both will have to pay own way for one, those added to fill the 12 man teams will need to pay their own way.

• Dues & Membership:
Any outstanding Rosters & Dues need to be submitted to David Duffy. Also once you have FLW #’s for your club members please resubmit your roster with the FLW #’s.

• Communications:
Discussions continued on how to improve communications throughout our organization. Some suggested that we adopt a service like F&G has for members to register for information / newsletters, email distributions, etc. An audio recording option was mentioned, and sound qualities of our current meeting place may hinder that. A question was asked if we should have more than one webmaster to help with maintaining our website. Rob stated that he needed to see what Scott’s plan was for updating our website. He would talk with him at the Spring Open.

NEW BUSINESS:

• No New Business Presented:

ADDITIONAL ITEMS:
• Paying of Federation Bills: Wayne asked why personal funds were being used to pay for some of the federation expenses, causing the need for reimbursements to be submitted. Since only the Treasurer controls the check book, this often happens. Both Rob Frye & David Duffy do have debit cards on the two checking accounts which helps but they can’t be used for many types of purchases. The key is that requests for reimbursements need to happen timely each month before the Treasurers reports are generated for the month so that a true accounting for monthly expenditures is captured. Also all reimbursements need to be accompanied by receipts.

• Action Items for May Meeting:
None were identified

Next Meeting is a 7 PM start time

Next meeting is 5/23/2006
Meeting adjourned at 8:45 PM

APPENDIX INDEX

Items that were passed out at the April 2006 meeting

Appendix A – Agenda for April Meeting
Appendix B – March Minutes
Appendix C – April Treasurers Report
Appendix D – NH Jr Bass Masters Tentative Schedule