President — Charlie Rath, 1501 Shelby Forest Lane, Chelsea, AL 35043; phone: 205-678-6146
Vice President — Scott Wilson, 16291 Evans Road, Athens, AL 35611; phone: 256-565-4451; e-mail: Scott_wilson68@yahoo.com
Secretary/Treasurer — Bob Crane, 15295 Gainsville Road, Ralph, AL 35480; phone: 205-339-0081
Recording Secretary — Mike Flohr, 297 Kingfisher Road, Greensboro, AL 36744; phone: 334-507-2537
NTA Director — Jackie Malone, 11153 Crocker Dr., Tuscaloosa, AL 35405; phone: 205-366-9604
Membership Options:
• Family membership including subscription to Trapper & Predator Caller — $20
• Lifetime membership with subscription to Trapper & Predator Caller — $300
Complete membership application on first page of association section and send dues to:
ATPCA Secretary/Treasurer
Bob Crane
15295 Gainsville Road
Ralph, AL 35480
205-339-0081
NTA DIRECTOR’S REPORT
I arrived at the host hotel in Columbia, Mo. Late in the afternoon after a somewhat uncomfortable 11 hour ride as my a/c in the truck had gone out less than 50 miles from the house. Luckily it was a recall and thanks to Rusty Johnson from Ga. I managed to get it fixed while attending the meetings/convention that week. I attended the EC meeting on Monday as generally discussion’s in there are on issue’s the council is considering bringing to the board the next day, some things are not brought before the board and I like to be able to hear the discussion and reasoning for or against such things as sometimes these are issue’s I’m planning on bringing up during the board meeting.
Tuesday kicked off the first day of the board meeting with all the credential reading, pledge of allegiance, etc. Calling the meeting to order president Kraig Kaatz then began discussion’s that covered finance’s, legislative agenda’s, fundraising, and a myriad of other issue’s. Dave Roberts gave an office report and explained to us that according to our auditor’s we’re passed due for a bylaw’s revision. Much discussion was given on this and it was decided by the board to wait another year before spending the funds to have this done, that will give the bylaw’s committee time to go over everything and suggest changes, etc.
A lot of discussion about regional convention’s was also discussed and new criteria is going to be drawn up for future events since NTA feel’s they are losing too much money on these events. I disagree with the EC on this assertion but also feel if trappers are not interested enough in attending and supporting these then the chips can fall where they may on them. So if you wish for them to continue you might want to plan on attending them when they are in your area. Dave and Karen Linkhart gave a great report on all of the activity’s they attended this past year as our DNIA dignitary’s.
We’re really lucky to have these great folks working for us in DC and elsewhere. Their efforts at the convention showed with a lot of positive media coverage of the convention everywhere I looked, even in the very nice publication left in our hotel rooms on the end tables.Lots of good publicity thanks to them. Gary Leistico our attorney gave an update on the work he’s been involved with as well as updates on the case’s in ME. And the wolf delisting efforts.
Our new FBU president and my personal friend, even though he’s a yankee, Dave Shuttlesworth gave a report on FBU and the new sponsor program they have come up with, if your interested in being a sponsor let me know, I’ll have application’s at the fall convention in Fosters. FBU has been very helpful to us in our youth education efforts so I ask each of you to consider helping them if you can. We had a guest speaker on Wed. from National Assembly of Sportsman Caucuses, this group contacts and assemble’s legislator’s, governors, etc. across the country who support our cause’s. Im sure our president Charlie Rath has plans to get this group’s help in some of the legislative issue’s we’ve been working on the past several years.
Contacts like this are why it’s vital to have someone at these national meetings. After I held up the meetings at the very end with some question’s and suggestion’s about NTA’s Sweepstakes we finally adjourned early wed. That night was the awards banquet and our very own Charlie Rath won Director of the Year and our association won Affiliate of The Year for all the workshops and new NTA members ive signed up at each workshop. So a big THANK YOU to all who have lost work, money, sleep and who know’s what else to show up to help with the kid workshops, none of it would be possible without you.
Also on the awards list that night was my friend from across our border over in Ms. Mr. Danny Redwine, their NTA Director. He won Trapper of The Year East so I had to run out of the room, through the hotel lobby and outside where he was sitting to get him in there to accept his award, I didn’t tell him what it was about, just that he was needed inside now, think I scared him and his poor wife half to death, but the shock and surprise on his face was worth the effort. Good job Danny, you deserve it!
Thursday kicked off the convention and I was on the grounds ripping and running soon as the gates opened gathering up donation’s for our fall convention auction. The dealer’s were very nice this year so we have many great items to bid on but be warned ahead of time, many of these items I’ll be bidding on as well. A partial list includes 6 TS 85’s, several dozen snares, 2 jugs of trap dye, several jars of predator bait, lures, a Braun wolf trap donated by Tim Caven and too many other dvd’s, books, etc. to list.
Friday I finished up my donation gathering and was surprised by an old friend id not seen in several years, Gary Clark from Mo. And his wife showed up and took me and family out to a wonderful steak supper. I had to miss the auction for it but it was nice to get out of the heat for awhile and rest. Saturday I spent the first 3 hours manning the NTA booth as they were short handed and it was nice and cool in the building they were in, the heat outside was incredible all week long! Our dear Charlie of course decided since I was at the booth to have a yard sale to get rid of old outdated tee shirts and boy did he draw a crowd! After about 2 hours of solid running back and forth the crowd as well as the merchandise he was trying to get rid of was all gone!
After that I spent the rest of the day going around selling tickets for a chance to win the .17 marlin in our gun raffle. That afternoon id sold all my tickets and turned the tickets and money over to Vicki Sievering as her and Mike were also in attendance getting more idea’s on how to make the association better and get some donations for this winters upcoming workshops. Like always, the week went by in a flash and we were all exhausted by the time we headed home, but look forward to another one next year. Hope each of you make to our fall convention in Fosters, see you there.
— Jackie
