Minutes of the ISTA Board of Directors Meeting on April 22, 2023
ROLL CALL
Southern Zone: Dennis Baker, Lauren Dunn, John Kravanek, Frank Payne
Central Zone: Steve Carver, Mike Dennis, Bill Maiden, Kevin Wunder
Northern Zone: Charlie Bickle, Patrick Haskins, Bill Huhn, Stan Systo
Others: Joan Maiden, ISTA Secretary; Bill Duncan, ATA Delegate
SECRETARY’S REPORT – Mike Dennis made a motion to waive the reading of the minutes and accept the minutes as presented by email from the Secretary. Charlie Bickle seconded the motion. Motion carried.
TREASURER’S REPORT – Mike Dennis gave the Treasurer’s report and reported the following: Ned Meyer indicated to Mike he would handle the Treasurer duties until Mike gets back from Florida but when Mike got back from Florida, Ned said he could still handle it. Mike asked the board what they wanted to do with the Treasurer. He indicated he will need all of Ned’s records from the past so he will be able to deal with all questions. Mike will discuss getting these from Ned. Joan asked what she would need to do to make deposits when Mike was out of state. He said Joan could either mail the checks to the bank for a deposit or take to USBank. Kevin Wunder told Joan if she had questions or problems when Mike was away, she could call him. Mike said his intentions are to take over the checking and instead of having the accountant write checks for bills, he will pay the bills himself and send the accountants the receipts. The board agreed to have Mike take over as Treasurer and work with Ned through the transition. Mike reported beginning in September, for 2024 shoot year, $1,000 from the Gries Fund will go to each zone to be used for added money at the Zone Shoots. Mike would like the three zones to get together to decide how to break it up because he thinks it should be the same for each zone and everyone agreed. Charlie Bickel made a motion to approve the Treasurer’s report; Pat Haskins seconded the motion. Motion carried.
OLD BUSINESS
Dean Newman’s Services – This issue was discussed at prior meetings, but a vote was never taken. The Board agreed there are enough Directors who set targets throughout the year at their clubs that they could divide into two teams, each one starting at the opposite end and meeting in the middle. There was a comment that all the radar guns need to be synced if more than one is being used so they are the same. Frank indicated in past years, ISTA has paid Dean $300, and Lauren said Brittany has paid him $300 plus a camping spot and also $300 for the ATA Central Zone Shoot. Steve Carver made a motion to stop using Dean’s services and Kevin Wunder seconded. Motion carried. Bill Duncan said he & Lauren will call Dean and let him know.
ISTA Hall of Fame Logo Contest – Lauren reported she had not received any entries in the contest to date. Earlier that week she sent another email to the SCTP Director and Michelle, who is the AIM Director, who are both going to send another announcement/reminder out to the coaches when they send the next email telling them they have two months. Kevin Wunder said he would remind their youth and Stan Systo indicated he would call Christy at Diamond Indoor Trap Club for her to remind her youth shooters.
HOF Building Update – Bill Duncan reported they finally have the lease for the HOF Building, and they are legally ready to build on a 40 x 40 area. The balance in the account is $42,700. Dennis Baker reported he talked to a contractor who is a local father & son builder. They met with Denny who indicated the west tin wall would be moved to the west wall of the new building. There will be no windows in the building except for a double entry door on the north side which will be where the lean-to starts on the ISTA building that will be where the north wall will be on the building. The building will be approximately 36’ x 32’ with vaulted ceilings. There will be a door where the filing cabinet sits in the ISTA building to go between the buildings. They gave him a bid for the shell – wood frame, walls, tin, door & concrete – of $42,000. Still needed will be insulation, electricity, heating & cooling, dry wall. The propane & some other things need to be moved before they can start working so Dennis will have that guy give a bid on a heating system that can handle both buildings. Kevin Wunder asked if electric baseboard heaters could be used since the buildings are not used in the winter and we’d just need to keep it around 55 – 60 degrees. Some type of air conditioning would also be needed. It was mentioned that Frank Bentley said something one time about helping with the heating/cooling. Pat Haskins said he has some friends plus Charlie, who are electricians, who volunteered to help. Kevin asked how the electricity would be divided out between the buildings. Bill Duncan said the way the contract was written is Brittany will pay for the electricity for both buildings, but it can be amended later if needed. Stan Systo asked if there was a drawing or picture of the proposed building to set on an easel to show people what it will look like. Denny said he would see if he could get something. Bill Duncan mentioned to the board members that the contract is a private contract. He said if anyone asks you any questions there are two things you can tell them: the lease is for 99 years at $1.00 a year and if the business ever gets sold, the HOF get all their construction money back. Pat Haskins said the reason it needed to be recorded like this was so if BSP decided to get out of the trapshooting business and sell to a developer, because this contract exists, the construction money would be returned. Joan said when she was typing up the minutes from the January 2023 meeting, Pat Haskins had said there was a letter of agreement for the ISTA building. She asked if that building had a lease contract filed like the HOF building. Pat said he had never seen a letter of agreement on that building but was told by Ned Meyer there was a letter of agreement. He said the reason this is different is because it is not owned by the ISTA. This is the ISTA HOF which is a not-for-profit, separate corporation which also takes it out of the tax rolls. The question was asked how ISTA will get the construction money back for the ISTA administration building if the property is ever sold since there is only a letter of agreement and not a lease contract. Bill Duncan said he believes ISTA built the classification building, but technically the Mohr family own it because they have been depreciating it over the years. Charlie said he had seen a letter of agreement that was only a couple of pages where it was a 99-year deal at $1.00 a year and that was basically it. Charlie Bickle made a comment that the HOF building cannot be incorporated with the ISTA Administration building because the HOF is a 501C3 and the ISTA building is a 501C4. The question was asked if they could be connected, and the answer was yes. When the insurance is done it will be a lot less for a 501C3 than for a building where a lot of people congregate. Joan asked how the items would be insured. Pat Haskins said the items will have to be individually insured and paid for by the HOF 501C3. He also said there will have to be a safe installed in the building as well.
State Shoot Programs – Joan reported all programs had been shipped out that week, missing the printer’s self-imposed deadline of April 15th by just a couple of days. Joan said she spot checked around the state and it had been reported that shooters in Southern Zone & Central Zone had received them, however, Northern Zone had not yet received them when they were called. At the December meeting the board decided to have 1,000 printed. There were 716 programs mailed after combining the addresses to only send one per household. There was some discussion regarding saving money sending one per household vs. sending one to every shooter. It would have been a difference of $38.00 postage to send to all shooters. The cost of the programs could not be figured into that equation, because the same number of programs were going to be printed regardless. It was discussed that we see how many are left over from the leftover taken to Brittany at the end of the shoot and possibly reduce the number printed next year. Lauren is going to send Joan the list of shooters from the 2023 shoot so Joan can add any new shooters to the address list for next year.
Golf Carts – John Kravanek went through the list of everyone who needs golf carts at the state shoot. It was decided 1 mechanics cart for Jake and 11 for everyone else.
State Shoot Job Assignments – Frank went through job assignments. For classifications, he said Mike is usually there in the morning and Frank said he would help some too. Bill Duncan said technically he is in charge of classification being the ATA Delegate. Bill Huhn & Steve Carver said they helped last year with classifications too. Bill Duncan said what he’d like to see is people come back throughout the day to see if anyone needs a break from classifications. Frank asked who we had assigned to hand out trophies because Barb, Tom & Ned will not be there. Mike Dennis said Brenda will be there & she is going to have Connie Martin help her. Charlie Bickle said his wife will also be coming later in the week and she can help too. John Kravanek said his wife made a sign one year that said what time trophies could be picked up and Lauren said they still had it so we could put that on the table by the trophies so people wouldn’t have to sit there all day long. Mike mentioned to Lauren that Brenda was wondering if they could set up a printer for the trophy area so the trophy lists could be printed out instead of them having to keep running over to get it. Lauren also said ScoresR.com will also show a trophy list, in addition to the one she prints out. Lauren said they can set up a computer for them too since some people’s phones don’t work at Brittany. Trap setters will be John, Kevin, Bill M., Stan, Denny, Frank. Mike will be in charge of figuring shoot offs. Frank mentioned the Directors who set & adjust traps all day are usually wiped at the end of the day so he suggested some of the Directors who don’t set traps need to stick around to oversee shoot offs. All Directors need to stay Saturday and Sunday night for shoot offs. The Directors will be responsible for moving one or two person squads to other squads to keep the shoot moving.
ATA Delegate Report – Bill Duncan reported ATA had an audit showing they ended with $23 million down from $25 million last year. The market was the main reason for this drop and also people are just not shooting. He also reported there are a thousand rumors about Sparta. His gut feeling is that a couple of groups approached the government about purchasing it. They put a bill to approve the sale of the property into committee in case an offer is made, with the bill potentially passing, they can move quickly on a sale. If there are any negotiations going on, they are super quiet. Another issue being discussed is regarding the points for the All-American shoots. There has been some difficulty with weather, target costs, etc., causing low turnout for some big shoots and they are looking into a new way of figuring the point level. Discussions are in the works regarding this, but at this point, it is not known if changes do take place whether it will be retroactively or if it is going to take effect in the future.
NEXT MEETING DATE – There will be a meeting to sort trophies when the last shipment comes in and Mike will contact people to help. Next Meeting will be June 16, 2023, after Annual Meeting at Brittany Shooting Park.
ADJOURNMENT – Motion to adjourn was made by Stan Systo; Bill Huhn seconded the motion. Motion carried.
Respectfully submitted,
Joan Maiden
ISTA Secretary