Minutes of the ISTA Board of Directors Meeting on October 21, 2023
ROLL CALL
Southern Zone: Dennis Baker, Lauren Dunn, John Kravanek, Frank Payne
Central Zone: Steve Carver, Mike Dennis - ex, Bill Maiden, Kevin Wunder
Northern Zone: Charlie Bickle - ex, Patrick Haskins, Bill Huhn, Stan Systo - ex
Others: Joan Maiden, ISTA Secretary; Bill Duncan, ATA Delegate; Michelle Mueller
SECRETARY’S REPORT – Bill Huhn made a motion to waive the reading of the minutes that were emailed to Board Directors and accept as read; Kevin Wunder seconded the motion. Motion carried.
TREASURER’S REPORT – Mike Dennis was not in attendance. Report given by Secretary. Kevin Wunder made a motion to accept the Treausurer’s Report; John Kravanek seconded the motion. Motion carried
OLD BUSINESS
2023 State Shoot Overview – Directors discussed the outcome of the state shoot. The only negative comment that was mentioned was regarding the number of broken targets. Lauren reported they dropped the age limit down to 14 years old to get a larger pool of workers and received better help from them than older workers. Bill Huhn commented on how nice the kids were on Bank 11 & 12 and they were young but good. Bill Duncan also commented on the number of broken targets. He said there are too many boxes in the trap house at the beginning of the day and the loaders are sitting and standing on them because there is no room to move around down there. He also said he saw a couple of trap machines that need to be rebuilt. Michelle reported they are going to order two new machines in December. Bill Maiden commented on how deep the broken targets accumulated on the turret. Bill Huhn said at their club they use battery powered blowers to blow the pieces out from the machine.
HOF Building Update – Denny Baker reported there was $735 in the account, however, he estimated about $3500 - $4,000 was turned in that morning by the Director’s who sold Kolar Gun Raffle tickets. Denny reported he talked to the building contractor, and they are going to add an 8’ x 10’ porch to keep the front door from having weather on it. After the first hard rain, a little water got in there. A set of double doors will be added to the east side making the entrance between the ISTA building and the porch. Denny is looking for about 5-7 lower glass cases for the inside of the museum. If anyone knows of any, let Denny know. Bruce Waide is donating wood that is already planed & sanded and he and Bill Duncan will be going there to look at it. Jesse Tedrick is donating the heating and air conditioning for the building. After those have been installed, the electrical wiring will be installed. Gary Miner is donating the light fixtures. Denny estimated another $20,000 would finish the building. He said he was going to pay for the finishing costs, keep track of it and then he would be reimbursed after the gun raffle tickets are finalized. Bill Huhn reported the sale of bricks has slowed down. Around 48 bricks have been sold so far. Pat Haskins recommended asking the clubs to buy a brick as a donation. Bill Huhn said McHenry already bought a $200 brick. Kevin said he thinks he can get Chillicothe SC to donate. Several Directors thought asking the clubs was a good idea. Pat Haskins said he is going to donate die cut signs for the Hall of Fame. Pat also made a motion for ISTA to front the money to finish the building with the understanding the proceeds from the gun raffle would pay back the money loaned to the Hall of Fame Building. Bill Maiden suggested tabling that motion until a full board was present. Bill Duncan responded to the motion and said he didn’t think that should be done right now. He said it has all been paid for with donated funds and it may open a can of worms if the board voted to do that. Denny Baker said he would continue with his plan to front what is needed to finish the building and will get reimbursed later.
State Shoot Program Changes from 2023 – Michelle went over a few changes she wanted made to the program. On Tuesday, instead of using 12 traps, they are going to reduce it to 8 traps. On Page 9 - Event 3 - Doubles will be eligible for all American points if we have an In-State Champion and an Out-of-State Champion. On Page 11 for the Illinois Gun Club Lewis Class – the Events it will be paid out on should be Event 5, 8 & 11. The only other things were some wording issues on the Options being offered. Michelle gave Joan her program with those notes in it so she can make those changes. Joan asked if the Board wanted the names of deceased shooters who had shot over 100,000 targets be added back in since there were several complaints about removing them. The board agreed to put them back in. Kevin mentioned some people told him their names should have been on the list but were not on. Joan said she received the list from ATA and if she could have the names of those people who said this, she would check with her contact at ATA to see about getting their names on the list. Joan was asked when she would like to have the ads for the program submitted and she said by the end of January/beginning of February.
NEW BUSINESS
Distribution of HOF Gun Raffle Posters/Flyers – Joan handed out the HOF gun raffle flyers & posters to the Directors wanting to take them back to clubs in their area.
HOF Kolar Gun Raffle Tickets Sold – The number of tickets sold was not actually given but as Denny mentioned in his update, he had about $3500 - $4,000 turned in so that would be around 35 to 40 tickets sold. There were some Directors who said they had commitments from people who said they were going to buy them.
Zone Shoots -- Lauren asked if Central Zone was going to change their zone shoot. Joan said she thought Mike was going to change it. She text Mike and he said he was going to try and move it to the 2nd weekend in May.
Pay Increase for Secretary – Steve Carver made a motion to increase the wages for the Secretary. The Directors decided the topic needed to be revisited when a full board present and tabled until the next meeting.
501C4 vs. 501C3 – Pat Haskins said several years ago, the Directors talked about converting ISTA from being classified as a 501C4 to a 501C3. Pat indicated he believed ISTA should be a 501C3. He said we lost $5,000 in donations that he is aware of because of the current classification. He said Ned was against it and it was voted down. He thinks it should be discussed again and would send out documents regarding the issue to everyone so it could be discussed again. Denny Baker said the 501C4 was set up because we were a gun organization and we wanted to be able to make contributions to people in favor of our organization if the need arose. He said what the Board needs to look at is if that is still part of what we need. Do we still need to be able to make those contributions? Have we ever made such a contribution? And then we need to decide if we should be changed to a 501C3? A decision was made to table this topic for a later meeting when the full board is present.
Mike Jordan – A suggestion was made about having a shoot named after Mike Jordan or have a full-page ad placed in the program. This will be worked on in the coming months.
HOF Nominations -- In Charlie's absence, Pat Haskins brought up the Hall of Fame Nominations and said Charlie gave him a list of people who have been nominated for consideration. A question was asked if there is a limit to the number that can be voted in. John read from the 2014 approved bi-laws that states “no more than four elected to the Hall of Fame in a year and only when there has been a series of consecutive years with no nominations or elections. When elections are run in a year-to-year sequence no more than two members may be elected to the Hall of fame in that target year.” Once a candidate is nominated, that nomination is good for three years. John Kravanek and Bill Maiden are on the HOF Nominations committee with Charlie, and both indicated it needed to be tabled when the full board is present.
DELEGATE REPORT – Bill Duncan congratulated everyone in the room who made the State Team and/or the All-American Team. The State of Illinois has chosen a new Executive Director for WSRC but they have not released the name yet. The new ED is supposed to start November 15, 2023. According to the contract the ATA has with the State, negotiations can begin January 2024 to renew the contract. The end of the contract is in 2026. Jason asked Bill to let the Board know when ATA sells tickets for the gun raffle, they put that money in a pool, and it is divided between the 5 zones across the country and doled out to clubs when they apply for it. For some reason, clubs are not applying for the money. There hasn’t been an Illinois club that has applied in the last couple of years. Normally it is around $1,000 given to a club if they apply. The clubs can apply by going to the ATA website under the Club part and submit their application for money to benefit projects at their club. Spread the word the money is there if they want to apply for it. Bill said he is not giving up on the competition factor issue. It is too late now because the points were lost for the 2023 State Shoot, but Bill wrote a letter to the ATA Executive Committee. It is going to be on the agenda for the next Executive Committee meeting.
UPDATE 12/15/23: I (Joan) called WSRC today and was told the new Executive Director is Raphael “Skip” Klinger.
NEXT MEETING DATE – December 16, 2023, at 9:00 AM via Zoom call
ADJOURNMENT – Motion to adjourn was made by Steve Carver; Bill Huhn seconded the motion. Motion carried.
Respectfully submitted,
Joan Maiden, ISTA Secretary