SAINT VRAIN ARCHERY CLUB

ARTICLE VIII:  BY-LAWS AMENDMENTS

CURRENT:   These By-laws may be amended by a two thirds (2/3) majority vote at any meeting for that purpose.   Proposed By-Law changes will be made at the annual meeting or by special vote, whereby; a mailing of the proposed changes will be sent to the membership one month prior to the proposed vote.

PROPOSED: These Bylaws may be amended by two thirds (2/3) majority of a meeting quorum. Proposed By-Laws changes can be made at the annual meeting or by special vote for that purpose.

Voting on Bylaw amendments or other club matters, may also be conducted by electronic means including via internet email communication.  If internet voting is carried out, votes will be directly submitted to the Secretary or a designee.  Internet voting will give each member at least one week (seven days) to respond and would require two thirds (2/3) majority of the votes returned.  A minimum of twenty email votes (for or against) would need to be cast for an amendment to pass.  Printouts from the returned email will be printed for verification purposes. Proposed By-Law changes will be sent to the membership one month (30 days)  prior to the proposed vote by mail or electronic means.

ARTICLE VI, DUES AND FEES

CURRENT:  The officers have the authority to make special rulings of dues payable for memberships if requested in writing by a member (i.e. personal hardship, donated memberships, etc.).

 PROPOSED: The officers have the authority to make special rulings of dues payable for memberships if requested in writing by a member. Exceptions can be made by the officers for special reasons such as:

·        Members joining late in the year may have their dues reduced

·        Members who donate equipment, targets or money may have dues waived

·        Non-working fees may be modified for special reasons

·        Other exceptional cases as agreed by the officers

From November 15^th until March 15^th range hours are:

9:00 AM until 3:00PM

 You pay the bills and don't know it!

Hunters contribute over $500 million a year from hunting licenses and excise taxes on hunting equipment.  All of that money goes to state wildlife agencies to run their programs.  In most states these two items pay for over 75% of the wildlife agencies budget.  In some states it pays for everything.

The fact that you pay the bills for wildlife management is one of the great leverages we have to keep hunting alive.  The antis can rage on and on, but since you pay for most or all wildlife management, even some of non-game management, purchase habitat that everyone including antihunters can use, pay for hunter education, etc., etc., it's hard to say, "we need to stop hunting."  Right?

Well, that's right, as long as the public and politicians know that we pay for wildlife management.  But they don't.  And you don't either.  What do you mean, we don't know that?  Recent studies show that most hunters do not know that hunting license money and an 11% federal excise tax on hunting equipment pays to run your state wildlife agency.

Studies show that in most states, the majority of the public and the majority of hunters think that the state wildlife agency and what they do is paid for from general tax revenues.  Yes, read that again.  The majority of hunters think that all tax payers pay for wildlife management.

It gets a lot worse.  Less than 5% of the general public knows that there is an 11% excise tax on hunting equipment that helps pay the bills.....in fact it pays for way over half of most state wildlife bills.  In my state of West Virginia, only 2 % of the general public knows that.  But, get this.  Only 5% of the hunters in West Virginia know anything about Pittman Robertson excise taxes.  They don't know that these excise taxes, that they pay when they buy equipment, pay the bills.

Before you get comfortable, know that it really isn't different in your state.  It is rare for 10% of hunters in any state to know anything about this 11% tax that pays wildlife bills.

Where are you going with this Dave?  It's simple.  How can we expect non hunters to know that hunting pays for wildlife management, keeps wildlife populations healthy, pays for law enforcement, pays for hunter education, pays for wildlife managers to do their thing, pays biologists to collect research data, etc., etc., if we hunters don't know that?  People are trying to stop hunting, but they might listen to you if they knew that without hunting there would be almost nothing left of your state wildlife agency.

Maybe that's a bit of an over statement, but really not much.  Stop hunting, stop fishing, and you would have to come up with $1.2 billion a year from general tax payers to raise the money hunters and fishermen raise by purchasing licenses and equipment.  Period.  End of argument.

Be polite, but in letters to the editor, in discussions with your neighbors, whenever someone criticizes hunting, politely let them know these facts.  It just might make the difference.  Oh yes....even better, let your hunting buddies know who pays the bills.  Most do not know.  Recent studies show that they do not know.  Scary.

Is Hunting Safe?

Every time someone proposes an urban bowhunt, the antis dredge up this myth that hunting isn't safe.  Maybe the non-hunting public buys into that argument because much of hunting involves guns, and we all know how dangerous guns are.  Not.

And new studies show that when kids of non-hunting parents want to go hunting (and by the way there are more and more kids who fit this category), the number one concern parents have about hunting is safety.

When those letters to the editor hit your local papers about how hunting isn't safe, you need to respond with facts and figures.  Thus, I've decided to put some relatively recent  facts on outdoor sports injuries, published in a new document ("Families Afield") put out by the National Wild Turkey Federation, the U. S. Sportsmen's Alliance, and the National Shooting Sports Foundation that talks about removing hunting regulation barriers at the state level so that more kids can hunt.

These hunting data are for all hunting.  When we look at the injuries per 100 participants, we find that football is listed as the # 1 most dangerous outdoor sport, with 18.8 injuries per 100 participants.  Of every 100 people playing football, 19 get hurt.  Ice hockey is second with 15.9 injuries per 100 participants.  Boxing is next (12.7), then soccer (9.3), cheerleading (9.0), basketball (7.6), and baseball (5.8).  Those are the top ten for injuries.  Touch football is # 14 at 4.4, Tennis is # 21 with 2.5, aerobics is # 25 with 1.7.  Where is the dangerous sport of hunting?

Hunting is # 29.  Of all outdoor sports, when it comes to injuries per 100 participants, hunting is # 29 with 1.3 injuries per 100 participants.  "Families Afield " also looked at firearm hunting accidents and found that .005 % of all 14.8 million hunters were involved in accidents.  Also, .0005 percent of all 14.8 million hunters were involved in fatal accidents.  What about kids and these firearm hunting accidents?

Only .0001% of all 14.8 million hunters who were in accidents involved supervised youth hunters.  And only .00002% of all 14.8 million hunters who were involved in fatal accidents were supervised youth hunters.  We need to get this information out whenever the animal rights folks come to hammer us in the press on the safety of hunting.

So, bottom line is that parents allow their children to participate in football, soccer, cheer leading, aerobics,  volleyball, tennis, basketball, etc., and all have a higher injury rate than hunting.  Many have a higher fatality rate than hunting.  Hunting is very safe, and it gets safer every year.

Recruiting Hunters

A study came out the other day that was very alarming relative to the future of hunting.  They used a "hunter replacement ratio" that compared the number of old hunters to the number of hunters 6-15 years of age.  This ratio shows the long term trend for hunter recruitment and only seven states are above 1.0, which means that as old hunters die or leave they are replaced by an equal number of  younger hunters coming into the sport.

That's fine for those seven states, but for the nation as a whole, the hunter replacement ratio is 0.69.  That means that for every 100 hunters lost, we replace them with only 69.  Over the years, that means eventual extinction.

Last March I wrote about the National Archery in the Schools Program, supported a great deal by the Archery Trade Association, wherein kids from grades 4-12 learn to shoot bows in the public schools.  A lot has happened since last year, and since this is the greatest hunter recruitment tool we have, and since we now know that unless we do something to bring in new hunters, hunting will dwindle every year, I thought I'd revisit the topic.

Here is why the National Archery in the Schools Program, now running in 25 states with 16 more states starting right now, can literally save the future of hunting.  We know from personal experience that kids love to shoot bows.  The Archery Trade Association sees the value of getting kids shooting bows, so they provided $225,000 in matching grants for 2004-2005 to jump start this program in 15 states.  Mathews, Inc. also kicked in $100,000 as did the National Wild Turkey Federation.

The Archery Trade Association also funded a study in Kentucky to assess how the program was working.  The results were extremely interesting.  Ninety-three percent of students taking the course liked it, in fact 92% though it was exciting.  Now tell me the last time you heard of 92% of public school students "excited" about any class.

In addition, 54% thought that shooting a bow was easy, 53% felt better about themselves after learning to shoot a bow, 30% looked for a store to buy archery equipment, 21% actually bought archery equipment, 77% said they would join an after school archery club if there was one, AND 22% tried to find out information on bowhunting.

Aha!!!!  Let's do the math.  We already know that if 30 states have the same success with their public school archery program as Kentucky has had, there will be 3 million kids a year taking archery in the schools.  Twenty-two percent of 3 million kids (660,000 per year) will be looking for information on bowhunting.

If that link is made, and if other programs are generated to get those kids that show an interest in bowhunting into the woods and into tree stands, the old "hunter replacement ratio" just might take a giant leap upwards.  The Archery Trade Association sees the need here and is working to create those links for kids who, after learning to shoot bows in the public schools, want to go bowhunting.

This is huge.  I know, there are those out there who distrust the archery industry for various reasons, some justified, most not justified.  But the fact is that hunter numbers are on a downward spiral.  If you are one of those guys who says, "so what, that just gives me more places to hunt where I won't see anyone in the woods," then you just don't get it.  As hunter numbers drop, license monies and federal excise taxes drop.  As licenses and taxes decrease, funding to state wildlife agencies decrease.  As funding for agencies decreases, programs and staff are reduced.  As programs and staff are reduced, wildlife suffers.

Obviously, the archery industry stands to benefit when more kids shoot bows.   They also benefit when there are more bowhunters.  But as hunter numbers dwindle, as they are, based on the declining number of kids 6-15 who are coming into hunting, then the future of hunting is also very questionable.  But the National Archery in the Schools Program appears to be making huge strides, the kind that just might save the future of hunting