McHenry Sportsman’s Club Newsletter (June 9, 2000)
Dear Members and Families:
Summer is fast approaching us and with it comes all the activities (and work) associated with that time of year.
We all hope part of your summer activities will include visits to the club for some well deserved trapshooting.
Just think, what other activity can you engage in where you can destroy little clay targets and brag about?
The ATA Registered Shoot program:
We have had two registered shoots this year so far, and another one coming in July.
Because of the overwhelming positive response from last year, this shoot will be a BELT BUCKLE SHOOT.
The following is a list of the remaining ATA registered shoots planned for the McHenry Sportsmen’s Club this year:
July 9, 2000 (BELT BUCKLE SHOOTV)
September 3, 2000
Trap League:
The little boxes you have checked on your membership application or renewal form indicate our members want to do other things besides practice and ATA registered shoots.
Other activities include games, meat shoots and leagues.
We have a single two day meat shoot just before Thanksgiving and we want to do something to provide games at the club.
As far as leagues, we would like to address this need this summer.
Tim Kraus has been attempting to organize a summer league.
Because the details have not been worked out as the writing of this newsletter, additional information will be posted at the club, or you can call Tim directly at (815) 385-4083.
What we do know is that the league will be open to both members and non-members, and there will be cash prizes.
The activity will be engineered so shooting ability will be secondary to improved performance.
This makes the event fair, and should provide enjoyment to all who participate.
The cost has not been fully worked out, but the actual shooting cost for league rounds will be the same as the normal member rate in effect during the duration of the season.
Any fee charged to join the league will be used for prize money.
Club Family Picnic:
The McHenry Sportsmen’s Club annual family picnic is currently being planned.
A letter will be sent which will announce the date and events that will be included this year.
Last year’s picnic was a success, and we intend to make this years even better.
There will be food, shooting events and a raffle this year.The raffle “tickets” will be the used shooting coupons which we have saved for this event.
Plan to attend.
If you have not renewed your membership for this year, hopefully it tells us that you have not had time to come out and shoot.
This minor technicality may be addressed by your presence at the picnic.
We look forward to seeing all of you there.
Building and Grounds:
We have acquired and fine tuned four automatic trap machines.
These machines, after several months of learning and working are functioning very well.
During the ATA season we use three of them, leaving two manual machines for Registered ATA doubles.
When the ATA season is over, we will place the fourth machine into trap one.
We currently have two voice call systems and will be evaluating a third system if and when the need arises.
The automatic trap machines have almost paid for themselves in trap personnel savings.
There appears to be a pent up interest in shooting doubles.
Our intent is to obtain another automatic machine capable of throwing doubles once we fully recover from purchasing and installing the other machines.
Work is being done on the clubhouse.
The boarded up south windows are being re-opened.
They were closed many years ago because of security reasons relating to having a trailer parked next to the clubhouse.
This trailer was removed when the garage was completed.
Now we can have our windows back.
A member donated a tractor to the club.
This was great.
We had two tractors, one large tractor used for the bulk of the mowing operation, and a small tractor which is used for both mowing and target distribution.
The small tractor needs a “ring job” and other engine and body repairs.
The additional tractor will allow us to shut down the small tractor and make necessary repairs on it.
With three tractors, it will take us less time to mow the grounds than doing it with two.
As we all know, there are a lot of grounds associated with a trap club.
To help keep our shooting fees down the mowing, as with everything else, is provided by your fellow members.
The clubhouse electrical service has been upgraded and the majority of the clubhouse was rewired over the past several weeks.
The only thing not rewired were two outlets on the south wall.
Those two outlets will be addressed when the microwave oven is relocated and the third window is reopened.
Our five trap houses need a total rewiring job.
This includes the traphouse inside wiring as well as the underground feeder cables that connect the trap houses to the clubhouse to provide power.
This activity will begin as soon as the ground has dried out enough to dig the trenches suitable for direct burial of cable.
Financial Information:
Normally, this type of information is not published in our newsletter.
We feel because of the concern people are having about rising costs, some type of opinion must be voiced.
The officers of the McHenry Sportsmen’s Club are unpaid members who were elected to office to represent the membership body and manage the club’s operations.
The treasurer maintains detailed accounting records of all transactions required to operate the club.
The club is a “not for profit” operation and therefore follows the guidelines established for that type of operation.
To make a long story short, unlike a normal business, the club is not attempting to get rich off its operations.
The primary objective is to break even, using its capital to improve its operations.
Any “profits” (money after paying for total operation costs) are used for activities such as maintaining our plant and equipment.
Yes, targets have gone up in price, and they will probably go up again.
Gasoline has also gone up.
Because of the amount of grounds that require mowing, this is a considerable expense.
Gasoline expenses will ripple down throughout our entire economy and will have impact on our future costs of operations.
Personnel costs have however gone down (due to the automatic trap machines).
The personnel cost reduction has been offsetting our other cost increases.
That is what is keeping our line fees in check now.
In fact, if you buy and use shooting coupon books, our line fees have actually been lowered.
To dispel the rumors about McHenry raising its line fees and membership dues, we can say now that there is no reason to raise line fees at this time based on the accounting data to date.
The following information should be carefully read and understood by our membership.
We need your comments and suggestions, so please feel free to voice them.
Fee changes must be discussed and voted on during regularly scheduled membership meetings.
These meetings are scheduled to occur on the FIRST Thursday of each month and start at 8:00 PM, and are open to the entire membership to attend.
Line fees:
Only if our costs exceed our income, line fees will be raised.
Raising line fees is an action that must be approved by the membership and if the need arises, will be brought up and voted on during a regularly scheduled club membership meeting.
>Membership dues:
As far as membership dues are concerned, they too will NOT BE RAISED until there is a forced need to do so.
Raising membership dues is an action that must be approved by the membership and if the need arises, will be brought up and voted on during a regularly scheduled club membership meeting.
Possible future change to membership dues:
We have been attempting to engineer a plan to get more of our members to come out and shoot.
We have some members who renew their memberships every year and rarely or never shoot.
We are not referring to our one or two members who live out of state.
We mean people that live within several miles of the club.
Additionally, our club still runs on the 95-5 rule.
This means ninety five percent of the work required to operate and maintain the club is being done by five percent of the membership.
To address these two issues, one idea is to attach two pre-paid additional fees to our membership dues:
This is just an idea, and has not been approved by the directorship as of yet.
Read it over and let us know what you think before we vote this or anything like it into our operation.
We are open to other suggestions.
The forty dollar membership dues would remain the same, (at least until we are forced to raise it).
Add thirty dollars to the membership dues to members within a fifty mile radius of the club in exchange for a ten round pre-paid coupon book.
This would encourage people to at least come out to the club and shoot the ten rounds which they paid for when they paid their dues.
Add forty five dollars to the membership dues to members within a fifty mile radius of the club in exchange for a sixteen round coupon book to be presented to the member
when the member has completed some type of service to the club, such as helping out at the counter,
building and grounds, organizing events such as ATA registered shoots
or any other activity that helps relieve the burden of responsibility for the club’s operation.
If everyone helped out once each year, no matter how small it may seem, the quality of life at the club would improve in orders of magnitude.
The alternative is to start hiring help, which will force fee increases as well as drain reserves now being used to improve our club.
The bottom line is there would be NO REAL INCREASE in the membership dues.
Additional “up front” money which would be “returned” as described above.
The result would be more members coming to the club to shoot, and some relief for the few that take on the responsibility of running the club.
The only real increase that would occur would be for people who join and do not shoot (if they do not sell of give away their prepaid coupon book),
or for people who cannot or will not help us operate the club.
Your comments, suggestions and questions are welcome.
Trapshooters really do set a good example:
Lately, with all the press the shooting sports have received,
one would think the owner of a firearm, despite the type and intent is an outright criminal.
This has been proven to be just the opposite.
Years back, people were proud to shoot, they even hung their rifles above their fireplaces and were proud of them.
Talk of shooting or hunting experiences were general discussion topics in the fall season.
Today, we keep our rifles locked up in safes, and most of the time keep our mouths shut about the fun we have at our clubs or in the field.
Some hunting stories are only known to the hunter and his dog.
Yes we discuss these things, but usually with our peers or other interested parties.
Most of us by now have finally renewed our NRA memberships just to be able to maintain our second amendment constitutional right to own and operate a firearm (if you have not… now is a good time).
By the way, do not think just because you are a trapshooter, your single shot 12 gauge or your sport itself will be will be spared.
Once the camel sticks his nose in your tent, it is just a matter of time before the entire camel is in there with you.
From what I have seen of trapshooters, there can be no finer group of people.
They are generally, as a group, kind, helpful, trustworthy, and most of all very concerned about safety while enjoying their sport.
I am sure this also extends out to our fellow skeet, sporting clays, and other recreational shooters as well.
This extends even further at the McHenry Sportsmen’s Club.
I personally shoot at McHenry because I really like the members and their attitudes.
I basically learned how to shoot trap at this club, although I was a member of other clubs before.
McHenry is truly a shooter’s club as can be seen by the shooting scores, and the help given to people that want Sportsmen’s Club has gone farther than I have ever seen to make this a true statement.
We have to continue to set this example.
Lets not give anyone reason to think we are a careless bunch of people.
We will continue to treat the shooting sports with the respect it deserves, promote safety among ourselves and others, and most of all, helping out our fellow shooters.
A place to shoot your Pistol:
Most of already know, the primary activity at our club is trapshooting, augmented with games structured around the core trapshooting protocol.
We do not have a skeet field, a sporting clays field, a pistol or rifle range.
The Conservation Club of Kenosha County (CCKC), better known simply as “Bristol” has these facilities and others such as archery and black powder shooting.
The club is located in Wisconsin on route “AH”.
From Illinois, take either route 45 or 83 north to “AH” (just north of “C”), the range is on both sides of the road between route 45 and route 83.
If you get to route 50, you went too far.
Shotgun and Archery is on the north side, rifle, pistol, and black powder is on the south side.
They maintain a telephone on the shotgun range and the number is (262) 857-2439.
There are several other sporting clays fields in our area, Upland Bay is one I have visited.
Upland Bay is just east of Richmond just north of Route 173 on Lakeview Road.
Their phone number is (815) 678-4411.
I have not shot there every often so I am not familiar with how shooting is arranged.
Another sporting clays facility located on Darrell Road (just north of Island lake), Oakmount is a hunt club that offers sporting clays, but I am not sure how or when.
Their telephone number is (815) 385-2144.
There is an INDOOR pistol range located in the east end of McHenry on Route 120.
The McHenry Shooting Center maintains a pistol range and is also a full line firearms dealership with friendly and knowledgeable staff waiting to help you.
I have been shooting pistol there for some time now and find it to my liking.
The range is very close to our club, in fact some people get the two confused.
It is located on the north side of Route 120 between Chapel Hill road and River road below a bicycle shop.
Their mailing address is 2908 West Route 120 and their telephone number is (815) 385-2111.
They are open seven days a week.
Format of this newsletter:
This newsletter has been authored as a means of keeping the membership informed on the operation of the club, and will continue to provide this information.
Members should be informed as to what is going on with their club, including changes and upgrades made to plant and equipment.
We feel there is a need for more personal information, such as posting winners of events, ATA schedules at our neighboring clubs and other matters not directly relating to the club operations.
Items that may be included but not limited to identifying winners of events,
shooting event announcements and schedules, and articles written by members which would interest other members and other texts of this nature.
If you have any ideas, suggestions or written contributions, please make then known.
The frequency of this newsletter is quarterly, with extras published on demand when necessary.
The next newsletter will appear sometime in October.
GOOD SHOOTING TO ALL
Sincerely,
Tom Carneal, Club Treasurer