Ohio Waterfowl Association

Sunday, June 17th, 2007 The meeting was called to order at 12:15 by President, Andy Hogle. After a brief introduction of the Officers a motion was made to approve the prior meetings minutes by Steve Jennings and seconded by Aaron Lynch.

The Treasurer’s report was giving by Dan Boone. This included the checks and expenses as well as the balance on hand of $3293.55 Reconciliation statements were provided for members at the meeting.

Past events recap was next on the agenda. Mike Petkovich gave the North Zone recap. 3 events had been completed in the North zone.:
1. Earth Day Event was held at Green Creek in the Ottawa Refuge. This entailed the members assisting with erosion nets at the entrance of the park. This was a successful event with positive feedback from the Federal officials at the refuge as well as the local community.
2. OWA Trash Clean Up was May 12th an organized by Tony Tilson. The clean up areas were: Mosquito Creek Reservoir, Crane Creek and Grand Lake St. Mary’s. Members at Mosquito Creek picked up 26 garbage bags of trash at the causeway. Crane Creek had several members cleaning up the beach area with a total of 4 bags of trash. Grand Lake St. Mary’s unfortunately was missed due to logistical problems and lack of membership follow-through. 2 out of 3!!! Good Job Tony.
3. A goose banding events was attempted on June 15th in conjunction with Wayne County Ducks Unlimited. This was one of the Greenwing events that they perform. For the second year in a row for O.W.A. participated in the event. Although the geese did not cooperate, the kids had a great time participating in several coloring contest and many other games. The Ohio Division of Natural Resources whom was capturing the geese brought the netting device and gave a demonstration and a informative talk on the reason for banding as well as the importance of banding the geese. O.W.A. members Dave Gelhar, Steve Jenning and Dan Boone performed a calling demonstration for all in attendance. This was a very successful event with smiles for everyone. See pictures here.

Aaron Lynch gave the South Zone recap. Aaron stated that the south zone had been a bit slow but had two events to report on.
1. OWA was in attendance for the April Fairfield County Pheasants Forever Event. Although the weather didn’t cooperate, with an estimated 700 kids to be in attendance they still drew 500 kids! OWA assisted Mr. Dick Benson with the decoy head painting. All in attendance felt this was a very successful event and have talked about including a dog handling area for next years events as well as assist were needed.
2. Member Craig Galloway headed up a Lake White Clean-up. The volunteers collected 22 tires and debris from the lake. KUDOS to CRAIG GALLOWAY for stepping up to lead an event!!!

Upcoming Events: Andy Hogle is heading up a workday on August 18-19th at the Hebron Fish Hatchery. Andy met with Mr. Brian Kitchen in regard to assisting with moving the current blinds and brushing them for the upcoming season. This is an important event and has been on the calendar since the February meeting—MEMBERSHIP participation is highly needed.

Aaron Lynch has been in contact with officials at the Mercer/GSLM refuge. Several projects are being entertained for the GLSM/Mercer area. One proposal was for OWA to provide assistance in the building of 200 nesting boxes. They will provide the materials however they are asking for OWA to supply and organize the manpower. There are currently 400 nesting structures in place with a 95% utilization. They have also asked that we assist in February/March with the maintenance of the current boxes.

Mike Petkovich has been asked by the chairman of the Delta Crooked River Chapter, Mr. Shawn Philbrick to assist in the building of Mallard hen houses. Delta will provide the funding and the materials for the event. Mike will be meeting with Dan Kramer from ODNR, Division III as it stands the event will take place August 11th.

Membership Drive & New Benefits:
Andy Hogle took the floor to explain to all members in attendance the need to obtain new members as well as letting all in attendance know that current membership will expire at the end of this year.

As an incentive for new and renewing members, OWA officers have decided to give away a call with each membership going forward. Officers decided it was in the best interest to showcase Ohio companies as much as possible. To that end, OWA member Dewayne Knight of Ohio-based Zink Calls came forward and presented a pricing sheet for the cost of purchasing OWA calls, as well as, offering a custom LASER engraved Goose and Duck call for the OWA to raffle for a fund raiser. DeWayne also proposed to ask Company management for a certain amount of the calls to be donated to OWA, and will get back with us on the amount donated upon speaking to the owners of Zink Calls.

As an additional benefit, OWA officers have also decided to offer the chance at a Benelli Nova shotgun for new member signups. This will be retroactive from June 1st, the first 100 members to sign up or renew their memberships will be eligible. Also if a member refers a new member the referring member will have an additional chance entered into the drawing. As an incentive / benefit for active members who participate in OWA projects and work days, an additional two chances to win the shotgun will be entered into the raffle for each project or work day participated in. The officers of the OWA decided to hold themselves ineligible for the gun drawing, therefore only the General Membership will have a chance at winning.

OWA officers also discussed being at the blind draws with an OWA booth in order to increase membership.

It is to be noted that the membership from the start of June 1, 2007 will be good till the February meeting of 2009!

OWA Sponsorships:
The subject of sponsorships has been brought up discussion was made in regard to the amount of funding or product that would be required to be an “OWA SPONSOR”. A motion to table the discussion to the next meeting was made by Aaron Lynch and Seconded by Steve Jennings. Officers will prepare a Sponsership structure proposal for consideration of the membership at the next meeting.

New Business:
The recognition of Darren Brooks daughter, Ashley Brooks for her outstanding work and donation of $52. It was decided to send a Certificate of Appreciation as well as a plaque with the newspaper article. A motion was made by Dan Boone and seconded by Steve Jennings.

A proposal to work again with the Wayne County Ducks Unlimited chapter and keep the calendar open for next years Goose Banding/Greenwing Event. Motion to approve the event by Dan Boone and Seconded by Mike Petkovich.

New OWA Logo: Sample were brought and shown to members. The new logo was approved and will be on the new OWA materials.

Darla Hogle volunteered to send out “thank you” notes to all who participate in OWA events.

A constitutional amendment motion was made by Andy Hogle and seconded by Steve Jennings to move the summer meeting date to a flexible date in August as well as move the February meeting to the third SATURDAY in February. Notification of a constitutional amendment to move these meetings will be posted in the Summer newsletter and voted on at the next meeting

Officers scheduled the next member meeting for September 22rd at 2 pm following the youth dove hunt. [Meeting will take place at the Gander Mountain in Reynoldsburg, Ohio] Motion by Andy Hogle, seconded by DeWayne Knight. Location of the meeting will be announced in the summer newsletter and posted on the website.

After some discussion with members, A motion to table the election of a Treasurer and let current Secretary and acting Treasure Dan Boone continue with the additional duties of Treasurer was motioned by Andy Hogle and seconded by Steve Jennings.

A motion to adjourn the meeting was made a 2:15 by Dan Boone and seconded by Dave Phillips.