2/15/03

2002 was a good year for FCS.  We had an increase of 41 total participants over 2001, an average of 10 more per quarter.  This was our second yearly participation increase in a row and our second best year since 1998.  The July through September and October through December quarters were both better than our averages.

We also had our highest Sporting Clays Shoot total attendance ever in 2002 (46 total participants).  Our Sporting Clays Shoot attendance went up 44% over 2001.  Below is our attendance to date since 1993 (when we started to have Clay Target Shoots). 

We also had our highest number of active members ever - 34 by the end of 2002.  In addition we had 10 men join the Club during 2002, although this was far short of my goal of 20 (primarily because I was unable to spur as much interest at Hype Park Baptist Church as I anticipated).  Regarding my other 2002 goals we did not have a saltwater bay fishing trip in conjunction with the Annual Goose/Duck hunt.  In retrospect this was not a good idea, as the Goose/Duck hunt always wears us out and to follow it with an all day fishing trip the next day would have been brutal.  Ryan and I were to have been two of the three participants at the saltwater bay fishing trip.  We decided that it would be more beneficial to the Club to have a "scouting" hog hunt at the J B Hunting Ranch, where we were considering for our Annual 2003 Hot Hunt.  We also could not afford both the hog hunt and the fishing trip so we opted for the hog hunt.  The scouting hunt proved to be beneficial as we discovered that the J B Hunting Ranch was too small and, therefore, too dangerous for a large party.  Our plan this year is to have a Deep Sea Fishing Trip as a solo event.  Our other two goals were to have an opening weekend Central or North zone Fall Dove Hunt/Retreat (which occurred in Mason) and to implement trophies for the quarterly Sporting Clays Shoots (which also occurred).

The following changes to the Bylaws were approved on 12/14/02 and became final on 2/14/03.

V. Meetings:

B. Any action agreed to by a majority vote of the members present at any Club official meeting shall constitute an official action of the Club.  The Club President can, at his discretion, hold a vote on a proposed action by e-mail, mail, or phone proxy in lieu of holding a vote at a Club meeting.  Attempts must be made to obtain a vote from all active members of the Club. Members must be given at a minimum one week to respond to an e-mail, mail, or phone vote.  Any action agreed to by a majority vote of the members surveyed by e-mail, mail, or phone vote also shall constitute an official action of the Club.

C. The Club officers can, in situations where it is impossible to obtain a quick response from the members, make Executive Decisions.  Examples include, but are not limited, to: canceling or rescheduling an event due to projected lack of game or bad weather and changing the location of an event due to a scheduling conflict.  These Executive Decisions can later be overturned by a majority vote of the members present at any Club official meeting or a vote by e-mail, mail, or phone.  The Club President must make attempts to obtain a vote from all current Club officers.

VI. Amendment proposals to the bylaws, statement of faith, or calendar:

C. Verbal proposals require a verbal "second" in order to be put to a vote.  Voting for verbal proposals is accomplished through a show of hands.  A majority vote carries.

D. Written proposals that are made during the officer candidate and proposal surveys do not require a "second".  Voting for said proposals is accomplished through a written ballot.  A majority vote carries.

Our system, which required both chapters (North Austin and South Austin) of the Club to approve all actions of the Club worked well when we were having regular meeting of both chapters.  The North Austin Chapter (NAC) met on even months and the South Austin Chapter (SAC) met on odd months.  When one chapter approved a change in the Bylaws, Statement of Faith, or Calendar it only took a month for the other chapter to vote on it.  Unfortunately this system broke down because the SAC has not been able to hold meetings, due to work conflicts, since 2/01 (for over two years).  We handled SAC votes since 2/01 by phone, mail, or in person at Club events.  This system has proven to be unwieldy.  We have addressed this problem twofold.  One is by the above changes.  The other is Meetings will no longer be called NAC Meetings and SAC Meetings - rather they will be called Club meetings.  Thus, actions approved at Club meetings are final. 

Presently 35 of our 38 active members have e-mail.  The majority of our recent votes have been done by e-mail (with mail votes sent to the three non-e-mail members).  This e-mail/mail vote system will become our primary method of securing votes.  With this system all of our members are included, including our out-of-town members and in-town members who are not able to attend meetings.  Proposals can still be made and votes taken at Club meetings regarding changes/additions to the Bylaws or Statement of Faith, however, I will discourage such votes by counter-proposing to wait and hold the vote via e-mail/mail so that every one can participate. 

We also gave the Club officers the authority to make Executive Decisions when an immediate response is required and there is insufficient time to poll all the Club members.  For example: our 12/5/02 North Austin Chapter Meeting was scheduled to be held at Mr. Charlie Batts' home.  On 12/3/02 the officers made an Executive Decision to reschedule the meeting to 12/12/02 at my home due to a church scheduling conflict on 12/5/02.  If we had held an e-mail vote on 12/3/02 we would have had to wait for one week for the results (five days too late).  If Club members are unhappy with the officer’s decision it can be revisited via our bylaw procedures.

On 1/22/03 we had an e-mail and mail vote regarding a Website space problem.  At that time we had used up 14.7 or 98% of my 15 MB space limit for my sbcglobal account.  Our choices were to either delete a page or picture before adding one, not adding any more pages or pictures, buying more space with sbcglobal, or buying our own domain name and paying for Webhosting.  No one voted for the first two choices.  We unanimously voted to buy our own domain name and pay for Webhosting.  On 2/6/03 we had another vote for our domain name.  fcs-tx.com received 6 votes, fcs-texas.com received 5 votes, focs.com received 4 votes, fcs-austin.com received no votes, fcs-aus.com received no votes, and thefellowshipofchristiansportsmen.com received no votes.  I have signed up for our domain name and Webhosting at Aplus.net.  I will let you know when our new Website is up. 

At the 12/12/02 North Austin Chapter Meeting we approved our 2003 Calendar.  We will repeat our Opening Day Dove Hunt for the Central Zone, making it an Annual Event.  We continued our popular Annual Fall Dove Retreat, Annual Goose/Duck Hunt, Annual Hog Hunt,  and Quarterly Sporting Clays Shoots.  We also continued our Annual Winter Dove Retreat.  We added a Deep Sea Fishing Trip and a Pheasant Hunt.   

On 12/29/02 - 12/30/02 Ryan, his friend Kelvin Cheung, and I went hog hunting at Jimmy and Jim Bob Cohenour's JB Hunting ranch near Blessing.  Although we had a great hunt we decided that they had insufficient land to hold a FCS Hog Hunt there (only 100 acres).  We therefore, made reservations at the Arrowhead Ranch for our 2003 Annual Hog and Sheep hunt, to be held on 3/7/03 - 3/9/03. 

We had 20 participants at the Annual 2003 Winter Dove Hunt on 1/2/03 – 1/5/03 at Lee Ewald’s ranch near Dilley.  Many men said that this was the best Winter Hunt that we have had in years. 

We had a great 2/6/03 Club Meeting with 16 participants.  I suspect that the shrimp boil that we had might have been responsible for our higher than average attendance.  We will try to have another special entree' for at least one of our remaining meetings this year, possibly a fish fry.  At the meeting a discussion was held on possibly adding another chapter (Dallas) to the Club.  A gentleman (Brian McMullen) saw our add at www.texasbowhunter.com and expressed interest in starting a chapter.  The membership discussed how to handle votes in the eventuality of an out of town chapter.  The members of that chapter would, in all probability, not be able to make our Club meetings and vis-a-versa.  Our current voting system (a vote at a Club meeting is an action of the Club) would have to be modified to be fair.  One possibility is to conduct votes at Club meetings and then follow with a e-mail/mail vote for the rest of the membership that was not able to make the meeting.  The matter was tabled for now.  We also decided to discontinue the practice of giving trophies to the first, second, and third place winners at Sporting Clay Shoots.  We further discussed adding a Rifle Range Shoot to the Calendar.  Five members expressed interest.  Dennis Koch is heading up this outing.  He will see if we can have it at the Austin Rifle Club.

For 2003 I have three goals:

1. Gain 20 new members (yes, I'm stubborn)
2. Implement a Deep Sea Fishing Trip.
3. Implement a Pheasant Hunt.

The new FCS T-shirts are available in camo and Khaki and feature the new FCS logo.  The camo shirts come in X-Large and 3X-Large.  The khaki shirts come in X-Large and 2X-Large.  You can get one or more at the 4/3/03 Club Meeting.

I hope to see you soon.

Serving you and Him,

Randy Rowley

FCS President and Webmaster