A former boss of mine once described my writing style as "wordy." It was also good naturedly pointed out to me at the 6/6/02 North Austin Chapter Meeting that my messages are a bit too lengthy. Consequently I changed the title of the page from "A word from the President" to "A few words from the President" (LOL). I will also endeavor to shorten this page now and in the future.
I am a big fan of the democratic process, therefore, I loathe dictatorships. My leadership style has always been team orientated. At work (in the field of mental retardation) I have been the leader of the Interdisciplinary Team and the Treatment Team. My title at my last job was Team Leader. I currently lead the Survey Team about 67% of the time. The common denominator is "Team." I believe that problems are best solved when a group of people comes together and pools their talent and ideas to come to a mutual solution. People are much more likely to take ownership of a plan when they have had a say in it. One of the great things about this Club is we set up our bylaws to read that the Presidents vote is no more important than any other members is. The role of our President is more of a facilitator. He can help to set the direction of the Club but he cannot dictate that direction. Our process worked well with our budget proposals. The North Austin Chapter voted for Fiscal Year 2002 Budget #3. The South Austin Chapter voted for Fiscal Year 2002 Budget #1. As in accordance with our bylaws a compromise was proposed to the officers. It passed unanimously. It was also presented to the Club for vote via e-mail. So far it has passed unanimously (members have until 8/15/02 to vote). It was presented to the North Austin Chapter on 8/1/02. A vote was taken. It passed unanimously. Many Clubs would have spent a lot of time and energy arguing, when in the same position, but it looks like we resolved it fairly, democratically, and without any ruffled feathers.
The only difference between Budget 1 and Budget 3 had to do with newsletters. Budget 1 would have kept our quarterly newsletters as a membership benefit. Budget 3 would have made the newsletter a subscription item. If the compromised budget passes we will keep the newsletter ("Hunting His Way") as a membership benefit but shorten it to no longer than two pages. The revised "Hunting His Way" (starting with the Fall 2002 issue) will feature only upcoming events, prayer requests and praises, and proposals for changes or additions to the Bylaws, Statement of Faith, and/or Calendar. This will reduce costs associated with the newsletter by 75%! A new FCS Magazine "Following His Trail" will debut in Fall 2002 (if there is a demand). Following His Trail will include all of the features associated with Hunting His Way and will be approximately 20 pages in length. It will be available as a subscription item for $8.00/year ($2.00/issue).
If you read the results of the 6/29/02 Sporting Clays Shoot you saw that we had our usual good time of fellowship and low competition. What you didn't see was the poor way in which the shoot started. When we went into the Clubhouse and announced that we wanted to shoot Sporting Clays we were greeted by a "Friendly Al" clone who berated us for not having a reservation. I can only think of a couple of times in my life that I have had worse customer service. Not one who takes such rudeness lying down I sent an e-mail to the Webmaster for the Capitol City Website on 7/1/02. Here it is in its entirety.
"This is a request for you to update the Capitol City Trap & Skeet Website regarding its reservation policy. If just re-read the entire site and I did not see any mention of the need for reservations for groups for Sporting Clays. My Club just had a shoot at Capitol City this past Saturday. Issue was made that we did not have a reservation. This grew into a rather unpleasant conversation that left a bad taste in all eleven of our mouths. We had the very clear impression that we were imposing and that our business was not wanted. When I tried to explain to the manager that at one of our last shoots we were told by an employee that there was no need to make reservations, he questioned me in such a way that it led us to the conclusion that he did not believe me. When I attempted to make a reservation for our next shoot in August I was told that we would need to put down a $300.00 deposit, which is unreasonable as our group usually only generates $200.00 ($20/round x 10 shooters). As a result we are looking for another facility to house our quarterly shoots. Hopefully by you updating the Capitol City Website no one else will have to go through what we did."
Gary Spraque, Webmaster, replied almost immediately and asked me to call him. During our conversation he stated that to his knowledge the facility does not have a reservation policy. He also felt that it was ridiculous to charge such a small group a $300.00 deposit. He saw no reason why a group of less than 40 should need a reservation. He stated that Capitol City has a President and a Board of Directors and he would forward my e-mail to them. I forgot to mention that David Chalmers was lied to when he went to pay. David requested to have the manager break a $100.00 bill. The manager stated that he did not have enough change to break the hundred because everyone was paying by check or credit card. However, I observed several men pay by cash. I am aware that I may be cutting our throats by complaining, however, evil only flourishes when good men do nothing to oppose it. To date we have had no reply from Capitol City management or the Board of Directors. At the 8/1/02 North Austin Chapter Meeting we voted to go to the Austin Skeet Range three miles east of Manor and shoot two rounds of skeet for our next Clay Target Shoot (8/17/02, 9:00 AM).
Fall will soon be here. That means three things to me: cooler weather, Packer football, and last but certainly not least - hunting season. Our most popular event, the Fall Dove Retreat, is just around the corner. It's time to buy or reload some shells, clean the shotgun, and make the grocery list. We had a great hunt last year. Everyone limited out on opening morning and almost everyone limited out on the second day. The third morning was still good hunting despite the fact that a storm on Saturday afternoon scattered the birds all over the county. I anticipate that we will have equally as good a hunt this year. Please let me know if you plan on attending and how many will be in your party. If you don't own a pair of snake leggings they are a wise investment. They cost about $20.00 at Academy. Our Fiscal Year (starting in September) budget calls for a $50.00 gift for Mr. Ewald for the honesty that he consistently demonstrated to the Club. We will present it to him at this Retreat. I covet your gift ideas.
Serving you and Him,
Randy Rowley
FCS President and Webmaster