January 2010

The President's Line

We hope that you all had pleasant and healthy Holidays recently. With the New Year upon us already, I wanted to

take some time to inform you of some of the upcoming events that involve our Chapter. This begins our busy season and requires the most participation from our membership. As you read through the events, please contact me if you can help us in any way to make them more enjoyable.

We have put together a list of fantastic prizes again this year for our annual raffle. Thank you to the sponsors and individuals that have donated items or time to make this a success. We have listed these generous contributors on the raffle tickets and I hope that if any of you are planning on purchasing items for any of your outdoor activities, you will think of them first. We will be mailing all of our members a book of tickets in the near future. Please sell or purchase them to help keep your chapter afloat financially during these tough times. Any money that is raise during the raffle says right here in the Mohawk Valley for our chapter projects. Please do what you can to make this our most successful raffle to date.

Our annual banquet will be on Saturday, February 20, 2010 at the Roselawn Restaurant on Main St. in New York Mills. The social hour will begin at 6 PM and dinner at seven. Ticket prices are $15.00 each and the meal will consist of a deluxe buffet. Our guest speaker for the evening will be Tom Yacovella. For those who don't know, Tom lives in Utica and a very interesting man with numerous accomplishments. He spent his career as a graphic artist but never strayed too far from the outdoor sports that he loved. He is an author, artist ,sculptor, hunter, and fisherman. In 2009 he set the New York State record for the largest brook trout taken to date. He will speak about all of the things that influence his life and work. It should be a very interesting evening out on a cold night so please do your best to attend. If anyone can assist us with door prizes, it would be most appreciated. Please call our Treasurer Bill Pfeiffer at 839-5682 with your reservations so we will know how many to expect that evening.

We will again host a Trout and Salmon Forum this year on Saturday April 10, 2010 at the New Hartford Recreation Center. It will run from 10 AM until 4 PM and we promise it will be warmer that last year! We are hoping to have numerous vendors on hand as well as fishing seminars and fly casting lessons to expose people to fishing and the role that Trout Unlimited provides to help protect this resource. If you are a vendor and wish to participate in this event, please contact Expo Chairman Dave Corr at 724-7864.

Our Chapter will be promoting our raffle at the CNY Sportsman's Show and we can use your help in manning the booth. It will be on Saturday, February 6, 2010 from 9 AM until 4 PM at the Oneida Kallet Civic Center in Oneida NY. If you can help us that day, please call me at 736-3521.

Our next regular meeting will be on Wednesday Jan. 13, 2010. Please make it a point to attend a meeting or two this year to see what your Chapter does to help preserve the cold water resources we are so fortunate to have in the Mohawk Valley. I hope to see you there.

Ken