August 2017

To the Good People of OSTA, We had another great weekend of shooting and fun at Willard. As always, the folks at Willard had everything well prepared for us and were spot on with all the great food. I think we had around 12-15 camps set up on Friday night. The winds brought in some nice cool weather which made sitting around the campfires all the more enjoyable. It was good to see some people show up that we hadn’t seen in a while. Saturday we seen 67 shooters show up. About two thirds were non-members which is quite often the case when we visit Willard. Ed had a nice set up for the kids shoot. I believe we had around eight kids participate in the kids shoot. We held our meeting Saturday afternoon where we discussed the need for a Treasurer and Vice-President for next year. We have two nominees for Vice President, Greg Langley and Jeff Fletcher. Thanks for stepping up guys. For the first time in several years, we will actually have a vote for officers and the vote will take place at the State Shoot. We are still in need of nominees for Treasurer. I cannot stress enough how important it is for us to have a full officer corp. We are not set up like other clubs that require a certain amount of work every month from their members. However, it is my belief that everyone should pull their weight at some point and not just rely on everyone else to sacrifice and make sure everything gets done so they can have fun. If you have not served as an officer, worked with the kids shoot or bow program or otherwise been one of the “go to people’’ when we need extra help, I am talking to you. We also discussed the needs for the upcoming State Shoot. We will need help at the tables, especially in the mornings. If you can spare an hour or so to help out that would be greatly appreciated. We also need donations for raffle items and the kid’s auction. We need to pick up items for door prizes also so if you find a good deal on something, let me know. While we were having our meeting, KT Smyers with the help of Ali Chapman, led a craft table for the other kids. Slime was on the menu apparently! From the looks of it, the kids enjoyed themselves. Somehow a few of them ended up covered in the slime. I think we will try to do a craft table at the State Shoot also during the meeting and possibly the Auction. During the meeting we presented Bob Nye with a vase of arrows donated by members to honor the memory of Janet Nye, Bob’s wife and Ron Lewis’s sister. There was $350 donated to OSTA in Janet’s name. She had requested donations be made in lieu of flowers. After the meeting adjourned, it was feeding time! Rob and the crew at Willard made up some awesome wings and corn on the cob and plenty of other goodies. That was some good stuff. Those that cooked their own food at camp seemed to fair well also. Everything from steaks to brats and all the fixins. OSTA knows how to eat for sure. As the evening cooled, some impromptu novelty shooting took place on the practice range. A decent size group washaving fun shooting clay targets and such. Darkness started creeping in and campfires began springing up here and there. Many good stories were told and the musical stylings of Ron Lewis were heard around the fire several of us shared. Sunday morning brought sunny skies and services held by Mike Peters. Sunday’s numbers were a touch lower than Saturday at only 62 shooters. I believe this is the third time this year we have had lower numbers on competition day than on Saturday, odd compared to the past. As I was passing out awards I was noticing we have a lack of women participating or even showing up at the shoots. We only had two women compete and I don’t think any shot for fun. I’m pretty sure we didn’t have more than 6 women affiliated with OSTA show up all weekend. C’mon women, show up at the State shoot in force! We got everything wrapped up and made it out before the rains came so it was all good. The State Shoot will be at Claylick again this year. They have been working hard getting more camping spots set up and getting everything ready for us. I’m very hopeful we will have a good turnout for our State Shoot because a lot of effort has gone into making it be the best it can be. Claylick will be doing a really nice dinner Saturday evening consisting of roast beef, sweet corn on the cob, baked potato and a salad for $8. The roast beef will be a really nice top round cut that I was able to get from my uncle who is a butcher. We are going to try something special for the kids that weekend as well. The kids will be able to earn “OSTA Bucks” from the kids shoot and various other activities that they can spend like real money for treats at the concession area. I’m still trying to figure it all out but we will have popsicles and ice cream bars and such they can buy with their OSTA Bucks. We will have some crafts for the kids as well during meeting and auction times. There may be a water balloon fight thrown in somewhere as well as a few other things. We will be having the meeting at 4:30 on Saturday and the Scott Gensert Memorial Kids Auction will start at 6:30. Sunday morning service at 8:30. Remember we have a memorial tree at Claylick for those who would like to shoot an arrow into it in memory of a loved one. We will have the awards presentation, raffle drawing and door prizes on Sunday around 3:30 hopefully. We have a few hog hunts and two LOTHAC deer hunts in Tar Hollow. We will probably raffle one hog hunt and maybe have one in the kids auction. I’m sure I am missing some things but I’ll try to keep everyone updated by Facebook, post to our website or personally call those that I know don’t use a computer. Till Next Time, Matt honeysucklewoodworks@yahoo.com 740-648-549