COMING MEETING:Tuesday, May 9, 2023 at 7:00 PM Location: Schramm Education Center (SEC).
Program: Bill Browne and Tom Christie: Report from the 2023 World Show. President’s notes: Hard to believe it’s May and it’s been 5 months since I was given the opportunity to help with the Club. Time just seems to fly by and now we are heading into the summer break. It won’t be long and September will be upon us and the Club will be in full swing again. Of course that doesn’t mean that there won’t be anything going on and I think we’ll have plenty of things to keep us busy.
We are heading into our summer break with completion of the 50th Ward World Championship Wildfowl Carving Competition held in Salisbury, MD. The Club was well represented in this year’s competition and congratulations to ALL who entered. The Ward Foundation has many challenges facing it after the split from Salisbury University. By all accounts they were able to overcome those challenges and put on a successful show. Our guest speaker this month will be Tom Christie. He and Bill Browne will be providing a recap of the competition and hopefully some insight into the future of the Ward Foundation.
September will bring the Club picnic which is something that I think we all look forward to. It’s a great time to get everyone together and enjoy the comradery of our carving community. Of course a highlight of the picnic will be the Mini Decoy Carving competition. We will discuss it during the May meeting and barring any changes, the format will remain as it was last year.
The summer break will also see the completion of the 2024 Club calendar. Ron Pigg has done a great job of getting us this far and I’m sure he feels it’s like herding cats. Even so, we are on track to getting it to the printer this summer. Changes this year include one month in each addition dedicated to collectible decoys/carvings. While collecting carvings is not in everyone’s wheelhouse, it’s important to not forget what got us to where we are. Another high point will be the completion of the display case at Mahoney State Park. This case is being purchased by the Club with the help of a generous benefactor. The park has many visitors and having our carvings on display will let them see this great art form we enjoy. Of course we can’t forget about the display case at Schramm State Park. This was purchased by the State and we were honored to be asked to display members’ carvings.
Work will continue on the Club website. I want to thank all those that contributed by completing the website survey. Your input will help us design a website that will be of use to ALL members of ALL skill levels.
I look forward to seeing all of you at the May meeting. Bring your carvings to let everyone see what you are working on. If you competed at the World Competition, please bring your entries for all to see. Thanks, Kirk Meeting Agenda for 5/9/2023 Welcome members and visitors President’s remarks. Kirk Treasurer’s report. Norm Old business: 1. 2024 calendar edition plan (photos and collectors’ calendar page photos). Ron P and Kirk P. 2. Website revision plan… Recent changes and member survey. Norm W and Jim L. 3. Display cases update. Kirk 4. Member recruiting and retention. Kirk New business: 1. Library additions in 2023. (New additions and Request a list in PDF or hard copy by mail.) 2. September meeting program 3. 2023 Mini Decoy show and picnic 4. Agenda additions… Member’s carvings. Program. Calendar photo session Adjourn. At the April meeting…2024 Calendar… Ron Pigg reported we are very close to completing this edition. We will continue to collect photographs and edit the texts. The final mockup should be ready for the printer by mid-summer and we have set early fall for distribution. The Collector’s pages is still to be finished. Website update… Kirk reported that we have distributed a survey of the current website. He asked all members to complete the survey and give us their opinion of the usefulness of the website as a recruiting and retention tool. Jim Layman and Norm will collect the data. We will use the data to make future changes. Norm reported that several changes have been made since the last meeting. These include adding a Collectors’ Corner page with three tabs and, updating the Club Resources page. The decoys to be featured on the website have not been selected. We will finish the photography at the coming meeting.
Display Case update.. Kirk reported we have updated the specs after communicating with NGP personnel. Joe Schwartz has been selected to build the Mahoney case. The estimated cost will be $1220 to $1500. Ward World Championships… We had an open discussion of the coming show and some of the challenges facing the Ward Foundation. Bill Browne agreed to give an update after the show.
Bill Browne and Tom Christie transported some member’s entries to Ocean City. Library editions…. Norm reported we purchased 3 Pat Godin CDs for the library. The titles have been added to the list on the website. Members are invited to checkout materials from the library. Contact Norm Wise and he will send the materials. Any member who wants a printed list of materials should contact Norm. Collectable decoy program… It was agreed to ask Paul Satore to come to a future meeting to present a program on the collectable decoys. Paul is a local collector with extensive knowledge on antique and collectable waterfowl decoys. Member recruitment… We had a lively discussion on recruiting new members. Some of the workable suggestions were to represent the Club at hunters’ events such as DU fundraisers, contact organizations that offer program on post-retirement activities for their retirees, and offer more online materials for beginning carvers. We will continue to discuss recruitment at future meetings. Norm reported Aemal Khattak has joined the club. He is a professor of engineering at UNL. Competition Report:World Show results… Ed Svoboda - Black Duck, decorative Intermediate, second place. Ron Cleveland - American Goldeneye, Contemporary Decoy, 2nd place. Don Gabelhouse- Common Loon, Decorative floating life size, Award unknown at this time. Al Thomas - Prairie chicken, Champagne non-floating. 3rd in Division. Ring necked pheasant, decorative miniature, 2nd place. Shoveler drake, Champagne floating, HM. Blue goose, Decorative smoothie, 2nd place
Norm Wise - Pied bill grebe, decorative smoothie, second place. Shoveler Drake - Champagne floating, 3rd place.
Coming shows:May 21, 2023 Washington Brant Foundation Decoy Competition Mount Vernon, Washington http://www.wabrant.org/ July 10-14, 2023 Northwest Carving Academy Ellensburg, Washington https://www.nwcarvingacademy.com/ July 15-16, 2023
Pacific Flyway Decoy Association Sacramento, California http://pacificflyway.org/ September 22-24, 2023
Columbia Flyway Wildlife Show Astoria, Oregon https://www.columbiaflywaywildlifeshow.com/
We have received the show guide for the 2023 Louisiana Wildfowl Festival to be held in Mandeville, LA. on October 28 and 29, 2023. Our condolences… It has been reported that Leland Fabre, son of Curt Fabre, has passed on December 12 after a long illness. We send our deepest sympathies to Curt and his family. Scenes from the World Show 2023… Goldeneye contemporary decoy field Champagne category judging… left to right. Tom Matus, (center) unknown judge, and Walter Gaskill