RATIFIED MINUTES FROM MBF EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING 20 OCTOBER 2005

I. MINUTES FROM PREVIOUS MEETING: Approved with no corrections.

II. MEETING LOCATION: Bass Pro Shops–Arundel Mills Mall, Called to order 7:06 PM

III. 2005 BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: Executive Board Members as follows:  President – Roger Trageser, 1st Vice President – Not present, 2nd Vice President – Not present, Treasurer – Brian Cox, Secretary – Rich Welden, Membership Committee Chair – Not present.  Newsletter/Update Editor – Brent Nelson; Others in attendance, WR Dir – Gunnar Beale, SR Director - Denis Schanberger, CR Director – Randy Bottomly, NR Director – Not present. Scholarship Committee - Jim Kline.  (INSUFFICIENT QUORUM PRESENT TO HOLD AN OFFICIAL VOTE).

IV. INTRODUCTION OF GUESTS: Glenn Pittman (SR).

TREASURER’S REPORT: Brian handed out a financial statement and explained all aspects to the Board members.  A Motion was made to accept the treasurer’s report as presented; the motion was seconded and accepted by all present as record.

V. COMMITTEE REPORTS: 

1. Membership: (Roger for Jim Horn) Nothing to report. 

2. Youth: (Gunnar for Earl) Youth club conducted their “fish off” tx on 9 October at Smallwood State park, Zach Cable and Travis Sanders will represent the MBF at the Junior World Championship.

- Potomac River Youth Invitational:  The MBF Youth program is currently planning a multi-state Potomac River Invitational for 18 June, 2006 out of Smallwood State park .  Invitations have been sent out to Virginia , West Virginia , Washington DC , Delaware , Pennsylvania and New Jersey .  To date, Virginia and DC have expressed their desire to participate.       

- Casting Kids: (Roger) The qualifications for Casting Kids State finals will be held at BPS on 29 October 2005. MBF membership volunteers are needed and will be greatly appreciated.

- Youth Dues and updated youth club rosters are due to BASS the first week of November.  

3. Scholarship: (Jim Kline): Per the July 31 deadline, six scholarship applications have been received.  The sponsorship committee will hold a meeting on Wednesday, 26 October at the Four Seasons restaurant in Frederick to go over the applications for consideration.     

4. Conservation: (Roger for Scott) Wheelabrator update; the bass fry have continued to thrive, some of them measure up to nine inches while others are just six inches.  To preclude cannibalization, Scott is seeking Don Cosdon’s assistance to perhaps disburse the fry in the Choptank River .  Originally the fry were to be taken to the Middle river and released but there are reports of that river having a healthy amount of bass.  The MBF will accept Don’s decision on where to disperse the fry and provide assistance with the dispersal.   Finally, Jim Kline added that per a public hearing at the Deep Creek Lake Commission’s meeting, three 45 foot tour boats will be allowed to charter soon on DCL.

5. Newsletter/Update: (Brent): Update: Brent needs regional reports from each region as soon as possible (before end of October) for the upcoming fall edition.  Website: Brent still needs history files from previous MBF tx trail tournaments.  Brian will arrange to get the files from T.R. Brent also mentioned that he had to purchase more bandwidth for the site due to the amount of content and users.  Brent received applause for his efforts on the webpage to date.  He promises better things to come.

- Executive Board meeting minutes; discussion on whether to post them on the website resulted in approval to do so without any financial information.  The Secretary and Brian will omit that information on the web-posted minutes and ensure that the area is which they’re posted is semi-secure (will require several actions to gain access).   

6. TX committee: (Roger for Billy) Congratulations to the State team who finished third place overall.  Kevin Waterman came in first place for the MD state team and will represent the MBF at the National tx.  The last MBF tx trail event was held on the upper bay with Danny Rodriguez finishing first in the non boater division.  The MBF Classic was held with Jim Iden coming in first in the boater division with 11’9 and Richard Exline finishing first for the non-boater division with 11’8 boater. Jim and Richard hold the first two positions on the MBF’s state team for 2006, congratulations.

VI. OLD BUSINESS: Skeeter boat update: Roger contacted Gary Wimmer about buying the skeeter boat back from the MBF.  Gary was receptive to the idea but will normally buy it back for 25% less than what the boat would cost him (about $12/13,000.00).  Considerable discussion by board members identified the need to offer the boat up to MBF membership first.  Roger will check with Gary for an absolute dollar figure for buy back, then the Executive Board will vote on a price to offer MBF members.

- TX trail 2006: Proposal for the new tx trail is to hold a draw tx format, and maintain a boater and non-boater category.  The Entry fee will be lowered to $75.00 and $50.00 for boater/non boater respectively.  Roger had one copy of the trail rules (provided by Jamie) so concerns were over whether of not the rules conflicted with the MBF’s standing tx rules.  Board members identified the need to carefully go over the rules before voting.    Roger will email the tx trail rules to Board members to allow all to carefully read through them.   Roger also talked about flip-flopping the SQT and Trail Classic tx locations on a yearly basis starting in 2006, I.E. the 2006 SQT site will be on the Potomac and the Classic site will be the Upper Bay , then in 2007 the sites will flip-flop to SQT at Upper Bay and Classic on the Potomac .  There was also an issue identified about the trail locations and dates.  Some of the locations and dates listed for the new 2006 tx trail were not what was previously voted on and approved by the Executive Board.   Discussion on this issue identified that the originally approved sites should reflect what was voted on and approved.  Overwhelming response was to change the 2006 sites back to what was approved by the Executive Board.  Understandably, the dates may have to be modified in accordance with these changes.  In Summary, the whole trail format, rules, dates, and locations will be tabled until a quorum vote can be made (Next Executive Board meeting).  The flip-flop idea will also be discussed in more detail for future vote.   

- 2005 Youth Budget:  There were some questions about totals reported in the 2005 youth budget report that were categorically different from the previous two years’ reports.  Clarification of the questions/expenditures was provided by Jim kline and Brian Cox.

VII. NEW BUSINESS:  2006 President’s Conference:  Roger received the contract for Gamber’s Hall, the historic location for the MBF President’s Conference.  The cost to reserve the hall went up $100.00 to reflect a $600.00 charge.

- 2006 Bass Expo:  Roger will be sending a deposit to get an assigned space for the MBF booth. Roger was concerned with what activities the MBF will do to make the venture worth while since there will be no boat raffle.  Several ideas were proposed:  hats, pins and/or patch sales, fishing hook sales, a 50/50 raffle, etc.  It was decided that the MBF will display membership photos from tournaments, weigh-ins, etc as window dressing to draw people in for a possible 50/50 raffle.

- MBF 2006 Budget:  It was brought up as a reminder that the 2006 MBF budget is required to be completed and circulated before the end of December 2005.  

VIII. REGION REPORTS:  Southern: 10 boats participated in the RQT replacement tx despite the nasty weather. Central: NTR,  Western: NTR, Northern: NTR.

IX   MOTION TO CLOSE: A motion was made to adjourn, seconded and the meeting was called to a close at 929 PM. Next meeting will be held 17 November, 2005 at the BPS Conference room.