Bass Clubs problems and your thoughts

We had a Club meeting last night to discuss next years board members and our end of the year awards dinner. The first problem that we have is out of our 30 members not one person wants to be on the board next year. This year we had a problem at one tournament were our Tournament Director weighed his own fish. Thats not the worst part, he weighed one fish that was short As you are probably thinking it did turn into a huge mess. Not at the tournament but at our next meeting. During this meeting he was voted out of his possition, but one member made a comment about how the board has rules for everyone but themselfs. So the other two board members got upset and said they would not take their spots on the board next year.

My question about this is for you guys that fish small clubs or have fished small clubs in the past. What do we do if no one wants a board spot??? You can’t really have a club if you don’t have someone to run it right??? Now some of you are thinking well Jeremy why don’t you take over. I would love to but I can’t committ to every tournament next year and every meeting. Because my wife and I are expecting in January. I was asked by the President and the Tournament Director(vice president) to be the president next year and I told them no. But I also told them that I would think about being the Tournament Director if they did not need me at every meeting. Do you guys think this is fair of me to ask or should I just step aside and hope someone else takes the step forward?? The big problem I am seeing is there is not as much growth in the club as what I would like to see. I have talked with the board about some of my ideas and that is when they decided I should be president next year. I am just worried that a club that has been around for 30 years will fall apart.

The other thing I am wondering about is our awards dinner. Every member is supposed to bring at least one item with them that will be used as a draw prize. All the money that we bring in is what we start with for the next year. Here is the problem I see. We have 5 new members this year that have just been told about this. We are supposed to get donations or go out and buy a few things. For the new guys that don’t know as many “fishing” people what should they do??? Because you have the same guys every year that talk to the local tackle shops and to Team Supreme. They also said that some people bring in allot more then other people. Am I going to be thought of as being cheep or that I don’t care about the club if I only bring in a few things?? If this was your club what would you think of about finding out about this at the end of the year?? I would have liked to know when I signed up, that way I could have decided who to ask for donations or what to buy. Oh well I am sure I will come up with something.

Just a few things that I would like others thoughts on. Just trying to make my club more appealing to new members and to try and keep current members.

JEremy

I hear you, We are a new club, with four officers, and last year with just six people we barely filled the positions, Our election is in a little over two weeks. We have had growing pains as well. We don’t have a awards dinner though it has been touched upon, and we have over 50 members in a years time, I think we have a few good ones that will run. But I am interested as well in Ideas.

First off, if something illegal was done (weighing short fish) then I would think something more harsh than losing there board membership should be done. However I don’t know all the details and if it had been “proven” wrong.

Fortunately I am in a VERY responsible and driven club. The guys that have been in the club for years do a great job of leading and the newer guys have really done a great job in stepping up. As a matter of fact of the the “new” guys was our president this year and did a good job.

I do see us coming upon a change very soon. I see some of the folks that have been board members often becoming “bored” members with it. This started last year and fortunately we had folks step up. I think we should see the same thing again this year.

One thing to keep in mind is that with 30 guys in a club you’re going to have 30 different directions usually. It is going to be impossible to keep everyone happy, thus some people may NOT want that board position. My assumption is that somebody from your club will eventually step up out of neccesity and lead the club. However, you want the leaders to be those MOST interested in the club because they’ll do the best job. Just from your concern in this post, you see you’d be a great leader. I understand your position completely! I have a 3 week old now and this has kept me from volunteering for our Federation Rep opening that will need to be filled. I’d LOVE to do this, but hate to commit to somethign with my first child being so young. My time will come though.

Speaking of club problems, we’ve had a few in this past year. Referring to different directions above, the problems are inevitable. It’s good to keep in mind what part of the club is, which is hanging out with your fishing buddies. Sure the fishing and competitiveness is a HUGE part, but you can get that outside of a club. The club also adds in “boys weekend out” and the opportunities to learn from each other (fishing, jokes, etc.)

Back to you raffle issue (jumping around, I know). I wouldn’t worry about it. As long as you put in some effort, I think the end will be appreciated. What more can you ask for?

Lastly regarding the board members. I think those in your club that haven’t stepped up as board members before should do so. Many of our older club members have put in there dues as board members before and I wouldn’t expect them to have to put that work in again and let others sit on the side. How to convince those others to step up? That’s the tough part. All you can do is state that it would be nice to see those step up and then let them take it from there. It’s not like a job so you can’t fire them, or even cut there pay. Have to play the hand dealt.

Anyway, there’s my 2 cents.

Chuck

Fluker thanks for your input. As for the short fist problems, that was just one of the things the club did. The others were he was DQ from that tournament, he was in the running for angler of the year until that point. It was a bad situation, our President messured the fish and called it short and then backed down when confronted. At the time it was one of those things that some members looked the other way just to keep peace. Then it got out of hand in the next week.

I think your right about some of the older members that have served their time as board members in the past. But the bad thing is when we have had members for over 10 years that are showing no intrest in the positions. I guess everyone has their reasons for not doing it.

My problem is I would like to see the club be much different then it is right now. More people more fun is my thoughts. Right now we have the same 12 guys that fish every tournament and then we have the same 5 or 6 guys that show up to every meeting. We have alot of guys that fish other clubs and Team Supreme tournaments as well. I think that is great I wish I had the cash and time to do it. But for right now I am happy going out and shooting these guys some BS and trying to kick their butts on the water. But then I am the first guy to offer out the .

As for the raffle, what would you guys want to win?? My wife works for the biggest promotional products company in the US. She can get me Fishing shirts for less then $14.00. I thought about getting 3 and having our clubs logo printed on them. How many guys do you think would want something like that??

Jeremy

My suggestion is to find someone, perhaps yourself, and offer to run the thing. Basically be tourney director/president/treasurer until a board can be put together. Run it like a tournament trail where people just show up and fish. I wouldn’t burder them with trying to come up with prizes and organizing other club functions until others want to pitch in.

Just make sure it is someone trustworthy and then conduct themselves to be above reproach. Let someone else always weigh their fish and always share the financials.

After a year I think others may want to help out or possibly it will work so well it may stay that way. No one wants to fish in a crooked organization and you have some repairing to do.

BTW this very issue is where most of the new ABA members come from. They are just tired of club bickering and just want to fish.

I belong to the same club Fluker does, and this past years we’ve had more hurdles than normal to overcome. The good thing to know is that if guys want to fish in a club, someone has to step up and take it on. The positions in our club are normally filled and with a few positions with multiple candidates. We have a President, Vice President(I still haven’t figured out what they do and I was V.P. for a couple of years), Secretary, Treasurer, Tournament director,Federation Rep, Weighmaster and I believe another guy designated as a back up weighmaster. The nice think about having all of the positions is it really lessons the load that one person has to do. President normally runs meetings, V.P. fills in for the”Pres”, Secretary takes notes(which is actually pretty important to keep peace since our memories aren’t very good), treasurer – cuts checks for federation bills, flowers for condolances, payments for room reservations, and misc bills, Tournament Director lines up housing for 2 day tournaments and state, most other tournament decisions are made by him and the 2 highest ranking officials incase their is some kind of protest, Federation rep, attends the required meetings and is paid for his gas and gives updates on proposed legislation the federation is addressing (a time consuming job, one saturday a month for like 5 months) We have talked about rotating guys each month if no one volunteers. Weigh master is responsible for the scale and boxes and bags and cannot weigh his own fish. As far as blastoff, the last boat out blasts you off in order and if you are late it is then brought forward to the tournament director and him and two others make a decision. (Works if applied appropriatly) I guess what I’m trying to say is that none of these positions is real taxing, but they all take time. When enough guys split up the chores it works real well. Our club is very fortunate to have guys willing to do their part and others willing to chip in when were short. The club is reallly self manegable.(spelling) We do have mistakes now and then but for the most part guys want to fish and have fun. I hope your guys can read this and toss their fears aside and do whats right for the club. Many good friendships and fisherman come from ours and the memories are “priceless”! Good luck Fishnut

Thanks for your thoughts Fishnut, After talking it over with some people in my club and with my wife I have decided that I will go ahead and take a position. Becuase the Tournament Director is also the Vice-President I think that is where I am going to contribute my time. With my every day job as a tennis pro I have to set up tennis tournaments all the time and run them. I don’t see there being much of a difference in setting up tennis tournament compared to fishing tournaments. The one problem is I might miss two tournaments during the summer. I guess we could have it arranged that the President weighs the fish. Like most of you said, someone has to step up or the club will fail to be. I guess that someone needs to be me and if I do the job I think I can we will see my club grow in the long run. I have some ideas that I think will help us.

What do you guys think about
Wednesday afternoon tournaments??? We have a big steel mill here in town that works during the weekend. I know at least 5 guys that can’t fish that would be interested. We also have guys that currently fish our tournaments that would fish.

Also I would like to run an Open tournament.
Right now every tournament we have you are required to be a member. I think we should have one open tournament a year or even run it like a Bring a Ringer tournament. Where a member goes out and finds a non-member partner. What do you guys think??

Jeremy

If you have wed afternoon tourneys I might be game for a few of them (assuming you have them on the river or somewhere close)- not sure how much general interest there is but I would probably join the club to fish those, or if they were open fish them that way. Those types (afternoon only instead of all day) of tourneys are much easier for me to get a green light from the mrs. Good luck, way to step up.

JJ you should have picked a more cooperative Mrs. Although you did get new truck and boat in the same year she can’t be all bad.