Minutes – 4/12/07 Board Mtg.
Hickory VFW / Hickory Pa.

N. Loprire, J. Mondok, A. Monroe, R. Rickert, R. Shuey, J. Kremis, P. Anthony, and R. Natoli

• New Meeting Location – Aaron discussed the possibility of having our monthly board meetings, and our yearly banquet at a different location. He received input from Jennifer Barbarac of the Shenango River Watchers that the Hickory VFW recently gave her a very difficult time. The VFW mishandled her reservation by double-booking her date, and then only offered her the front part of the building along with the bar area as a compromise. Needless to say, she was very unhappy, and she also remarked that the VFW has a new manager, and his attitude towards her situation was completely unsympathetic.
• Corinthian Banquet Center in Sharon – Jennifer was able to move the Shenango River Watchers Banquet to the Corinthian in the city of Sharon, and they were pleased with the food, and the service. Aaron suggested that we should check out the Corinthian facilities and consider using that for our next year’s March Trout Unlimited Banquet; everyone in attendance agreed.

• Minutes were approved as written

• Budget Report – Jeff reviewed his report ending March 31st
• Banquet Summary – Jeff reviewed all the financial figures for this year’s banquet, and compared all the numbers to last year. Our net profit this year was $4,742, which was about $350 more than we took in last year.

• Workday – Jeff set a date for May 19th to do some needed chores on Coolspring Creek. We will be float stocking Brown Trout from our Munnell Run Nursery that day, and we will also do the “Adopt-A-Highway” cleanup along Scrubgrass Road. We will meet at 9:00 AM in the TU Parking lot on Houston Junction Road.
• Large Rock in Wolf Creek – Pete Anthony discussed the silting problem we have in Wolf Creek since they removed the dam at the intersection of Greenwood Drive and Route 58. The four large rocks were put there to “hold fish” on their downstream side, but due to the large amount of silt surrounding them, they are not effective. Pete passed out a sketch that shows the rocks relocated against the stream bank in front of the handicapped fishing deck. If the rock were there, they would deflect the stream water, increase its velocity, and hopefully wash out the silt in front of the handicapped deck. The way it is right now, the handicapped kids cannot fish from the deck because the water in front is too shallow.
• Oil Creek Outing May 12th – Our annual outing will be on Saturday, May 12th at Petroleum Center on Oil Creek. For details, see our April 2007 Newsletter, or check out the website at www.neshannock-tu.org and get the newsletter by clicking on NEWSLETTER at the top left hand corner of the web page (under the title).

B. Nursery – Pete Anthony

• Trout Stocking – Thursday, April 24th the Pa Fish Commission will stock Cool Spring Creek. Munnell Run Nursery will stock Deer Creek on Wednesday, April 23. Jerry Przybylek, chairman of the Deer Creek Consortium, told Pete that the Pa Fish Commission approved their grant, and they will use the money for in stream improvements.
• Storage Box – Fish Stocking Trailer – Dick Natoli reported that the storage box that will hold the spare tire, jack, flares, battery, and other miscellaneous stuff is 95% complete, and will be stained next week. It should be installed on the trailer sometime in May.

C. Reverse Raffle – Tom and Carole Jochman

• Tabled

D. Banquet / Newsletter - Nick Loprire

• March Banquet – Nick reported that it would be helpful if Banquet ticket sales were more predictable. He had several people tell him that they would buy tickets at the door, but they never showed up. We had a very small number of tickets used for the Mossburg Gun in the Bucket Raffle. Maybe next year we should come up with an idea to replace that prize. Pete Anthony suggested we try a more expensive prize, which should energize ticket sales. He mentioned that the TU Oil Creek Chapter sold 1500 tickets at $10 each for prizes in the $600 to $800 price range.
• Banquet Prize Donations by Jody Sebben – Bob Shuey reviewed the four prizes donated by Jody in memory of her late husband Tom Sebben. The prizes were worth approximately $700, and Bob suggested we send her a Thank You card along with a “Receipt for Donation to Trout Unlimited” in case she would want to deduct the gifts on her federal income taxes. Dick Natoli volunteered to take care of that task.

E. Membership – Tom Jochman

• Tabled

F. Youth Coordinator – Dick Rickert

• Wolf Creek Youth Fishing Derby – The April 21st fishing derby was a huge success, we had approximately 60 kids attend, which was a record number. Dick said that Armstrong Cable donated $200, which was used to purchase prizes. The Grove City Sportsman’s Club provided the lunch of soda and hot dogs again this year.
• Boy Scout Fishing Merit Badge – Dick gave the chapter’s four fly rod outfits to Bob Shuey who will deliver them to the Boy Scouts for use this summer at Custaloga Scout Camp in June and July. Bob will also take some scouts fishing with him on May 12th and give them some pointers.

• Nothing Significant

• Chapter Website – Some photographs of the 12 year old and younger kids who attended our Wolf Creek Fishing Derby were posted on www.neshannock-tu.org by our webmaster John Siebert. Our WCO Joe Morris took them at last year’s derby.
• Electronic Newsletter Signup – Also on the website is a new place where people can sign up for copies of the “electronic” version of the newsletter. If you sign up, you will get it via e-mail and save the chapter money by reducing the cost of our postage to mail them through the US Post Office.