The regular monthly meeting was held on January 14, 2009, at Perkins Family Restaurant in Olean, NY.

2009 Banquet Information

This year’s annual banquet will be held at the Old Library restaurant in Olean on February 7. The dinner will start at 6:00 PM to help those with children and long driving distances. In addition, there will be no “walk-ins” at the door. Everyone must make a registration in advance so that we can have an accurate seating count and start on time. Reservation forms are now on our web site.

Wade and Sue McClurg will be running the Chinese auction this year and are looking for donated items to auction. Members are asked to seek donations or bring some items themselves for this really fun event. Also, Wade needs to know ahead of time what members will be bring so he can be sure he has enough tables and baskets set up.

Also, the juniors will be running a $100 gas card raffle so be sure to bring some extra cash.

Junior Club News

The juniors announced dates for their Boating Trail tournaments. Also, dates for the Pond Trail sites were set (Click here for the 2009 schedules).

The juniors annual breakfast fundraiser at Applebee’s will be on March 28 and tickets are now on sale.

The juniors a re sponsoring an eight-hour Boater Safety course on March 15 and details will be announced at the annual banquet. Cost will be $35.

Logan Schuh will fish in the NY State Junior Championships on July 24 on Lake Simcoe in Ontario, Canada.

Proposed By-Law Changes & More

Three by-law changes are up for a vote in March. The first change is to include the Club Classic in the tournaments allowed to count as a club function. The second proposed change is to require senior members who work a junior event to sign the sign-in sheet that will be held by the junior director. Those who do not sign in will not receive credit for the function.

The last proposed change is not a by law change, but, in a cost-saving move, plaques will not be given to the the top ten finishers in the points standings as well as second and third place teams at our open tournaments. This will result in a substantial savings for the club.

Sponsors Needed

Everyone knows how tough things are in today’s economy. Well, the STBM are also feeling the pinch. As of now, we have only two major sponsors for the 2009 season and we are in search of more.

Sponsors are a major contributor to our club and their payment can boost the payouts at our tournaments.

Members are going to be receiving an email from president Bob Green, imploring them to diligently seek out sponsors. Bob will include all the information a member would need to contact a potential sponsor. Also, he will send the brochure that will describe the sponsorship benefits. Our hope is that all members will take it upon themselves to actively solicit sponsors for the benefit of our club.

2009 Tournament Information

Tournament Director Tom Spencer & the tournament committee will meet in January to address several tournament-related issues and make recommendations to our membership for a vote at the March meeting.

Items to be discussed are:

• To change the Conesus Open from July 4th to July 5th.
• Whether boaters who draw a non-boater should not have to do so again until all other boaters have also drawn a non-boater.
• To determine a procedure on how alternate boaters will be drawn in situations where a boater (who has a non-boater) cannot make it to a tournament due to an emergency.
• To establish a procedure for notifying members so they can verify that their tournament entry form was received by the registration deadline.
• To establish what waters will and will not be considered as one (e.g. Lake Erie and the Upper Niagara River) so they will not be fished in consecutive years.

The next meeting will be held at the Olean Perkins Restaurant on Wednesday, March 11, 2009 at 7 PM.