By Bruce Ross, Executive Director
This article originally appeared in Wisconsin Waterfowl Association’s August, 2020 Volunteer Newsletter edition.
You’ve probably seen a lot of WWA emails over the last couple of months – maybe too many. Overwhelming your email inboxes is a concern. But it’s been a couple of months since the last volunteer newsletter and we owe you an update.
As you know, postponement or cancellation of events has challenged us to tighten our financial belt and find non-traditional sources of funding. We’re succeeding in weathering the financial “storm” (so far), because:
- Chapters hosted Class A raffles to partially offset losses from cancelled events.
Our Waukesha and West Allis chapters’ combined efforts, the World War II tribute raffles will draw September 2nd. Get your tickets here!
- Staff initiated fundraising approaches (class A and virtual events).
- Staff flexibility in accepting reduced compensation.
- Board initiative encouraging donations.
- Certain sponsors stepped up.
- PPP loan to get us through the roughest patch.
None of these were sufficient alone, but collectively they have allowed us to stay afloat.
Now we are jamming a lot of events into a short period of time…. While early events that were held outside (shoots, golf outings) have been fun and financially successful, we’re now getting to inside events, and those are less certain. COVID restrictions and general pandemic concerns may reduce turnout or spending. Event organizers have found it is important to know your audience by affirmatively reaching out to them and complying with local/venue/WWA precautions. Also, given the uncertainty of attendance, don’t overspend or over-commit to prizes that cannot be supported by the number, or willingness to spend, of attendees.
Midland Wings (West Bend) has managed to get their event scheduled and will be hosting it this Thursday – the first traditional banquet we’ve held since March. And In order to meet COVID venue guidelines, one chapter (Mike Alaimo’s Waukesha chapter), after postponing from their original April event date, has actually split their event across two venues on the same night to comply with county restrictions! Meanwhile, the State Shoot and calling contest events, and our SE WI golf outing are happening in the seven days in between West Bend and Waukesha’s banquets events. Impressive, and very challenging to pull off…. Stay tuned.
With a lot jammed into a shortened period, and with RD transitions occurring between Rob and Tom over the next several weeks, your patience is appreciated, but do please advocate for your event, by harassing Tom, Rob or me to make sure we understand what help you need. Over communicating will be important to make sure that events come off as desired.
Drawing next Tuesday at SE WI Golf Outing, tickets for this TriStar, the perfect hunting gun, are just $10 each!
And with so much in so little time, the class A’s have begun to overlap and sales are lagging – you can help by making sure your friends and family are aware of them. Thanks for this, and for all you do to make WWA an active part of your volunteer lives.