By Bruce Ross, Executive Director
This article originally appeared in Wisconsin Waterfowl Association’s January 2020 Volunteer Newsletter edition.
It’s that time of year when we hold our annual meeting, and of course it’s being held at Lambeau field. If you haven’t signed up yet, it may well be too late (but reach out to me at [email]bruceross@wi.rr.com[/email] and maybe we can get one or two more into the event).
Hall of Fame: In addition to great speakers and raffles and other fun stuff, we will be inducting a couple WWA impact players into the WWA Hall of Fame (HOF). This year, the all-volunteer HOF committee selected two impact players: John Regan in the Director’s category and Dan Witthuhn from Appleton’s Valley Chapter in the Volunteer/Member category – together they have a combined service of nearly 50 years to WWA! Congratulations, Dan and John, and thanks for all you’ve done to further Wisconsin Waterfowler – and what a backdrop in which to get inducted – historic Lambeau field!
Volunteers of the year??? We also select the WWA Volunteer of the Year, an award voted on by WWA’s staff. Since this is my first year, it was hard to know where to start. Everywhere I looked I saw remarkable dedication to WIWaterfowl. Here are some of the more notable, although there are too many to list:
- A chapter chair who led his chapter to get involved in every single one of our mission sets: education, event hosting, fundraising, habitat work.
- Directors who carried out their board leadership duties while filling in for absent or transitioning staff, and had time to develop unique programs and fundraising opportunities.
- Indeed, directors who embraced organizational change and its additional required effort while simultaneously putting on, and strongly supporting, chapter level events.
- Volunteer leaders at all levels identifying new opportunities to make a difference at the state level, raising their hands to be part of something a little unknown, but exciting and potentially impactful.
- A chapter chair who nearly single-handedly puts on a couple of the highest performing events on our calendar – and takes manages to improve habitat on DNR property in his “spare” time.
- Chapter chairs and treasurers who reinvigorated their teams to produce the best events of their chapter’s history.
- Class-A “warriors” who just hammered new sales records.
It’s impressive beyond any of my previous volunteer experiences… but Kelcy keeps telling me we can only recognize ONE volunteer of the Year. Stay tuned.
No Duck hunters conference this year??? You may know that the WI Duck Hunters Conference – a long standing annual meeting of the hardcore duck hunters – has folded due to lack of support. Coincidentally, we have expanded our annual state meeting to include non-members and have a very interesting speaker list, from biology to regulations affecting waterfowl and waterfowlers. Could we grow our state meeting into filling the void created by the demise of the former conference? There may be an opportunity to create a true Wisconsin waterfowl weekend (imagine a duck calling contest, vendor displays, decoy carving, seminars, dog training, etc…). On Friday, the Board will be considering what WWA’s role should be in sustaining this Wisconsin Waterfowling tradition. Let me know if you are interested in being a part. Stay tuned.
Speaking of the Board… We welcome three new members to the Board of Directors at their meeting on Friday the 24th: Tim Gerdmann of Tomahawk, Andy Ducato of Kenosha, and Todd Schultz of La Crosse. The new perspectives and energy they bring to WWA’s leadership team will be exciting to watch and be a part of.
In the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee… I hope you’ve filled out your waterfowl zone survey. This is a big deal. It’s WWA’s opportunity to understand how our members (and non-members) feel about particular issues in the regulatory world of waterfowling. As of this writing, only 300 people have taken the survey. Please take it, or share this link with your waterfowling friends. Results will be made public in February. Stay tuned.
Wanted: Corporate Sponsors. Many of you “sell” WWA when reaching out to local businesses to support your local events. My dad was a salesman too – everything from 18-wheeler trailers to dairy products – and he said it made his job much easier when he was selling a quality product.
WWA is just such a quality product with the good work we do around the state; we have marketing “channels” (newsletters like this, website, facebook pages and groups, events, calendars, etc.), and we have a pre-existing outdoors-focused audience (our members and subscribers). These things have value to businesses that may want to communicate with that WWA audience. While we won’t “sell” our membership list, we are open to appropriate corporate messages that may be of interest to our members.
We’ve put together a brochure that explains these benefits (WWA Corporate Sponsorship Value Proposition) to any corporation that may be interested in partnering with WWA to help us further our mission. We need your help reaching the right person in such businesses, a personal connection is always helpful and frequently the key to making a deal. CAN YOU HELP MAKE THAT CONNECTION? Chapters that help make these connections will benefit, as will the work we do for WIWaterfowlers. Let me know your thoughts. [email]bruceross@wi.rr.com[/email].