By Bruce Ross, Executive Director
This article originally appeared in Wisconsin Waterfowl Association’s October Volunteer Newsletter edition.
It’s predictable. A season of change: Cool temps, northern birds, snowblower prep.
Retirement planning! One such predicted change at WWA is in our staff – specifically our regional director (RD) position. Tom Siebert, after more than 19 years, is retiring from WWA after spending nearly half his working career with us. What were you doing in 2000? Tom was hitching his wagon to WWA’s star, helping to propel it to success for well over half of the Association’s existence.
Tom and I have overlapped here only for 8 months, but I have come to value his deep experience, his ability to read people, and his singular dedication to WWA and its volunteers. He’s been a great mentor to me (and I suspect many others) as I have been learning the WWA “ropes”. While I never had a chance to make one of his WWA hunting trips, I’ve been told about a lot of, uh, … let’s call them “interesting” adventures he created with many of you who did survive a western voyage with him. I’ll miss his straight-from-the-shoulder commentary, and his self-deprecating humor that illuminated deep insights about Tom and the WWA he has served so faithfully. Tom claims he won’t be a stranger to WWA, and will volunteer his time to help in merchandising and assisting in the transition to a new RD.
Come to the Lakeshore banquet (November 13th), or Waukesha’s Christmas Bash ( December 5th) and celebrate Tom’s retirement and meet his replacement.
It was tough to find a single person to fill Tom’s shoes (I think he’s a size 14) – so we’ve hired two! Bob Kufahl has long outdoor industry experience and has run very successful DU events, among many other fundraising experiences. He’s coming to WWA on October 21st, and while there will be a short overlap with Tom, he’ll quickly take the reins, assisted by a short-term part-time Tom shadowing him at the last events of the year. And then, in the new year, Director Rob Monette sheds his Board of Directors volunteer role, and comes onto the staff as a part-time RD. We believe that having two RD’s filling a single RD position will allow more flexibility and minimize disruption during the transition. More on both of these guys in the next newsletter. But if you’re counting, that opens up a Board of Director’s position – interested? (We’ll be recruiting board positions later this month, keep it in mind!)
Event coordinators should note these changing responsibilities and look out a bit further to ensure details are well-communicated and addressed during this delicate transitional period.
Year-end giving. The end of the year is traditionally a time when families plan to give any donations allowable by their financial situation. We will be offering an opportunity to members and others to consider supporting WWA’s missions with a year-end gift, or through a new option we’ll be rolling out soon, monthly giving. A monthly gift is very affordable (as low as only $10 or $20 per month) for the donor, but evens out the revenue flows over the course of that year for WWA. We will be encouraging members to select this option on our website – consider doing this yourself, or if you have friends to whom this opportunity might be attractive, share the link/letter with them when we send it out.
Thanks for all that you do, volunteering on behalf of WIWaterowlers – and I hope you are enjoying the fruits of your labors with some good hunting opportunities this fall!