Meetings

Chapter Meeting - September 20, 2021

Date: Monday, September 20, 2021
Time: 5:00 PM
Type: Chapter

Location: Jamie's Office
Directions: Town Square Plaza 329 N. Main (Map)

Details:

Discuss

Chapter Meeting - July 28, 2021

Date: Wednesday, July 28, 2021
Time: 5:00 PM
Type: Chapter

Location: Jamie's Office
Directions: Town Square Plaza (Map)

Notes:

Card readers for Banquet are working for the most part. Will do test with fully charged units. Have the shirts in and are looking to get them embroidered. We have about 147 registered at this point. Will need to do one more FB push to tell people they can get tickets at the door. Need a ladder at the venue. Need to check into hanging banners. Check on internet coverage in the registration booth. Davin to pick up screen and projector by Friday.

Chapter Meeting - July 15, 2021

Date: Thursday, July 15, 2021
Time: 5:00 PM
Type: Chapter

Location: Jamie's Office
Directions: Town Square Plaza (Map)

Notes:

Reviewed Sponsors for solicitation. People reviewed sponsors to contact Davin to be purchasing two tablets for credit card scanners. Have on chip reader have one on the way. Davin to get in touch with Andy and get some video on the dog for banquet. Committee shirts are going to be pulled from Scheels. May be iffy to get them in time. Discussion around the Matt Stacy memorial donation of $1080.

Chapter Meeting - June 23, 2021

Date: Wednesday, June 23, 2021
Time: 5:00 PM
Type: Chapter

Location: Jamie's Office
Directions: Town Square Plaza (Map)

Details:

Annual meeting

Notes:

Flyers are ready to distribute around town. Website is up and running, waiting on hard ticket PDF. Invites are in the mail. Catering is Jim's Market. Pork sandwiches, beans, two salads, cookie and utensils. Need to check on when to get meat for Jim, usually the day before. Tom got 6 people to serve from Sterling volunteer group. Will donate to the Sterling volunteer organization for their work. Alcohol is taken care of by the fairboard. Need to discuss a few more games at next meeting when the bulk of our folks are back from the trap state competition. Have a black male lab for the banquet from Andy Grahamn.

Chapter Meeting - April 22, 2021

Date: Thursday, April 22, 2021
Time: 5:00 PM
Type: Chapter

Location: Virtual - Zoom
Directions: Virtual - Zoom (Map)

Notes:

Mower County Habitat & Pheasants Forever Meeting Agenda

Thursday, April 22nd – 5:00 – via Zoom

Call to Order

Old Business
PTTP event nice success for first year. Good participation. Photos posted on our website and FB Page.

New Business

• Welcome/updates
• Introduction – Laura Newberg, new local farm bill biologist Austin Native, PF scholarship winner. Comes from Wilmar Dodge, Freeborn Mower and Steele Counties. Can help with private land questions, farm bill updates. CRP updates from USDA announced yesterday.
• Worlein Property acquisition/restoration progress Still alive, looking for an easement.
• Banquet Preparation – 7/31/21 – Mower County Fairgrounds

To Do’s:

• Make posters & disperse all, group to distribute Amy, Jamie, Davin to develop poster.
• Make program Amy Jamie
• Marketing – Herald, Shopper, Power 96, Facebook, etc. Davin and Amy Flyer for marketing
• Presale GOY and Ford raffle tickets
• Food – what are the options? Jamie is going to check with Piggy Blues. Any other suggestions, please bring them to Jamie. HyVee Mike to get price quote.
• Alcohol and beverages – what are the options? Mike to check with Jaycees on them doing the liquor license. Wendy will look into volunteer fire fighters doing liquor
• Start soliciting donations – donation receipts/lists
• Information/registration on website Davin to do when social media stuff goes up.
• Games – add some more interactive/outdoor ones? Live rooster poop board, horse shoes, bean bag toss
• Emcee? Jamie to MC and backup
• Auctioneer? Mike to check with S. Moline of someone else. Lisa Dunlap to Dave Thompson
• Purchase guns – what’s already at Coordes? Need to get that order into Craig ASAP Mike will wrangle the details.
• Try to get a puppy – Jamie might have a lead on a lab. Tom and Lisa have dog connection too
• Banquet package/prizes – can we still order from National?
• Gambling Permit Arlen and Jamie
• Purchases from Ace/Runnings All as events approaches.
• Sound system/technology issues? Davin to quote AV for next meeting.
• Tables/chairs – do we have to bring our own? Do they have enough? Stacia to check with fairgrounds on tables - Jamie to check with health department on serving and seating issues. Tom to verify gun issue on Fairgrounds.
• Other?

Next meeting date? May 13th 5:00 pm
Meet at the fairgrounds for next meeting

Chapter Meeting - October 08, 2020

Date: Thursday, October 08, 2020
Time: 12:00 AM
Type: Chapter

Location: Zoom
Directions: Online (Map)

Details:

Final Wrap up on DAV and HFAC Hunts.

Discuss final details of Youth Hunt.

Notes:

Just wanted to put together a quick recap of our Zoom meeting last night Thursday October 8th. We reviewed that both the DAV and HFAC were huge successes, largely thanks to our chapter members who worked so hard to ensure they went over well. We ended up with 47 paid hunters for the HFAC, and also received several donations, the largest being $1,500 from Absolute Energy. We agreed to donate a total of $4,225 to the Hormel Institute and Davin is going to reach out to Gail Dennison about doing a check presentation. We now have the youth hunt coming up on October 17th. We need helpers to walk with the groups to ensure safety and keep an eye on them. If you can help out please contact Paul to let him know. Right now Paul has 33 confirmed hunters, but we will likely lose a few due to dropouts and other reasons. Note that all participants in the youth hunt must have completed firearms safety training or they cannot join us. This is a PF National rule and ensures we have insurance for the event, so absolutely no exceptions. We agreed that doing box lunches might be over kill and are going to look into simply providing cookies and drinks, similar to the HFAC. We agreed to have our next Zoom meeting next Thursday the 15th at 5:00. I will send out a link to the meeting next week. If I am forgetting anything from our meeting please chime in.

Chapter Meeting - September 24, 2020

Date: Thursday, September 24, 2020
Time: 5:00 PM
Type: Chapter

Location: Zoom
Directions: Online (Map)

Details:

Details of upcoming 3 hunts for October.

Notes:

Things seem to be coming together for our three upcoming hunts – thanks to all of your hard work. Right now we have about 27 hunters lined up for DAV hunt, but will likely end up around 25 or so. We narrowed down our list of dog handlers for the event – please remember to let all dog handlers know that we want them at Three Arrows between 8:00 and 8:15 on 10/2. We agreed to keep the pods of hunters separate and then individually bring them thru registration and out to their fields. They will meet their dog handlers at their designated hunting fields as a way to further encourage distancing. Jay will run birds back and forth between the hunters and the cleaning station so that we don’t end up with a group of hunters waiting for their cleaned birds. Boxed lunches from Jim’s will be picked up around 9:30 in Austin, Hagen will bring down rolls and coffee around 7:30 or so. We will have one person handing out donuts, who will be masked and wearing gloves. We will have masks and hand sanitizer for all three of the events. Right now we are sitting right around 32 hunters for the Hunt For a Cure event. Same basic protocols as the DAV hunt, but distancing should be easier given that hunters will be starting at different times throughout the day. No food, auction, or merchandise this year for the HFAC event. Please get out and encourage folks to register for the event! Paul is doing a great job putting together the youth hunt. We will have two groups of approximately 15 kids each, one starting right away in the morning and then one in the afternoon. Each group will be given a boxed lunch after they complete hunting. One kiddo from each group will win a gun, which Paul has already purchased. We agreed to have our next group Zoom meeting next Wednesday, September 30th, at 6:30 PM. I will get a link out to the group for this call.

Chapter Meeting - September 03, 2020

Date: Thursday, September 03, 2020
Time: 5:00 PM
Type: Chapter

Location: Zoom
Directions: Online (Map)

Details:

Discuss three hunts coming up in October.

Discuss moving our Banquet to the summer and another venue.

Notes:

Things are moving along well for all three of our upcoming hunts – DAV hunt on 10/2, HFAC on 10/3, and the Youth hunt on 10/17.

Charles Mills joined us and mentioned that he already has 15 confirmed hunters for the DAV hunt, but expects up to 30. Tent is secured for the DAV and HFAC, still working on gathering chairs and tables. We talked about possibly purchasing box lunches and coffee/rolls – no sit down meal will be served. We already have $3,850 raised for the event and expect to get another $600. It sounds like we should have plenty of dog handlers to help with the event.

The biggest issue with the HFAC is that we need to get out and get more hunters signed up. Right now we have four signed up – Jamie Surdy, Andy Graham, Rob Silbaugh, and Mike Symonds. PF National isn’t allowing us to do online registration for the event, so participants will have to physically fill out a registration form. This form is available on our website, otherwise Davin or myself can get them to people. No lunches will be served, will again purchase coffee and rolls for hunters. Not doing any sort of silent auction, and will not be giving out merchandise, which will help increase profits. Absolute Energy again donated $1,500 to support the cause.

Paul – please let us know if you need help with the youth hunt. Jim Baldus has confirmed that he will donate boxed lunches for everybody. Again no sit down meal, and we will be giving away two guns this year.

We agreed to have our next meeting on Thursday, September 17th at 5:00, again via Zoom. I will send an invite out for this meeting.

Thanks, everybody! Jamie

Chapter Meeting - August 06, 2020

Date: Thursday, August 06, 2020
Time: 12:00 AM
Type: Chapter

Location: Zoom
Directions: Online (Map)

Details:

Discuss Fall Events and 2021 Banquet

Notes:

We decided that we will still put on the Hunt For a Cure event and the Youth Hunt, but we will not be doing the Veterans hunt this year due to Covid and lack of funds.. This was more so a decision by the folks who work with the Veterans than us. We plan on keeping things very, very basic for the Hunt For a Cure and Youth Hunts. No food, no live auctions, and we are going to encourage online registration and other “socially distant” ways to make these events happen. This will require a little more pre-planning and organizing than in past years, but I think we can make it happen. The Hunt For a Cure is scheduled for October 3rd, and the Youth hunt will be on October 17th. We are going to pursue possibly bumping the banquet to summer time and doing it at the Fairgrounds. More to come on this after we check into the details a bit more. We agreed as a group to support the Southern MN Deer Hunters group with a project to fix up an access road on a large WMA with a $3,000 donation. We reviewed that PF National is debating putting a Regional Biologist in SE MN, and that our chapter would be responsible for $1,000 - $2,000 year to help cover this cost. This individual’s primary role would be to help sign up CRP acres in our area. Everybody seemed very interested in this idea. c We discussed that there is still hope for the Worlein/Austin Area Foundation property, and that we’ve found a family with neighboring land who seem willing to work with us. Nothing is finalized and no details to share, but there is hope. Our next meeting will be Thursday, August 20th, at 5:00 via Zoom. I will send out an invite for this sometime over the next week or so.

Chapter Meeting - February 20, 2020

Date: Thursday, February 20, 2020
Time: 5:00 PM
Type: Chapter

Location: Jamie's Office
Directions: 301 North Main St. Austin, MN 55912 (Map)

Details:

Banquet Final Details

Notes:

Attendance-We are at 195-200 expecting 70 at the door.

Sterling Drug came in with Silver Sponsor level today.

Tom got a case of 12 gauge Ammo.

Plan 8:00 got set up

Davin to check with Charles Mills regarding doing a DAV hunt again this year.

Chapter Meeting - February 05, 2020

Date: Wednesday, February 05, 2020
Time: 5:00 PM
Type: Chapter

Location: Jamie's Office
Directions: 301 North Main St. Austin, MN 55912 (Map)

Details:

BANQUET DETAILS

Notes:

We have a 24 gun safe for auction item and we are going to put (1) gun inside it to put on the auction.

We will have two number boards that will sell for $20 each.

Update on attendance is about 100 attendees.

Runnings will be a Gold sponsor

Jay reports that Pepsi will be a sponsor donating two lights and product promotional stuff. Nick's meat donated $100

Live Auction items are going to be decided upon

Ben will be doing two live hunts

A Couple of HFC promo packages will be put together have approximately 25 live auction items.

Davin to do another FB push to feature the dog.

Chapter Meeting - January 13, 2020

Date: Monday, January 13, 2020
Time: 5:00 PM
Type: Chapter

Location: Jamie's Office
Directions: 301 North Main St. Austin, MN 55912 (Map)

Details:

Meeting regarding getting items in order for the February 22nd Banquet.

Paul and Tom researching landowners with adjacent property to our Worlein property to get public access.

Notes:

Facebook post of the event is up.

E-mail Blast went up and out to all PF members that we have e-mails for.

Jay Pudenz has solicited about 6 donations at this point.

Mike is working on a Mathews bow.

Mike Nelson also gave us an update on the guns we are going to have at the banquet

We are going to have some different games. Stacia is going to try to come up with two more games for next meeting

Do Hunt For A Cure packages. Live auction item with a hunt and a shirt and a cap with HFC.

Need to find a dog or two.

Need to find an auctioneer.