President's Fall Report - 2008 President's Fall Report - 2008
Greetings,
Can you believe another trapping season is about to begin soon!! It has been an eventful year for the SDTA. We have continued our traditional involvement in many of our past activities such as the Black Hills State Stock Show, Dakota Territory Gun Shows, Outdoor Youth Fests, and special events within the South Dakota State Parks system. All activities and projects that promote trapping and the fur industry - not only to youth, but also to adults, are important to us. In addition to the foregoing, we have now added the South Dakota Outdoor Expo. This event is sponsored by the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks. The Outdoor Expo is going to be one of the biggest outdoorsman type of events in the state, and we are very excited to be invited back again for next years event in June at the South Dakota state fairgrounds. We are also looking into te possibility of having a booth or building set up at the South Dakota State Fair next year. We are looking into the costs, and other issues pertaining to getting a contract signed. What a fantastic venue this would be for promoting and education the public about trapping, the fur industry, and the SDTA.
In our continuing effort to educate our youth and the public of the benefits of trapping, we are currently distibuting the Furbearer Unlimited and National Trapping Association trapping education packages to all the South Dakota schools. The packages are full of great information about trapping, facts, furbearer management, and a wealth of information about the furbearers that we pursue. We recently held our Fall Rendezvousat the state fairgrounds in Huron, SD. Good attendance, a nice variety of trapping supply dealers, outstanding trapping and predator calling demos, dutch over cooking, and favorable weather made for a pretty darn good time for everyone. We thank everyone who took time out from their busy lives to come to Huron to help make this a successful event. Congratulations to Bob Stephenson for being the recipient of the Koffler Award. Bob has been for several year and still is, a great asset to our organization. Our top sportsman raffle ticket seller this year was Galen Sichmeller. Congratulations Galen! Galen and our good friend, Wayne Heilman, have been our two top ticket sellers for a few years now. Galen sold over 200 books of tickets!!! Thanks to all who participated in the sportsman raffle this year. We appreciate your efforts. Finally, I want to thank Marti Poppenga for all that she does to make a successful rednezvous. Preparing the meals, putting on the dutch oven cooking demo, and clerking the auction are great contributions by Marti in helping to make a successful event. I want to also thank Sharon Steckly, Lexie Bennett, and Sadie Potter for helping Marti. We had some great fund raising raffles again this year. The youth and adult grub-stake raffles had excellent top quality trapping and predator calling supplies. We owe a lot of thanks to many dealers who made the donations. Finally, congratulations to all the raffle winners. A complete listing of winners is listed in the newsletter.
What will the future be for the SDTA? Well, we hope to maintain a strong active association. It's you, the member, and the willingness to get involved that is going to make a difference in whether our trapping association grows in strength. If we are to promote trapping and protect our trapping rights, we will need more active membership involvement. We don't know from year to year waht the challenges will be, but I assure you there will be challenges to face. If we are to protect our trapping heritage and tradition of trapping, we cannot just sit on a little island. We need to reach out to the younger generation and educate the public about trapping. This past year, 1,634 furbearer licenses were sold in South Dakota. The SDTA and the WSDFA have a combined membership of around 450-475 trappers. This gap is much too large. Each one of you who pays membership dues works to keep trapping viable in South Dakota for the others who think it is not necessary. We appreciate everyone who is a SDTA member, and encourage you to sign up a friend, and if you can take a kid along with you on your trapline. Thanks, and have a great season.
Kim Potter
SDTA President
