1/1/23 State of the Club Report

2022 was another poor year for FCS when compared to 2005 – 2019.  If we had not secured the Bartlett season dove lease again the 42 people on the lease probably would have gone on at least one of our day dove hunts, which would have increased our total attendance substantially.  According to a mid-year poll, Covid concerns and conflicting activities significantly affected the number of participants and events we had.  However, we ended the year with a record number of supporting members (although several of those members joined so they could get on the Bartlett dove lease, which requires supporting FCS membership).  So, we ended the year with the most FCS members that we’ve ever had by far but not very many of those members attended FCS events.

Attendance highlights (positive and negative) included:

• Our attendance was 285 people, 15 fewer people than in 2021, and our 20th best.  For a year-by-year comparison, see our Events Statistics page.
• We had 54 events, two more events than in 2021, and our 10th best.  For a year-by-year comparison, see our Events Statistics page.
• We averaged 5.28 participants/event, .49 participants/event worse than 2021, and our 33rd best.  This is not a significant concern.  We can only have limited numbers of participants for our self-guided inland duck hunts, guided inland duck hunts, self-chartered bay and freshwater fishing trips, and most of our chartered bay and freshwater fishing trips due to the number of people we can fit on a boat.  For a year-by-year comparison, see our Events Statistics page.
• The 12/11/22 Sporting Clays Tournament tied the record for the most participants (seven).  See our Records page.
• The 12/27/22 Guided Deer and Self-guided Inland Duck Hunt set the record for the most participants (two).  See our Records page.
• Our 8/16/22 Family Celebration Banquet tied our second highest attendance (28).  For a year-by-year comparison, see our Events Statistics and Attendance pages.
• Our Sporting Clays Tournaments attendance average set a new record (4.00 participants/tournament).  For a year-by-year comparison, see our Events Statistics and Attendance pages.
• Our Guided Deer and Self-guided Inland Duck Hunt attendance average set the record with 2.00 participants/hunt.  For a year-by-year comparison, see our Events Statistics and Attendance pages.
• This was the first time that we’ve had two ministry events since 2013.  For a year-by-year comparison, see our Events Statistics and Attendance pages.
• Hog hunt attendance is down because we no longer have a free place to go for self-guided hunts and the place that we’ve been going to is around 285 miles from Austin.  We will choose an outfitter that is closer this year.  For a year-by-year comparison, see our Events Statistics and Attendance pages.
• Self-chartered Freshwater Fishing Trip attendance was down because I only led one self-chartered freshwater fishing trip.  I was unable to lead the around 14 self-chartered fishing trips that I usually lead because I spent most of the year getting my house ready to sell, selling it, packing, buying a new-to-us one, and unpacking.  For a year-by-year comparison, see our Events Statistics and Attendance pages.
• FCS Meeting attendance was our worst average attendance since 2017’s 6.50 and was less than half of our 2010 attendance of 102.  For a year-by-year comparison, see our Events Statistics and Attendance pages.  We’ve tried several things to spur more attendance, including calling them social activities, introducing training presentations, including recent hunts, fishing trips, and sports shooting recounts, and adding different members’ houses to host meetings.  Over the years we’ve done several polls regarding meetings.  The majority of respondents wanted to continue to have bi-monthly meetings at members’ houses, continue to cook meals (instead of ordering pizza), keep meetings at the length they have always been, and have them on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays.  I’m at a loss as to what else we can do to increase attendance, other than to accept this as our new normal.  I would welcome suggestions.

Membership highlights (positive and negative) included:

• We had 30 people join the club (our second best; the record is 32).  For a year-by-year comparison, see our New Members page.
• We had 34 members renew their memberships (our fourth best; the record is 52 since we have been keeping records in this category).  For a year-by-year comparison (since 2006), see our Membership Renewals page.
• As I mentioned above, we ended the year with a record 105 supporting members.  For a year-by-year comparison (since 2002), see our Supporting Members Summary page.
• We had 23 first-time guests/members (our 18th best; the record is 50 since we have been keeping records in this category).  For a year-by-year comparison (since 2002), see our First Time Guests/Members page.

Finances highlights included:

Website highlights:

The website is stable and there are no issues.

Facebook Page highlights:

The Facebook Page is stable and there are no issues.

Officers:

I’d still be happy for someone to take over the Secretary job from me.  For general officer expectations and the Secretary’s job description, see Section IV. Officers in the Bylaws.  Many hands make light work.

2023:

We have 84 events planned this year, at the time of this report.  See our Calendar for details, including the list of officers overseeing events.

I acknowledge that this is ambitious.  Historically we’ve never been able to pull off the number of events that we planned for a variety of factors such as a lack of interest, a lack of game, unforeseen personal conflicts, etc.  However, I am confident that we’ll eclipse 2019’s and 2018’s record of 76 events.

I hope that many more FCS members and guests will return to participating in FCS events in 2023.

Pursuing God’s way,

Randy Rowley
President
The Fellowship of Christian Sportsmen