5/15/23 FCS Meeting and Fish Dinner
Ten participants, including two first time guests, had a good time at the 5/15/23 FCS Meeting at Randy and Chris Rowley’s home. The meeting featured beef and chicken fajitas, peppers and onions, rice, beans, tortillas, chips, queso, salsa, and blueberry cheesecake. Randy led a discussion on upcoming events (see our Calendar for details) and a devotional called Whomever God Chooses. They talked about Biblical matters for about 10 minutes afterwards.
3/8/23 FCS Officers Meeting
Seven officers attended the 3/8/23 Officers Meeting at Dos Salsas restaurant in Cedar Park. The following items were discussed:
1. 2022 Events Comparison (the last three years; for a report on 2022 only see the 1/1/23 State of the Club Report). Randy Rowley presented the following:
| Year |
Total Attendees |
Number of Events |
Average Attendees per Event |
| Banquets |
| 2022 |
28 |
1 |
28.00 |
| 2021 |
23 |
1 |
23.00 |
| 2019 |
25 |
1 |
25.00 |
| Our 8/16/22 Family Celebration Banquet tied our second highest attendance. |
| Deer and Duck |
| 2022 |
2 |
1 |
2.00 |
| The 12/27/22 Guided Deer and Self-guided was the first event of its kind). |
| Hog Hunts |
| 2022 |
3 |
1 |
3.00 |
| 2021 |
6 |
2 |
3.00 |
| 2020 |
30 |
13 |
2.31 |
| Our 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 for semi-guided hunts is around 285 miles from Austin. We’ll choose a landowner/outfitter/ guide that is closer this year. |
| 24-hour Sporting Clays Shoots |
| 2022
2019 |
6
4 |
1
1 |
6.00
4.00 |
| 2018 |
7 |
1 |
7.00 |
| FCS Sporting Clays Shoots |
| 2022 |
46 |
7 |
6.57 |
| 2021 |
44 |
7 |
6.29 |
| 2020 |
62 |
8 |
8.43 |
| NSCA Sporting Clays Tournaments |
| 2022 |
32 |
8 |
4.00 |
| 2021 |
11 |
4 |
2.75 |
| 2020 |
8 |
4 |
2.00 |
| Our Sporting Clays Tournaments attendance average set a new record. |
| Dove Hunts |
| 2022 |
17 |
6 |
2.83 |
| 2021 |
22 |
2 |
11.00 |
| 2020 |
5 |
1 |
5.00 |
| 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. |
| Bay Fishing Trips (Chartered and Self-chartered) |
| 2022 |
12 |
3 |
4.00 |
| 2021 |
28 |
3 |
9.33 |
| 2020 |
4 |
1 |
4.00 |
| Freshwater Fishing Trips (Chartered and Self-chartered) |
| 2022 |
32 |
7 |
4.57 |
| 2021 |
47 |
13 |
3.62 |
| 2020 |
55 |
18 |
3.06 |
| Our attendance was down because I only led one self-chartered freshwater fishing trip. I was unable to lead the around 14 self-chartered freshwater 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 house, and unpacking. |
| FCS Meetings |
| 2022 |
49 |
6 |
8.17 |
| 2021 |
61 |
6 |
10.17 |
| 2020 |
17 |
2 |
8.50 |
| This was our worst average attendance since 2017’s 6.50 and was less than half of our 2010 attendance of 102. |
| FCS Officer Meetings |
| 2022 |
7 |
1 |
7.00 |
| 2021 |
8 |
1 |
8.00 |
| 2020 |
7 |
1 |
7.00 |
| Ministry Events |
| 2022 |
11 |
2 |
5.50 |
| 2021 |
7 |
1 |
7.00 |
| 2019 |
10 |
1 |
10.00 |
| This was the first time that we’ve had two ministry events since 2013. |
| Guided Upland Birds (Pheasant, Chukars, and Quail) Hunts |
| 2022 |
9 |
1 |
9.00 |
| 2021 |
7 |
1 |
7.00 |
| 2020 |
9 |
1 |
9.00 |
| Guided Duck Hunts |
| 2022 |
13 |
2 |
6.50 |
| 2021 |
4 |
1 |
4.00 |
| 2019 |
4 |
1 |
4.00 |
| Self-guided/chartered Blasts and Casts (Duck Hunts and Fishing Trips) |
| 2022 |
13 |
2 |
6.50 |
| 2021 |
12 |
2 |
6.00 |
| 2020 |
16 |
2 |
8.00 |
| Self-guided Inland Duck Hunts |
| 2022 |
19 |
5 |
3.80 |
| 2021 |
18 |
6 |
3.00 |
| 2020 |
14 |
4 |
3.50 |
| Yearly Attendance and Events |
| 2022 |
285 |
54 |
5.28 |
| 2021 |
300 |
52 |
5.77 |
| 2020 |
262 |
60 |
4.37 |
| In summary, the only events that I’m concerned about are our meetings. 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 memberships. 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, or Thursdays.
Wayne Weilnau noted that most of our meeting time is spent on cooking, eating, presidents reports, and devotionals, and little time is spent on fellowshipping. The officers agreed to try having social/fellowship gatherings at restaurants where only imminent events would be discussed (no president’s reports or devotionals) in addition to continue with our meetings schedule.
The officers also discussed ways to attract more younger people to FCS events, as they’re no longer going to web pages, Facebook, Instagram, etc. Binh Chu recommended the app Meetup. People use Meetup to meet new people, learn new things, find support, get out of their comfort zones, and pursue their passions, together. You can start and join groups and search for events. Meetings often have little planning and can be as simple as, ‘Dinner at Banger’s Sausage House in Round Rock on Thursday at 7:00 PM’ or ‘White bass fishing at The Steps on Granger on Saturday at 7:00 AM.’ Randy Rowley will explore creating an FCS Meetup group, but reminds everyone that he’s never done this before and there will be a learning curve. |
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2. How should we handle events for our older and less mobile members? Our last guided duck hunt was a challenge, and it was worse on Wayne’s guided trip with the same guide. The officers agreed that, for events that will be more strenuous, event coordinators and the president should stress in our announcements what people can expect. Event coordinators should also communicate to people who haven’t participated either by email, phone, or in person to ensure they know what they’re getting in to. Also, for sportsmen who have physical challenges or are older, event coordinators should assign a volunteer to shepherd him or her within reason on our more strenuous events. For example, for an upland bird hunt where everyone is paying at least $275, we might not secure any volunteers to hunt with someone who can’t keep up with the rest of the group, as the dogs can’t hold on point for long periods of time and the volunteer might miss out on shooting opportunities if he’s shepherding someone who can’t keep up.
3. Annual Family Celebration Banquet – guest speaker selection, venue logistics, etc. The officers agreed to invite Kevin McConnell to be our speaker and to shoot for a date that will work for him in April 2023. The officers also discussed giving memberships or FCS tumblers as prizes. Memberships will work for everyone except those who are lifetime members. FCS tumblers will be a challenge as the company that we order from requires a minimum order of 15 tumblers.
4. The Planso Form program won’t send out emails. If someone submits a Application/Liability Form request, the notification is not being emailed out to the membership director, president, and webmaster. The had been a problem since we were attacked by bots a while back. We will probably have to switch to another forms program, but that will take some time to build, test, and implement. Bruce will try replacing it with a free program, but if that doesn’t work we can buy one for $50.
2/16/23 FCS Meeting and Fish Dinner
Ten participants, including four first time meeting attendees, had a good time at the 2/16/23 FCS Meeting at Randy and Chris Rowley’s home. The meeting featured catfish, white and black bass (courtesy of Kurt DeRuiter), onion rings, french fries, hush puppies, potato salad, coleslaw, chips, queso, jalapenos, salsa, and brownies. Randy led a devotional called Rodeo at the Jetty. They also watched the first episode of Primetime Bucks XII.
President’s Report
Membership – since our last meeting on 12/13/22 we had one man join the club and one first-time guest. We presently have 365 members, including 104 supporting members (who are current with their dues).
Events – since our last meeting on 12/13/22, we had nine events with an attendance of 44 people, which is an average of 4.89 people per event. We have 13 events planned from 2/17/23 until our next meeting on 4/10/23. See our Calendar for details.
