February 2005

 

GAA State Indoor Championship

Kennesaw was represented by twelve members at the tournament! Thanks for the great turnout! I think we had more shooters than any other GAA club. Those who competed were:  Cam Ashling, Eddie Csaszar, Kevin Cusack, Dede Davidson, Don Edwards, Betsy Hagerty, Greg Johnsen, Clayton McClure, Chris Stubel, Mike Sullivan, Jim White and John Whitney. 

Thanks also to Eric Cero and Jefflyne Potter who coordinated the new KAC polo shirts with our logo and embroidered names.  They looked great and I heard several admiring comments.

Check the GAA web site (www.gaarchery.org) for the final results of the tournament.  It will be posted soon.

The GAA Meeting

John Stuart (GAA President) called a short meeting at the tournament for an announcement.  He is experiencing some personal difficulty with a family illness and will be unable to carry out his duties for the next few months.  As a result, he has appointed Linda O'Connor as the interim President of the GAA.  Linda has served as the communications director for the organization for some time and will assume her new duties immediately. 

Linda said she will be contacting members of the GAA to proceed with scheduling tournament dates and to seek volunteers to become more involved with t e running of the organization.  She and John have some programs they feel would be beneficial to the organization but will need your help in getting them going.  If you have the interest and time to help, please contact Linda through the GAA web site.

In order to make the organization more attractive for donations, it was decided to register the GAA as non-profit organization (501C-3) for tax purposes.  This hopefully will encourage people to help support the GAA financially.  I just learned today that Mike Sullivan of the KAC has located an attorney who will do the paperwork pro bono (that's FREE!).  Way to go Mike! Thanks!

KAC Range Upgrade

Eric Cero, our Supreme Allied Commander of the KAC outdoor range, has arranged to have all our outdoor targets rebuilt before the outdoor season begins in April.  The existing target stands have served us well, but they are over ten years old and starting to deteriorate.

We will replace all of them and add a couple as well.  Our Saturday classes are growing and the need is there. 

Additionally, Eric has cleared some of the underbrush at the end of the shooting line back into the tree line and we now have the ability to shoot 90 meters where we were shooting the 70 meter target.  Of course, that may only be used when everyone is out of the way since it's 20 meters behind the current shooting line, but at least we have the distance for those who need to practice it.

Tournament Committee

The GAA has decided to return the responsibility of putting on tournaments back to the clubs.  A couple of years ago it was decided to have the GAA put on all the tournaments and the clubs would only provide the venue for the competition. The GAA handled all the registrations, registering the tournament with the NAA, getting the trophies, printing the scorecards, etc.

As it happens, only one or two people wound up doing all the work and it just got to be too much.  Now they want the clubs to put on the tournaments.  That means the club who bids the tournament will be responsible for all the above duties.

Here's my question:  Do you, as members of our club, want to host archery tournaments this year?  If so, we need to put together a tournament committee who will be responsible for bidding on the tournaments, setting the dates, handling registration, awards, targets, food concessions, scorecards, directions, hotel listings, getting the venue ready and anything else that is needed to put on the tournament.  In the past, it's been the same few people every year who have done all the work.  We need more volunteers!  Let me know your thoughts.  If we are going to host tournaments, we need to get in our bid ASAP!  I need to hear from someone who is willing to chair this committee so I can tell those interested who to contact.  (Not me this year!)  If I don't get enough responses, we will not be hosting any tournaments this year.

Shooting Tip

Usually, a bow that shoots very quiet is a bow that is well tuned.  I was in a tournament recently and I noticed that some bows were very quiet and some were rather loud.  I also noticed that the quiet bows were shooting excellent scores while some of the louder ones were not. Now, I'm sure it could be that the shooters made a lot of the difference in the scores, but I also maintain that a well tuned bow will "forgive" some of the shooter's mistakes.  Anyone who knows me knows that I am always tinkering with my bow to make it shoot quieter.  I find that the quieter my bow shoots the better it performs.  It just gives me more confidence in my equipment and that's a big plus for me.  Here's some of the things you can check to see if it will make an improvement in your bow.