Annual General Meeting
January 13, 2008
Presidents Report 2007
Another prosperous and
successful year has passed all too quickly at our Club. I would like to take this opportunity to
summarize our shooting year and highlight the events that have resulted in one
of the best years to date. Once again
our accomplishments came from the strength and dedication of committed
volunteer members and sponsors who want to make this shotgun club one of the
best in eastern
A significant part of our
success lies in the abilities and expertise of the three shoot committees to
organize their particular shotgun discipline.
The Sporting Clays
committee continues to hone their skills and with the addition of more automatic
throwers the presentations at each station were interesting and challenging. I
would like to thank Rob Burtt, Dave Bell, George Phillips and Phil Hughes for
their major efforts along with all the other supporting members who contributed
their time and sweat to build stations, trim trees, clear trails, haul targets,
cleanup and all the many other jobs required to organize and run not only our
major shoots but the Tuesday evening sporting clays as well. There were
upgrades made to some of the trails with gravel spread to level and smooth out
walkways along with better water drainage. Another improvement saw the
elimination of shooting stations on the hill area. This not only saved the
exertion on our more elderly shooters but also helped to speed up the time it
takes to shoot the Beretta and Browning events. With the number of participants
remaining relatively consistent over the last few years we are able to plan and
organize our future needs and requirements with a greater degree of accuracy.
The skeet committee held
two registered NSSA shoots, one in April and the other in October. Thanks go to George Lindsay, Bev Bacon, Jack
Nicolle and Gerrit van Raalte for staffing, organizing and submitting results
for these shoots. Skeet has played a vital role at this club as a year round
event and is usually the means whereby many new shooters are introduced to our
sport. The three skeet fields have had over 2600 rounds shoot on them last
year.
The trap committee has
enjoyed a successful year. Thanks to
Jack Nicolle and Jerry Stafford for heading up this group and all the other
shooters who participated in our Wednesday afternoon and evening trap league.
Some of the shooters are members of ATA and registered their rounds. In years
past our one trap field has not been used from December through to mid April as
the ability to accommodate snow removal has been prohibitive. At the September meeting of the Executive and
Board of Directors an initiative was endorsed to build a new trap field,
superimposed within # 3 skeet field.
George Phillips was hired to perform the work and the job was completed
by mid November. We can now shoot trap year round and the number of rounds shot
will increase accordingly. There were
over 1400 rounds of trap shot at FTSC last year.
In addition to the trap
field work performed by George, a new set of entrance gates were installed.
This replaced the chain that has existed since the club was built in 1990.
On May 19-20, FTSC held a
Trap shooting Clinic with retired Olympic Coach Yvon (Joe) Mercier. Fourteen club members participated
in this two day course of classroom instruction followed by the shooting of
singles, singles handicap and doubles on the trap field. Thanks to Norm Nadeau for arranging to have
Joe fly in from
As I have stated in the
past this club has been fortunate in having a strong supporting partnership
role with our sponsors. Mr. Ross
Faulkner ( The Gun Dealer ) hosts the
Beretta and Browning 100 SC shoots in July and August. With Ross’s continued
sponsorship these two events have grown to become the Maritimes largest
sporting clay events. Mr. John Lockerbie
( The Ruffed Grouse Society ) sponsored the season opener shoot in May. Mr. John Johnston ( Ducks Unlimited ) sponsored the September
shoot. Our Fall Classic sponsor was Mark Jewett.
During 2007 our club played
host to a number of youth oriented events.
In July and August the Heritage youth group used our facility on
Wednesday afternoons. In September DNR
held their annual field day consisting of shooting and survival skills. Phil Hughes brought his class from the
The FTSC website (www.ft-sc.com ) is continuing to evolve and
has had over 8200 hits to date.
In December we wrapped up
the year with our annual 50 target charity skeet shoot with the profit going
toward the “ Feeding a Family Campaign” at the community food kitchen.
As our membership now
exceeds one hundred shooters, I am especially encouraged by the number of
father /son and family memberships we have attracted in the last year. The club
you enjoy today has evolved from many years of volunteer work from like minded
individuals who enjoy not only having a quality shooting facility for
themselves but take pride and satisfaction in the camaraderie of having
shooters from other clubs share in what we have to offer.
Every non profit
organization has its volunteers who go the extra distance and we are no
exception. I would like to thank and make particular mention of Lou Caissie,
Ken O’neil and Gerrit van Raalte for their work in maintaining and improving
our club house and property. I would also like to express a special thank you
to our volunteer kitchen staff, Bev Brown, Clarkia Lindsay, Pat van Raalte, and
Brenda Lockerbie for their efforts in feeding all the hungry shooters.
I would like to extend a
sincere thanks to my fellow Executive and Board of Directors and to everyone
who has helped in this club’s success in the past year. No matter how small or great your
contribution has been, it is welcomed and appreciated.
To all the shooters who
have joined us as members over the 2007 shooting season, I welcome and
encourage you to participate in our shooting events and enjoy our Club
facilities in 2008.
Laurence
Gilbey
President