SCC-Meeting Minutes-20190721 Page: 1 Springfield Crappie Club Meeting Minutes --- July 21 st, 2019 The fall meeting was held at the Knights of Columbus Council #4179 on Lake Springfield. President Brian Cuffle called the meeting to order at 1:00 P.M. I do not have a count of members present. The minutes from the spring meeting were waived by membership as Secretary Jim Tintori was not in attendance. The financial report was given by Treasurer Mike Rockford. He reported the club has $3795 in checking and $3558 in savings. Expenses for 2019 thus far have been $2275. The club has 34 paid members, 1 youth member and 5 members of the Executive Board for a total of 40 Members. The treasurer’s report was approved. VP Brian Buchanan had no report. Tournament Director Arick Clark reported open tournaments averaged 24 boats each and our club tournaments averaged 11 boats. The spring open tournament profits are Lake Sangchris $347 and the Crappie BASH at Lake Shelbyville $500. $72 was made in a 50/50. $50 each was paid to 3 members at the Lake Springfield Club tournament for the eboard approved bonus prize in levels 6 thru 9. The E-Board recommended a $1,000 bonus contribution to the 2020 Classic prize fund this fall. Members approved the contribution. Tournament Director Clark emphasized that participation in our BASH needs to increase in 2020 or it cannot continue. The E-Board announced their decision to sponsor 2 additional open tournaments in 2020. There will be 2 spring and 2 fall open tournaments next year. An adult/kid tournament has been discussed before and again at this meeting. The E-Board would consider sponsoring one if club members support our opens. Arick said more tournaments are being scheduled on Sundays to give working people a chance to pre-fish without taking a day off work ========================================================================================= The following lakes were selected (either by vote or by rule) for the 2020 spring tournaments: CLUB March 21st Lake Sangchris (April 5th was unavailable) OPEN March 22 nd (Sunday) Lake Sangchris $50 Entry Fee $10 Big Fish BASH April 25 th Lake Shelbyville $100 Entry Fee $10 Big Fish CLUB May 3rd (Sunday) Lake Springfield (by vote) CLUB May 16th & 17th Lake Shelbyville (by rule) OPEN June 7th (Sunday) Lake Sangchris $50 Entry Fee $10 Big Fish ======================================================================================== The following lakes were selected (either by vote or by rule) for the 2020 fall tournaments: CLUB September 20 th (Sunday) Lake Shelbyville (by vote) CLUB October 4 th (Sunday) Lake Sangchris (by vote) CLUB October 17 th & 18th Mark Twain (by rule) CLASSIC November 1 st (Sunday) Lake Springfield (by rule) OPEN November 7 th Lake Springfield $50 Entry Fee $10 Big Fish OPEN November 29th (Sunday) Lake Decatur $50 Entry Fee $10 Big Fish
======================================================================================= President Cuffle passed out Sponsorship forms to all members and explained the different levels of sponsorship. $50 – Company logo on club tournament applications; $100 – Company logo on club and open tournament applications; $250 – Company logo on all tournament SCC-Meeting Minutes-20190721 Page: 2 applications and qualifies them to be a Title Sponsor on an open tournament. He asked members to give the forms to businesses they support and ask the businesses for their support in return. The sponsorships are Springfield Crappie Clubs primary fund raiser, with the money being used to increase club tournament prizes and payouts (with the exception that a sponsor request otherwise). ELECTION OF OFFICERS: President Brian Cuffle nominated the current E-Board for 2020. Nominated for President, Brian Cuffle; Vice President, Brian Bucannan; Treasurer, Mike Rockford; Secretary, Jim Tintori; and Tournament Director, Arick Clark. All accepted their nominations and were summarily elected for 2020. WEBSITE HOST: Our current Facebook and website administrator, Bob Hayes, is doing a great job and President Cuffle will ask him to continue in that role. He will be paid $325. TRAILERING AT TOURNAMENTS: Much discussion took place regarding trailering being allowed and how to manage the release of those choosing to trailer to another launch. If lake managers approve trailering, every effort should be made to include this fact on the tournament application, but if it is not, it is not a requirement. The following was presented as a motion and approved unanimously by membership. NEW TOURNAMENT RULE: On lakes where authorities allow trailering, SCC will allow trailering at both club and open tournaments. Those trailering cannot leave the official launch site before being released. Those choosing not to trailer will be released from the launch dock area by the calling of a takeoff number assigned at the morning meeting. Those choosing to trailer are officially released to leave the launch area upon the start of the calling of the takeoff numbers. Miscellaneous: The club’s finances are in good shape thanks mostly to the sponsorship money that has been collected this year. The E-Board approved a $100 prize to be awarded to the Day 1 leader of our two-day tournaments in 2020. To continue, this new prize must be renewed annually by the standing E-Board. The club’s box trailer is currently being stored at MBC Collision’s fenced in lot. The owner of this business is President Cuffle’s son-in-law. In lieu of storage fees, the club will give MBC Collision a Title Sponsorship valued at $250 per year. Mike Rockford reminded us that the Sponsor Banner should be in place and included in the pictures taken of our tournament winners. These pictures get uploaded to our website and this would give our sponsors even more exposure. Ken Kuchar suggested that new prize levels be added to the BASH. He thinks $100 could be given to the teams winning 10th, 15th etc. No motion was made. The subject of Lifetime Memberships came up too. Names mentioned for this honor were Jay Smith and Buck O’Connor.
========================================================================================= Respectfully Submitted, Jim Tintori SCC Secretary
SCC-Meeting Minutes-20190127 Page: 1 Springfield Crappie Club Meeting Minutes --- January 27, 2019 The spring meeting was held at the Knights of Columbus Council #4179 on Lake Springfield. President Brian Cuffle called the meeting to order at 1:05 P.M. 18 members were present. The 2019 E-Board, President, Brian Cuffle; Vice President, Brian Bucannan; Treasurer, Mike Rockford; Secretary, Jim Tintori; and Tournament Director, Arick Clark took their seats up front. The reading of the minutes from the fall meeting was waived by membership. Secretary Jim Tintori had printed copies on the table for anyone interested. The financial report was given by Treasurer Mike Rockford. He reported the club has $1,371 in checking and the savings balance was not available. Mike told members the E-board approved moving $1,000 from savings to checking in case the money is needed to pay winners at the 2019 Bash. Any part of this money not used will be returned to the savings account. The treasurer’s report was approved. Retiring VP Rick Montooth was not present due to recent knee surgery, therefore no report. Retiring Tournament Director Jerry Jallas reported the 2018 club tournaments had 26 teams’ fish. JJ repeated the spring open tournament figures with Sangchris having 16 boats ($240) and the Crappie BASH at Shelbyville having 22 boats ($24). The fall open at Lake Decatur had 8 boats even though the morning temperature was only 17 degrees. He said it could be a good tournament in the future because Lake Decatur is well fished. He finished by informing members the 2019 tournaments voted on last fall have been approved by DNR, Corp of Engineers and local authorities. President Cuffle reminded us the 2018 50/50 Raffle earned more than $300 to help boost the payout of the Fall Classic and stated there will be a 2019 raffle. Danny Runkle asked if the club intended to keep the Bash if participation did not increase. Brian said the Bash needs to significantly increase in 2019 with a target of $500 profit to continue. The prizes are set for 2019, but there may be discussion at the fall meeting about a new prize structure for the Bash in 2020 if it is to continue.
======================================================================================== The following lakes are approved for the 2019 spring tournaments and applications can be found at www.springfieldcrappieclub.com OPEN March 23rd Lake Sangchris $50 Entry Fee $10 Big Fish CLUB April 6th Lake Springfield BASH April 27th Lake Shelbyville $100 Entry Fee $10 Big Fish CLUB May 5th (Sunday) Lake Sangchris CLUB May 18th & 19th Mark Twain Lake ==========================================================================================2018 SCC Anglers of the Year are Arick Clark & Kyle Gehrs. They weighed in 21.31 pounds and were awarded AOY jackets. The jackets were purchased at Henderson’s Advertising on Cook Street. Congratulations to Arick & Kyle. The 2018 SCC Big Fish of the Year went to Brian Cuffle & Dale Smith. They won $100. Their fish was caught at Lake Shelbyville in the spring and weighed 1.33 lbs. The 2nd place big fish went to Arick Clark & Brian Buchannan. It was also caught at Lake Shelbyville in the spring and weighed 1.25 lbs. SCC-Meeting Minutes-20190127 Page: 2 Jerry Jallas told us he is in a conversation with Central Illinois Crappie Club and Heart of Illinois Crappie Club concerning an “Illinois Crappie Angler of the Year” state championship. More to come at the fall meeting. New Business: President Cuffle proposed changing the Angler of the Year (Team) to Angler of the Year (Individual). Each fisherman in the boat would receive the team weight as an individual total. This would allow for situations when team members fished with someone other than their partner or when one team member was not present at all of the qualifying tournaments. There would still be Co-Anglers of the Year if each team member had the same total weight. Cuffle volunteered to be the record keeper of the weights if it passed. Dan Runkle made the motion to change our AOY format to an individual prize beginning this season. It passed unanimously. ======================================================================================== By-Law Change: The Angler of the Year shall be determined by the highest total of the angler’s four best weights recorded at any regular club tournament. The weight in the fall classic is not included in the AOY total weight. Each angler present and physically in the boat will have the total team weight credited to their AOY total weight. Effective with the 2019 season. ======================================================================================== By-Law Confirmation: There was a discussion about the Big Fish of the Year determination, prizes and qualifying tournaments. The original intent of the members was that the big fish in the fall classic was a qualified entry for this award. However, that was not the case in the first two years. Members voted to confirm they wanted the classic included and it will be going forward. In the case of ties, prizes will be divided by the number of winners. The SCC puts $100 into the first place prize money. In years past, members have also donated cash or prizes to other prize levels not supported by the SCC. ======================================================================================== After some discussion, Ken Barlow made a motion to raise the entry fee for club tournaments from $50 to $100. Dan Runkle asked Ken to amend his motion to raise the entry fee to $75 and also raise the optional big fish entry from $10 per boat to $10 per man. The vote was 8 for and 8 against. President Cuffle broke the tie with a vote against the proposal. ======================================================================================== Dan Runkle made a motion to raise the entry fee for our two day club tournaments from $50 to $80 and also to raise the optional big fish entry from $10 per day to $10 per day per man. A one man team would pay $80 + $10 + $10 to enter a two day tournament while a two man team would pay $80 + $20 + $20, assuming entry into the optional big fish competition. This would become effective with our 2020 season since our applications are already made up for 2019. This proposal passed with 14 yes votes. ========================================================================================= SCC-Meeting Minutes-20190127 Page: 3 ========================================================================================= Tournament Rule Change: The entry fee for SCC two day tournaments shall be $80 per boat. The entry fee for the optional Big Fish competition shall be raised to $10 per man - per day. This change will become effective in the 2020 tournament year. ========================================================================================= President Cuffle brought up a member’s concern about a situation known as “Dock Sitting”. This is believed to be where a non-member arrives early at a location and appears to be reserving the location until a member arrives to take over that spot. After discussion, it was agreed this is not a practice the club would encourage, but there is no way to know this is actually happening and no way to police the practice either. Do Unto Others ======================================================================================== By-Law Confirmation: The discussion about “guest” fishing our club tournaments continues. There was no agreement whether a guest could fish one or two club tournaments before being required to join the SCC. Also, these questions came up: Can a guest fish with a different member each tournament? Can a member have a different guest in each tournament? A motion was made by Ken Barlow and amended by Carlo Catalano to have the rule state “A guest may participate in one SCC club tournament per year” and “A member can have a guest at any SCC club tournament, providing the guest has not participated in any other club tournament this year.” Hopefully, a shortened time period will make it easier to manage guest participation. Motion Carried. It was brought up that in years past, we required members to fish four of our six club tournaments to qualify for the fall classic. That requirement was lowered to two tournaments in recent years. A motion was made to change that requirement to 3 club tournaments. Motion passed unanimously. By-Law Change: To qualify for the fall classic, a member must physically fish three (3) club tournaments that tournament year. This will become effective with the 2019 tournament year. ========================================================================================== Tournament Rule Change: Dan Runkle said he is not a fan of the rule giving the tournament director the number one takeoff at club tournaments. A motion was made to eliminate this perk and everyone is released by entry number. Motion passed 10 to 6. ========================================================================================= SCC-Meeting Minutes-20190127 Page: 4 It has been a long time practice to break club tournament ties by the team’s entry numbers. The lower entry would be declared the winner. President Cuffle suggested that this E-board would like to change that practice. His recommendation would be to have ties at club tournaments broken by the “Big Fish” recorded for each of the tied teams. It was pointed out that every team should present a fish for “Big Fish” even if that team is not entered in the optional competition. Of course if a team chooses not to weigh a big fish and they end up in a tie, their big fish entry would be zero lbs. Motion made and passed. Tournament Rule Change: Club tournament ties shall be broken by the heavier weight of the tying teams recorded “Big Fish” for that day. If a two day tournament results in a tie, the heavier recorded weight of the “Big Fish” from each day shall be the tie breaker. Neither team is required to have entered the optional “Big Fish” competition to weigh a fish as a tie breaker, however, in the event a “Big Fish” was not recorded as a tie breaker, a zero will be recorded for that team. ======================================================================================= Steve Mosley asked if the club would consider helping CWLP build and place structure in Lake Springfield. Materials and labor would be required. That was a resounding yes. President Cuffle asked if anyone had thoughts about the clubs trailer. Ken Barlow pointed out the service work and sponsorships done to the trailer in the near past. The cost to keep the trailer is minimal and it makes a good impression at open tournaments. We will keep the trailer for now. Fishing has no Boundaries has an event on Lake Springfield on September 21st. They will operate out of the TRN club. Members are asked to get involved by volunteering to take someone on their boat or pontoon and helping their guest experience the joy of fishing. Talk to President Cuffle for more information. $50 to K of C for the generous use of their hall. Brian Cuffle won the 50/50 for $50. Member Ken List and his crew were thanked for frying our delicious fish. Meeting adjourned at 2:15 p.m. ================================================================================== Respectfully Submitted, Jim Tintori SCC Secretary
