2007 Minutes

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PSCLA Minutes

Dates of Minutes included below:
10/28/2007    5/20/2007

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Meeting Minutes 10/28/2007

Southern Clinton County Sportsmen's Club

The following officers were present / absent:

Pres. Martin Salinas – P  Director Ron Kephart - P Director Tom Livingston - P
Vice Pres. Dan Paolini – A Director George Conklin - P Director Sid Mentzer - P 
Treasurer John Green – P Director Doug Sellers - P Director Mike Walker – P
Secretary Chris Fox – P
 Membership Chair Dick McKinney – P  


Treasurer’s Report by John Green:

John Green gave the Treasurers report with a balance of $______.  A copy is available to any member upon request. Please contact Treasurer John Green.

Membership Committee Report by Dick McKinney:   
Dick McKinney reported that membership is 1490.  268 are paid ahead for 2008.  Present:  41.

Discussion:


1.   Advertisements:  PSCLA has advertised in the following:  Outdoor Times, Outdoor News, and The Unified Sportsmen of PA.  The Unified Sportsmen of PA placed an ad in our newsletter and the reasoning for this will be explained in the forthcoming newsletter. 

2.   PA Snowmobile and ATV Show:  PSCLA manned a booth for three days at this show hoping to recruit new members.  It was not a fruitful membership drive.

3.   Articles in District Forest Newsletters:  PSCLA sent a request to all District Forests asking to submit a PSCLA article in their newsletters. All districts responded in the affirmative and invited PSCLA to meetings between the District Foresters and lessees.

4.   Political Campaign:  PSCLA will be contacting all legislators asking them to join our organization. 

5.   Loss of Leases :  PSCLA has asked DCNR to apprise us of any leases that are to be lost for any reason. We also ask members to contact us when loss of a lease appears imminent. We will strive to prevent this. We have saved one lease. 

6.   DCNR Management Plan:  DCNR recently held 17 meetings across the commonwealth concerning forest management and the PA Wilds program. A big issue for us is the lack of road maintenance and road closures. Our question is why does DCNR push tourism yet avoid road maintenance and close roads?  

7.   Camp Additions/Rebuilds in Wilderness/Natural areas:  This is not to be confused with adding names  to your lease. This concerns the physical addition of a room(s) to your camp in these areas. This past year DCNR changed their forest plan to prohibit any outbuildings or additions. Roger Ney, a lessee in the White Mountain Wilderness Area-Bald Eagle district, applied for and initially was given permission to raze and rebuild his camp. The district forester later rescinded this permission after being told to do so by Harrisburg. PSCLA is trying to have this decision reversed. Additionally DCNR has proposed adding another 13,000 acres into the Wilderness/Natural areas.

8.   Lease Contacts:  DCNR will accept only one main contact on your state lease. Incredibly, this sole contact can sell the lease without any knowledge to others on the lease. This very situation actually occurred in the northern part of the state. PSCLA is asking DCNR to require affidavits from the other lessees named on the lease prior to any sale. DCNR so far refuses to do this.

9.   Prior PSCLA Newsletter:  Some of our members took great acception that we asked the term “hunting cabin” be replaced with “seasonal use cabin”.  PSCLA is not caving in to political correctness. We wish to reach out to more of the public, particularly families, in an effort to demonstrate more of a voter impact in Harrisburg. We cannot reiterate enough that votes affect policy within DCNR thus enabling us to reach our goals more effectively. Hunting, the term anyway, is becoming unpopular in Harrisburg.

10.  Camp Memberships:  This has been an ongoing problem for PSCLA and truth be told we are no farther along to a solution now than a year ago. We are trying to find an acceptable compromise to include all names of member camps at a reduced price but are not sure how to do so without offending the greater membership. Any suggestions would be welcome.


11.   PA Environmental Digest:   www.paenvironmentdigest.com
This website contains information for the hunting, fishing and conservation enthusiast as well as articles on upcoming legislation and much more. It is well worth taking the time to explore.

12.   Dan Devlin has replaced Dr James Grace as State Forester and will serve as director thereof.

13.   Election of Officers and Directors: Two directors were up for re-election. 

President - Marty Salinas:  Vote by acclamation.
Vice President - Doug Sellers:  Motion by Ron Kephart, second by Sid Mentzer, Vote -Aye
Secretary - Chris Fox:  Vote by acclamation
Treasurer - John Green: Vote by acclamation
Director - Tom Livingstone: Motion by Ron Kephart, second by Doug Sellers, Vote Aye
Director - June Krumrine: Motion by George Conklin, second by Chris Fox, Vote Aye
Director - Dan Paolini: Ron Kephart made a motion to appoint Dan Paolini director emeritus.

President Salinas made a motion and Doug Sellers seconded to raise our donation to the Southern Clinton County Sportsmen’s Club to $150. Vote Aye.
Note: The charge for a water line that extends off of your lease is still $25 every lease renewal / 10 years.

The meeting was adjourned at 2:30 PM.

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Meeting Minutes 5/20/2007
Castanea Fire Hall Picnic Grounds
 
 
The 14th semi-annual PSCLA meeting was called to order by President Martin Salinas on May 20, 2007. President Salinas opened the meeting at 1:00 PM by thanking the Castanea Fire Hall for the use of the grounds.
 
 
The following officers were present:

Pres. Martin Salinas – P  Director Ron Kephart - P Director Tom Livingston - P
Vice Pres. Dan Paolini – A Director George Conklin - P Director Sid Mentzer - P 
Treasurer John Green – P Director Doug Sellers - P Director Mike Walker – P
Secretary Chris Fox – A Membership Chair Dick McKinney – P  

Old Business:

1.  Camp Taxes:  PSCLA has explored this issue many times in the past and feels this is a fight we cannot win.

2.  Camp Membership:  This problem has been discussed at not only general membership meetings in the past but at many monthly director’s meetings. PSCAL will continue to try and find an equitable way to assess a yearly camp membership fee that is fair to all. As has been stressed many times before, it is not the financial goal that PSCLA is after but membership numbers. This is what Harrisburg listens to, voter impact.  We also strongly encourage you to visit other camps and urge them to join our organization. 

3.  Water Lines: Lessees are once again reminded that the fee for off site water lines has been changed to $25 every ten years/lease renewal. 
 
4.  Shooting ranges:  PSCLA again reiterated that not all areas of the state are safe for shooting ranges. Please approach your Forester for guidelines and permission in building a shooting range. Problems?  Please contact us.
 
New Business:

  1.   Recreational Camp Tax and Trash Removal Fees: PSCLA believes both of these levies to be nothing more than money making strategies used by financially strapped townships. PSCLA and our attorney were involved in a lengthly discussion with representatives of Gerard Township in Clearfield County concerning the Recreational Camp Tax. While no results have been as yet forthcoming, Gerard Township has not utilized the collected fees and PSCLA expects to ultimately win. We are currently looking into Trash Removal Fees and would appreciate if lessees would inform us if this practice is occurring in any part of the state.

 2.   Political Campaigns: Regrettably, PSCLA must enter into the political arena in Harrisburg to achieve any degree of success. Once again, membership numbers are extremely important in not only meeting with but swaying lawmakers to our side. Should you desire to contact your representative it is recommended you send a letter, call or the best route is to meet with an aide. PSCLA discourages the use of emails simply because of the volume representatives already receive on a daily basis.
 
3.   On the other hand, PSCLA prefers emails and letters, not phone calls.
 
4.  DCNR has given PSCLA permission to place advertisements touting our organization in district newsletters.
 
5.  Leases Lost: In an unfortunate incident, a leased site that was in bad repair was signed back over to DCNR willingly by the lessee. Had PSCLA been notified, we would have made every effort to save this lease. Should you become aware of a similar situation please contact any officer or director. Additionally, should you desire to make additions or rebuild your camp your are able to do so. Any problems please contact PSCLA.
 
6.  PSCLA has requested that DCNR restore all leases lost since 1969. DCNR did not deny nor did they approve this request. We will continue to follow up on this request.  
 
7. PA Wilds and the Governor’s Outdoor Conference: The Pa Wilds is a program to enhance and encourage tourism throughout Pennsylvania. President Salinas attended the three day Governor’s Outdoor Conference held in State College. While the primary focus was attracting more tourists to Pa, considerable attention was given to introducing more minorities to use the state park system.
 
8.  Road Closings and Non Maintained Roads: DCNR claims they do not have adequate funding to maintain all secondary roads. We question why some roads that are in obviously good roadworthy shape are still gated throughout most of the year?
 
9.  PSCLA requests that you no longer use the words “Hunting Camp’, instead we ask that you use the words “recreational”, or “seasonal use camp” when describing your leased site. Remember as DCNR deputy secretary Mike Krempansky said “Hunting is a thing of the past” at a public meeting held in Coudersport. Welcome to our politically correct world folks. 
 
10. PA Cleanways: Director Kephart made a motion to donate money to this organization. It was not seconded. President Salinas suggested we find other ways to effectively use our money.
 
11. DCNR Website: PSCLA will ask DCNR if they will post a link to our organization on their website.
 
12.  Property Rights Foundation: As you may remember, this was a  139,000 acre acquisition of the Champion lands in the Adirondack mountains of New York state. We strongly encourage you to visit the website at www.prfamerican.org/2006/LandAquired-ButWait  or type in Property Rights Foundation and read the entire article. It could happen here.
 
The meeting was adjourned at 2:30 PM.
 

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