President — Tom Peterson, phone: 918-241-2677
Vice President — Shannon Sheffert, 1301 Old Bumpy Rd., Stillwater, OK 74074; cell phone: 405-742-7884; e-mail: ssheffert@odot.org
Secretary — John Weygandt, 4720 S. 26th W. Ave., Tulsa, OK 74107; phone: 918-645-5667;
e-mail: j.weygandt@maccor.com
Treasurer — Vivian Scott, P.O. Box 179, Alderson, OK 74522; phone: 918-426-6918;
e-mail: littlerockmeme@msn.com
FTA Director — Terry Thornton, Rt. 2 Box 71, Hartshorne, OK 74547; phone: 918-297-2073
NTA Director — Leo Farmer, phone: 918-616-7662
Membership Options:
• 1-year membership including subscription to Trapper & Predator Caller — $20
• Family membership with subscription to Trapper & Predator Caller — $25
• Lifetime (Over 70) with subscription to Trapper & Predator Caller — $150
• Lifetime with subscription to Trapper & Predator Caller — $300
• Youth membership — $10
Complete membership application on first page of association section and send dues to:
OFBA, Treasurer
Vivian Scott
P.O. Box 179, Alderson, OK 74522
918-426-6918; littlerockmeme@msn.com
PRESIDENT’S REPORT
Hello all,
First of all, I want to apologize for the missing newsletters in the last two issues of the Trapper Magazine. For both issues, I woke up after the deadline and missed the cutoff for the report. Hopefully I can get you caught up with what is going on in Oklahoma.
Back in July or August I received a note from our President Tom Peterson advising that he was having to step down from office for personal reasons. I took that letter to our Board of Directors at the Fall meeting and they asked me to fill in as President for the remainder of his term which will expire in October 2011. I appreciate the vote of confidence and will continue to keep the office filled to the best of my ability. The bylaws of our association did not address filling the vacancy of the Vice President, so we will just leave it vacant until the next election. That should save the association many hundereds of thousands of dollars for the V.P. salary, office space and staffing that goes along with the office. Wait, this is a volunteer organization, no big loss or gain.
We held the fall meeting on September 18th in Okmulgee. We had a small crowd, partially to other obligations that people had that day and also to the lack of notification since I missed the Newsletter write up. Sorry about that. Those that did attend were entertained by demos by Leo Farmer, and Terry Waggoner on coyote and wild hog trapping and discussion on trap preparation by cold dip products. Also as usual, if you weren’t there, you missed a good meal prepared by many. Special thanks goes to the kitchen staff of Margie Dodson, Sherry Covington, Patricia Kephart and Cathy Sheffert.
Also thanks to Jeb Hollingshead for sending his sons over with trapping supplies. We did discuss the next meetings and the fur sale dates and locations that I will summarize later. The subject of the Youth Trappers Camp was brought up and discussed. Unfortunately, John Weygandt and Richard Thornberg are so busy with work that they are not going to be able to coordinate the youth event this year. There was no one who could step up and coordinate the event so we had to cancel it for this winter. We did receive a donation of traps and supplies from Mark Schrader (Bristow) that we will hold till next year for use at the Youth Camp. Thanks for the donations and please understand that there are many people who are disappointed that we are not going to be able to host the camp, but we would rather not have a half set up disorganized event.
Hopefully we will be back in business next winter. At the meeting, we also recognized Reginald Murray for all of his hard work that he has done for the association’s website. Mr. Murray is the sole person behind your associations website www.oktrapper.com. We had intended to deliver an association jacket to him at the meeting but it was not ready in time for the presentation. Hopefully we will get it to him before the spring thaw. Anyway, a big thank you to Reginald for all the work that he has done for our association.
On the following weekend September 24th-26th, the Wildlife Department held the Outdoor Expo at the Lazy E Arena in Guthrie. We had a good group of people at our association’s booth to help educate the public about traps, trapping and furbearers. On Friday, Ron and Vivian Scott, Bill and Cecilia Sherman, Gene and Clois Calloway, and Terry and Pam Waggoner worked the table for the many school kids and families that came by the tables. On Saturday Terry and Pam again worked along with Leo and his granddaughter Katlyn (Katy) Farmer, Cody Presley, Ron Covington, Matthew Ferris and John Weygandt. On Sunday we again had great weather, it started out so cool that we needed jackets but it warmed up and the crowds built all day. Again Terry and Pam Waggoner, John Weygandt, and Cody Presley were there along with Cathy Sheffert and Kyler Dameron our future expert trapper. He was there to help anyway that he could around the tables.
I don’t think that we signed up any new members, but I bet we see some new people at our fur sales and meetings because of the efforts of the people behind the association’s table. We had a crowd there all day every day, and sometimes I felt bad for the tables next to us because everyone was standing at our table and only few went by the neighboring tables. We educated many people on the furs, furbearers, an understanding of traps, trap setting and the need for trapping. I heard unofficial reports that there were as many as 40,000 people came to the expo during the three days of the event. We may not ever know who we touched by our time at the table, but I know that it was time well spent by the people that came out and helped. Thanks again to those listed above for the time each gave for our association and trapping in general.
The last thing that I would like to make you aware of is our Fur Sales for the upcoming trapping season. We decided on two sales and the dates that we selected were February 5th and March 5th 2011. We have reserved the Expo Center in Chandler for the 5th of February and the fairgrounds building in Okmulgee for the second sale on the 5th of March. We will get this information out to the fur buyers, but you, the trappers and hunters, are the ones that need to spread the word about the sales and get some furs caught. Hopefully this will be the year of $100 cats and $50 coyotes and while I am dreaming, lets hope for $10 opossums. I know that what ever the fur market brings, I will be out there setting some steel with the anticipation of a catch in each trap.
That’s all for now. I hope your deer hunting goes well and you have a successful trapping season.
See you all in February at the first sale in Chandler.
— Shannon Sheffert
