South Dakota Trappers Association November 2008 Report

President — Kim Potter, 26424 436th Ave.,
Bridgewater, SD 57319; phone: 605-729-2691;
e-mail: ktpotter@unitelsd.com
Vice President — Gary Dale Poppenga, 27961 463rd Ave., Lennox, SD 57039; phone: 605-647-2323;
e-mail: mpoppenga@iw.net
Secretary — Terry Olson, 921 North Harth,
Madison, SD 57042; phone: 605-256-6311;
e-mail: trapperto@yahoo.com
Treasurer/Public Relations — John Almquist, 521 2nd St. NE, Watertown, SD 57201; phone: 605-886-8501; e-mail: jcalmquist@aol.com
NTA Director — Jerry Westphal, 17342 297th Ave.,
Agar, SD 57520; phone: 605-258-2142;
e-mail:rodeoking@hotmail.com
Tanned Fur Coordinator — Steve Peterson, 22251 448th Ave., Ramona, SD 57054; phone: 605-482-8131;
e-mail: trapperpete@alliancecom.net
Youth Education Coordinator — Aaron Doyscher, P.O. Box 247, Volga, SD 57071; phone: 605-627-6558

Membership Options:
• Individual membership including subscription to The Trapper & Predator Caller — $20
• Junior membership with subscription to The Trapper & Predator Caller — $13

Complete membership application on first page of
association section and send dues to:
SDTA, Treasurer
John Almquist, 521 2nd St. NE
Watertown, SD 57201

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

Hi all,

Another convention under our belt. This past September, we held our fall convention in Huron at the State Fairgrounds. We had a pretty good attendance with a hundred plus signing in at the register, but there were a lot of folks in town for other events that took the opportunity to check us out while they were in town. We know for a fact there were a lot more than a hundred there because Marty actually ran out of food!! That has only happened one other time that I know of. Thanks to Marty Poppenga, Sharon Steckley, Lexie Bennett and Sadie Potter for helping and the great food. We had some great demos to keep everyone entertained.

Galen Sichmeller, Rich Kaspar, Mark June, Dale Halling, Paul Draper and Marty Poppenga all did a great job and provided very informative information on various trapping techniques and methods they use on their lines. Marty once again was a big hit with her Dutch oven cooking and samples were enjoyed by many of us. John will have a list of all the winners of the drawings and raffles in our fall newsletter coming soon to all our members mail boxes. I want to congratulate Bob Stephenson for being awarded the Koffler award and Galen Sichmeller for winning the prize for selling the most Sportsman raffle tickets (over 200) this year. Thanks to all of you who take the time to work so hard to make these fundraisers a success. We had a good number of dealers at the convention and if anyone left without the items you needed for this fall, it’s probably because you ran out of money.

Thanks again to all the dealers who set up and also to all the dealers who donated prizes for our raffles and drawings. Once again, John will cover a lot of the credits people have coming to them in our newsletter. If I fail to mention your name, forgive me. There are many people involved and my memory is sometimes not what I’d wish it to be. As far as conventions go, we are still working on a fall convention for 2009 possibly in Wall, SD. I do not know at this time if it will be a joint convention with the WSDFH. I would really like some feedback from SDTA and WSDFH members if the convention is held in Wall, how many of you would make the trip? I think it is necessary to move this convention around, but at the same time we would like to see a good following no matter where it may be. If we want to continue to have the good number of vendors and trapping supply dealers, we need to keep our attendance up at these conventions so everyone can make it work. If you would respond to myself, Ray Maize or any one of our directors, it would be greatly appreciated. I do think our spring convention will be back at Spring Lake Lodge near Oldham, SD.

We told you about the FBU education packages going out to schools in SD. I want to thank everyone who helped distribute them and especially John Almquist who has really put a lot of time and effort in getting these out. At last count, we have over 400 schools receiving trapping education materials. There is some updates on our Web site and more to be made soon. If anyone has some photos or ideas, please send them in. Just look up SDTA on the Internet and an e-mail address should be there.

What do you think about all this economic business? Maybe by the time you read this it will all have been straightened out and things will be back to normal again. I often wonder how it all will affect our fur trade this year? Things were looking fairly stable, some items looked like they would stay pretty strong for this years season. Then, Wall Street is down, bailouts, world economic panic, problems in Russia, what’s the weather going to be here and in other nations, WHO KNOWS??? Just remember we do this because we like it. It’s sure nice to cover some expenses, but take time to enjoy what we have, a day on the trapline or out hunting, fishing or catching butterflies sure beats worrying what tomorrow will bring. Get someone involved, sign up a friend as a SDTA member, have a great season. The time is near. — Kim Potter

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