Hello, here is the latest Victoria Bowmen news as of our Board meeting July, 24^th.

Motorcycle group – If you come out on Wednesday nights, please do your best to follow the detour around the motorcycle lessons and then directly to the archery range road. Please pass this onto other members, who may not be all that familiar with the road network on the base.

Berm work party:

You may have noticed our new Berm behind the 900 range, please come out on September 30^th to assist in getting it ready for planting and more friendly to arrows by removing any rocks!

New JOP Format:

There will a meeting of all JOP members and parents on September 6^th at 7 PM at the clubhouse, this meeting will outline the new procedures for JOP for the future in Victoria Bowmen. There will be significant changes:

-         JOP members will be required to have their own equipment;

-         There will be no beginner archery lessons at JOP sessions;

-         Lessons will be held at different times than JOP

There are a number of other new initiatives which will be discussed at this meeting.

Instructors Needed:

The club needs instructors and assistant instructors to teach the archery lessons, on a 6 week basis, 1 to 2 hours a week at about $20/hour. Instructors should be level 1, assistants may just have experience, the non level 1 rate will be negotiated.  Contact Mary Wills marywills@shaw.ca , Tracy Klat tklat@shaw.ca or George Trattner gtgtv@shaw.ca

Metal Detector:

The club now has a metal detector to help find arrows, it will be kept in the container, so you will have to consult a member of the board to use it, ensure someone knows you have a missing arrow and approximately where it was lost.

Club AGM:

The club’s Annual General Meeting will be held at the clubhouse on September 25^th at 1930 (7:30 PM), please come out and support your club. We are in need of some volunteers to help us out, in particular we need a new Membership Director and Secretary. If you are interested in any of these positions or any others, please contact Bruce Somers at 478-9951. Job descriptions are found on the website under the constitution and bylaws

http://www.victoriabowmen.com/clubinfo/const.htm

Volunteering in Archery

This was recently published in our National Newsletter, some of you have asked that I repeat it here:

By Allan R. Wills

No sport can survive without volunteers, much less archery. From the person who comes out early to set up targets, to the parent who blows the whistle, to the President of FITA, all have an essential role to fulfill in keeping archery a sport for all of us!

There is a sense of fulfillment in serving your sport; there is always something to do.  But if you are waiting for someone to ask you, it probably will never get done! Go ahead get involved, you might not do it right, but at least you will be contributing.

Do not just stand back and watch the club instructor be overwhelmed with the numbers of kids out on a Saturday morning; go ahead and help.  You may not have had any training, but that does not mean you can not help! Safety is obvious, as are most of the mistakes the students are making. You can help look for arrows, score or just help police running of the lesson. After you have been out for a few times, it becomes more incumbent on you to help and by watching you should have picked up on most of the routine by then. Call this casual volunteering, but it is needed none-the-less.  If you like helping the instructor, perhaps you can look into certification courses to hone your skills.

There are other more structured jobs from your club through to the FCA, jobs like treasurer, secretary, club coach, publicity director, lawn mower guy, etc.  These jobs just require a bit of time, not much, just a few hours a month! All volunteer jobs in sport only require one thing - The commitment to finish!

That is not to say that if you are a shooter, you cannot be a volunteer.  By assisting you are helping your own archery career! Imagine if no one did anything, none of us would be shooting! Do not let it take away from your shooting time, just get organized. If you organize your time and do not let jobs overtake you, you can be a significant cog in the archery machine and still be a very successful shooter. The problem is finishing a job! Make sure you do what you say you will do - do it sooner rather than later. And for goodness sake, if you find out your cannot (or will not) do it, let someone know so they can do it. You might think it will make others angry or frustrated with you, but they will not be half as frustrated as when the deadline arrives and the job is not done! Volunteering takes a lot less practice than shooting and the rewards can be very satisfying!

Do not do it intrusively, archery (volunteer organizations in general) are not great at recognizing volunteer effort, however, the great feeling you get in your heart at a job well done is well worth the effort. And if you enjoy these intrinsic benefits, there are many!

Develop a thick skin, there will always be someone who criticizes, seldom anyone who works, but criticism is part of volunteering.  Feed off it, do a better job next time, do not let it get you down! You are contributing and if you are only contributing criticism, please step back and try again!

I have found that archery volunteering has helped me grow tremendously.  There are innumerable tasks that I now take on with ease that I never would have been able to do had I not assisted in different jobs in archery. Who would have thought a farm kid from Climax Saskatchewan could be an Olympic Coach or the President of a half million dollar corporation, all because I filled a position in a club so many years ago!! What were my qualifications? Time, really that was the only one.  We all need some of yours.  Please think about where you can fit into our organization and come on board; you will be welcomed

Salmon Fundraiser

We still have some packages of smoked salmon in Victoria Bowmen packages, they make a great gift and the packages can be used for mailing by just adding address and postage.

Upcoming Tournaments

The next tournament at the club is a FITA 1200 round on August 27^th . The 1200 is 5 ends of 6 arrows at 70/60/50/40 metres for men and junior men, 60/50/40/30 metres for women and junior women, with shorter distances for cadets and younger. If you are interested contact Tracy at: tournaments@victoriabowmen.com

Then comes the club championships on September 16^th, this is a 900/3D depending on what you want to shoot. This year we are planning an archery garage sale (bring along what ever you have that you don’t need anymore). There will also be a Barbeque afterwards for everyone.

Next Board Meeting:

The next Board of Directors meeting will be August 11^th 7:30 PM at the clubhouse. This is the last meeting of the present board of directors and will be getting ready for the AGM

If you have any questions or concerns or have feedback on this new newsletter system, please contact the secretary – secretary@vicotiabowmen.com

Please pass this newsletter onto anyone you know who does not have email.