by Art Keefer
March, 2008
I am sitting in the office this morning making final preparations for all of the outdoors shows and second archery golf shoot. By the time you read this, most of them will be over and we should be looking forward to relaxing at the Winter Rendezvous. Only the Professional Bowhunters Society Convention in Pittsburgh is left on our show schedule. Soon to follow, however, will be a number of UBP sponsored club benefit shoots, not to mention spring gobbler and trout seasons. Please make sure you check the shoot schedules and try to attend the benefit shoot nearest you. It is also a good place to pick up a t-shirt, hat or patch, and you save on the shipping costs. We can always use volunteers at these shoots to help man the table. Call the office if you can help, and I will hook you up with the local county rep.
The office received several nice photographs of deer for Members Shots just in time for this issue. Congratulations to all who scored. My best advice, when you take a shot of you and your trophy, is to fill the frame by getting close. Also, it helps to use the flash even in the daytime. It will fill in any shadowed areas and will result in a brighter looking picture when we print it in black and white. You have all done a good job of keeping the animals looking respectable (no blood or tongues hanging out). Also, when you describe the details, please state that you give us permission to publish it on our website.
Back in December I read a letter to the editor in our newspaper from a non-bowhunting hunter who wasn’t too happy with things. I could tell he wasn’t too well informed, and I wrote a rebuttal that I felt showed the other side of the story. The day after my letter appeared I got an on-line membership sign up from the town the paper comes from. It turns out that the new member signed up as a result of my letter. Earlier, I saw an obituary of a member, who you will read about in this issue, and I sent the family a condolence card. As a result of that card we had a former member renew his membership. If you hear of any member who passes away please call the office.
This office is here for the membership. If you need anything,
please call. I don’t have all the answers, but I will do my best
to find out who can help. We have also been getting some good ideas
from members, so please keep them coming. Hope to see you at the
WR. Shoot straight!
January, 2008
Hope you all had a good holiday season. We ran out of several sizes
of shirts this past fall, but by the time you read this we should be caught
up on all of the back orders. Thank you for your patience. We now have
all sizes of those items listed. We also have plenty of pins, hats and
patches. Make sure when ordering patches you use the correct form. Many
people used the Pope & Young order form to order the 2008 patches.
Luckily I called them first to make sure.
I would like to make a special request to all of the county representatives
and all of the regional directors, to please give me a telephone call on
our toll free 800 number as soon as possible. I would like to hear your
ideas for the upcoming year plus see what you need to help you get the
job done. Also, if you just don’t have the time anymore, I need to know
that. This will all help us out with the upcoming show season, which will
be in full swing shortly after you get this issue.
Congratulations to all who harvested game with the bow this year. For
a number of reasons deer sightings seemed to be way down this year for
everyone I talked to. Kudos to those who persevered through all the weather
changes and full moon phases. My brother and I lucked out here at the farm,
with me finally taking a nice nine point the fifth week and Doug taking
a real decent 8 point the last week in the snow, after traveling here from
Florida and enduring the COLD temperatures.
I am also looking for show volunteers. If I haven’t called you
yet or you are new to working the show scene please call the office. Looking
forward to a good year for the UBP and all its members and their families.
Shoot straight.
November, 2007
I have a lot of “thank yous” that I need to get out. Without the
help of these people, we would currently have a lot fewer members. Plus,
I’d have a lot more shirts and hats sitting around the office. So,
THANK YOU to: Randy and Linda Raub for taking care of Forksville
and the rest of Northcentral PA; Fran Devlin, Chris Corrado, Mike Iannetta
and Dan Smoker for letting me forget about Souderton-Harleysville every
year, because I know it will get done; Ray Matejik, Jammie Dickey, Bill
Vollmerding, Dave Kimble, Bob Kern and Wayne Sobetsky for taking care of
Falls Township, My Place, Delaware Valley Fish & Game and Stowe Archers.
Most of all, I would like to see Buck Appel get the “Vice President of
the Year Award” for all he does and for being involved in almost all of
the above events in Southeastern PA.
I would also like to send out a special thanks to Joe Nitterour
and Eric Schade of Bucks County. Some of you may already know the
work they do with Whitetails Unlimited and the donations they make every
year to the UBP and to Hunters Sharing the Harvest. This year they
were involved in organizing hunts for townships with “deer problems”, and
formed the company called Eccologix. One of the requirements was
that applicants who belong to the UBP got preference points when they were
interviewed for obtaining one of the permits to hunt. As a result
of this “requirement”, new members were up in July and they doubled in
the month of August. So, thanks to all who gave of their time and
helped us out.
There is one more group of donors that I would like to thank.
Thanks to the members who from time to time give an extra $10 or $20 when
they renew, and that’s great. We have even added a place on the renewal
forms that appear in the magazine for that purpose. I’d also like
to thank all the people who renew for two or three years and instead of
taking the $2 or $3 discount, they just round up and give that to the UBP
as a donation. Every little bit really helps.
Finally, thanks to all the archery, sportsmen, rod and gun and
bowhunting clubs who continue to hang in there with us and support us whether
it’s through annual dues or holding benefit shoots and meetings.
Times are getting tougher holding 3-D events, so we appreciate all you
do. On that note, it is time for club sponsors to send in your 2008
shoot schedules. Get them in before Thanksgiving and we will get
them into the January-February issue of PA Bowhunting.
We did get around 30 requests for the black life member dress
shirts, so by the time you read this you should all have been contacted
about the price. We will probably do this a couple times a year.
Call the office if you ordered one but haven’t heard from me yet.
I hope by the time you read this you will have had a successful
hunting season. Good luck on the rest of the season and remember
to “shoot straight,” then send us a picture.
September, 2007
Getting ready for all the summer benefit shoots and making the trip to the campout has kept me extremely busy. I keep checking off the events on the calendar of events list that I have hanging next to my computer, and I see that we still have a few important dates to take care of before bow season starts. I want to thank guys like Larry Dial, Steve Senn, John Davidson, Eric Auker, Dave Kimble (and the rest of the guys who helped him at Falls Township) who stepped up and helped this summer. Forgive me if I missed someone, but you guys who ran the tables can include them in your Rep Wrap Up reports. We still have Mid-Penn, Possum Hollow, Warren County Fair Grounds, Stowe and Souderton-Harleysville to go.
Other notes: Only 14 life members have ordered the black Life Member dress shirts so far, so please keep your orders coming. I'm sure the more orders we get, the less expensive they will be. We still have plenty of Pope & Young shirts and patches, so keep those orders coming in. If you have any questions on sizes of other shirts, don't hesitate to call or e-mail the office. If you are moving, we need about six weeks lead time to get you on the magazine mailing list so you don't miss an issue of PA Bowhunting. Let me know as soon as possible if you know your new address.
Compared to last summer, July was a great month for renewals and signing up new members. We had over 60% more activity in this category than last July. Fran Devlin and his helpers should get much of the credit for this from the work they did at Courtney Archery and at Clover Leaf's benefit shoot.
Finally, I want to thank Dan Smoker for all the work he has done with getting the shoot schedules posted in the past. His family commitments are finally catching up with him and he will be leaving his post shortly. He did a great job and his abilities will be missed. Anyone interested in helping out as our shoot scheduler can call or e-mail the office.
Art Keefer
By the time you all have read this the show season has been long over; however, as I write this, Linda and Randy Raub are just starting the first afternoon of the WNEP Channel 16 Outdoor Life Show at the Columbia Mall. We should all take the time to thank every one of our members and reps who have helped out this past winter. A lot of time and effort goes into setting up, manning and cleaning up the booths at these shows. We should also thank all the members who came out and renewed their memberships, plus the brand new members who took the time to listen to our spiel. You might be interested to know that about 30 % of the show traffic signed up or renewed for two or three years. Thanks to all who made the extra commitment. There is no easier way to give back to bowhunting than being a member.
Also by the time you get this, at least one of our club sponsors (Big Buck Archers) will have held a benefit shoot and more are to follow. Don’t forget to check out our calendar of events and the website for shoot schedules, times and directions. Please support our club sponsors. Also, if you have an extra hour or two to spare at one of these events, we’d love to have you at our booth. Just let the office know if you can help. By the end of the summer we will have at least a couple of these events fall on the same weekend. It’s amazing how much help one or two extra people can be even if it’s only for a short time.
I cannot tell you how strongly I feel about you calling the office if
you have any questions or problems. Using our 800 number is the best
way of staying in touch or clearing up any problems or misunderstandings
that may come along. Finally, if you order merchandise please work
off of the order form that appears on the most recent issue of PA Bowhunting.
We do discontinue some items that we have run out of, plus we add new items
occasionally. Once again, it never hurts to call the office to see
what’s in stock or what’s new. Shoot straight!
March, 2007
The UBP would like to take the time to thank the following members for making the commitment and who became full life members during 2006. Congratulations!
Joel Balasco
Dale Cornetti
Thomas Edwards
Gary Feathers
Michael Funk
Luther Haupt
Geoffrey Hawn
Mark R. Hogan
Jeffrey Mayhew
Richard Moore
Danny O’Tanger
Gretchen Rebarchak
Jack Ruggles
Todd Sheetz
Carl Steinhart
Joseph Terenski
David Zimmerman
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