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Executive Officers
|
Neville Henderson |
PRESIDENT |
|
Robert Blackburn |
VICE-PRESIDENT |
|
Gord Kerr |
SECRETARY TREASURER |
|
Warren McLay |
DIRECTOR |
|
Barbara Sheldon |
DIRECTOR |
|
Bill Malcolm |
DIRECTOR |
|
Pam Muma |
DIRECTOR |
|
Basil Zmiyiwsky |
DIRECTOR |
|
Paul Shaw |
A.T.A. DELEGATE |
|
Gord Kerr |
1st ALTERNATE A.T.A. DELEGATE |
Presidents Message – Neville Henderson
As the incoming President of the OPTA, I would like to take this opportunity
to share my thoughts with you
It is an honour to have been elected president. I believe we have a progressive, highly
motivated and committed Board and I am looking forward to working with them
over the upcoming year. I believe the Board has the ability and desire to
improve the services we provide to you as well as increase participation in our
events.
I realize that increasing interest in the OPTA and its activities will
not be an easy task. Attendance at shooting events has been decreasing for a
number of reasons. Some of these, such as economic downturn or adverse
political and public attitude towards firearms are beyond our control or
difficult to influence in the short term. None the less, we need to seek and
take advantage of opportunities to influence politicians and educate them and
the public about the shooting sports and the mental and physical skills they
teach. This will be a slow process, but we need to change attitudes if we are
to keep our sport alive for many years to come.
Other issues we face are internal and we can make changes quickly. Many
of you will remember Ontario Championships where the attendance was over 750
participants. For whatever reasons, this number has decreased significantly
over the last few decades. We need to understand the causes for the decline and
determine how we will reach out to those people and hopefully re-ignite their
interest in trapshooting. In the longer run, we also need to determine how we
can encourage more young people into the sport to develop future generations of
trapshooters or our sport will perish.
The Board will be looking at the short term issues that we can address
immediately and are likely to have a greater influence on growing the sport
with the most immediate impact on attendance. Our most prestigious competition,
the Ontario Championships, needs to be rejuvenated so that it has appeal to all
shooters, runs smoothly and is perceived as a first class event. In order to
achieve these objectives, we need better communication with the membership to
obtain your input and to keep you informed about what you need to do to ensure
the Ontario Championships meet your expectations and run smoothly. Initial
feedback I have received from members strongly supports running the events on
time and eliminating delays. Achieving this will require rigidly enforcing
start times and limiting the time allowed for gun repairs and other issues.
Solving these problems will be one of our first initiatives and will require
your co-operation.
A more frequent and informal communication process began last year with
the introduction of the e-newsletter “ The OPTA Clubhouse”. To receive the
Clubhouse, all you need to do is give your e-mail address to gord.kerr.opta@sympatico.ca or to sheldonshoots@ can.rogers.com. I plan
to communicate with the membership periodically through the OPTA Clubhouse, the
OPTA Website and other formal OPTA communications to let you know what the
Board is doing and to solicit your input. We already have a lengthy list of
items to discuss at our next Board meeting and I will share the outcome of our
deliberations with you. In the meantime, any ideas that you have that might
help us to prioritize and achieve our objectives would be appreciated.
Kick starting the level of participation in trapshooting is crucial to
building our critical mass, which determines the influence we can exert on
politicians and lawmakers. Continued growth, however, will be necessary to
ensure our sport survives in the long run. Over the next year, the Board will
strive to develop a longer term plan to encourage new shooters to enter the
sport and lay out a process for raising recognition about our sport.
We have some difficult challenges facing us as a sporting association
but they are not insurmountable. I will keep you advised of our initiatives for
dealing with them and our progress. I know many of you have expectations and
ideas about how we could change the OPTA and I invite you to give us your thoughts,
either via the internet, in writing, or discussing them with members of the
Board. In the end, the OPTA will be what all of us makes it.
Notice to All Shooters
1. The O.P.T.A. General
Meeting will he held after event #4 on Sunday, August 01, 2010 at the
Hamilton Gun Club. All O.P.TA. members are urged to attend. Starting time will
be 15 minutes after the end of event #4.
The election of 0.P.T.A. Directors and A.T.A. Delegates will be held at
this time. NOTE: Any Motion from the floor during the AGM must have been
presented to the OPTA Board prior to the AGM to be Vaalid.
-
2. O.P.T.A. 100 Straight Pins
and 200 Straight Pins
The Ontario Provincial Trapshooting Association will again he awarding
their 100 Straight Pins and 200 Straight Pins to all A.T.A. shooters who shoot
their 100 or 200 straight at a registered shoot in Ontario and to all Ontario
shooters, wherever they may shoot their 100 or 200 straight at an A.T.A.
registered shoot, providing the date and location is given for
other-than-Ontario shoots. One pin per shooter in his lifetime for 100 straight
and 200 straight. This information
shall be given to the O.P.T.A. Secretary/Treasurer.
3. Attendance pins will
be provided to each shooter, while supplies last.
4. With regard to changing
target settings during the day, the shoot committee will instruct all
personnel that A.T.A. rules will be followed and that targets will not be
routinely checked and/or changed for any shooter merely upon that shooter's
request. The goal is to have the best target possible, but "best"
shall not be defined by individual preference.
5. Shooters and
spectators assume all risks of accidents.
6.
Ontario new shooters who intend to compete for the O.P.T.A. Resident New
Shooter" trophy shall be defined as an Ontario resident who filed
membership application with A.T.A. on or after September 1 of the previous
year, and who has never registered targets before that date with any registered
A.T.A. clay target organization.
7.
The previous year's AGM minutes will not be read at the AGM.
Minutes and Financial Report will be posted in various areas. Any business
arising from the minutes will be conducted at the AGM.
8.
All added money cheques(OPTA) will be null and void 30 days from date of
issue.
9.
The Hamilton Gun Club will
charge a $1.00 maintenance fee per event ( 6 events ) which will be included in
the cost per target event.
10.
All entries for Sunday events 4
& 5 must be cashiered by 5 P.M. on Saturday July 31st. All entries for
Monday event 6 must be cashiered by 5 P.M. Sunday August 1st . A penalty of $
10.00 per event will apply if events not cashiered before hand.
Trophy Committee
Barbara Sheldon
Shoot Committee
Steve Stiby - Chairman
Gord Kerr
Neville Henderson
Bill Malcolm
Florin Marinache
Basil Zmiyiwsky
Robert Blackburn
Barbara Sheldon
Paul Shaw
Handicap Committee
Paul Shaw, Chairman
Gord Kerr
Steve Stiby
Bill Malcolm
Basil Zmiyiwsky
Neville Henderson
Florin Marinache
Robert Blackburn
Barbara Sheldon
O.P.T.A. Past Presidents
|
YEAR
ELECTED |
|
|
Hugh Lennox |
1951 |
|
Tom Oliver |
1952 |
|
Ed Wladichuk |
1953-1968 |
|
Bruce E. Stevens |
1969-1970 |
|
Jack Henning |
1971-1972 |
|
John Kaylor |
1973-1974 |
|
Jerry Mariani |
1975 |
|
Maurice J. Wainwright |
1976-1981 |
|
Bruce C. Lyons |
1982-1985 |
|
Jerry Mariani |
1986-1987 |
|
John Van Heusden |
1988-1989 |
|
Jerry Gilroy |
1990 |
|
Jerry Mariani |
1991-1992 |
|
Paul Shaw |
1992-1994 |
|
Ray Norton |
1994-1996 |
|
Brent Price |
1996-1998 |
|
Ike Prokaska |
1998-2000 |
|
W.L. (Smokey) Smith |
2000-2007 |
|
Steve Stiby |
2007-2010 |
Special Events
As Special events and announcements become available they will be posted
here!
The first event of
the day must have Three(3) contestants who compete and complete the first
event, after which any subsequent event of the same day whether it is another
singles, or handicap or doubles event(s)will still require three(3) contestants
will be required to compete in and complete the event(s) for them to be
registered.
Gun Club Executives
should be aware of these Rule Changes by the ATA as they apply to any
registered shoot.
1000 HANDICAP
TARGET REVIEWS
Reviews are
conducted by the ATA after each 1000 handicap targets to determine if a yardage
reduction is required. If a shooter does not have an 89% average after removing
the abnormal low scores a yardage reduction is generally offered, unless the
shooter has been flagged for some other reason. In order to qualify for a
yardage reduction the shooter must have shot at a minimum of 500 singles
targets in the current shooting season. Many shooters did not know that a
minimum number of singles targets is required to obtain a handicap yardage
reduction.