From the MBS President

This is probably the easiest president’s message I’ve had the pleasure to write since assuming the office back in April of 2001. You see it comes on the heels of what was the best meeting and shoot we have EVER had. On July 21^st The Heart of Maryland Bowhunters hosted the quarterly MBS meeting and shoot at their range in Patapsco Valley State Park. We had a very respectable turnout of 64 shooters that enjoyed a great course laid out by guys that really know how to set up a challenging, fun and competitive 3-D course. This facility was nothing less than outstanding. The course was set in realistic hunting situations with a smattering of “unique” scenarios that made the course a lot of fun to shoot. Everyone that visited the club for the first time that day had great things to say about the course.

This was the first time that MBS has hosted a cash prize 3-D shoot in recent history and it would seem the idea was worth repeating again. The winners in each category were; Open Division, 1^st Place was Alan Wyatt and 2^nd Place went to Archie Wright. In the Bowhunter Division 1^st Place went to Shane Fitzgerald with 2^nd Place honors were claimed by Chris Kellar. In the Traditional Division George Cavelius took top honors with Bill Fowlkes claiming 2^nd Place. Unfortunately the list of third place winners was not available at the time of this writing.

The meeting that followed proved to be very productive also. There were about 25 MBS members and a few potential members in attendance. You can read the full description of the meeting’s activities in the Minutes in this issue but the one of the highlights that I wanted to touch on was the formation of an Eastern Shore Chapter of MBS.

A five-member delegation from the Eastern Shore made the long drive to announce their desire to form a MBS chapter in their region. This is the first time since the reorganization effort that the issue of chapters has come up. At the time of the reorganization effort, the officers thought it best to focus primarily on rebuilding the basics of the MBS infrastructure and to not promote the formation of any chapters at that time. There were no known MBS chapters out there at the time and to this date none have contacted the Executive Council to identify themselves (other than this new group). With the recent successes MBS has seen I truly believe that we can not only support the idea of chapters but that they will in effect help make MBS a more effective organization if they are run properly.

This new group formed a grass roots effort a few months back and contacted me for assistance in getting organized. I have attended a few of their meetings and offered assistance in the way of interpretation of existing by-laws. In those meetings I have found this to be a well-organized group with strong support amongst its core group. They have a solid foundation and are being headed up by Curtis Dennis (or C.D. as he prefers) and Joe Powell. Both of these men have experience in leadership roles. They are both owners of very successful businesses; C.D. owns a heating & AC business while Joe owns an archery pro-shop and range. C.D. was also instrumental in the formation of the NWTF’s Eastern Shore Chapter some years back. That chapter is a very well organized and successful venture today. It looks like they are off to a good start and the Executive Council officially recognized their chapter at the July 21^st meeting. There will be some fine points to iron out in the way of some by-laws changes so look for notices of that in upcoming issues. The primary area of concern is allowing chapters to have their own operating funds and access to them. We hope to get this worked out over the next few months. If you’re sitting out there and thinking of starting a chapter in your area I encourage you to contact me or any other officer to find out what you need to do. I look forward to getting into the issue of chapters across the state and seeing MBS grow.

One last area I wanted to touch on was not discussed at the meeting. On August 9^th in Charles County Circuit Court the matter of Lance Canter was put to rest. Mr. Canter made full restitution to MBS and the matter was officially resolved. This puts this matter behind us once and for all. It took almost two years to do but the MBS treasury has been restored to where it should have been when the rebuilding effort begun back in Dec. of 2000. This has taken the hard work of a lot of people and for their efforts I am extremely grateful. I also want to thank you, the members that have stuck with MBS through those last two years. The MBS has come a long way since those days and your support has meant much in the rebuilding effort. We can finally declare the rebuilding era a success and now move the growth phase. With your continued support and involvement we can do an even better job