CONCORD ROD AND GUN CLUB NEWSLETTER April 2003 <Back to Members Page> PDF Format for printing

P. O. Box 271, Concord Tel. 978 369-9827 President: Artty Kinsman Vice President: Mike Barton Treasurer: Jim Gallagher Secretary: Eileen Facenda Financial Secretary: Bruce Harvey Rental Chairman: Carmine Lionetta

NEXT MONTHLY MEETING April 23, 2003 7:30 P.M.

Board of Governors Charlie Atherton Steve Ferranti Bill Jarmulowicz Adrian Munoz-Bennett Robert Alpert

Note from the Secretary As secretary one question that has often come to mind is 'Does anyone really read the newsletter? ' Well this month will answer that question in my mind. This year the Pond Chairman has decided to try something different and has changed the start of Member's Fishing Day on April 13th to 7 a.m. Breakfast will be served in the clubhouse all morning. FISHING WILL START AT 7 A.M. Hope to see your there. The date for the Kid's Fishing Day is confirmed for April 27th. Fishing will start at 10 a.m. Plans are well underway for our Summer Outing on June 21st. Please make every effort to attend. Bring your family and friends. It's a chance to show off what a great club you belong to. Eileen If you have anything of interest for the newsletter please contact me at facenda@earthlink.net

MEMBERS FISHING DAY SUNDAY, APRIL 13 BREAKFAST WILL BE SERVED ALL MORNING STARTING AT 7 A.M. NEW START TIME FISHING STARTS AT 7 A.M.

KID'S FISHING DAY SUNDAY, APRIL 27 10 A.M. START

MASSACHUSETTS JUNIOR CONSERVATION CAMP 2003 Junior Camp Session The Massachusetts Junior Conservation Camp announces their 2003 session will be held from August 10 to August 22 at the Chesterfield Scout Reservation in Chesterfield, Massachusetts. 'We are pleased that we have found this wonderful site for our camp", said President Stephen Johnson. Last year's program was cancelled as a location with the necessary facilities count not be located. We are pleased to hear of the program's return. The Camp is a two week residential camp for boys and girls aged 13 through 17. The curriculum includes a number of outdoor activities such as water safety, boating safety, riflery, hunter education and more. Tuition will be $500 for the two week session, which includes meals, accommodations and the Camp program. Deadline for applications is April 25th. Contact Eileen Facenda at 781 899-7824 or at facenda@earthlink.net for more information.

RENTALS APRIL 5 Evening APRIL 21 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.

CLUB MEETING SCHEDULE April 1 Board of Governors Meeting 7 p.m. April 23 Monthly Meeting 7:30 p.m. May 5 Board of Governors Meeting 7 p.m.

Welcome New Members Jon Byrd Barry Lyle Travis Snell

ARCHERY: Our next 3D shoot is May 4th. We will need help to set up on Saturday morning May 3rd and for the kitchen on Sunday. Please contact Del Ferranti. Make an effort to help out. Archery really needs you. Come to our shoot on May 4th and try 3D Archery. It's a lot of fun. Breakfast will be served on the 4th starting at 6:30 a.m. and all Club members are invited. Enjoy some breakfast and find out what 3D archery is all about. Even if you don't shoot archery come up and enjoy some good food.. This will be a good time for Iron man participants to practice their archery skills before the Iron man Competition in May. Support your club. CORNED BEEF AND CABBAGE DINNER: The dinner was delicious. We were serenaded by many with the Karaoke machine which was a huge success. We are still waiting to see the pictures. Thank you to Jim O'Donnell for cooking us a fabulous meal. Jim sends thanks to all that helped out with special thanks to Frank Gill, Jim Levinger, Bruce Harvey, Joyce O'Donnell, Selma Gill, Brad Stetson, Ann Fenochetti and Kim McDonald. TRAP: Trap shooting will start on Sunday, April 6th from 1-4 p.m. and every Sunday until the Fall. Anyone interested in learning or sharpening their skills is welcome. Our Greater Lowell Trap League teams will begin their quest for honors on April 15th and 16th. For more information contact vin_bartolomeo@netzero.net. 2002 CLUB TRAP CHAMPIONSHIP – May 3rd: The championship is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. Unfortunately, it cannot start until the Archery course is set up for the club's Bay State Archers 3D shoot on Sunday, May 4th. As a team effort, please try to arrive at 8 a.m. to help the Archery chairman/group get the targets and course set up so that the championship can begin on time. We thank you in advance for your help. MONTHLY RAFFLE: Dick Bregolli's name was called for the monthly drawing. He was not in attendance. DEEP SEA FISHING TRIP: Sign up sheet is on the bulletin board. There is still time to sign up. Contact Mike Barton for more details. CRIBBAGE: Announcing the successful completion of the 2003 Cribbage Tournament. We had 20 players this year enjoying the warmth of the new members' lounge and fun enjoyed each Friday evening since the Holidays. This years' winner is Frank Melanson, the 'lucky' person with the most 19's is Mike Barton. Prime Rib dinner to end the tournament and hand out the prizes will be on Friday, April 4th. Thanks to all who made it up on Fridays to help make this year's tournament a great success. GROUNDS: Bill Lewis will be coordinating a spring work party. Watch the bulletin board for more details. Any new members looking to fulfill their 10hr work requirement should contact Bill. CLUB GROUNDS TOUR: Bill Lewis is planning a walk of the club's property. Please watch the club bulletin board/newsletter for more information. Bill will be setting a date shortly. 10-HOUR WORK REQUIREMENT: Any new member still looking to fulfill their work requirement should contact Adrian Munoz-Bennett or any Board of Governor member. They will put in touch with a chairman who can use your help. BOARD OF GOVERNORS MEETINGS: The BOG meetings have been moved to the first Monday of the month until the Fall. Start time is 7 p.m. IRON MAN CONTEST: Watch for the sign up sheet on the bulletin board. The date is Saturday, May 17th. A steak dinner is included. SPECIAL INTEREST: Did you know that it costs the club about $40,000 per year to TURN THE KEY. That is about $190 per member.!!!! SUMMER OUTING: Plans are well underway for another spectacular event. If anyone would like to volunteer their time to help out please contact Mike Barton. Some new events will be added this year including a shooting gallery for the kids. We will have a craft center. If anyone has poster paints or other craft products that your children have outgrown and you would like to donate them to the club please contact Eileen Facenda. If anyone would like to volunteer to help out at the craft center Eileen would love to hear from you. The Cake Walk is one of the most popular events. We will need volunteers to bring cakes. We thank all that brought cakes last year. This helped to make the event so successful. Please contact Corinne Kinsman at 978 369-1379 and let her know if you can bring a cake. If you don't want to bake one buy one. Don't wait. Call her today. Thank you to the members and their spouses who have already volunteered to bring cakes. We really appreciate your early response. PISTOL NEWS: It is a very exciting time for the Indoor Pistol Range. In the last few years the range use has increased significantly. When I joined the club 6 years ago, the majority of range use was mostly from the pistol team shooting .22 bullseye. Since then, the pistol team has doubled in size, attracting members that had little or no pistol experience. We also had members interested in shooting bullseye matches with calibers other then .22, so we have hosted several Centerfire Bullseye matches. The latest interest has been in shooting "Action Pistol", where multiple targets are set up down range and scored based on target scores and time. You might have heard the terms IPSC (International Practical Shooting Confederation), USPSA (United States Practical Shooting Association), IDPA (International Defensive Pistol Association) and SASS (Single Action Shooting Society - Cowboy Shoots). Given the interest in this type of shooting, we held an Action Shoot in March. We had range officers who instructed each shooter individually on the safety rules, course of fire and basic techniques. The outcome was astounding. The event was scheduled for 2 hours, but lasted 4 because we were having such a good time. To quote one shooter who tried this for the first time, "This is fun, its really, really fun". And it is fun. Since then, we had 2 members go out and purchase guns for this type of event. Now that we know that we have an interest in Action Pistol, we went before the membership and we received an allocation to purchase some new steel targets for this type of shooting. We will also introduce Bowling Pins and other Active Targets that will make the events even more fun for all. I will be scheduling formal shoots monthly, and informal practices between the monthly shoots. I hope everyone will come give it a try. With the Indoor Range use growing and evolving, it has become apparent to me that the range safety rules need to be revisited and formalized so we can protect not only our club members, but also the future existence of the club itself. Today, anti-gun organizations and state officials are looking for ways to close down gun clubs, and a minor accident at a range could turn into a major fatality for the club itself. Over the new few weeks I will be working to update the Indoor Range Rules for maximum shooter safety and also push the effort to see that these rules are being adhered to. This is not a move to control the use of the range, it's just the opposite, it's a move to make the range safe so we can get more members shooting and so we can do different types of shooting at the range. Two manuals are being developed, the Range Standard Operating Procedure manual which describes safety and emergency procedures and the Range Rules manual that spells out specific range rules. These will be posted on our clubs web site on the Pistol Page in the next few days. One step that we will be implementing is to require all members who wish to use the range to take a range orientation walk-thru. It will consist of an overview of the NRA Safety rules, the new club Range Rules and the standard operating procedures. Starting sometime this month we will start contacting people who we know are active in pistol shooting to take this orientation, and starting next month we will schedule weekly orientations, and we will also be available by appointment 7 days a week, day and night. As we switch over to using the key card exclusively to gain access to the range, we will enable only those members key cards who have taken the range safety orientation. I hope everyone understands that this is in the clubs best interests, and I welcome your comments. I will have more details in the May newsletter. This is one step to show that the club has taken an active role in achieving safety, should an accident ever happen. Thank you, Robert Alpert - robert@ralpert.com Indoor Range Chairman THANK YOU The Concord Rod and Gun Club would like to express its sincere thanks to the following members who have recently made donations to the club. These donations will be used toward specific projects as requested. Your generosity is greatly appreciated. Shin Abe George M. Arsenault (In memory of Bing Bartolomeo) Charles Atherton Gordon H. Bemis Robert A. Brooks Robert J. Conant Robert A. Costa Shane Curcuru Michael Czechowski Robert A. D'Auria Foster J. DeGiacomo Alden P. French Robert M. Fuller Douglas Gates Thomas Gill Joseph Graziosi Tom Guyer Thomas C. Haley James J. Hollenkamp Wayne Hooper Domenic J. Inferrera G. Eric Jackson Robert A. Jackson William J. Jarmulowicz Richard M. Kruszkowski Henry J. McFarland Francis A. Melanson Donald L. Palma James F. Ring Mark I. Robbins (In memory of Harry and Bill Fuller) Paul V. Roberts James C. Rust, Sr. Keith Shaughnessy Peter Sowkow Richard P. Torelli SUPPORT OUR TROOPS GOD BLESS AMERICA