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MTSA Newsletter                                          March 2025               

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Greetings MTSA Members,​

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Club updates: (Next meeting May 12, 6:00 pm)

1. Summary of March 10th club meeting

2. General Club Information

    

1. Summary of March 10 club meeting:

   • Club bank balance of approximately $40,000.  Our president Rick Fox made the final payment on our loan (update – payment made on 23 January 2025).  Our club is now debt free! 

   • We got back into our club website and now have control of admin rights and have paid the next three years of WIX hosting and domain registration.  A discussion of the web site and possible improvements was held with Kevin Adamson volunteering to get quotes for web services.  We can review and make decisions on this topic once we have the quotes.

   • We obtained the latest bylaws from our lawyer.  These were posted on our internet site to access by club members.  Jeff Rydell questioned if we should post these on a public website.  A motion was made to review this with our lawyer.  The motion was seconded, and voted to review by our lawyer.  (Update – Our lawyer, John Harris, reviewed and recommended that we not post these on our website but recommended that they be made available for any members. The bylaws have now been removed from the web site.  We added a note for any member to reach out to Mike Tobin for a copy of the bylaws.)

   • For our banking, we have canceled the existing debit card as we do not have a definite list of approved auto drafts on that card.  We are approving charges on a new card as we verify the need.  We will be working over this year to establish a baseline of expenses in order to provide a clear budget for 2026.

   • Membership status:  382 existing members have paid their dues and we have 11 new members.  There are 158 overdue people as of the end of February.  Per the bylaws, members are delinquent on dues if not paid by March 1st.  (Delinquent notices will be sent out to members who have not paid dues by the end of March.)

   • We have contacted the accountant who has done our prior years taxes and have verified that he will do the 2024 taxes this year as well.

   • Rick Fox brought up our discussion of closing the rifle range during ARA competitions.  As highlighted in the last meeting and in our January newsletter, a vote would be held at our March meeting.  Rick Fox informed the group that he had received several negative feedback calls regarding closing the ranges and no positive calls.  A motion was made to close the rifle range on ARA competition dates until 2:30 pm.  The motion was seconded and a vote was held with 2 members voting no.  Further discussion revealed that the ARA team did not want to have a fixed time of 2:30 to end and wanted to keep the range closed until the end of the match.  A motion was made to close the range until the completion of the events and this would depend on the number of attendees.  The motion was seconded, voted and passed.  8 members voted no.  There are only 6 days during the whole year where this affects our range time.  All members are welcome to compete in the ARA competition.  The rifle range will be closed until the end of the match on the last Saturday of the month on:  29 March,    26 April,     31 May,     28 June,     26 July,     27 September.

   • John Taylor asked for an update on the rental home that MTSA owns.  Rick reported that he recently needed to buy a new refrigerator (~$1500) and HVAC ($7500) system for the property.  John asked what the spending limit was before board or member approval was required.  A discussion was held and revealed that we currently have no fixed spending limit.  Rick stated that we would need to hold a board of directors meeting to establish this spending limit.  Rick will schedule a meeting.  The club bylaws will need to be amended to address the NRA requirement that was voted out in a previous meeting.  This topic will also need to be covered by the board of directors.

   • A concern was brought up about the club gate.  Members wanted to vote to approve whatever dollar amount is needed to replace with a high-quality gate. Rick said he would also cover this topic with the board.

   • Rick brought up the topic of haying our club fields.  The fields have been hayed by the previous owner of the club property.  Rick reported that one club member was also interested in haying the field and was willing to pay $10 per bale.  After some discussion, a motion was made to allow the previous owner to continue haying the field.  This was seconded and voted and passed, so the previous owner will continue to hay the field.  Some complaints were made about the hay bales being left in the field.  Rick said he would ask the person to consolidate the hay bales after bailing.

   • One member (did not capture name) questioned a posted club rule that does not allow personal metal targets on the rifle range.  This rule was found to be in error by our co-Range Office, Butch Legg and the rule will be revised.  (Update – Butch has approved a revision to the rule and the new rule is posted on our website.  This rule makes it clear that personal targets can be used on the rifle range at a minimum distance of 100 yards and allows 22 LR metal targets at a minimum of 25 yards.  Please see posted rule on our site.)

   • A final topic was discussed regarding long-term planning of our club property.  There are multiple projects that have been discussed including an indoor rifle range, club house and archery ranges. Doing any project could prevent the ability of a future project and so a long-term plan that covers our future club needs to be established.  A motion was made to create a long-term planning committee to start this task.  Any member who is interested in being part of this committee can email Mike Tobin (miketobin@protonmail.com) .  Next steps will be made when we determine how many people have interest in this committee.

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2. General Club Information:

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• MTSA match schedule 2025: To view the match schedule and updates click 2025 Match Schedule​

• 2025 Officers and Chairmen: To view click 2025 Officers and Chairmen

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