KAMO March Newsletter

Hello everyone,
This is KAMO President Mark Walters with my monthly update. Just over 12 years ago we started Kids And mentors Outdoors and two weeks ago we completed our 12th members meeting which was followed by a board of directors meeting and as usual it was a very productive and a positive get together.
Bob Nicksic is KAMO’s Vice President and this year earned The President’s Award for his hard work and dedication to KAMO. Bob and I work together weekly on KAMO projects and no matter what he has taken on, if Bob Nicksic says he is going to do it, it gets done. Congratulations Bob!
KAMO has two openings on our Board Of Directors and one is extremely important and that is the position of State Secretary. Mike Brown who we all know does more work for KAMO than any one person should, has agreed to help out until June 1st. Folks this has to be dealt with, we need a Secretary. The main duties are minutes during meetings which there are only three a year and sending out The Newsletter.This needs to be discussed at chapters meetings and filled by June 1st, PLEASE STEP UP TO THE PLATE!
Linda Brodeur has decided to not take on another term as 2nd Vice President. This position is not to difficult but is important. For the most part what you do is help Bob and I out and much of it is with your thoughts and at times emails and phone calls. Thank you Linda!
KAMO as we all know it sometimes goes through challenges but currently I think it is very fair to say that we have the wind at our back. Our finances are improved two fold from 2 years ago and five times what we had 4 years ago. The Yellow River Chapter is new, strong and ambitious. There is a possibility of new chapters in the future with casual negotiations taking place.
MOST IMPORTANTLY! We are a drama free organization/family that in a years time gets a lot done as far as helping to introduce our youth to the outdoors.
As always, thank you for all that you do for KAMO!
Mark

Mentoring Tip

This months tip is well known to many people but not so much to others and it is on how to build a campfire. The reason that I am writing this is to help people save time. Always think small and dry when you are starting a fire with natural materials. What do I mean by small and dry? Leaves, pine needles (dry) and branches smaller than your finger. Put them in an A frame style and always remember that fire burns up. In other words when lighting it do not start at the top but at the bottom of your material. Before you start your fire make sure that you have some branches/firewood about the size of your wrist next to the fire you are starting. As soon as the kindling gets going, lightly set the larger material on top of the fire and you should be all set.
Two things to always remember safety and make sure what you hope to burn is dry.
Now go cook something, enjoy the stars and have fun!

Webmaster

The site got over 400 visits since the last newsletter. Almost 80% of these viewers are on for the first time. About one fourth of the site?s visitors, or about 100 per month, view the ?Chapter Activities? page. This page refers the reader to the page of the chapter nearest them. If the reader then goes to your chapter page and does not see any activities listed, your chapter may just have missed an opportunity for a new person to connect with your group..
For that reason, it is important to have something on there – whether you put it on as a narrative or as a link. A link is easy to set up in your gmail account and once you link an activity document to your chapter?s page, it totally eliminates the need to go into the chapter page administrative site to change it in the future. Web people, please contact me about setting this up. Better yet, find a kid in your chapter who wants to run your page and we?ll get her or him started on it.

Mike

Starter Kit Idea
This idea was brought up at the convention and we are moving forward on it.
Each new chapter would receive a starter kit after having 3 meetings and hosting 1 event. The kit would be at the state?s expense.

New Chapter Starter Kit
Cardstock posters – 30
Tri-fold brochures – 100
Magnetic auto signs – 8
4 x 2 KAMO banner w/ grommets – 2
Assorted t-shirts – 15
Hats – 10

An existing chapter can order any of the components of a starter kit, but at that chapters expense.

Baraboo Chapter

The Baraboo River chapter had its most recent meeting on March 11 at Rivers Edge Resort. Greg Wagner has proven to be our most active mentor in recent months as he has spent countless hours with kids out on the ski slopes. Definitely one way to take advantage of a pretty rough winter.
We went over our planned events for the year. AJ made contact with the manager of the Baraboo Gander Mountain and they offered KAMO the opportunity to have a brat fry and they would host a free archery shoot on their indoor range for kids to come in and try any of the archery equipment, so we will be trying to set up a date. We also discussed any topics of interest for our KAMO state meeting.
Our biggest area of concern was our yearly Joe Hunt event and the need for some changes in order to make it less burdensome for just a few individuals. With the annual conservation congress taking place on April 8th, we have moved our next meeting to April 15th. looking forward to warmer and longer days.

Tradition Forward

Coulee Chapter

Coulee had a snowshoe event at Myrick Park on a February Saturday. It was one of those times when there was enough snow depth to where snowshoe use was for real. For both parents and children, it was there first time on snowshoes. Mike took two kids to a photography workshop at National Wildlife and Fish on Brice Prairie. The following weekend we went sledding at Myrick Park.
On Sunday, March 16th we went to visit the American Standardbred Adoption program (ASAP) near Genoa. This is a facility where horses recovered off the racetrack or from the Amish are brought back to good health and then a new home is found for them if possible.
We have an archery day, a hunters education instructor training, and an adventure Saturday with Wiscorps coming up. We are trying hard to connect with other outdoor groups, especially to connect some of our older kids with them in hopes that those kids will stick with that group for life. Examples are the Wisconsin Waterfowl Association, Wings Over Wisconsin, and trout Unlimited.
We had two events on Saturday, March 30th. We held a hunter?s education instructor certification training with the D.N.R. at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Education Center on Brice Prairie. There were 23 people there from seven counties. Our hope is that some of these new instructors who live near us will join us in putting some kamokids through hunter?s education. The same day the majority of our mentors and volunteers held our Kids Archery Day at La Crosse Archery. There were 41 kids there along with parents, guardians, or agencies – our best ever attendance.

Never doubt that your work makes a difference

Mike

Meadow Valley

We had six members present at our March 13th meeting, with no visitors. Jody is getting bids on the KAMO wrap for his boat. The youth training for the turkey Learn To Hunt will be on April 6th from 8:00 AM – noon at the New Lisbon Sports Club.
Our calendar of events includes placing wood duck houses and the youth turkey hunt on April 13-14. We will discuss air rifle and clay pigeon shooting at our June 12th meeting. Our next meeting is at the Clearfield Pub on April 20,2019.

Tom St. Clair

Yellow River Chapter

KAMO ? Yellow River ? March 12th ? Meeting Minutes
There was some confusion on meeting dates, but still had a great meeting. Had 8 people in attendance. Our meetings will be the 2nd Monday of every month, the rest of the dates for the year are as follows: 4/8, 5/13, 6/10, 7/8, 8/12, 9/9, 10/14, 11/14 and 12/9 all will be at Nutz Deep II in Marshfield at 7pm in the lower room. We had our ice fisheree event, our first big event as a new chapter on 3/2. There were a lot of weather challenges but with hard work and team work the kids got to witness perseverance. There was a lot of fun had by all, ice fishing, snow shoeing, spray painting the snow, sleds, treats and more. There were 12 of us at this event, including 4 new children from Marshfield. Randy Dragt our Vice President was kind enough to donated serval jig poles, buckets, scoops and more for the Yellow River chapter. Some ideas for next year winter activities include: making sausage with the kids, tapping trees and making syrup with pancakes. There was talk about fundraising for our chapter, a possible gun raffle, or swap meet. We are looking into getting more signage to promote our chapter at local businesses. We also want to get magnets for vehicles. We are going to order t shirts for the children at group events, our next event is 4/27 at 9AM at the Meade Wildlife Area in Milladore- for the Rich Chronquist Youth Outdoors day. Our FB KAMO ? Marshpoint page will be changing to KAMO ? Yellow River Chapter shortly. There is hopes to have a fishing event at Lake Dexter in early June with a filet lesson and fish fry. We had our Mark Walters publish a column on our chapter at www.outdoorsmansjournal.com. Our next meeting will be 4/8 at 7PM.