KAMO – March, 2023 Newsletter
For comments related to this document, contact Mike

President?s Remarks – Hello everyone,
This is Mark Walters with my monthly part of the KAMO Newsletter.
A week from right now I will be in a turkey blind with an 11-year-old girl trying to help her get her first turkey. Last fall I helped her to harvest an 8-point-buck and a month later I helped her brother get his first. There simply is no better moment for a seasoned outdoorsman than when you help a kid get their first turkey or deer, especially if there is some challenge involved.
On March 25th I attended our first state meeting with members from chapters of KAMO present throughout Wisconsin. We had not met in person on that scale since 2019 in that format as our March 2020 meeting was canceled 5 days before we were to meet due to Covid.
I had the honor of presenting Mike Brown with The President’s Award from that year and this year’s recipient was Jim Braker of The Dodge County Chapter of KAMO. In all honesty, these are the 2 hardest working, get it done members of our organization and without them, there would be a big, empty hole in our great organization. We even had a toast of either an NA beer or a can of beer to honor the guys.
It looks like in the near future Tom St Clair will be replaced as our State Treasurer by Jim Rydmark who is the President of The Meadow Valley Chapter.Thanks to both Tom and Jim for everything they do.
It also looks like our “Joe Hunt” is in excellent hands with Rick Miotke resigning from running his end of the hunt and Kevin Seymour taking over. Both of these guys are from The Baraboo River Chapter. Greg Wagner is the new President of the Baraboo River Chapter and a long time and very active member.
Considering that like the rest of the world, we got our butts kicked by Covid, 19 Kids And Mentors Outdoors is emerging rather solid.
As always, thanks for all that you do for the kids in Wisconsin,
Mark
March 25th – Plover Best Western – State Convention Highlights –
Group introduction
Agenda overview
Treasurer?s report – Discussion of balance, expenses for past year. WWF dues $80 per year. Website hosting is $29.70 per year, insurance is around $1700. Joe Hunt is the biggest expense at around $2,000.
Joe Hunt Planning – Kevin Seymour – hunt director. Food service – Jeff and Patti Rouse, Rick Mioltke. Planning information about hunt starting with the July newsletter. August face to face meeting with planners.
Most challenging areas for running the hunt: DNR background checks (DNR version), CWD reporting/ coordinates of kill sites, Dorm list, mentor pool, registration. Chapters should develop a mentor pool in the event the participant numbers from their chapter increase. If your chapter brings 4 people in need of mentoring, it is important that your chapter brings 4 mentors for that task, thus the need for a mentor pool.
Officer Elections – Jim Rydmark – new treasurer – will begin in July after receiving some guidance from Tom St. Clair. Randy Hines added to the Board of Directors.
Bylaws Review – Addition to Article 5 – Membership Section – Mentors/ Volunteers – Section 3 – Background Check Updating – All KAMO background checks must be completed by 31 December, 2023 and concurrently every five years after that. This means all the chapters have to be rechecked if you?ve been around for a while. The directory is the tool we use as a guide to do the background checks -make sure your chapter?s directory section is accurate.
Discussion of questionnaire feedback – People are busy – keep events brief, when possible. Suggested activities – bonfire gatherings, short duration weekday evening events. If you can support a local kids fishing club, that is powerful. You probably wouldn?t want to start a club yourself though.
Publicity – promoting your chapter – Use of Facebook, get on radio locally, LakeLink
Directory – Directory is a valuable tool. Please help keep it up to date by reporting new and departing members. Review it at a meeting once in a while.
Newsletter – Please review relevant portions of it at meetings.
Interchapter outings – Joe Hunt, Lake Tomah Ice Fishing (February), Juneau County Park – Camping Fishing Weekend – June 23rd – June 25th.
Although we haven?t tried it yet, there is interest in having statewide fishing contests – register fish via phone to an overseeing person – have individual chapters give rewards.
Presidents Awards – Jim Braker – 2023, Mike Brown – 2020.
LakeLink KAMO forum – Mike sought to entice others to post outings pictures and narrative on the Lake-link.com forum by going to the site briefly.. By logging in, going to ?forums? ?outdoor discussion? (near the bottom), and opening up the KAMO portion, anyone can post on it. So far – 230 posts. Viewed 430,000 times. Our greatest untapped marketing tool – free to use and ready to go.
Overview of Gmail account/ drive. Electronic forms. If you want to get going on this, call Mike some evening and he?ll walk through it with you.
Distribution of KAMO wear. KAMO wear may in the future be available through a shop in Hustler.

Dismissal
Chapter Reports
Baraboo – The Baraboo River Chapter met on Monday March 13th at Rivers Edge. We completed the surveys for the upcoming state meeting plus paid our annual chapter dues. Rick M. had raffle tickets printed and we will be selling tickets for $10 each or 3 for $20 with 300 tickets printed. Marlin .22 model 60 rifle, HR .243 single shot rifle and 35 quart Yeti cooler (3 prizes total)with the 1st winner drawn getting their choice, 2nd winner drawn will get a choice between remaining prizes and 3rd winner will get the prize left. The annual camping trip is set for June 23rd?25th at Castle Rock County Park and we have invited the Dodge County Conservation KAMO chapter to join us. We also discussed a potential pheasant hunt in the fall and are looking into requirements. Our next meeting is set for Monday April 10th at 7pm at Rivers Edge.

Thanks,
Greg
Coulee – Coulee took a group to the JumpStart Park on March 14th. We had gone once at Christmas with a small group, but this time opened up to more families – there was a glitch in planning the first time..
We had a meeting on February 28th, which was largely event planning for the month of April. Fishing float trips, fossil hunting, hunter ed – all for April. We have had two events in April already, which will be in our next report.
Dodge County Conservation – We taught another Hunters Safety Class with 22 Kids passing with Flying colors. We are also planning on taking some kids Spring turkey hunting and we will be having a table at the sportsman’s rummage sale sponsored by The Dodge County sporting alliance. We also will be Co-sponsoring a Sporting Clay shoot at Milford Hills Hunt Club coming up in May. Very excited about a lot of things are New Secretary has come up with and met some very interesting people at the Open Season Sportsman’s Expo at Wis. Dells as well. Get a Kid outside and watch what happens.
Also a Special Thank you goes out to everyone that has made Dodge County Conservation KAMO Chapter happen. I received the President’s Award at the State Meeting but without all the people behind me – nothing happens. Thank You to Mark Walters for the award . We at DCC KAMO will make the award worth receiving . Thanks again
Jim Braker
Meadow Valley – We had 10 members present with one visitor.
We discussed the upcoming State Convention and encouraged as many as possible to attend.
The Scholarship process for both New Lisbon and Necedah were briefly reviewed. As of this writing, we have not received any applicants.KAMO in conjunction with the NWTF will have a few members participating in the Learn to Hunt Turkey season this spring. Training for the LTH is scheduled for April 1st with the hunt being held on April 15-16. This is a great program put on by the Lemonweir Longbeards (local chapter of NWTF) and KAMO is trying to get as many youth as possible to participate.
Dominik Quarme (Kamo Kid) attended the meeting to present to us his Eagle Scout project. The project titled “Land Restoration and Upgrade” is being done on Aaron & Janine Bigalke’s property. Dominik briefly described his project, why it is needed, materials required, human resources needed, Agency permits if needed and finally a start and completion date. Dominik received the full support of our KAMO chapter for this project. His presentation was impressive. Now all we need is for the weather to cooperate!
Other topics discussed but no action, pheasant hunting, fishing, and camping
Bob Nicksic