KAMO Newsletter for May, 2018

This is KAMO President Mark Walters with my part of the KAMO Newsletter! I am not going to white wash the fact that KAMO recently had a couple of setbacks but I am not going to dwell on them and instead will talk about positive news for KAMO.

One, I believe our search for a new Treasurer has probably come to an end. Tom St Clair of the Meadow Valley Chapter and a member that has really been stepping up to the plate recently has agreed to give this very important position a try and Tony Biasi has agreed to stay as his assistant. We still have to work out the training and the switch but it is just a matter of time and I want to thank both Tony and Tom.

Today, three chapters of KAMO (Meadow Valley/Baraboo River/Lake Wisconsin) came together and we did a work project for Tom Madsen who has done so much to help KAMO, including the great deer hunting that he provides for “The Joe”! This project which included 19 people was put together with Bob Nicsic running it as well as Bob Nack of the WDNR and it was a DMAP project; the WDNR plans on using today?s work to help promote DMAP and KAMO.

Sometimes stress and the loss of time tires me from the job of being KAMO President but days like today and watching our members step up to the plate keeps my fire burning. The stress that came our way in recent months will soon be a part of our past and the sun will always come up in the morning.

As always, thank you for everything that you do for KAMO!

Mark

News from our Webmaster:

Our site is visited at a monthly frequency of just over 300 times. The average visitor stays on for 2 minutes and 47 seconds and views 3-4 pages. The visits come mainly on Mondays and Wednesdays.
I am ready to issue each chapter?s web person their log in codes. If your chapter needs something added or changed to your chapter?s page you could also let me know that. Your page?s quality is what you make it.
As a goal we can work on the frequency of visits to our site. Who could we ask about providing a link to our site from their site? The Lake-link ad person is checking on doing this for us. There is a new brochure intended for use throughout the state and is viewable/ printable by clicking on it from the lower right hand corner of the home page.

Submitted by Mike Brown

News from the Baraboo River Chapter:

The Baraboo River chapter met on May 14 at Rivers Edge Resort. We had representatives from the Meadow Valley and Lake Wisconsin chapters at our meeting. We handed out more of the yard signs for a couple of the chapters. Discussed a few events coming up shortly in June. We will be helping with a DMAP work day on one of our Joe Hunt properties by splitting and moving some wood piles on June 2nd, then on the 6th we are joining Lake Wisconsin for a fishing day in Merrimac, and then on June 8-10 we are camping at the Juneau County Park. We will be doing a fundraiser along with AJ’s food cart at Reedsburg’s Party in the Park in July. We just submitted a KAMO advertisement for the fall Farm Art Tour that will be seen in 40,000 copies of their flier. We will also be having a KAMO stop along the tour where we will have some kid friendly activities. There is no new news regarding the billboard at this point, but if it doesn’t work out Dave Gawronski said if we purchased a wrap he would put it on vacant signs around the state at no charge for installation, which will still be great thing for all of KAMO. Enjoy our long awaited nice weather. Our next meeting will be at the home of Kevin Seymour on June 11.

Submitted by Rick Miotke

News from the Coulee Chapter:

Coulee mentors took three kids turkey hunting in two locations. One youth, Zach, shot a bird. Our Myrick trail clean up, which had already been rescheduled, was shut down again by a lightning storm that came through just as we were setting up. We had a Critter Mobile outing also at Myrick Park for which only two people and one mentor showed up for.
We had a clean-up on Lake Onalaska for which a new family came. Four mentors staffed a table at the Driftless Sports Convergence in Onalaska on Saturday, May 19th. We added a few families to our parent contact list due to their interest.
We have our May meeting on a pontoon ride on Thursday, May 24th. We will plan our fishing day on Lake Onalaska on June 2nd which coincides with the state?s free fishing weekend.
Submitted by Mike Brown

News from the Indianhead Chapter:
The weather was too lousy to test out our pontoon boat today, June 2; will try again June 5 and hope to have several outings with kids this summer.
As the only remaining officer of our chapter after President Ray Jay died, Donna Wishowki resigned as Treasurer, and Charmaine Johnson (now Riddle) resigned as Secretary, I decided to freeze the chapter?s checking account in order to allow the remaining members to reconsider a $441 purchase approved by the chapter just before these resignations. We will also reconsider the gift of our kayak to another youth organization.
This freezing action in no way impugns Donna?s honesty as a treasurer; indeed, her hard work for our chapter, her work as an assistant KAMO state treasurer, and her dedication to compiling volunteer hours and receipts for KAMO activities in order for us to comply with requirements relating to our Wisconsin DNR grant has been admirable and downright amazing and has put State KAMO in a very comfortable financial position.

Jim Kurz

News from the Lake Wisconsin Chapter

No news from the Lake Wisconsin Chapter this month, but we know they will be joining the Baraboo River Chapter for fishing on June 6 for fishing and on June 8 to 10 for camping and that they helped at the Madsen property on June 2.

News from the Meadow Valley Chapter:

We had 9 members plus one guest present at our May meeting
Mentoring for the month included:
Bob and 2 kids participated in the southwest Wisconsin deer collaring project on 2 different days . Fawns were captured both days. It was a great time and quite a learning experience.
Discussed the air rifle activity on June 6th. We are planning on 6 different stations as well as trap shooting. Should be a fun evening for the kids.
Jody mentioned the AMS kids Day on June 30th. Could be a great way to get more kids interested in bow fishing.

Upcoming activities include:

DMAP days at the Madsen property
air rifle / trap shoot evening
camping/bow fish
grafting apple trees

Submitted by Bob Nicksic

News from the Northwoods Chapter:

Meeting held May 16th, five members absent…bummer.

Our scholarship program had no takers this year, so we will roll the five hundred dollars forward. We did however give a donation to the Oconto River Kids, an organization similar to KAMO, that helps kids with terminal illnesses enjoy an outdoor adventure of their choosing.

Dwaine presented the final up-date on the mono-line disposal units that we will construct and install before the Memorial Day weekend. Eight different landings around the County were selected.

Jeff Moll made a great proposal to advertise our organization with enlarged photos of our outings that we will place in various establishments around Florence, along with some copy explaining who we are and what we do. Mini billboards for little cost. Amazing how such an old brain can come up with such good ideas.

Set the dates for Hooked on Fishing, July 14th and our Pheasant shoot on October 6th. Also in the works is a girl scout outing in June and our senior outing in August.

Last, we are looking for a storage trailer to combine our gear in one location. If you have something that you think would work, please contact Dwaine at 715-528-5266.

Enjoy,

Mick Mlinar, Northwoods Chapter