KAMO Newsletter for November, 2018

Hello everyone,

This is KAMO President Mark Walters with my part of The
Newsletter. I have been putting a good chunk of my KAMO energy
into seeing that the MarshPoint Chapter survives and though we have a
ways to go I can honestly say that MarshPoint will survive and I think
with time be a very strong chapter. I want to thank Bob Nicksic for all
of his help as well. My guess is that by this time next year they will
have a solid core membership and be quite active.

This month April Onsager who really wants to see MarshPoint work
will start doing their part of The Newsletter.The 7th through the 9th of
December is The Joe and that is KAMO’s biggest function of the year and
I want to thank everyone that is helping especially Rick Miotke, Bob Brodeur
and Jeff and Patti Rouse for the huge job that all of them take on.

I am really looking forward to seeing many of you at The Joe and
as always I want to say thank you for all that you do for KAMO

Mark

KAMO outdoors Tip of the Month:

Many of Wisconsin’s lakes are now freezing or frozen over. The best
time of our season for ice fishing is just about here and it is called first ice.
Fish are still putting on fat before the oxygen slips away from the water and
they go into a winter dormancy. Panfish can easily be taken with a yellow hair
jig tipped with a wax worm. Walleye like to feed after dark and can either be
caught with a jig pole or tip ups and a minnow. Northern pike “gators” are
extremely active in December and can make for a very fun day.

Dress in layers, no tight fitting clothes or boots, bring good snacks
and get out there and enjoy the best fishing of the winter. Check out KAMO, maybe
we could help you out!

Submitted by Mark Walters

News from our Webmaster:

The site averages about 8-9 visits per day. Most people are first time users, they open 3 pages, and stay on for a little over two minutes. Every month the viewers come from an increasing array of sources which is an indication that the kamokids.org site is being referenced more often and linked from other sites.

The site is protected from unauthorized entry through multiple features. The site is also backed up, so that if there is a loss of content we can go back to a recent day and replace lost information. The analytics show blocked attempts by unauthorized people trying to log into it, and every month that happens. Most attempts are from foreign countries.

Enrollment forms were the most visited feature in the past 30 days, probably because of the upcoming Poynette hunt. I would like to put a new picture on the homepage with every change of season. I never put a fall picture on, because I didn?t have one I liked enough. You can help with that – send a good seasonal picture when you have one.KAMO apparel is for sale off the site. The idea is to have more people flashing the logo around.At the state convention, I would like to give everyone a tour through the site?s dashboard and show how to put pictures/activity links on a chapter page.

Submitted by Mike Brown

News from the Baraboo River Chapter:

The Baraboo River Chapter had its meeting on Nov. 12 at the Rivers Edge Resort. Doug Jesse took some kids turkey hunting and both Greg Wagner and Kevin Seymour took kids out duck hunting. AJ Jones donated $180 which was a percentage of his earnings from his food cart during the Sauk County Fermentation Fest. Most of our meeting consisted of finalizing details for our upcoming Joe Hunt on Dec.7,8,9 at the MacKenzie Center and other surrounding properties. This hunt seems to bring new challenges each year as changes in the hunting rules and regulations continue to change and not always for the better. This year we must also do some changing in the way we have our harvested deer processed. With the continuing spread of CWD affecting the deer herds in the southern part of Wisconsin we need to have each deer processed and packaged separately for the safety of all the participants as a deer had tested positive on one of the properties we hunt. We will continue to do whatever it takes to ensure the safety of all those involved in KAMO. As we will not be having a scheduled December meeting, we will be having an informal meeting with those attending the Joe. Tradition Forward

Submitted by Rick Miotke

News from the Coulee Chapter:

A couple Coulee mentors have had kids out duck hunting on their days off of school this past month. Some mentors are gearing up for the Poynette run. During our last meeting, we distributed the long awaited hoodies. Now that they?ve gone through the initial set up, future orders should be prompt. These hoodies are noted for their comfort and two different colorful logos. They will be made available to other chapters – samples will be at the Joe Hunt. I would like to send them out once a year, so order enough to cover projected needs.
We also did event planning at the November meeting all the way through February. There is the need to keep our current families interested and to attract both new kids and volunteers.
We are putting the final touches on our trailer wrap design this week with pictures taken during outings and a version of the KAMO ad the intern made up. It is supposed to be completed the week of November 26th. We have already arranged with area businesses to keep the trailer parked in their lot where the wrap may catch the attention of passerby. We will move it periodically from one high traffic area to another.
Coulee is teaming with other mentor groups in the area interested in meeting collaboratively a few times per year. Discussion would be centered around what each group has going on now and has for goals in the future, ways we could combine our resources/ talents/ ideas/ best practices, how to make mentoring more attractive to community members. The first meeting is on January 10th at the Big Brothers/ Big Sisters building.

Submitted by Mike Brown

No News from the Indianhead nor Lake Wisconsin Chapters.

News from the Marshfield Chapter:

We are doing good things at the Marshfield chapter.
During our meeting we set a fun winter event for 1/5 from 10am-1pm open to anyone. This event will be taken place at 11330 Eisenhower Drive Marshfield, WI 54449 (Near the school forest). We will have a fire, hot chocolate, snacks, looking for animal tracks, practicing bb guns and safety, and depending on snow more fun activities.
We will be having an ice fishing event in February, hoping to use the same private pond we used last year by Junction City. We are still working on a good night and time for a meeting, but are having more response to emails, so going in the right direction.
Dylan Hart, will be attending the Joe Camp next weekend and Dana and Brad will both be volunteering and working on networking for our chapter.
This is the update on us so far!

Submitted by April Onsager, 715-305-8651

News from the Meadow Valley Chapter:

We had 8 members present with 2 guests. A father/son came to the meeting as the father was looking for a mentor for his son. His son will participate in the Joe hunt. Mentoring activities for the month included:Bob and Gage shooting rifle and walking in the woods preparing for the Joe hunt Jody and Keenan working the trap line for rats.
Tom and Ian participating in the Sandhill youth hunt.They had a great hunt as Ian bagged a beautiful 9 pointer. Ian was from the Green Bay area and was looking for a mentor and the DNR contacted KAMO to assist. Great job Tom
Bill assisted with the Baraboo chapter booth during fermentation days
Upcoming activities include our fisheree in February at Bigalke pond. Also, discussion on organizing a January tubing day.We discussed putting a KAMO advertising wrap on Jodie’s “Chasin Scales” bow fishing boat. All liked the idea. Jody will get pricing for the December meeting. Raffle sales are going well.

Respectfully submitted by Bob Nicksic

No news from the Northwoods Chapter

Newsletter edited by Jim Kurz, KAMO State Secretary