Santa Margarita Gun Club’s PRESIDENT’S Message:
Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy New Year to All;
First of all, I would like to report the results of the recent Membership Meeting and Board of Directors Elections. The current (BoD’s) Board of Directors, was re-elected as it currently stands by the Regular Members in attendance. There were no other ballots or nominations received by any other means. Thank you to them for stepping up and being reelected for another term; which, by the way, will be two years in length as the Bylaws’ were changed to reflect that Elections are to be held every other year from now on. Besides congratulations for the BoD’s re-elections, we also need to recognize the outstanding “Club Champions” within the Santa Margarita Gun Club for 2014; and they are:
- Gary Fowler for Long Range
- Steve Blair for F-Class in Mid-Range
- James Wagner for Match Rifle in Mid-Range
- Don Goodner for “XTC” Across the Course
- John Kountz for the President’s Trophy, recognizing outstanding service to and participation with SMGC
Thank you again to all who participated and congratulations on an outstanding 2014, good luck in this shooting season.
I have several requests to make of you all for the near future as we have some catching up to do. Attached to this, and posted online is the next season’s schedule; I know you’re all anxious to see it, but contained in it will be some dates for work parties. The 1st date is January 10th & 11th. We will need plenty of hands to get caught up and start the year right. Saturday January 10th will be the main work party for Ranges 116A & Range 103. Our new Pistol Box on Range 116A needs housekeeping. The new Pistol Director (whomever it will be as we are currently without); will need the gear/equipment staged for use. As we also have plans on moving the Mid-Range & XTC Matches back home to Range 103, we need the targets brought back there in order to resume operations there. Sunday January 11th will be a practice day for those who participated in the work party on Saturday as a reward for helping out. Please do your best to fit these dates into your schedule and set it aside, as we will need all hands for that day.
There are two glaring current vacancies within the Club which will affect portions of the Matches we as a Club can put together. We are in need of Officers for the following positions:
- The previously aforementioned Pistol Director, and
- A Garand-Springfield-Military Vintage Rifle (GSM) Match Director.
We need someone to step up and volunteer to be trained for the conduct of 4-6 Bull’s-eye Pistol Matches, at least one of which, but not more than two to be an EIC per year. The Pistol Director can have up to (3) Three Assistant Match Directors to assist them in conducting the Pistol Matches.
The GSM Director will be trained to conduct at least one, but hopefully two events during this shooting season. This Director can have up to (3) Three Assistant Match Directors to assist them in conducting these types of Matches as well.
This next topic, CLUB MEMBERSHIPS, is a huge deal for the club along with its current membership and future participants of the SMGC Events.
Membership renewals are currently lagging and need to be stimulated in order to keep the Club’s operating expenses paid and to fund some projects to benefit the Membership. To that end, the rate being paid by Daily Associate Members to attend events will increase $5.00 to $10.00 for all events. What this means to you is that if you attend more than 4 events (days) with SMGC, it would behoove you to purchase an Annual Associate Membership.
Some of the expenses that must be paid each year are: Insurance, Rent, Accountancy and P.O. Box, office supplies, targetry, awards and associated materials. We also have a bomb cart to repair…. the short story is, we need you folks that would like to participate with SMGC regularly to become annual Members. With this being said, the new membership forms can be downloaded from the club’s website and mailed in to the club’s New P.O. Box. Please note that the P.O. Box for the Club has changed to Corona to facilitate pickup in a timely fashion by our Secretary/Treasurer – Cindy Harrison. Membership cards will be required to be shown at matches and this also confirms your club association with the Marines at the entrance gates aboard the base.
That leads me to another request: SMGC needs someone with some cabinetry skills to craft for us some proper storage and transport boxes similar to the San Luis Rey Trophy’s box, for the remainder of our fine trophies.
In order to improve the experience on our Ranges and enhance operations, the Club will be purchasing some commercial grade radios for Range operations and increased clarity of communications, particularly at longer ranges. We are also actively researching camera and other remote systems for plotting hits on target without the necessity of a target puller. Harry is looking at an electronic training system…. and, as our way of saying “Thank you for your support and Merry Christmas.” SMGC has purchased a quality Chronograph for the use of the Regular and Annual Members on Range days in order to calibrate loads and gather load data.
Harry and the Match Directors may have something to add in their time, but that’s all from me for now.
Thank you all again for your support, best of luck to you in the upcoming year and at Western Division Matches for those that will participate; and I’ll see you on the Range!
John Hermsen, President/CRSO
SMGC