THE NEXT GENERAL MEETING, REMEMBER THE DATE: THURSDAY JANUARY 6TH, 7:30 PM, AT THE CLUB HOUSE, LINCOLN PARK ROAD, IN DERBY TOWNSHIP.
 

January General Meeting

Peter Robson and his Elves have been diligently try to line up a speaker for the meeting, however has not been able to get a firm commitment as of our press deadline. Peter assures me there will be a speaker with a presentation which will be of interest to our members. Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year and we will see you at the January meeting.

NEW MEMBERS

Norman Law Adult

Richard D Manley Adult

Glen Aduja and Kim Meeker Family

Randy Kruen and Tina Murdock Family
 

PRESIDENT'S REPORT
 

What a tremendous year this has been for the Sydenham Sportsmen's Association. Activities such as the approval of our shooting ranges (the documents will be framed and placed in the clubhouse) by the Chief Provincial Firearms Office; the three Provincial Award winners; the many Fish and Wildlife management projects; the Owen Sound Salmon Spectacular and of course this years Zone H award winners of Katy Buckland, Doug Murdoch and the SSA just to mention a few of the many accomplishments.

I sincerely thank all those folks who worked so hard and long to accomplish these feats and as a friend of mine, a member of a Fish and Wildlife club in southern Ontario recently stated "the SSA is no doubt the top club in Ontario"

But we certainly can't sit back on our laurels as there is much to do in the new millennium. The Directors will be conducting

a "think tank" or strategic planning exercise to plot/reafirm SSA's direction for 2000.
 

Please don't forget the following:

-New Year's party at the clubhouse - see John Ford for tickets

- nominations for next years Board of Directors will be asked for at our January meeting. Please consider getting involved in this exciting new year.
 

I would like to express my thanks and appreciation for all your help and assistance this past year and Ivah Lois and I pass on our sincerest best wishes for the Festive Season and all the best in health and happiness in 2000.
 

Richard Manley

President
 

Early Bird Membership - Last Chance

Many S S A members have paid their dues early and already have tickets in the drum. For those of you who haven't, you have only one more opportunity. If you come to the January general meeting and renew, you will get your name in on a chance for the Fiesta B B Q. If you win, you'll be able to take it with you, since the draw will be made that night.

New Property Key Issuing in 2000

At the last meeting it was decided to collect old keys and issue new property gate keys this year. We hope to have these available at the January meeting. If you turn in your present key, we will issue you a new one at no charge. A final date for lock changeover is not finalized but it is anticipated that the old locks will be removed and the new ones put on no later than April 1, 2000. We will try to make the changeover as easy as possible for you. If you attend club meeting, you will have no problem. If you don't, you will need to contact John Ford at 372-0410 to arrange to exchange your old key for a new one. If you can't find it we will sell you a new key for $2.00. For the year 2000 only paid up members will have access to the club property and facilities.

John Ford, Membership Chairperson
 

SSA FISHERIES REPORT

Fisheries projects for the SSA has pretty well wound up for this year.
 

Hatchery projects however still continue on. We presently have about 120,000 chinook salmon hatching out. Our brown trout eggs from Normindale hatchery are well eyed-up and by the time you read this, will be well into their hatching stage. The last stocking of rainbow trout occurred on Dec. 8th., 30,000 three to four inch beauties were released into the Sydenham River. The remaining 15,000 rainbow trout were transferred from the small hatchery into the larger SSA hatchery where they will be kept until they reach year-plus in age, and hopefully will be about eight to twelve inches in length.
 

As you can see, Coy Currie and his SSA volunteers have been busy. If any of you would like to get involved in our hatchery program, please give Coy a call.
 

Since I've mentioned SSA volunteers in our hatchery program, I'd like to inform all our SSA members that the state of our volunteer workers has been a topic of discussion at our board of directors meetings. It is becoming very apparent that over the past two years SSA volunteer support has been greatly diminished when it comes to working at our wildlife and fisheries projects. Some would say that SSA members are getting burnt out. It's hard

for me to buy this comment. I know many of us work hard at such things as our Salmon Spectacular, or selling boat draw and money doll ticket, but surely with 600 plus members in the SSA we can still muster up enough SSA volunteer help to complete our many fisheries and wildlife projects.
 

One thing I do know is that asking for help in this SSA bulletin does not work. Each fisheries report that I've written over this past year, and have asked SSA members to give me or one of our fisheries committee members a call to let them or myself know that they would help with a project, received zero responses.
 

Some would suggest that part of your SSA membership should require a minimum number of volunteer hours on Club projects. Hopefully it will not come to this.

Something I have observed in our Club is that there is a wide variety of activities into which one can become involved. Be it archery, sporting clays. trap, handgun shooting, fisheries work, wildlife work, derby committee, selling tickets, doing Club paperwork, organizing Club and Interclub meetings, native affairs, OFAH dinner committees, Club property work, to name a few, By talking to many of you, I know that often many of us do not really appreciate the amount of time that many SSA members are already volunteering on Club activities. In fact I would go so far to say that many of us often don't even know some of the Club members who are working on these many and varied Club activities.
 

I would also make the observation that those Club members who regularly attend Club meetings get a lot more information as to what we're all about, and generally get more involved in the many and varied projects associated with the SSA.
 

So how about it fellow SSA members ? Hopefully I'll see you at our next Club meeting, and who knows, maybe even Coy Currie will get a call from someone wanting to help out with our hatchery work. By the way his phone number is 376-2942.

Fred Geberdt, Chairperson

Fish Advisory Committee
 

Archery Committee

We had another successful year for our three invitational shoots in 1999. In 2000 there will only be two invitational shoots. Our Annual 3D Shoot will be on Sunday April 30th and our Traditional Weekend will be held May 20th and 21st.

Bill Thompson, Chairperson

Archery Committee
 

Newsletter

Any members who are on the internet and who would like to get their newsletter via the internet, please call Bill Thompson and give me your e-mail address or e-mail me at "wils@bmts.com". For a preview of how the newsletter looks like on our website, "www.bmts.com/~ssa", click on this address. The more people who receive their newsletter via the net, the more money the club saves for other projects. Lets get more e-mail addresses.

Bill Thompson, Editor
 

Wildlife Committee

Some 1999 wildlife projects are just getting finishing touches. Gord Maher got the "no mow" grass planted on the Residential Demonstration wildlife Management area. It will be interesting to see how it turns out, whether it will be short enough to consider for our ranges or even more to the point, will it even grow? Doug Murdoch got the openings cut on the archery range and with some help from Gord Maher and Dave Arnold is getting some of the cedar posts hauled out. These posts will be utilized for upcoming club projects. We have photos taken of the subject areas prior to the cut. This spring, the Juniors will do a vegetation inventory. Over the years, they will do annual photographic and species inventories, in order to gain an understanding of forest succession. The project will be as good as the Juniors wish to make it. Besides the purely educational aspect, the openings created should promote the growth of wildlife friendly vegetation. We'll see.
 

The club Firearms Instructors are putting on two Non-restricted Firearms courses. One will be during the spring break and the other will be in February. We have enough names for one course and will be taking bookings for the second.
 

Many people are still unaware that anyone who owns guns and does not have, (A) an unexpired Firearms Acquisition License or (B) a Firearms Possession License on January 1st 2001, will be an "Automatic Criminal".
 

There are two avenues open to gun owners, they are:

(A) Firearms Possession License

This license allows a Canadian, 18 years of age or older to possess a Firearm. Note, this applies only to the Firearms one already owns. It does not allow the individual to acquire any more guns. Inorder to get the "Possession Only" license, the person merely has to fill out and submit the required form and submit to the required background check. There is no examination requirement.

(B) Firearms Possession and Acquisition License

As in the "Possession Only" License, this license allows a Canadian, who is 18 years of age or older to possess a Firearm. Now here is the difference. This license also allows that person to acquire additional Firearms. Another major difference is that this license requires a person to have passed the standardized written and practical Federal exams. So, for this license, a person, in addition to the background check, must also show proof of having met the examination standards.
 

Restricted Firearms are in a class of their own and require separate certification for acquisition. Note, "Possession only ", will look after presently owned Registered Handguns.
 

The foregoing was written to alert our members to the fact that the clock is ticking and next January is the deadline. Also, members should be aware that after Labour Day, Club Instructors, will not be putting on any more courses, in the year 2000. That is when the Club Instructors become hunters and we just don't have the time to instruct. So, if you want to get a course this winter, contact Fred Hunt at 794 0533 or Blake Smith at 371 4682. It should also be noted that the instruction program is going to miss the excellent input and instruction of our late member, Ted Lucking.
 

In passing, we note that the very mild fall means that the deer will be going into the winter in great shape. Maybe there will be enough next year that even John Ford and I will be able to connect.
 

So, to all of you, may you enjoy the bounty of fin, fur and feather in the upcoming year 2000. Maybe as a Conservation /club, we will be able to do works that will help provide even better fish and wildlife populations for the future.

Blake Smith, Chairperson

Wildlife Advisory Committee

Rambling & Raving by Fred Hunt

Well another year is about to come to a close or should we say another century. I hope it has been as good a year as I have had and I want to wish you all the best in the new year.
 

Remember Bill C/ 68

Do you notice how the Minister and her vassals always call guns "weapons?" The police refer to us as "civilians." The pollsters call us "consumers" The politicians call us "voters." That is subliminal stuff aimed at making us follow THEIR lead. I always resent following organized nitwits What a "follower" sees strongly resembles the back end of a horse. ( Especially Liberal politicians)
 

We have had lots of people using our high power range, getting ready for big game hunting and the backboards an even the post have been shot up badly. I expect to replace them all shortly and hope you all will remember to (not place targets over the posts) Those slug guns real rip out a chuck of wood.
 

We are expecting to get a full quota of turkeys for Grey Bruce this year as they are becoming a nuisance in some parts of the USA and they want to get rid of them. Turkey course (2) March 11 & 12 2000 Owen Sound Legion
 

Favorite Internet Sites; www.stickbow; www.geocities.com/Athens/2921/;www.goodnet.com/~jhenry/

www.cila.org/

www.nfa.ca/

Please take a moment to update your interests. If you send this with your cheque or bring it to meetings, we can provide assistance for Committee Chairs in contacting workers. 
 
 
 

Memberships are based on the Calendar Year (January until December). Please use reverse for additional names, ages etc. for family memberships. Membership Fees are: 

FAMILY (Adult, Spouse, Children)-$ 90.00 STUDENT (Age 13-16 or in full time study; (no magazine)...$20.00

ADULT (Individual)..........$70.00 SSA JUNIOR (12 and under; no magazine)..$15.00 

SSA SENIOR CITIZEN(Age 60 & over)..$55.00 PROPERTY GATE KEY: Add $2.00 to Membership Fees

Please review my application for Membership as a ______________member. (Magazine available for Juniors & Students extra $8.00)

NAME:_________________________________________________________________TELEPHONE:_______________________

ADDRESS:______________________________________________________________POSTAL CODE:________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________DATE OF BIRTH:__________________(Juniors and Students only) 

IN ORDER TO MAINTAIN A STRONG AND VIABLE ASSOCIATION, ALL MEMBERS ARE EXPECTED TO PARTICIPATE IN AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST. Please indicate which of the following activities are of special interest to you. This information is used in planning work parties, committees, etc.

Wildlife Advisory___

Derby P R Booth___

Tree Planting___

Board of Directors___

Derby Fish-fry___

Black Powder___

Property Care___

Fish Stocking___

Hi-Power Shoots___

Fall Fair___ 

Derby Committee___

Shotguns___

Social Activities___

Fishing___

Trap Shooting___

Ticket Sales___

Wildlife Enhancement_

Hunting___

Pitch-in___

Telephone Committee__

Fish Advisory___

Hatchery Duty___

Derby Weigh-in___

Turkey Shoots___

Hand Guns___

Archery___

Stream Work___

Jr Activities___

Computer__