January 5 is our annual meeting. The terms for all officer positions and two board positions end as of the January meeting, so we will be accepting nominations for all of the above beginning at the December meeting. Any member can serve as an officer, and anyone who has been a member of the club for at least three years and is familiar with organized shooting can be a board member. If you are interested in serving on the board or being an officer, or if you would like to nominate another member to serve, please come to the December meeting. If you are looking for a way to be more involved with the club, or if you have a particular idea you would like to implement, becoming an officer or board member is a perfect way to make it happen.

We also have some proposed by-law amendments on the table. The text of these proposed amendments and a brief explanation of what they are about are included with this newsletter. The amendments will be voted on at the January annual meeting, but we can discuss and debate them at the December meeting.

ATTENTION Match Directors, Hunter Ed Directors, and Event Coordinators: this is your first notice that the deadline to submit your schedule requests for 2012 is December 15. We will not have a repeat of 2011 where we were still butting heads about the schedule in March. We have a new system set up for schedule requests. You can log on to TCMSA.org and click on "submit your events for next year’s calendar", or you can send an email directly to calendar@tcmsa.org with your requested dates (both methods wind up in the same place). Include the name of the event, the name of the match director or event coordinator, the date(s) you are requesting, the start time, and your estimated end time. Yes, we are requesting that you tell us how long each event will take. We will not hold you to an end time, but we want to inform the general membership approximately when your event will be over so that they can plan their range use accordingly. If you don’t care which days you get, let us know and we will work you in where we can. Preference will otherwise be shown to established patterns (such as CMP shooting on the first Saturday of the month), after that, it is first come, first served WITHIN REASON. We have to balance the needs of all groups, including the general membership. We can’t have every Saturday filled with one event or group, and we must have some Saturdays open for general shooting. The officers will be creating the schedule, and any disputes will be referred to the board of directors.

Remember, your membership does not renew until March 31, so please hold off on renewals until at least January. We will be busy with officer and board elections, schedule requests, and by-law issues, not to mention the holidays. Your renewal is more likely to fall through the cracks or get misplaced if you send it in during this busy time for the officers.

The December and January work parties are tentative, and weather permitting. If we get a bunch of snow or icy roads, we don’t want everyone trying to drive to the range just to pull a few weeds. We have plenty of work to do, but it can all wait for better weather if necessary. We are aware that the work parties in February and March often have the best attendance, so we will be scheduling plenty of work for them. If you still need work party credit but can’t attend a normal work party due to schedule issues or personal physical limitations, please don’t hesitate to call an officer or Greg Hagen (our maintenance chair). We can assign you some work that fits your schedule or physical capabilities, and we will make sure that the amount of time you wind up spending is similar to that done by everyone else who receives credit.

Please keep your speed down on the entrance road. It takes time and fuel to maintain it when the washboard conditions get bad.

We are still in the time of year that we only conduct club matches, at a single yardage. This is a perfect time of year to try the sport out without the pressure of a registered match, so come on out and join us!

Highpower: (Match Director: Gaylord Baker 628-9044)
Upcoming matches: December 3 & January 7 (7:30 set-up, start shooting at 8:00)
October Results: Gaylord (735-8x), Cozy(688-5x), Marlee (684-8x)
November Results: Gaylord (762-10x), Rich (730-8x), Ryan (676-7x)

As we put together the schedule for next year, we are debating what types of matches to hold for our secondary matches. This year we held several bolt action rifle matches, and a couple of M-1 Garand matches. We will most likely have some more of the same, plus maybe a sporting highpower or two. If anyone would like to shoot another type of match from the CMP or NRA standard course guidelines, let us know and we will see if we can generate enough interest to put one on.

We will be shooting video of the course of fire and safety briefing before the December match, and putting it up on the club website and facebook page. We also have several photos and videos of past matches there, so check it out if you are interested in joining us, or just want to know what the sport entails.

Three Gun: (Match Director: Mark Perkins 509-301-9407)
Upcoming matches: TBA

November Results: Dave (185.54sec), Bob (258.23sec), Dean (346.39sec)

Thanks to everyone who has helped us set up and tear down the equipment for these matches. If you are interested in Three Gun, check out the TCMSA or Touchet Gun Club website or the club facebook page, there are photos and videos of several matches, and a video of the introduction and safety briefing before a match.

Special thanks to the Touchet Gun Club for co-sponsoring these events.

• 2011 Proposed Bylaw Amendments
• 2011 Proposed Bylaw Amendments - Explanation

At the September meeting, the club voted to switch to six newsletters per year. This will save us quite a bit of money, and we think we can still get information to everyone this way. We will continue with the phone tree and email reminders monthly for the time being, and we will revisit this issue in March or April to see if we need to make any more changes (or change back). We will try to do a better job of scheduling events and work parties far enough in advance that we can announce them in the newsletter.

Please help us out by keeping the range clean. If you see any used targets that no one is using, take them down for us and put them in the trash barrels.

Since the weather is cooling off, we will have work parties on October 9 & November 6. We will be pulling some weeds and re-arranging our storage. We want to get everything out of the old clubhouse trailer, and move it into our existing railcar so we can start working on getting rid of the old trailer. If you haven’t heard, we can’t reach an agreement with the USBR about bringing a new trailer to the range, so we will just have to condense everything into the existing railcar for the time being.

Board member Bob Birney has accepted a job offer out of state, and will be moving soon. We will have a special election at the October meeting to fill Bob’s vacancy on the board. If you would like to serve on the board or if you would like to nominate someone to serve, please come to the October meeting (board members must have been members of the club for three years and be familiar with organized shooting). Bob’s term ends in December 2012, so the new member would serve for just over a year. The board’s duties are mostly to oversee the long term goals & direction of the club. With us working on acquiring new lands & building a new range, it is a very exciting time to serve on the board. If you have any questions about the board, talk to an officer or any of the other five members of the board. We also wish to thank Bob Birney for his years of service to the club, he will be missed.

ATTENTION Match Directors, Hunter Ed Directors, and Event Coordinators: this is your first notice that the deadline to submit your schedule requests for 2012 is December 15. We will not have a repeat of 2011 where we were still butting heads about the schedule in March. We have a new system set up for schedule requests. You can log on to TCMSA.org and click on "submit your events for next year’s calendar", or you can send an email directly to calendar@tcmsa.org with your requested dates (both methods wind up in the same place). Include the name of the event, the name of the match director or event coordinator, the date(s) you are requesting, the start time, and your estimated end time. Yes, we are requesting that you tell us how long each event will take. We will not hold you to an end time, but we want to inform the general membership approximately when your event will be over so that they can plan their range use accordingly. If you don’t care which days you get, let us know and we will work you in where we can. Preference will otherwise be shown to established patterns (such as CMP shooting on the first Saturday of the month), after that, it is first come, first served WITHIN REASON. We have to balance the needs of all groups, including the general membership. We can’t have every Saturday filled with one event or group, and we must have some Saturdays open for general shooting. The officers will be creating the schedule, and any disputes will be referred to the board of directors.

Hunter Bench: (Match Director Wally Ruff 967-5087)
Upcoming matches: October 29 & November 19 (both are club matches @ a single yardage, 10am start)

We have reached the time of year when we run club matches only, at one yardage only. This is a perfect time to try the sport without the pressure of a registered match. If you are interested, come on out and give it a try! We will make sure to set you up next to an experienced shooter so you can get some tips if you need them.

CMP Highpower: (Match Director Gaylord Baker 628-9044)
Upcoming matches: October 1 & November 5 (7:30 set-up, start shooting at 8:00) A special bolt gun only match will be held after the October 1 match

At the September 3 match, the top 3 shooters & scores were: Gaylord (741-8x), Ralph (737-10x) and Dave (723-7x). In the bolt gun match that followed the top shooters were: Gaylord (439-2x) Ralph (423-4x) and Dave (388-6x).

We are seeing more and more new shooters, and that is a good thing! We are strict about the safety rules, but otherwise are very informal. The rules allow any military rifle with iron sights, but we will allow anyone to shoot any rifle as long as they follow the safety rules and promise to have fun too! We shoot an 80 round course of fire, plus sighters. The cost is $10 and the match is generally over by noon. The October match is usually a low attendance event, since some of our regular shooters will be hunting instead. This is a good opportunity to try the sport out without the firing line being full of shooters.

Three Gun: (Match Director Mark Perkins 509-301-9407)
Upcoming matches: October 8 & November 12 (9am start)

At the September 17 Sparta Three Gun Challenge, the top shooters & times were: Kirk (182.19sec) Tom (228.86sec) & Dave (263.27sec). We shoot a very relaxed form of the sport. No zip lines or rock climbing walls, and no pressure. We have had some juniors shoot, and some seniors, and everyone seems to have a good time. At the Sparta Challenge in September, we set up a course with about twice as many targets as we have set up in the past, so shooters got more shooting for their time & money investment. We hope to continue this in the future. If you don’t have one of the guns needed for the challenge, the Touchet Gun Club has them to loan out.

Special thanks to the Touchet Gun Club for co-sponsoring these events, and thanks to everyone who has helped set up & tear down!