New Year brings Executive changes

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The annual general meeting saw some changes to the club executive. Our President last year, Dave Murray, has finished his two-year term and moved to Membership. Barry Wright has assumed the role of President with Dennis Southwick as his second in command. Rick Leblanc assumes Barry’s duties as TU Representative. Peter Little takes over from Vince Schembri as Secretary, Carl Johnson relieves Rick Lang as Treasurer and Florin Sabac assumes Librarian duties from Jerry Plastow. Brian Bleackley and yours truly retain our roles as Program and Newsletter guys. Our heartfelt thanks go out to Vince, Rick and Jerry for their service on the Executive and to Dave Murray and Barry Wright for their yeoman service as Club President and TU Representative through the last two years of change. We also approved the change to the Club Logo. Greg Scratchley, with a small group of assistants, has agreed to lead the effort in updating our web presence. Look for changes to our electronic and printed media to appear over time.

The rest of our last month’s program featured Dennis Southwick showing us the proper way to tie Clouser Minnows. Steven Spencer talked about the small fish issue and the final week will find Carl Johnson tying up some salmon flies.

The main January events, other than the regular and annual general meetings, were our January Seminar featuring Garry Borger and Mike Lawson on January 16th and 17th and the Fly Fishing Expo in Calgary January 21st to 23rd. Gary and Mike gave us an outstanding show! I noted in the forum that I came away with more than a handful of great ideas and a face sore from smiling and laughing. Kudos go to our presenters and to those from the club who volunteered in various capacities. Last weekend a number of members went to the Calgary Expo to man the kids tying booth. It was an interesting and successful event.

Our program this month starts on February 3rd with Nick Sliwdanich talking about Wholesale Sports and demonstrating two patterns. Week two on February 10th will be Phil Rowley showing us The New Fly Fisher and talking about Muir Lake. Week three, on February 17th will be our Conservation Session. Laura MacPherson a U of A master’s student will talk about The Culvert Issue. Week four on February 24th we will have Rob Clarke of Superfly showing us some patterns that use the new Unibobber.

On page two you will find a list of upcoming events for 2010. The Edmonton Boat and Sportsman’s Show goes March 18th to 21st at Northlands. The Fishin’ Hole Outdoor Show is at the Mayfield on March 28th to 31st. Many volunteers will be needed to set up and man the booths. See Brian Bleackley if you can help out. He’ll have sign up lists at meetings.

I have two good news items. Firstly Don Anderson has donated one of his bamboo fly rods for us to raffle off. Tickets were selling briskly in Calgary. Many thanks go to Don for his generous donation. Now all I have to do is win.

The second piece of news is that A.K. Best will be coming for a one day fly tying seminar in October or November. We had an “advise us” sheet in Calgary that already has 30 names on it. This looks to be another stellar event.

Here’s a reminder to those who have not yet bought a membership. If you bought a 2009 membership prior to July 1st your 2009 membership is good until your anniversary date in 2011, so you don’t have to renew just yet. Others will get a renewal notice from Trout Unlimited Canada. If you have yet to buy a membership, see Dave Murray.

– Dave Robinson