This past weekend was packed with National Wild Turkey Federation events for me. Saturday was the third annual Hunting for Birdies Golf Tournament held at the Genegantslet Golf Course in Greene. I volunteered at the tournament as well as played on a team.

The tournament was a 4-person team captain and crew format event with raffles held at a few select holes on the course while the teams were golfing.

We had 17 teams play this year, which was a slight drop from last year. This drop was attributed to the 4th of July being Tuesday and some people took the entire week to go out of town and to the Gus Maker tournament drawing some parents to cheer on their kids instead of playing golf.

Once everyone finished their round, a buffet dinner along with a silent auction and some more raffles were held. After dinner, the winners of the different contests (longest drives, closest to the pin) were announced along with the top 3 teams for the day. We were lucky to have some great local businesses donate prize items and donate to be hole sponsors.

Sunday brought the NWTF-NY Board of Directors (commonly called the state chapter) meeting. As the current state president, I oversee running the meeting. I even brought some Chenango County specialties to the meeting by grabbing 3 dozen doughnuts from the Donut Shop and Bakery in Norwich on my way to the meeting. We began at 9:00 am and lasted until noon.

Topics covered in the meeting include approving previous meeting minutes, the current treasurer’s report, updates from NWTF fundraising and conservation staff, and possible changes/additions to our constitution and by-laws. We held the meeting at Mountain Top View Clam Bakes in Binghamton so that at 1:00 pm we could open the doors for our first ever Member and Volunteer Appreciation Picnic.

We had money that was budgeted for a state leadership meeting in January of this year, but due to a lack of interest we cancelled the event. So, the board of directors voted to use that money to offset everyone’s entry ticket to the picnic by $10 and use the event to engage our members and volunteers with the hope of converting some members into volunteers. We ended up with roughly 90 attendees at the picnic from across New York.

One special guest at the picnic was local NYS Assemblyman Joe Angelino. Earlier this spring I reached out to his office about writing a resolution to recognize the 50th Anniversary of the NWTF to be passed by the Assembly. He and his staff went to work immediately and were able to get it passed before the legislative session ended. So, I invited Assemblyman Angelino to attend the picnic so that we (the board of directors) could get a photograph with him and the resolution that he had mailed to me. After we got the photograph, I was able to chat with Assemblyman Angelino about his time writing columns for the Evening Sun.