NSCA News

New NSCA Charter Calls for New NSCA Elections

June 7, 2018 By Sherry Kerr

NSCA Charter announcement — ***Click to view larger.***

The NSCA Advisory Council has developed and the NSSA Executive Committee has approved a new charter for the National Sporting Clays Association, which is a division of the National Skeet Shooting Association. The charter defines a new governance structure and calls for elections to be held this year. The new governing structure eliminates the Advisory Council and Regional Delegate positions and creates a 15-member Executive Council, with three members from each region, elected from the National Delegate body. Five officers will be elected from the Executive Council. The new governing bodies will take office on January 1, 2019, and serve through December 31, 2020.

View the new NSCA Charter

Nominations are now being accepted for National Delegates from each state. Remember, Executive Council members must first be elected as National Delegates. The number of National Delegates from each state is determined by the number of members in that state. You can view the number of positions allocated to each state on the nomination form.

While the charter calls for the nomination period to begin July 1, nominations are being opened early due to the new structure. This will allow NSCA more time to inform members of the new charter and for members to determine their plans for possible service. Future elections will open nominations on July 1, per the charter.

Download the National Delegate Nomination Form

You may choose to run for the National Delegate position yourself or nominate another person. However, if you nominate another member, that person must agree to be a candidate. Any candidate/nominee must have the endorsement of five current members of NSCA from the state he or she would represent. The nominee and the five endorsers must sign the nomination form (below) and provide their member numbers. A nomination is not considered valid without those signatures and member numbers.

Only fully-paid, current NSCA members qualify to run for National Delegate; the position is not open to Complimentary Limited Membership (CLM) or Crossfire members (NSSA members registering NSCA targets). Note: Nominees for National Delegate are no longer required to shoot a minimum number of registered targets. Current National Delegates may run for the office again, but they are not automatically placed on the ballot. The nomination / election procedure is the same as for other candidates.

Nominations will be accepted by email or fax. Send nominations to Glynne Moseley, gmoseley@nssa-nsca.com, fax 210-688-3014. All nominations must be received by July 21 at 5:00 p.m. Ballots will be distributed by email during the first week of August for voting via online ballot.

Open Letter to Our Membership

February 26, 2018 By Sherry Kerr

Below is an open letter to NSSA-NSCA members and governing bodies:

February 23, 2018

Further to our letter published to NSSA-NSCA membership in January regarding the 2018 winter executive meetings (see “Target Talk” dated January 24, 2018), we feel it is important to keep all members up to date on the latest association business.

Subsequent to the NSCA Advisory Council session in San Antonio, January 19-20, 2018, progress has been made by the Advisory Council members who have signed their Conflict of Interest (COI) form and who have agreed to continue to serve in their duly-elected Advisory Council positions. Under the leadership of Anthony Matarese, Jr., AC members who were not in attendance have been contacted to further discuss details of the required COI form to answer questions and clarify issues in an attempt to reach as many as possible who are interested and willing to continue to support the future of the NSCA by serving on the Advisory Council. We now have a quorum of Advisory Council members who are working on behalf of the membership. Below is the list of all Advisory Council members who have signed the COI form as of February 23, 2018, keeping in mind that anyone who has not signed the COI form will not be engaged in the conduct of NSCA Advisory Council/Executive Council business. Also listed are those who have resigned from their position on the Advisory Council.

Please note that an elected AC member who has not signed the COI form or who has resigned may have done so for reasons unrelated to the subversive activities described on January 24, and you should not infer any specific motive by their resignation or choice not to sign the document.

The current NSCA governance structure specifies a 45-person Advisory Council and an Executive Council. This structure was put into place at the inception of NSCA 29 years ago, prior to the existence of elected National Delegates or State/Regional organizations and when no infrastructure existed. During this period of transition, active Advisory Council members are now undertaking a review of the structure of the governing bodies, as well as a defining charter document for NSCA.

On another topic, last fall the association engaged a consulting firm to inform and guide NSSA-NSCA leadership regarding opportunities and possible plans for future association fundraising activities. NSSA-NSCA has received some generous, unsolicited gifts and has had members express interest in making future gifts to support their favorite missions. The fundraising firm has been tasked with determining what types of programs need to be in place to facilitate that. To gain input and direction from our membership at large, all NSSA and NSCA members recently received a questionnaire by email seeking to collect member views and information. This will help guide future decisions on this topic and provide direction to make such activities more successful for the future of our organization.

As we move ahead on all these activities, we welcome your input and comments. Please feel free to call or email either of us with your thoughts.

Sincerely,

Michael Hampton, Jr., NSSA-NSCA Executive Director
mhampton@nssa-nsca.com
210-688-3371 ext. 101

Brett Moyes, NSCA Director
bmoyes@nssa-nsca.com
210-688-3371 ext. 124

John Haugh, NSSA President
jch3005@aol.com
216-533-4203

Signed Conflict of Interest Form

Joel Anders – WI
Russ Arnold – TX
Rollins Brown – FL
John Buttermore – PA
Bryan Buzzi – OH
Chris Cantrell – SC
Frank Challant – MA
John Commerford – VA
Robert Crow III – MD
Kevin Dougherty – TX
Scott Grange – UT
Tim Jewell – KY
Edward Kane – CA
Zachary Kienbaum – TX
Anthony Matarese, Jr. – NJ
Anne Mauro – MD
Linda Mayes – PA
Travis Mears – TX
Jason Miller – PA
Robin Mixon – FL
Jim Montgomery – LA
Brian Palmer – FL
Mo Parsons – TX
Andrew Perkins – MO
Shawn Spindel – OH
Donald Nolen – AR (New)
Kerry Luft – IL (New)

Resigned

Bradley Alford – TX
Gary Fitzjarrell II – IL
Adam Pinto – UT
Scott Robertson – TX
Brett Seibert – IL

Long-time Member Howard Confer Passes

October 30, 2016 By Sherry Kerr

NSSA regrets to report the death of Howard Confer, one of the association’s longest-serving active members and the person most responsible for the high-quality targets thrown at the World Skeet Championships. He died peacefully at home on October 23, 2016, at the age of 97.

Howard was an ambassador for the game of skeet in his home state of Michigan and the nation. He was inducted into the NSSA Hall of Fame in 1975 as the Ray Boller Award recipient and as a shooter in 1979. He is also in the Michigan Skeet Hall of Fame. Howard attended the World Skeet Championships 54 times, shooting in 52 consecutive World Shoots and winning a world championship in 1954. He served as NSSA president 1976-1978.

Howard Confer’s estate encourages his friends to donate to NSSA’s general fund,
youth shooting initiatives, or NSSA Museum in his memory.

Click here to donate.

As a long-time member of the Detroit Gun Club, Howard was a member of the famed Michigan Wreckers 5-man team that dominated team events in the 1960s and holds a number of team world records. Until the past few months, he was still active in the game and was still coaching at the Detroit Gun Club, as well as remaining busy designing clay target traps and installing sporting clays courses across the U.S.

Although he served his club and NSSA tirelessly in many ways, his greatest contribution was his quest for perfection in the targets thrown at the World Skeet Championships and other events. Howard wanted every target thrown to be perfect, and it especially mattered to him that the World Shoot throw targets worthy of the status of the event. That meant no broken targets from the machine and every target flying the same. To reduce the number of broken targets, he started by having referees count them, then analyzed the reason for the breakage: was it the manufacturing process, the way they were shipped and handled, the way they were loaded into the machine, a problem with the machine, or something else?

“At first he would ride on the back of the truck, watch us unload the boxes, and make sure we were handling targets correctly,” said Barney Brown, a trap expert at the National Shooting Complex and protégé of Howard’s. “He developed an 18-point checklist for every machine. If there were too many broken targets, his common phrase was ‘pull it,’ meaning we had to pull the machine and determine what the problem was.

“Howard was absolutely committed to ensuring quality in each and every target, in each and every machine and event. He certainly helped me become better at serving the industry. He revolutionized quality control and checks and balances in targets. I’m a better man for even meeting him. At first he was a mentor, making sure I was learning and doing what I should, but he evolved into an honest friend and someone I looked up to,” Brown said.

“Howard was a fixture in NSSA for over 55 years,” said Louise Terry, an NSSA past president who served with Howard in many capacities over decades. “His life was dedicated to our sport and he gave willingly of his time to the association. Howard was the primary person who dedicated years of focus to target quality, especially at the World Shoot. Anyone who has attended the World Shoot can attribute the high-quality targets to his work. Nobody loved skeet more than Howard, and this is a great loss to our association.”

Howard is survived by his wife of 71 years, Letitia; children Daniel (Debbie) and Sheri (Steve) Confer; grandchildren Carrie and Cole (Maria) Confer and Hunter and Sara Dzierbicki; and great grandson, Xavier Confer.

Funeral Service will be at Lynch & Sons Funeral Home in Clawson, Michigan, on Monday, October 31 at 11 a.m. Obituary and condolences are at lynchfuneraldirectors.com. A memorial service will be held at Detroit Gun Club on December 23 at 1 p.m.

Howard Confer’s estate wishes to encourage people to give to the NSSA in memory of Howard. At their request, we have set up a donation form for that purpose. Those who wish to remember Howard and his love of skeet shooting can click here to make a tax deductible donation online.

If you prefer to mail a donation, you may send a check to NSSA with the following on the memo line, or provide a separate letter accompanying the check:

In memory of Howard Confer to support (a) the NSSA Skeet Program, (b) NSSA Youth Skeet Shooting or (c) NSSA HOF/Museum.

For your tax records, the Federal Tax ID number of NSSA is 75-0108632.

Click on any photo to enlarge.

Kids & Clays Events Get Support from Winchester Ammunition

October 1, 2016 By Sherry Kerr

When Indiana McDonald’s restaurant owners Glenn and Kathy Lubeznik decided to chair a sporting clays tournament in 1999 to raise money for the Chicago Ronald McDonald House, little did they realize at the time how big the fundraising movement would become. They hosted 137 participants and raised $16,000. People had a lot of fun, too.

That one event became the impetus for the creation of the Kids & Clays organization, which this year will host more than 20 fundraising clays tournaments. Since 1999, it has raised more than $14 million for Ronald McDonald House Charities. And since that very first event, Winchester Ammunition has been right there with them.

“Winchester plays a large part every night when thousands of families benefit from the Kids & Clays program by receiving housing, food and other benefits from the houses,” says Doug Jeanneret, executive director of Kids & Clays. Ronald McDonald Houses assist in provide housing, meals and a positive environment for families traveling away from home to tend to a sick child in the hospital or receiving treatment for serious illnesses.

Winchester provides ammunition at the sporting clays fundraising events as one of the primary sponsors of Kids & Clays. “As one of the founding supporters of what is now Kids & Clays, Winchester made it possible for the program to get off the ground. These donations save the organization thousands of dollars at each event,” Jeanneret explained, “valuable funds that can be put back into supporting Ronald McDonald Houses across the country.”

In celebration of Winchester’s 150th anniversary this year, a special donation of one of only ten Winchester 1866 Yellow Boy firearms is being auctioned on GunBroker.com, with all proceeds going to Kids & Clays. For more information on the auction and upcoming events, visit www.kidsandclays.com.

“There may be no greater cause than helping families faced with the challenge of caring for a sick child, and Winchester is proud of our long-standing relationship with Kids & Clays in supporting Ronald McDonald House Charities and the incredible services they provide,” said Brett Flaugher, vice president of marketing, sales and strategy at Winchester Ammunition.

The Challenges and Opportunities of Member Communications

July 8, 2016 By Sherry Kerr

You probably can’t name a sport with memberships more diverse than skeet and sporting clays. Because they can be pursued successfully and with enjoyment by people of virtually any age or gender, we have the good fortune of memberships from young to old, male and female, novice to world championship levels. Members span wide-ranging income levels, vocations, and locations. Some participate in sporting clays or skeet exclusively, while others shoot both sports through dual memberships or the Crossfire program. Our members span all levels of technological expertise.

Our diversity presents us not only with the great opportunity to grow our sports and our membership ranks among many demographics, but also with a number of challenges — none greater than how to communicate effectively with everyone when their ages, genders, resources, professions, skills and other measures vary so widely. We need to be able to reach and fill the needs of our current, diverse members while looking ahead to those we hope to attract to membership in the future. At any given time, if we’re not considering both those of us who are already members and our potential future members, we are being short-sighted.

One element of our approach to that has been to offer a variety of channels of communications so there is something for everyone. We offer a printed magazine, Clay Target Nation, for content that is less time-sensitive and for those whoÂ prefer the printed format. We have a digital version of the same for those who like the convenience of their reading materials on an e-reader and who enjoy its interactivity. We produce a weekly e-newsletter, Target Talk, for more time-sensitive content and virtually everything we need to impart to our members. If a member uses a computer, tablet, or smartphone, Target Talk is easily accessible. But did you know we make it available free to anyone who wishes to subscribe, even non-members, for the marketing benefits it offers? We now have over 76,000 subscribers.

Our websites are important communications tools both for regular pages that are always maintained as well as for timely news stories that can be found on the home pages. The websites are so important that we have invested in an all-new platform that can grow as needed and allow us to offer new features in the coming weeks, months, and years. The websites are not only essential to member business but also to prospective members, for whom the website is often our first means of communication.

On an as-needed basis when a particular topic needs attention or we need to reach a segment of our membership, we do email blasts. We maintain social media pages where we distribute content and respond to members who reach out to us there. We provide a text-messaging service at major events and have assisted some member clubs in offering a similar service.

There is more on the way, and we’re sure there are other niches we can fill. For example, we know our member clubs are your day-to-day connection to the sports, and we want to help them communicate better with you. Some of our clubs do a wonderful job of communicating with shooters already, while others could benefit from some guidance to help them improve. We want to offer them that help, in part by sharing the good practices of those clubs doing it well. One way we will be offering help to clubs is through a club newsletter we will launch soon.

Communication goes in both directions. That’s why every issue of Target Talk includes multiple links to reach us. It also tells you how to reach Clay Target Nation. Did you know you can click “Reply” on any issue of Target Talk — or any other email you get from us, for that matter — to send us an email? Every issue of Clay Target NationÂ also includes our contact information. At the top of our website, on every page, you will find a “Contact” link that takes you to contact information for any person at headquarters you need to reach. Our “Sound Off” feature in Clay Target Nation is a small way of asking any and every member for their thoughts.

Because communicating well with our members is so important to us, the September issue of Clay Target Nation will launch a new column from Director of Communications, Sherry Kerr. She will use it to tell you more about the communications channels we’re offering, how we’re expanding them, and how you can participate.

For now, you should know this:

We want you to contribute to your publications, and your ideas are always welcome. Have a question? Why not get the answer straight from us? You can email us at ClayTargetNation@nssa-nsca.com, TargetTalk@nssa-nsca.com, or to a specific person listed on our Staff Directory.

New NSCA Charter Calls for New NSCA Elections

View the new NSCA Charter

Download the National Delegate Nomination Form