Our first general meeting for the 2026 Season begins was held on 12/21/2025 at Larrys Barn, 120 N Parkview St. Maryville, IL 62062.
17 members were in attendance plus another 5 of the wives who are working hard on emptying some wine a vodka bottles in the house..
The meeting was started promptly at 2:33pm by president Larry Heagy after a great lunch highlighted by the ham provided by Larry.
The reading of the meeting miuntes from the 1/21/2025 meeting was waved with a motion made by Rudy and Seconded by Frank. The motion passed.
Larry started off the meeting with a recap of the agenda. Since we missed the November meeting due to illness we have pushed the nominations for Officers and board members to today with official election at the January 18, 2026 meeting.
Ed gave a recap of the club financials, especially noteworthy was the first ever Steak Night at Table Rock where the raffle ticket purchase accomodated the costs of the steaks for everyone. Also notable were the ladies efforts on the baskets at last years banquet. Through their efforts the baskets made over $900 for the club.
Larry Acknowledged the annual award winners for the season:
Angler of the Year: Chris Rensing
Big Bass of the Year: Denny Beiter
Rookie of the Year: Andy Shondy
Next item on the agenda is a review of the Tentative tournament Schedule for 2026 and the approval of the schedule. Larry pulled up the proposed schedule and went through line by line. Here is the review:
1.) Ky Lake location will be at the Moors (Ed missed that during publishing)
2.) Discussion was brought up by Scott Rice on the location of the Truman Lake tournament moving from Sterett Creek to Bucksaw Marina. Several items led to this change including Sterett Creeks ancellation of our pavilion for our fish fry without notice, no AC in Ed’s room. Bucksaw resort have a resturant, pavilions and even cabins on the water where you can tie your boat up to your cabin. This will be decided by the board and voted on at the next meeting. The Date and Truman Lake are approved.
3.) Some mention that Forbes Lake might be drained to repair the dam, should this happen that tournament will be modified to a new location or cancelled.
4.) Not mentioned at the meeting but this is important: The owner of the Sportsmans Lodge has blocked rooms for us for our LOZ tournaments. You must call them to reserve a room as the rooms are blocked for us.
5.) John Morris made a comment that this was the best looking schedule he has ever seen in preparation for the 2026 tournament season. Thanks Johnny for this highest accolade.
A motion was made by Mike Anderson to approve the schedule and was seconded by John Lyons. Vote passed and the vote was unanimous. All the tournaments have been approved and all of the flyers are online under the 2026 Tournament Schedule: You can also start registering for the tournaments at the links below:
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2026 Tournament Schedule and Flyers
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The Let’s Go Fishing show will be Jan 2, 3 and 4th 2026. The Steel City Bassmasters will once again be hosting the Kids Corner fishing booth. It will again be in teh back corner of the LaSalle room. If you go there to shop or just hang out be sure to use our booth space to hang up your coat or drop off packages so you dont have to lug them around the show. On Saturday, Jan 3rd at 7:30pm we will be having our Zapatas get together after the show. Thanks to our long standing board member, Rudy Cardenas for arranging this event for us.
The banquet will be held on Feb 7, 2026. at the VFW in Collinsville, Ravenellis will be catering the event (thanks to Carl for arranging the food), the club has paid for drinks for the first $500, after that you can purchase your own drinks. No outside drinks cannot be brought in. You must register through the website so that we can have an accurate number for the food (The registration system will be available by Jan 1st.). If you do not register do not expect to have food, registration is free and easy.
Nominations for the Officers and Board Members was conducted, the nominations are:
President: Larry Heagy – Unapposed
Vice President: Mike Vallino – Unapposed
Secretary/Treasurer/Webmaster: Ed Montgomery – Unapposed
Board Members (accepted Nominations): Marj Wilcoxon, Denny Beiter, Carl Gansner, Rudy Cardenas and Bud Lyons.
Board Members (pending acceptance of Nomination): Andy Shondy, Russ Rensing, Paul Davis.
Declined Nomination: Johnny Morris (He says he will help anytime where it is needed).
A discussion was made by Scott Rice to have a Classic Tournament. This is a great idea and we will discuss further at the Jan 18, 2026 meeting.
Ed made a motion to amend Article III, Section #1 paragraph (d) which currently states:
(d) Board Members (7): Meet in conjunction with the elected officers. Duties explained in article IV. Six board positions will be elected by the general membership. A seventh board position will be appointed by the chapter president and approved by the board members. This appointed position will serve the role of chapter webmaster with a term lasting 1-year.
this should be modified to:
(d) Board Members (7): Meet in conjunction with the elected officers. Duties explained in article IV. Six board positions will be elected by the general membership. A seventh board position will be appointed by the chapter president and approved by the board members. This appointed position will serve the role of chapter webmaster with a term lasting 1-year. In the event that a chapter officer is acting as the chapter webmaster then all Seven board positions will be elected by the general membership.
This amendment will be voted on at the January 18th meeting.
Meeting was adjourned at 4:04pm.
Ed Montgomery won the 50/50.
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