Our final general meeting for the 2026 Season was held on 2/22/2026 at Larrys Barn, 120 N Parkview St. Maryville, IL 62062.
22 members were in attendance plus another group of the wives were meeting in the house. Thanks to their efforts we had a very sucessful Banquet a couple weekends ago..
The meeting was started promptly at 2:34pm by president Larry Heagy after a great lunch highlighted by Larrys infamous Smoked Ham and other tasty treats brought by the club members.
Larry started off the meeting asking Ed for a recap of the last meeting. Since the minutes are posted online for everyone to see we opted out of reading the minutes in a vote initiated by Rudy and Seconded by Brian.
Moving on to the agenda, Ed gave a recap of the membership.
The Total Membership before the meeting was: 52
o Standard: 39
o Rookies: 4
o Spouses/Children/Sig Others: 9.
The membership numbers will increase once the season startes.
Ed gave the results from the Banquet.
Banquet Results
• Registered: 107 Attended: 92 actually attended (Best Estimate)
• Costs:
o Ravenellis $2523.44
o VFW: $1450, Hall and Drinks
o Raffle Prizes: $ 512.67
o Awards: $ 201.67
o Misc: $ 69.82
Total Costs: – $ 4757.60
• Income:
o 50/50 netted $475 for the club.
o The Raffle items netted $1190 for the club.
o The Raffle Baskets netted $960 to the club.
Total Income: $ 2625.00
• Difference: – $ 2132.60.
Thanks to everyone’s efforts at the banquet, we are able to maintain our annual dues at $65 for standard membership, $40 for rookies, and a greatly reduced rate of $10 per year for significant others, spouses, and children.
Family involvement is a cornerstone of our club. Offering full membership to significant others, spouses, and children at a reduced annual rate helps strengthen this foundation and ensures that our club continues to grow as a family-oriented organization.
Additionally, we maintain strong involvement with the Steel City Ladies Auxiliary, providing an opportunity for those who choose not to fish in the actual tournaments to participate and remain actively engaged in the club.
Ed then gave a overview of the Club bank account.
o Account Balance: $4848.65
o PayPal Balance: $134.62
o Cash on Hand: $65
Total Balance: $ 5048.27
o Paid entries for tournaments:
Regular Tournaments: 34 @ $40 = $1360
Table Rock Tournaments: 6 @ $75 = $450
• Total Paid so far towards Tournaments: $1,810.00
Account Balance after subtracting the paid entries for the tournaments: $3,238.27
Rudy motioned to approve the financial report as given and Carl Seconded the motion. The motion passed by a unanimous vote.
Larry then took control of the meeting and we discussed ways that we can reduce the number of no-shows to the banquet. This year we paid for 125 meals from Ravenellis giving that we had 107 people registered for the banquet. This will give usa little extra for members to take home and enjoy. We had only 92 people show up for the banquet. That means that the club paid for 33 meals extra, that costs the club in excess of $500 that we did not think was a wise use of the money. While we like to have a free banquet for everybody we would also not like to waste funds. Some ideas were floated around to still allow the banquet to be free for everyone and their family and friends but control the costs a little better. This will be a topic for discussion after the season has ended and we begin the 2026/27 Winter meetings.
Larry mentioned that the Steel City Bassmasters participated in the booth with Razr Rods at this weekends St. Louis Boat and Fishing show at the St. Louis Convention Center, we would like to express our deep appreciation to Bryant Stickels for allowing us to participate with them. the show was not well advertised and the attendance was very low. At least we had some good times participating with Razr Rods and talking fishing with each other.
The final topic on the agenda we to review the 2026 Tournament Schedule:
- We start off the season in a couple weeks at Lake of the Ozarks, We would like to thank the Sportsmans Lodge for providing us with the fish dinner on saturday night of the tournament.
- Back by popular demand we will once again have FREE STEAK Night the day before the Table Rock Events. We tried it last fall for the first time and was a great sucess. All registered tournament anglers will receive one complimentary steak for the Friday evening Seminar and Raffle. Anglers who are registered to participate in the tournament are automatically registered to receive a steak and do not need to take any further action. Please help us control costs and if you cannot be there friday night just let us know so we do not have too many extra steaks.
- We have an additional registration for a free steak for additional attendees, such as friends or spouses, who would also like to receive a steak. Registering helps us accurately determine the number of steaks and side items needed. If you are able to bring a side dish to share, it would be greatly appreciated.
And a final note, here is the EZ-Registrations link for registering for the tournaments and the Table Rock Steak nights. We appreciate everyones early entry so we can better plan the events.
A motion to adjourn the meeting at 3:25pm was made by Johnny Morris and seconded by Marjorie Wilcoxon. Motion Passed.
Mike Morrison was the winner of the 50/50.
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