April 2006 Newsletter

Dear Members,

WOW!! What a banquet! The Board of Directors would like to extend a sincere “Thank You” to all of our members and sponsors for contributing to the huge success of our annual membership banquet. We promised you a bigger and better banquet this year and believe we kept our promise. Help us pass along a big thanks to the management and staff of the Holiday Inn for providing a wonderful banquet meal! While it was a great banquet, the enormous turn out exceeded our wildest expectations and we recognize the need to improve several areas. We are already planning to improve the parking availability, increase the number of gaming tables, and increase the seating capacity for the banquet. Let us know if you have a concern that we can correct and stay tuned for an even better banquet next year. Enclosed in this mailing is a 2006 membership card and window decal. The membership card grants permission for members to utilize our Youth Hunting areas. We have three youth only areas now; Doug and Bev Hauge in Minot, Doug and Merle Stevick in Berthold, and Dan Jaeger south of Balfour. There is more information about these areas and other habitat projects in the enclosed habitat letter. We appreciate your efforts to involve youth in responsible hunting – and remember if one of your young hunters bags a rooster with our leg band, they are entered into a drawing for a free shotgun at next years banquet!
You are invited to attend our annual membership meeting on Tuesday, May 9th, 2006 at 7:00 p.m. at the International Inn. We’ll take care of some unfinished business from previous meetings and also elect officers for the coming year. If you are interested in becoming more involved in your club, we have openings for associate board members. Stop in, see what we are all about, and let us know you’d like to get involved.
Pheasants for the Future will host our annual Lake Audubon Fishing Tournament and Calcutta. The Calcutta is Friday May 19th at the Holiday Inn Minot at 7:00 pm, and the fishing tournament is Saturday May 20th from 8:00 am to 3:00 pm at the Audubon (Totten Trail) boat ramp. Entry fees are $100.00 per two person team and the tournament is limited to the first 100 teams. For more information call Jim Isakson at 720-1367 or Jason Foss at 852-9506, or check out our website at www.pftf.org
As part of our pheasant restoration program, we will be providing over 16,000 pheasant chicks to be raised by individual members and area wildlife clubs. If you signed up for chicks the Punkin Patch Ranch will contact you in May to pick up your chicks. We would like you to put a Pheasants for the Future leg band on the roosters before you release them. Contact Scott Heit at 839-0803 for information on the leg bands. Use your coupon to pick up a free bag of chick starter feed from North Central Feed and Seed, North Country Mercantile or Sun Prairie Grain Seed plant.
As exciting as it is to provide members with pheasant chicks to raise and release, we all know that habitat is the key to pheasant survival and propagation. We dedicate a portion of our annual budget for habitat development and want to encourage interested individuals to improve and develop habitat. If we help fund a habitat area, we require that the area remain open to public hunting, and that we be allowed to post Pheasants for the Future habitat signs. If you have some ideas, submit a written request to the board of directors for cost-sharing consideration.
We have over 850 members and are now the largest sportsman club in ND. We know that none of our projects would be possible without each and every member, sponsor, and volunteer. Once again, we say Thank You for your continued support of this incredible club. Have a great summer!
 

The Board of Directors