7 minute read
Chair’s Corner
by Glen Landrus
Chair
Like many parts of the West, the record-setting heat of the summer has held on longer than usual. It is early September now and the cool mornings that feel like fall have arrived. Change is in the air! Fall means hunting season! It sure feels great to see our friends in Canada and Alaska with their first full guiding season in three years—and some tremendous rams have been taken. Congrats to all the great work by outfitters and guides to share with your hunters the experience and beauty that is northern Canada and Alaska.
The cool mornings ushering in fall are not the only changes upon us. As you will read in our President/CEO message from Gray Thornton, many significant changes occurred this summer with our Grant-in-Aid (GIA) process. The result is over $1.22 million in approved projects covering Wyoming, New Mexico, Nevada, Nebraska, Arizona, Washington, Idaho, Oregon, British Columbia, and Mexico! Your Board of Directors as well as WSF staff are committed to evaluating, modifying, and improving every aspect of our mission work. Change is good!
CHANGE
— Ret. Army General Eric Shinseki
Change is not just limited to our GIA process. We’ve made some changes to the Ram Awards during Sheep Week® by moving the event to Thursday at noon instead of Friday morning. Be sure to keep that change in mind as you schedule your flight and hotel room going into Reno. We look forward to making that event better than it has ever been! Thank you to our Ram Awards committee for your hard work with this event.
I’d like to thank Director Charlie Kelly for his hard work in scheduling the Next Level Growth workshops with staff for late September. I think this is going to be an excellent opportunity to bring resources to our World Headquarters to work with each staff person to make sure we are maximizing the great talent we have on staff. Director Kelly will represent the board and bring valuable tools back to all directors so that we can serve membership and our mission better as well. I am a firm believer that we are either working hard to get better at what we do, or we are getting worse. This is not the time to be idle as our wild sheep depend on us!
One final “change” that is in the works is a friendly competition between the chair of the Ladies Luncheon, Jann Demaske, and me, as the chair of the Life Member Breakfast. Both events have grown into important revenue streams for our mission funding, and at Sheep Show® 2022, netted over $250,000 collectively. As a result, we are devising a friendly competition to promote the two events with the proceeds going to a project of our choice. More details will be revealed as we get it finalized!
In closing, as this issue hits your mailbox, staff and directors will be full steam ahead on Sheep Week® planning. We hope to make this the best Sheep Week® ever and sure hope to see you all in Reno in January! WS
Yours in Conservation,
Glen A. Landrus
Photo: Scott Morrison
SCAN ME
LIST UPDATED QUARTERLY
YOU CAN HELP WSF PUT AND KEEP WILD SHEEP ON THE MOUNTAIN BY JOINING THE CHADWICK RAM SOCIETY!
In 2013 the Wild Sheep Foundation (WSF) launched a legacy campaign, Ensuring the Future of Wild Sheep, that includes tax and estate planning opportunities, counsel and advice, major gifts, and giving societies to raise the funds required to ensure the future of the wild sheep resource by directing even more dollars to wild sheep restoration, repatriation and conservation. Our vision is to build a series of funds from which a targeted annual off take of ~4% will allow WSF to direct 100% of our convention fundraising to mission programs. Our goal is $5 to $6 million annually in mission focused Grant-In-Aid and other funding to “Put and Keep Wild Sheep on the Mountain.” With your help we can achieve this vision and goal.
The Marco Polo Society was established in 2008 as WSF’s premier giving society. To compliment the Marco Polo Society and expand this giving concept to ALL WSF members and wild sheep advocates, WSF created a new giving society in the fall of 2013 – the Chadwick Ram Society with fi ve benefactor levels enabling tax-deductible, donor directed gifts from $250 to $5,000 per year to mission areas of the donor’s desire. Donations can be made to the WSLF Endowment Fund, WSF Conservation Fund, our annual Convention and/or Area of Greatest Need to fund specifi c programs and initiatives. Chadwick Ram Society members are recognized with an embroidered badge displaying their Copper, Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum benefactor level. Members may also “upgrade” their benefactor levels within the Chadwick Ram Society as well as to the Marco Polo Society.
For more information on the Chadwick Ram Society, the Marco Polo Society or the Ensuring the Future of Wild Sheep campaign, contact WSF President & CEO, Gray N. Thornton, Development Manager, Paige Culver, or visit our website.
We cordially invite you to join the Chadwick Ram Society and help Ensure the Future of Wild Sheep!
WSF SALUTES THE 2022 NEW/UPGRADE
CHADWICK RAM SOCIETY® MEMBERS
CRS MEMBERS ARE LISTED IN ALPHA ORDER BY BENEFACTOR LEVEL
PLATINUM - $50,000 George and Grace Vandenberg (CO)
SILVER - $10,000 David Antley, Jr (OR) Kemp Copeland (TX) Jeff Geiger (OH) Lucas Humbard (AK) Dan & Jessica Kluth (ID) Zachary McDermott (WY) Craig & Laureen Nakamoto (IA) Michael Opitz (WA) Greg Pope (WY) Steven Quisenberry (VA) Gary Sessions (NM) Jeremy & Jessica Tripp (ID)
BRONZE - $5,000 Aaron & Amy Burkhart (MN) Alan Day (OR) Hal & Emily Frye (AK) Paul & Tami Hanson (WA) Keith Hite (PA) Shad & April Hulse (UT) Rachel Kidwell (AK) James Lewis (AK) Christopher & Kari Loomis (MT) Robert E. Mays, Jr. (NV) Elliot Niemi (AK) Jerry Remaklus (AZ) Mike Schmillen (MN) J.T. “Skip” Tubbs (MT) Bob Van De Rostyne (WY)
COPPER - $2,500 Thomas Adrien (GA)
Sheep Family Snapshots
Michael Avery (LA) John Blankenship (MA) Angie Bloomquist (AK) Eric Cavage (PA) Jason Gentz (MN) AD Hancock (FL) Charles W. Hartford (CA) Grant Hill (AK) Scott Homrich (MI) Anthony & Chris Lingenfelter (CA) Brendon McCarney (AK) Kenneth Mee (CA) Jacob Mock (AK) Carl Nelson (AK) Shawn Nelson (WY) Laura Pettett (CO) Daryl Reid (CA) Alan Shultz (CA) Jay Stanford (AK) Kelli White (AK)
“ I became a member of the Chadwick Ram Society so I could do more to help sheep than what my Lifetime Membership could accomplish alone. I have been fortunate to take a few rams in my life, so putting more sheep back on the mountain than I have taken is a real goal of mine. Being a Chadwick Ram Society member is a start to that pledge that I made to not only myself but the Wild Sheep Foundation family and anyone who loves Wild Sheep…” -Jason Matzinger - Larry & Joanne McGovern
My name is Larry McGovern. I have lived in Billings, MT for 35 years and have been a member of the Wild Sheep Foundation since my fi rst sheep hunt in Alaska in 1989.
I have watched the progress of the Wild Sheep Foundation most closely since the arrival of Gray Thornton, CEO. It’s been a rocket ride to be sure. The progress of this organization is remarkable. The staff is as good as it gets. I am honored and proud to be part of this group of conservationists. I became interested in the Chadwick Ram Society as soon as I heard about it. My wife, also a Summit Life Member of the Wild Sheep Foundation, and I became members of the Chadwick Ram Society and are both impressed with the accomplishments of this society.
The Chadwick Ram Society is one of the many opportunities to support the mission of the Wild Sheep Foundation for its members, as we are and will always be.
