We’re trying some new initiatives to fight the SPAM we are experiencing from our ‘victoriabowmen.com’ addresses. So from now on when you see a Victoria Bowmen email address it will have ‘at’ instead of the ‘@’ symbol, in order to email someone just change the ‘at’ to a ‘@’.

Societies Act:

You may have heard that the club had lost its membership in the Provincial Societies Registrar for failing to report annually (an unintended error), well, we’ve completed all the paper work and were reinstated earlier this month!

2007 Tournaments:

The 2007 Club Tournament schedule is now on the website ~ mark your calendars

No More Thursday Night Shooting
Due to the lack of participation and high cost of rental, we have decided to cancel Thursday nights effective October 23. Please plan your practices for Tuesday evenings 7 – 9 or Saturdays 9 AM to 1 PM or outdoors anytime in the daylight.

Membership Dues

Yes, it’s that time of year again; please get your 2007 dues into Lynn Brochu (address on the website) as soon as you can. She has a daunting job, all of us paying as soon as we can will make it much easier!

JOP Purdy’s 2006 Christmas Chocolate Fundraiser

Contact Lynn Brochu 383-6550 email membership’at’victoriabowmen.com

She must receive all chocolate orders by Nov 11^th. Make cheques payable to Lynn Brochu. Purdy’s chocolate delivers the chocolate to her on December 13. Chocolate can be picked up at her home on Dec. 14 and 15or at the JOP practice on Dec 16^th. She also needs help on Dec 13 in the evening to separate the chocolate orders into bags. Our club needs to place a $700 order to get the 25% back for fundraising. A chocolate prize is given to the largest order. Fundraising money will go to the JOP.

Victoria Bowmen JOP Newsletter - October 2006

Newsletter

The new JOP Newsletter is written specifically for the JOP and contains events and information that may be of interest to the JOP. There has recently been some complaints, mainly by JOP members, about lack of communication which leads to confusion and disappointment. Hopefully the new Newsletter will be able to help fix that problem. Copies of the Newsletter will be available on the table at all JOP practices and will be published on the web-site (www.victoriabowmen.com). Please take a copy of it and read it in addition to the Club Newsletter.

Weekly Practices

During the Outdoor season Wednesday night is Club Night and all members are welcome to come out and shoot and socialize (begins 7:00 p.m., usually).

If you are interested in trying 3D or Field shooting come out EARLY Saturday mornings or early Wednesday evenings. If you are not familiar with the courses you should ask an experienced archer if you may join them. Most will be happy to have you along with them.

Indoor Season

Indoor season is from October to March, so JOP practice will be moving indoors to John Stubbs Middle School beginning October 14th. Practices are on Saturday as usual, but you must sign up for one of the two practice times - 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., or 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. There will also be club indoor practice times (open to everyone) from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. on Tuesdays. Remember that the outdoor range is open all year around during daylight hours, so if you ever want any extra practice come out any time!

Changes in the JOP

Recently there have been many changes in the JOP, among which you may have noticed that:

· Club equipment will not be available to the JOP in future (proposed cut off date December 31, 2006).

· visitors will not be able to join in regular JOP practice - this is because visitors usually need more coaching than the more experienced archers, but very few visitors end up coming back a second time, so the coaching that the more serious archers could have had is wasted. However, special beginner lessons will be taught by Master Coach Helena Myllyniemi and George Trattner at the Commonwealth Pool. Contact George or Helena for more info.

Also, some new changes have been made as-of the Victoria Bowmen Annual General Meeting held on September 26, 2006. Josh Fyfe, Allison Weick, and Bradley Clements have been elected as JOP Representatives. Several comments were made in the meeting urging that lines of communication inside and in-between the different parts of the club be kept healthy and that information be more easily accessible. There was also a suggestion that the JOP should learn about more advanced shooting such as Canada 900 Rounds and FITA Tournaments so that JOP archers can, if they wish, keep moving up in their shooting skills. There were also several invitations from 3D and Field archers encouraging JOP kids to get involved in these branches of archery as well. If you are interested in taking advantage of any of these new opportunities, please do not hesitate to ask (see contacts bellow). There was some slight disappointment in the low outcome of tournaments in the past year, so please try to come and try shooting one sometime - they are lots of fun! Information about upcoming tournaments open to JOP will be provided in the Newsletter.

Equipment

If you have not yet got your own archery equipment it is suggested that you try to get some soon. There are several used bows for sale within the club for good prices. Let Al Wills know (secretary’at’victoriabowmen.com) what you want and he will put up a note in the Buy/Sell section of the web-site. You can also order in bows and other equipment through Island Outfitters (located at 3319 Douglas St., phone number is (250) 475-4969). Show your club membership for 10% discount. There are several other near-by and on-line stores that you can order equipment from, just ask around. Ask experienced archers for suggestions on a good bow and matching arrows for you.

Tournaments

The annual JOP Halloween Fun-Shoot will take place on Saturday Nov.4 at 10:00 am at the outdoor range. There will be balloons, prizes, hot-chocolate, and lots and lots of fun! Wear your costume! Price of registration is $4 towards the club. Wear rubber boots! Bring old Jack-o-Lanterns.

Range Closed

The outdoor range will not be open for general use on the following dates:

October 7th, 2006

November 21st, 2006

November 23rd, 2006.

There will be no indoor JOP on November 4^th.

Note to Parents

You are asked to stay and watch over your children when they are at JOP practice. When you are absolutely unable to stay and look after them for the whole practice, please arrange with another adult to do so for you. You can read a book, chat with other parents, even try your hand at archery, or, better yet, volunteer to help with the practice. If you know a bit about archery you can give the newer kids a bit of casual coaching or teach them to score. Or you can volunteer to blow the whistle, put up targets, help in the setting up and putting away of equipment, ext. If you would like a job, please do not hesitate to ask!

Please try your best to get your kids to practice on time and stay the duration of the practice so that they can get the most of the practice and help set up and take down equipment. It is not fair to leave the work only to a couple of dedicated archers and volunteers. Also try to come to practice on a regular basis. Read the Newsletters and mark the dates on your calendars. Your dedication is very much appreciated!

United Way Raffle

Our esteemed president, Greg Birtwistle, is donating a custom made longbow to a United-Way Raffle, along with free lessons from the club and six arrows from Island Outfitters. Buy a ticket - the prizes look good!

Contacts

For more information you can contact:

Tournament Director: Tracy Klat – tournaments’at’victoriabowmen.com

Bowhunting/3D Director: Doug Bell – bowhunting’at’victoriabowmen.com

President: Greg Britwistle – president’at’victoriabowmen.com

Secretary: Al Wills – secretary’at’victoriabowmen.com

Junior Rep.: Josh Fyfe - 382-2764

Junior Rep.: Allison Weick – jrep’at’victoriabowmen.com

Junior Rep.: Bradley Clements - jrep1’at’victoriabowmen.com

And don't forget to check the web-site - www.victoriabowmen.com

Please pass this newsletter onto anyone you know who does not have email.