May 2026 President's Report

Greetings all.

February 8th was our Winter Board meeting. Wayne Divelbess was voted in as our new District 13 Director. Wayne and his girls have been supporters of the ITA and had assisted Jim Noneman at times running a booth at different events in the area. Thank you, Wayne for accepting the position.

Kristan reported our membership at 879 with 586 lifetimes, about 550ish of those lifetime members are currently living. Our new lifetime members since my last report are Cody Burgin, Vaughn Peyton, Zach Grossman, Amanda Brogan and Levi Sandquist. The ITA made donations to FTA, NTA, Iowa Wildlife Society, ITA/NTF banquet and a plaque for the Best Furbearer mount at the Iowa Taxidermy Show. Bills covering breaching beaver dams, trap tag DNR ID number and reducing fur buyer license fees are in House Ways and Means (just passed sub-committee on 3/11) so there is no funnel deadline. Lifetime disabled Vets license is being revised to reduce fee to original cost instead of increasing that cost 5% being proposed by DNR.

Craig Eckhardt has only received 1 scholarship application as of the Winter meeting. The scholarship application (due April 1 st ) and guidelines are printable off the ITA website. We would like to see more applications for any college-bound students who are/or guardians are current members of the association. Go to www.iowatrapper.com to print application and view guidelines, The SE Quadrant announced that Monroe County Fairgrounds in Albia will be the location for our 2027 convention. I looked over the grounds back in October, buildings, location and camping availability on grounds will be another good location for us. Thank you to Richard Tharp for overseeing location details. The ITA’s annual Legislative Breakfast was held February 19th at the Statehouse. This was our 16 th year where we had a display of pelts, coats, fur teddy bears and other fur accessories. We had multiple Senators and Representatives stop by to chat and look over our display of fur items. This event has proven to be a cost-effective way to connect with legislators personally.

Our 2026 ITA sustaining donor patches are available. This year, the patch features a bobcat design. I still have a few 2025 sustaining donor patches available as well which have a mink design. If you have not purchased one, they are $25 per patch for either year and are a way for anyone to assist ITA whether you are a member or not. If you would like one, send a check made out to ITA or Iowa Trappers Association. Mail it to me, Craig Sweet 1825 Kirkwood St. Saint Charles, IA 50240 and I will get them mailed to you.

People who have donated since my last report are Uriah Thomas, James Blauwet, Idaho Trappers Association, Evan Foreman, Eric Smargiasso, Travis Dudley, Sam Hutton, Kelly Willett, Mary Thomas, Rusty Kramer, Steve Bowers, Jim McNeill, Richard Tharp, Tom Walters, Larry Jacobson, Darrell & Carolyn Marak, Calvin Barber Thank you all for your support of the ITA.

As I stated in my last report, on March 6-8th we had a booth at the Iowa Deer Classic in Des Moines. Our booth was on the Upper-Level Grand Concourse. Friday and Saturday were VERY busy while Sunday was much slower with much lower attendance. We received 2 new lifetime members there, Zach Grossman and Amanda Brogan, as well as 2 new annual members. We had all harvestable Iowa furbearer pelts and some fur items on display for all to see and touch. A lot of good conversations were had during the event. It was a long weekend, but well worth our time and presence. Thank you to Kristan, Allyson, Dave, Tony, Calvin, Cody for all your help during the weekend.

The ITA applied for special DOT approved ITA license plate stickers. Joe Dudley is heading this project and has found the DOT “did not receive” our application I sent back in September. Well, we are attempting this again with an online version instead of snail mail like last time. We will see how this goes and will let you know when I know something as I stated prior.

Last night, March 14 th , the ITA held our 24th annual NTF/ITA banquet at the Sheraton West Des Moines Hotel. This location has become a very good place for us to host this banquet. The staff, food, table setup have made hosting this event almost effortless. The gal that oversaw the room setup had taken pictures of how we had tables setup last year. We walked in at 8 A.M. and had to reposition only a FEW tables in the whole room. We had about 300 attendees including Matt Lumley and his young men and Mike & Vickie Sievering. Overall, think everyone had a good time as usual. This year we had 11 corporate and 29 sponsors for the banquet. Thank you to the many people and businesses who donated items for the evening. Also, I want to thank Cody and Tracy Hutton, Bret Smith for being MC/auctioneer, Nat Hill for clerking, Black Flag Arsenal for our firearms as well as all the committee members and everyone who attended to make this event so successful.

Make plans for September 11-12, 2026, at the Floyd County Fairgrounds in Charles City. This is going to be another great location for us with easy access off Hwy 218 at Hwy 14. Motels are located about 5 miles south of the fairgrounds off Hwy 218. There will be plenty of electric hookups available for everyone and plenty of primitive camping space as well. I have contacted my normal inside vendors plus a couple new. Craig Eckhardt has contacted Charles City’s Marketing & Tourism Coordinator and is working with her to promote the city and assist in promoting our convention in the local area.

April 12 th will be our next Board meeting as well as June 28 th . Both meetings will be held at the Boone Senior Center 1112 Story St in Boone starting at 10 A.M. As always, all members are welcome to attend.

Til next time - Craig