September, 2025 President's Report

Greetings all. It has been a busy month of June. June 7^th was SW IA Trappers Get-Together near Corning, June 14^th had 4 events around the state, Iowa County Outdoor Adventure near Millersburg, Special Needs Day at Des Moines, Ted Nugent camp near Neola then Miss Iowa and Teen pageants at Davenport, 22^nd had two fur handling classes in Wellsburg and ITA Board meeting on the 29th. All events ended well.

Dale and Grace Rowson attended Miss Iowa/Teen Pageant where they presented both gals with their sheared beaver coat and vest. Miss Iowa is Lydia Fisher of Wapello and Miss Teen is Fiona Treiber of Bettendorf. We normally get one or both gals to attend fall convention, but we will have to see how their schedules go. Thank you Grace and Dale for taking over these presentations for the ITA.

The first two fur handling classes, held at Sleepy Creek Tannery, went well with a couple people who did not show. Each class was limited to 10 people with a morning and afternoon session. We had attendees from all around the state, 3 were female, as well as people from Minnesota and Wisconsin. Attendees observed how to skin raccoon, skunk and muskrat, then at the end of each session, attendees were able to scrape and stretch a raccoon if they wanted. Everyone who commented was pleased by attending. Following those classes 2 more fur handling classes were scheduled for July 20^th at the same location. There will be a morning, 8 A.M.-12 P.M. and afternoon 1 P.M. – 5 P.M. session with each session limited to 10 people.  Beginner Trapper classes are scheduled for the following dates and locations – July 13 - Montezuma, August 3 - Exira, August 9 - Mason City, August 23 - Elkader, Sept 27 - Mt. Pleasant and possibly a couple more in September.

To register for a beginner trapper or fur handling class see link below, go to the DNR calendar, click on event date then click on “go to event” to register!

https://license.gooutdoorsiowa.com/Event/Calendar.aspx

June 29th was our Summer ITA Board meeting with 40 people attending including 10 guest members. Kristan reported our current membership at 1,495 with 564 of those being lifetime. As I write this we had 2 new members join, new lifetime John Fink of Alaska and new member Eric Tietjens, both of these gentlemen utilized the website to join. This places our membership at 1497 with 565 lifetimes. Of those 565 lifetime, we have around 535 who are currently living.  I checked with Kristan awhile back, if I remember correctly we had about 316 members that were from other states. Our launching of the new website in August of 2023 and our ITA YouTube channel, currently 974 subscribers, in September 2023 have assisted those numbers greatly. With 1497 members that is the most members going back to 2008 when we hosted the NTA National in Mason City. I have sat in meetings and found many states have a few hundred members in their entire association. Thank you to everyone for being a member of the ITA as your support is greatly appreciated!!

During the meeting Lyndon Stucliffe stepped down as REAP director and Allyson Oser was voted in as our new REAP director. Thank you to Lyndon and Allyson for your involvement with this position.

Reminder, the association is looking at a proposed change to our current bylaws. That proposed change would be to Article IX (Affiliate Directors and Directors-At-Large) by adding a Section 7 to our current bylaws. The proposed change would allow the social media director to have a voting position on the ITA Board. This proposed change will be voted on by the membership during our General Membership meeting to be held at 1:30 P.M. September 6, 2025 at Cherokee.

The proposed changes would add Sections 7, 7a & 7b to our current bylaws which would read as follows:

• Sec. 7 A Director of Social Media may be appointed by the board of directors by majority vote by those present and voting

• Sec. 7a. Social director shall be held to same standards as district directors as written in Article VIII and with direct responsibilities and duties as needed.

• Sec. 7b. Social director shall hold a voting position on the ITA Board of Directors.

ITA is having a pre-convention gun raffle for a Henry Big Boy .357 Magnum

Lever Action Model H012GM. Tickets are $20 ea. with only 200 available. Contact Tony Evans or an ITA Board member for tickets. The gun will be drawn for on Saturday Sept. 6th at convention and you need not be present to win. Proceeds from ticket sales will be utilized to help fund our beginner trapper classes.

Another item approved was advertising banners for the demo area. Sponsorship banners would be 2ft x 3ft with your advertising logo or what you want displayed at a cost of $100. The Board decided banners would be sold at our auction on Saturday evening with proceeds helping fund our education classes

If you are interested, contact Mike Fletchall at 641-202-1115 or

Fletch_70@hotmail.com  He would need to have your info by August 1st to make sure banners are done for convention.

I still have ITA sustaining donor patches available for $25 each, see me if interested. We have ITA history books for $20 or $25 postage paid if you want them mailed. We will have, hopefully by convention, 50 small ITA black powder-coated trap cutouts available for purchase. As I write this a purchase price has not been set for this item.

Another new item approved is a special DOT approved ITA license plate stickers. It would be something like other organization utilize, example DU or Cattlemen. You would get plates that are blank on the left hand side from your local DOT or courthouse. Then 2 special ITA DOT approved stickers would be purchased through Kristan Barclay for $25 who will mail you your stickers. Those two DOT approved ITA stickers would be placed by you in that blank area of your plates. These DOT approved stickers will be white with black lettering and about the size of our membership decals you receive for being a member. They will have the same adhesion properties as your current registration month sticker you receive. I don’t know when these will become available, but will keep everyone informed when the do.

This fall our Vice President and Secretary positions are up for election. Board nomination for Vice President is Cody Hutton. Board nomination for Secretary is Kristan Barclay. Nominations will remain open until the General Membership meeting on Sept 6th for those positions. To be placed into nomination for either position you must be a current member of the Iowa Trappers Association, without felony, and consent of the nominee is obtained prior to being placed into nomination. 

I will be heading out to Harrisonburg, VA on the 13^th to attend NTA meetings and assist at convention. Get back home on the 21^st to leave on the 22^nd for Spencer to assist Mike & Kari Mazur with setup, meetings and FTA Rendezvous. The ITA will have a booth at Spencer, so stop by while you are there.

The ITA convention & Sport show will be held at the Cherokee County Fairgrounds in Cherokee Sept 5-6th. The fairgrounds are located on the south-side of town, address is 114 -116 Hickory St.  just East of Hwy 59.  There will be plenty of primitive or electrical camping spots available on grounds. The fairgrounds have added more electrical hook-ups since we were there in 2020. Primitive camping will be $5 per night & $20 per night with electric hook-up. FYI, the fairgrounds will collect camping fees and any fire is required to be off the ground so not to damage the grass please. The 3 motels in town are Cherokee Inn, Best Western LaGrande and Bunk House which is a Ma & PA motel (was Skyline motel). All motels are located at the north end of town on Hwy 59, just south of Hwy 3, about 2-3 miles from the fairgrounds. There are 10 rooms blocked at the Cherokee Inn.  There are no special rates for these rooms. The direct phone numbers for the motels are – Cherokee Inn (712) 225-4278, Best Western LaGrande (712) 225-5701, Bunk House (712) 225-2544. All inside vendors will be in one building at this location. Dealers attending are Funke Trap Tags, Cumberland’s, No BS Lures, Top Lot Stretchers, R&M Lures, Roberts Trading, Keg Creek Bait & Lures, Diggers Custom Woodworks, Mike (Red) O’Hearn, A&J Skinners, Fiber Tuff, Billingsley Brand Lures, Last Step Trap Supply & Tanning, MJ Enterprises, Fletchall Predator Control, Sleepy Creek Tannery, Papio Creek Trap Supply, Bret Smith – Lennon Lures,  Backwater Baits, Cook Fur, Delta Waterfowl, Loess Hills Cages, IA DNR, FTA, NTA & ITA.

Friday evening will be the potluck as in the past. We will again be holding a beginner trapper class starting at 9 A.M. Saturday morning for anyone interested. Also, don’t forget the ITA photo contest, mail your photo/s to, Tom Walters 1723 20th St. Bettendorf, IA 52722 or bring them to convention. If you bring them to convention, get your photo to Tom before noon Saturday for judging.  Be sure to put your name on the back of them as well.  Categories include: Animal in Trap, Trapper and Catch, Multiple Catch and Youth (16 & younger).

The Fall ITA Board of Director’s meeting will be held Thursday September 4^th at 7 P.M. on the fairgrounds in Cherokee. All current ITA members are always welcome to attend any of these meetings. Hope everyone has a good Summer.

Til next time - Craig