May 2007 Directors Report
Well the time is drawing near for our season opener hosted by Mattagami First Nation. We are sure everyone is eager to renew old acquaintances and looking forward to seeing some fresh faces on the north’s premier tournament fishing trail. With an eye on the future, your NOPWT executive has been busy preparing for the upcoming season and beyond. After examining all that we do, your executive felt there were two major barriers to the continued growth and success of our trail.
While the NOPWT has grown its membership steadily since 2003, we are, we believe at a crossroads that will determine the success of our trail in the years to come. The NOPWT is made possible by the volunteers who put on the six individual events we call our tournament trail. While this is probably our greatest strength, it also brings with it challenges when dealing with potential sponsors. Companies are bombarded with requests for promotional support and have to be selective where to best spend their limited marketing dollars. When we are fortunate enough to convince a potential sponsor to support the NOPWT, we need to be able to make some promises in return. Your executive felt that while we were doing a good job in this department, there was a need for some changes to be made in the way we operate.
Secondly, in talking with anglers it has become apparent that there are those who see the NOPWT as a private club with little or no benefit to them as individuals. After much consideration, we have come up with a format that we believe will position the NOPWT as a premier tournament trail with potential to experience growth in participation, and as a result increased sponsorship.
The format we chose is a franchise-style organization that requires member tournaments to pay an affiliation fee to be a member of the NOPWT. At the same time we would eliminate the entry fee for individual anglers so that entry into the NOPWT becomes automatic when an angler enters one of the affiliated tournaments. In exchange, each tournament will be given a seat on the NOPWT executive along with five angler representatives who are voted in by their peers. All anglers who fish at least 3 events will be given a vote to elect their choices for the representative board.
We are proud to announce our proposal has been accepted by all 6 member events and we are moving forward to implement this program for the 2007 season. By making this move now, we have given ourselves one voice when dealing with potential sponsors and have opened up the ranks of the NOPWT to include all anglers who enjoy the sport of tournament fishing. In turn, we are better able to meet sponsor demands with regards to exposure for their brands at our events. In addition to qualifying for NOPWT prizes, anglers will be able to track their points in the quest for “angler of the year” and to post their own bio in the angler portal section of the NOPWT website.
All major sponsorship deals will be made with the benefit of the whole NOPWT at the forefront. Each tournament will enjoy an equal share of the sponsorship proceeds with a seventh share being used by the NOPWT for additional prizes and the angler of the year race. In addition the NOPWT will provide technical advice on tournament operation, free updating and hosting of each events section of the NOPWT website as well as any support possible to ensure the success of each community’s event. It is our mission to help each event grow & prosper under the NOPWT banner.
Had this system been in place in 2006 we would have boasted a membership of over 800 anglers. This is a very significant number to bring to the table when discussing deals with potential sponsors and can only help us secure more support for the benefit of both our tournaments and the anglers who fish them.
We are excited about this new approach to running the NOPWT and hope that you also see it as a positive step toward the future. Whether you are a past member of the trail or a new angler interested in participating in our tournament series, we welcome your questions and comments. We encourage you to sign up on our website and please tell your fishing buddies to check us out on the web at www.nopwt.com .
In addition, the NOPWT executive will be in Mattagmi and can answer any other questions you may have at that time. Get those hooks sharpened, the new NOPWT season is only days away. We’ll see you there!
Bill Arnott
Terry Bernath
Cory Nephin
Dave Stiles
Jamie Robinson
March 2007 Directors Report
The NOPWT board of directors would like to thank all the anglers for their support during the 2006 fishing season. The battle for top spot in the NOPWT was closer than ever and was decide during the last hours of the final tournament. We anticipate next year will bring more of the same exciting results with hopefully more participating anglers. It is the responsibility of all anglers to try and promote our circuit too fellow anglers and sponsors. The circuit will only be a success and grow if we all work together.
The addition of Princecraft Boats to the circuit in 2006 was a definite plus to the circuit. Their generosity of two boats and cash at each of the tournaments helped the circuit gain notoriety and interest from anglers throughout Northern Ontario. They were very impressed with the tournaments and felt they were getting fair exposure for their investment. We anticipate this relationship continuing for many years.
The current board of directors worked this winter in an attempt to move the NOPWT to the next level in walleye tournament trails. We have taken notice of the changes and ideas presented at the 2006 spring meeting in Gogama by the anglers and will attempt to implement as many of the changes as possible by the 2007 fishing season. This report is one of our solutions to the problem of a lack of communication between the NOPWT Executive and the anglers. The executive will attempt to send out a report every month to keep the members abreast of the actions of the board.
Our first project was the launch of the new NOPWT website. We appreciate the effort the Hearst fish and game club put forward to host our site but the directors and anglers felt it was necessary to find our own identity on the web. This new website is designed to offer a place for members to visit and keep up with what’s happing with the NOPWT, a location to promote our sponsors, and a location to offer input to the directors. The site has been designed by anglers for anglers and should offer all the information one could possibly want regarding the NOPWT and walleye tournament angling. The new address is nopwt.com and should be up and running by April 2007.
We would like the members to visit and explore the site to see what it has to offer. The message board section allows users to ask questions, offer opinions, and provide commentary. We feel this section will allow for the continual exchange of information between the members of the NOPWT. It is very important that you offer your advice and input regarding the site as we want the site to represent the whole of the NOPWT.
The site will also help promote the individual tournaments which make up the NOPWT. Our site will have contact information, registration forms and other important tournament information. We hope that this will help the tournaments, not currently online, market themselves to a broader audience and in turn increase the NOPWT exposure.
The website will also have an angler’s profile section. This section will allow the NOPWT anglers a location to advertise themselves on the web. It will provide the anglers a platform to discuss past tournament successes, biggest tournament fish caught, number and location of events attended each year, photos of themselves, and most importantly it provides a place for anglers to promote and link their sponsors. We feel this section will help us anglers attract more personal sponsors. We require you to fill out the information form and include a couple photos you would like displayed on your page. Please email this information as soon as possible so we can get the site up and running. Visit the website for email addresses and information forms.
During our summer meetings, the board of directors began to investigate other changes the anglers presented at the spring meeting. Unfortunately, we were forced to suspend the tournament in New Liskeard due to a lack of participation. We felt that points offered in this tournament were not comparable to the larger more competitive tournaments. If the tournament is able to demonstrate that it can attract a larger field of anglers in the future, we would revisit the decision. We would still hope that the anglers that have supported the tournament return again this season to help the tournament continue to grow.
Below is a list of changes the board has made for 2007:
- The board of director’s structure and voting has changed from previous years. The board will now consist of 5 elected members. We no longer have designations for the board such as (president, vice, secretary etc.). We felt these titles only created problems during the voting and operation of the trail. The five members will now divided the work according to the strengths of each director. We will have a more in-depth definition of the board and its role on the website.
- New website and message board
- A monthly director’s report to outline the work being done. It should be similar to this document and give a brief outline of the NOPWT operations
.
Below is a list of the items from the spring meeting we hope to investigate this winter. Items on this list will not necessarily be changed for 2007 but we will definitely examine them all and prioritize them.
- Create a charter/vision/mission statement for the NOPWT
- Review the points system
- Decide on a trophy or ring as a prize
- New logo
- Seek funding dollars
- Rules changes
- Pay entry into the Canadian Walleye Championships Pine Falls for NOPWT winner
- Incorporate as a not for profit organization
- Sell hats and/or t-shirts to advertise the trail
- Discuss with Princecraft the awarding of the $500 prize to one of the top 5 teams
- Have the NOPWT become more active in assisting the individual tournaments
- Develop a marketing strategy geared towards attracting anglers and sponsors
- Present a financial statement at all meetings
- Define a geographic area which all tournaments should lie within
- Have an annual meeting open to all NOPWT angler
- Produce a brochure advertising the NOPWT to hand out at the various tournaments
- Examine the costs associated with the registration fee for the NOPWT and each Tournament
If you have any other questions, comments, or ideas regarding the NOPWT, please forward an email to the directors or visit the websites message board. We hope this gives the anglers a little insight into the work currently happening behind the scenes.
Thanks again and we look forward to hearing from you on the website or via email.
NOPWT Board of directors
Cory Nephin
Bill Arnott
Jamie Robinson
Terry Bernath
Dave Stiles