June 14, 2013 - Attempted to get an I.E.N. number from the IRS, but the website is down. I'll try later.
July 3, 2013 - IRS was contacted and I.E.N. number has been obtained. Organizational committee was notified that a meeting has been set for July 8, 2012 at Bass Pro Shop's meeting room. Phone calls were made to members that had not responded by e-mail.
July 8, 2013 - Reminder was sent for RGV Fly Tier's Organizatonal meeting.
July 9, 2013 - RGV Fly Tiers Club organizational meeting agenda:
- Organization Plan
- Constitution and By-laws
- Officer elections and Responsibilities
- Dues and Finances (I.E.N. and Tax Exempt Status
- Future Activities
August 7, 2013 - The membership was notified through various sources of the upcoming RGVFTC membership meeting. The membership will vote on officers and approve the constitution. The constitution will be forwarded for approval to the IFFF legal council and then begin to work on establishing the club as a charter club with the Federation of Fly Fishers.
August 20, 2013 - Nineteen RGVFTC members attended the first Rio Grande Valley Fly Tiers Club meeting. The club voted the following on to the board: Reynaldo "Rey" Ramirez Jr - President, Bryan Robinson - Vice President, Sheala Castillo - Secretary, Charlie Villarreal - Treasurer, Norma Gonzalez - Historian, and Art Roel - Member-at-Large. The minutes were approved. Sheala reported on the Texas Council Conference call and Charlie provided a treasurer's report ($380). The board will meet next Tuesday to finalize bank transactions and submission of charter documents to the Federation. Charlie now has what he needs to establish a bank account. The club also discussed cooperating with other FFF clubs and establish a fly tying schedule. The next fly tying meeting was scheduled for September 3, 2013 in which Jack Keller will tie a flat wing pattern.
August 27, 2013 - The RGVFTC officers met and developed a schedule of fly tying sessions for the next three months. All of the officers were present and approved minutes of August 20th and discussed future fund raising and membership events. Severall events were scheduled that included a one-fly tournament, fly casting class, and angler education instructor course. The schedule will be announced once all conflicts have been established. The next fly tying session was confirmed for September 3, 2013 at Bass Pro Shop. Jack Keller has placed a video on this blog, the Rio Grande Valley Fly Fishing Clubs website, and the RGVFTC Facebook page.
September 3, 2013 - Jack Keller did an excellent job of leading us through the tying of the flat wing fly. We discussed making a few minor changes to the One-Fly Swap Tournament scheduled for September 21, 2013. The time will be changed to come in a little earlier. Tags for the tournament that would be photographed along with the fish will be created. The tournament's end time has been moved back to 1:00 p.m.
September 4, 2013 - The constitution has been accepted by the IFFF. EIN has been sent to national and we're just waiting for final paperwork to be completed. We also opted-in to the insurance coverage provided by the IFFF and will wait for the carrier to contact us to complete that paperwork.
September 20. 2013 - We're almost approved. Everything has been sent to IFFF. We are planning to purchase insurance for the club. There is a big event this coming week in Yellowstone, so the IFFF staff will not be in the office, but they assured me that we would here from them as soon as they return. Charlie Villarreal, Sheala Castillo, and I have been working on our bank account. Hopefully, I'll have everything signed early next week. Unfortunately, we postponed the One Fly Swap Tournament. Two events are coming up in October. Early in the month Charlie Villarreal will tie his Braided Shrimp, the Laguna Madre Fly Fishing Association will be holding their Annual Beach Trip, Oktoberfisch is being held in Junction, Texas, and hopefully before the end of the month we'll have our One Fly Swap Tournament with better weather.
September 29, 2013 - Our bank account should be active by now. All of the signature cards have been signed and the information submitted. Charlie and I worked on the video of the Braided Shrimp which he will teach us to tie at Bass Pro Shop's meeting room in Harlingen tomorrow, October 1, 2013 at 6:30 p.m. Also, all of the paperwork has been submitted for our charter and we hope to hear something sometime this week.
October 4, 2013 - It looks like we're almost ready to call ourselves a chartered club under the IFFF. We have our list of members updated. Rhonda Sellers has contacted me about a few small details, but I'm hoping that we'll get the word early this week. When we do, I'll call a special meeting to celebrate our accomplishment.
October 29, 2013 - Rhonda Sellers, Operations Manager at IFFF, has announced that we are an official International Federation of fly Fishers Chartered Club. We need to have a celebration. The next thing to do is to provide a dedicated e-mail and club information which I'm working on. We'll have club insurance soon and be posted on the IFFF website. For everyone's information the e-mail to the club is rgvftc@gmail.com. I will try to check this one as often as I can, but the officers will do the same.
November 20, 2013 - The RGVFTC officers met to discuss a full agenda this evening. Two officers were not able to attend because of professional and personal reasons. Sheala provided minutes of the last meeting and Charlie noted that we had almost $800 in our account. We received our first bank statement. Charlie would follow up by depositing nearly $75 from dues and raffle money collected at our last fly tying session held at Bass Pro Shop and featured the B-R special tied by Capt. Bryan Robinson. We currently have 16 members who have paid both club and IFFF dues. The membership discussion included attracting members from outside the valley area since we are the only fly tying club associated with the Texas Council. Sheala offered to create fliers as long as we provided some ideas. We also discussed including articles from the officers and members that would help populate our blog and/or an online newsletter. The fly tying sessions will be moved to the third Tuesday of the month in order to not conflict with the LMFFA social events and fly tying sessions. The next fly tying session has been scheduled for Tuesday, December 18, 2013 at Bass Pro Shop and the fly that is scheduled to be tied is a seaducer. The schedule for 2014 will be worked on by Charlie Villarreal and Mike Gonzalez. Each month will be given a theme and the fly selected will fit the monthly theme. We are planning a members' Fun Night Social and General Membership Meeting prior to the annual board elections to be held in August 2014. This date has not been set. The One Fly Swap Tournament had been postponed due to inclimate weather and is being scheduled for July 2014 in order to avoid the high winds of spring. The officers tentatively approved becoming part of the Texas Council's program by taking video and photographs of flies tied at the Texas Fly Fishing Expo scheduled for June 12-16, 2014 in New Braunfels. Rey would check with Bob Shirley and Russell Husted to see about this possibility. Mike Gonzalez agreed to serve as the RGVFTC Conservation Chair and contact Jere Anderson, TC Conservation Chair. Mike would make contact and offer our support for conservation efforts. There was plenty discussed and eaten. We had turkey, ham, yams, and apple pie. Sheala brought some dangerously delicious cookies to the meeting. If you have any questions or remarks, please let us know.
June 11, 2013 - Met with members of the Laguna Madre Fly Tiers Group and explained the changes that we're going through to work toward charter status with the IFFF.
June 12, 2013 - Established a Facebook page for the Rio Grande Valley Fly Tiers Club and it has been linked to the Texas Council of the Federation of Fly Fishers. Our Facebook Page.
June 13, 2013 - We have been busy working on becoming a charter club with the International Federation of Fly Fishers. If you want to know more about what we're needing to accomplish Click Here. Several members of the Laguna Madre Fly Tier's Group have been contacted to serve as an organizing committee. We have gone down the checklist toward membership and have contacted the Federation of Fly Fishers headquarters.
February 4, 2014 - The RGVFTC officers met to complete the 2013 financial report requested by the IFFF to compile information needed to meet IRS requirements. Officers present were Dr. Reynaldo Ramirez, Jr., Sheala Castillo, Charlie Villarreal, Norma Gonzalez, and Mike Gonzalez. All of the paperwork was completed and was to be submitted by Charlie before the February 17, 2014 deadline. On the agenda was a discussion about fly tying sessions. The fly selected for next weeks session was "Lefty's Deceiver and the location and time confirmed for Bass Pro Shop meeting room on February 12, 2014. This is the second fly tying session. The first was conducted on January 18, 2014 by Jack Keller and Charlie Villarreal who tied their version of the "HI-TI Deceiver". The fly tying sessions will be moved back to Tuesdays beginning March 2014. The RGVFTC now has their own website "www.riograndeflytyers.org". Click HERE to visit. Preliminary discussions about the casting program were announced by Dr. Ramirez and all members were asked to encourage new members to attend Basic and Intermediate Classes. Dr. Ramirez would begin advanced classes for anyone wanting to become a CCI. He explained that there are not enough CCIs in the south Texas region. Discussion on the One Fly Tournament was brief, but a tentative date is set for June 20-21, 2014. Other tournament and contests are also being considered.
September 24, 2014 - The officers present were Dr. Reynaldo Ramirez, Jr., Sheala Castillo, Charlie Villarreal, Art Roel, and Mike Gonzalez. Officers decided to contact the president of the Surf Riders Foundation to support dune restoration on South Padre Island. Sheala Castillo would be the contact person. In addition, we will begin planning a Kids Fly Tying event during the Christmas Holidays. Dr. Reynaldo Ramirez, Jr., would be contacting Matthew Whittington to begin making preparations for the event. Dr. Ramirez spoke about his speaking engagement with the Texas Fly Fishers out of Houston, Texas and the upcoming Oktoberfisch event near Junction, Texas. A tentative meeting was scheduled for October 28, 2014.
November 18, 2014 - Officers present were Dr. Reynaldo Ramirez, Jr., Sheala Castillo, Norma Gonzalez, Charlie Villarreal, Art Roel, and Mike Gonzalez. Dr. Ramirez informed the club that Bryan Robinson was resigning as Vice President due to increased obligations at work. We discussed who may replace Bryan, but no action was taken. The officers spoke about membership and the type of members who may be interested in joining. We want to really encourage those individuals who have a deep commitment to conservation and education. We discussed having a series of event that would encourage individuals to join the club and enter the sport of fly fishing. The thought would be to raffle fishing trips after participation in fly casting, fly fishing, and fly tying instruction. Dr. Ramirez would work on developing this program. We were joined on a conference call by Rob Nixon, President of the Surf Rider Foundation that informed us of the goals of the foundation which was established in 2008. He spoke of the purpose of the dune restoration project which each year attempts to establish plants that would help stabilize the island's dunes. Unfortunately, the next planting will be Saturday, November 21st just three days away. We expressed an interest in helping with planting in the future and would make every attempt to get members out this weekend. The planting schedule occurs monthly from November to April. Mike and Charlie would begin working on the 2015 Fly Tying Schedule so that it can be published before the end of the year. Also, Dr. Ramirez announced the inception of the IFFF Fly Tying Group Fly Tying Skills Award Program. This would be a separate program. Before the meeting was adjourned the members agreed to have a social for the membership on Tuesday, December 16 at Dr. Ramirez' home.
February 4, 2014 - The RGVFTC officers met to complete the 2013 financial report requested by the IFFF to compile information needed to meet IRS requirements. Officers present were Dr. Reynaldo Ramirez, Jr., Sheala Castillo, Charlie Villarreal, Norma Gonzalez, and Mike Gonzalez. All of the paperwork was completed and was to be submitted by Charlie before the February 17, 2014 deadline. On the agenda was a discussion about fly tying sessions. The fly selected for next weeks session was "Lefty's Deceiver and the location and time confirmed for Bass Pro Shop meeting room on February 12, 2014. This is the second fly tying session. The first was conducted on January 18, 2014 by Jack Keller and Charlie Villarreal who tied their version of the "HI-TI Deceiver". The fly tying sessions will be moved back to Tuesdays beginning March 2014. The RGVFTC now has their own website "www.riograndeflytyers.org". Click HERE to visit. Preliminary discussions about the casting program were announced by Dr. Ramirez and all members were asked to encourage new members to attend Basic and Intermediate Classes. Dr. Ramirez would begin advanced classes for anyone wanting to become a CCI. He explained that there are not enough CCIs in the south Texas region. Discussion on the One Fly Tournament was brief, but a tentative date is set for June 20-21, 2014. Other tournament and contests are also being considered.
September 24, 2014 - The officers present were Dr. Reynaldo Ramirez, Jr., Sheala Castillo, Charlie Villarreal, Art Roel, and Mike Gonzalez. Officers decided to contact the president of the Surf Riders Foundation to support dune restoration on South Padre Island. Sheala Castillo would be the contact person. In addition, we will begin planning a Kids Fly Tying event during the Christmas Holidays. Dr. Reynaldo Ramirez, Jr., would be contacting Matthew Whittington to begin making preparations for the event. Dr. Ramirez spoke about his speaking engagement with the Texas Fly Fishers out of Houston, Texas and the upcoming Oktoberfisch event near Junction, Texas. A tentative meeting was scheduled for October 28, 2014.
November 18, 2014 - Officers present were Dr. Reynaldo Ramirez, Jr., Sheala Castillo, Norma Gonzalez, Charlie Villarreal, Art Roel, and Mike Gonzalez. Dr. Ramirez informed the club that Bryan Robinson was resigning as Vice President due to increased obligations at work. We discussed who may replace Bryan, but no action was taken. The officers spoke about membership and the type of members who may be interested in joining. We want to really encourage those individuals who have a deep commitment to conservation and education. We discussed having a series of event that would encourage individuals to join the club and enter the sport of fly fishing. The thought would be to raffle fishing trips after participation in fly casting, fly fishing, and fly tying instruction. Dr. Ramirez would work on developing this program. We were joined on a conference call by Rob Nixon, President of the Surf Rider Foundation that informed us of the goals of the foundation which was established in 2008. He spoke of the purpose of the dune restoration project which each year attempts to establish plants that would help stabilize the island's dunes. Unfortunately, the next planting will be Saturday, November 21st just three days away. We expressed an interest in helping with planting in the future and would make every attempt to get members out this weekend. The planting schedule occurs monthly from November to April. Mike and Charlie would begin working on the 2015 Fly Tying Schedule so that it can be published before the end of the year. Also, Dr. Ramirez announced the inception of the IFFF Fly Tying Group Fly Tying Skills Award Program. This would be a separate program. Before the meeting was adjourned the members agreed to have a social for the membership on Tuesday, December 16 at Dr. Ramirez' home.
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