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| Blog Entry 7/24/09: 4th Annual Waterfowl Bootcamp Well folks, the 4th Annual Waterfowl Bootcamp is over. I worked hard all week to get things ready for the OW Hospitality Tent at the show. T-Shirts had to be printed, decals cut and masked, tent loaded, chairs washed off and loaded...the usual. Friday was a busy day with all that and keeping up with OW, as I had planned to take the new OW site which I have been working on live at Midnight on Friday night/Saturday morning. The new site went live Friday night, and save a few minor glitches I had, all was good! I have received a lot of positive comments from folks, although many were shocked when they entered the site and saw the new look. I'm glad it has been well received! After getting to bed shortly after Midnight, I was up bright and early shortly before 3:00 AM to leave for the show. I had to pick my buddy Kent up at his house on the way down. We rolled into the grounds at 6:08 AM. After looking around for the booth location, I saw one of the Bootcamp committee members and he got us squared away on our spot. Working with a rookie setting up the tent was no problem, and by 8:00 AM when the show officially opened we were ready. It was great to have lots of "O-Dub" members stop by the booth and hang out. I had seven chairs in the booth for folks to sit down and relax in. At one time I counted a total of 15 people in the tent hanging out and talking, getting to know each other. I got to put lots of faces with names/screen names, which was interesting and cool at the same time. It's really funny how you get a picture of someone in your mind when you have "known" them online for a while but without having ever actually met them face to face. We had a free raffle set up; an OW T-Shirt, Sticker, and a waterfowl gunning bag were in the prize package. Evan Planovsky of North Olmsted, Ohio was the winner of the raffle. Congrats Evan! The show itself had a relatively steady flow of folks on Saturday, although I really have no idea how many total were there. Delta Waterfowl hosted a great breakfast from what I heard; unfortunately I never got a chance to find out for myself! I stayed busy all day at the OW Hospitality Tent hooking folks up with T- Shirts and stickers. I didn't have a chance to see a single seminar or demonstration. Saturday night was the OWA Dinner along with the Ducks Unlimited "Sportsman's Night Out" raffle. The food was excellent! Seating was a little tough, as the raffle prize tables seemed to take up a lot of floor space, making the tables tight together. Several folks improvised and took advantage of the pavilion and sat outside to eat. With respect to the raffle itself, I was tired from lack of sleep, so I didn't stick around too long to see how it all shook out. I did hear on Sunday and afterwards several comments about the raffles and how things were set up. Sounds like some folks were disappointed, but I'm sure the committee will take all suggestions and comments into account and improve things for next year. Sunday was a sparse crowd; I would estimate at the OW Tent we had less than a quarter of the visitors we had on Saturday. In the three years I have run/been involved with this as a two day show, that has been the pattern. I don't know for sure why, except that maybe lots of people are just using Sunday as a true day of rest. We waited around for as long as possible, and finally tore down, packed up and got on the road shortly after 3:00 PM. The OWA held a raffle with a HUGE prize pool of items/hunts/equipment donated by the vendors. There were four prize package winners: Grand Prize: Keith Trumbauer – Huber Heights, OH Keith received a marsh boat, decoys, guided hunts, and other equipment. Second Prize: Mike Bard – Jordan, NY Third Prize: Lance Cook – Shelby, OH Fourth Prize: Scott Miller – Delaware, OH Click HERE for photos of the event! |
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