Well the Board of Directors met last night for the monthly meeting. Here are my opinions and some of the things discussed were as follows:

  •  Heritage Committee – Fred continues to work on the history of USI. If any Diablo members have any older pictures or patches or other memorabilia please let me know. Fred is doing a great job in this effort and its an important task. I hope we can find more people to help Fred.
  • Investment Comm. Robyn Wendt gave an update detailing his discussions with various investment houses and it appears that Well Fargo may be the choice that USI chooses to invest with. Robyn and committee will have a proposal for the board no later that June. Robyn I think is going to be a great contributor in helping USI wisely invest in some of its liquid assets. Good things to come here so stay tuned.
  • The flurry and 5 stand towers are still going through the process of getting cleared. The county came back and had more requirements so USI is working on those.
  • CPR Training and RSO Training — Ed gave a quick overview of the past CPR training that was given for the AEDs and CPR certification. Roy Bryson also indicated that he will be having a RSO Class coming up soon and all that are interested should back to him for spots.
  • PG&E property swap… is moving along and Rudy is in contact with the correct people.
  • New Range development comm… Roy was a little late to the meeting so I gave a short overview of what was posted earlier about our meeting with the building architect and the requirements the clubs have given him to date.

Some of the old business that was discussed was rather troubling once again. It seems that other clubs constantly make the excuse that they “Need to take this back to their members/board” for discussion but actually never really do that… all they do is delay another month in what I can only guess is hopes that maybe a different board will be seated soon for USI. An example was Brentwoods delegate stated that he needed to take back (yet again) the prospected changes to the fee increases that have been on the discussion block now for well over a month. All of the clubs know about them and what they are, but now all of a sudden these delegates after YEARS of making decisions all by themselves have to take things back to their memberships or boards, While I agree this should happen from time to time, when only as TYPO in a document leads you to saying I have to take this back and discuss I dont see what there is to discuss?? When I directed a question to the Brentwood delegate that hasn’t he already taken this back to his members last month when it was requested that was needed… his response was no… he didnt… so regardless he wasnt ready for the meeting, again. That caused some people to look at me rather funny and I think I even heard a veteran member of another club state I should shut up… nice!

Moving on… More extended talks about the USI extended hours TRIAL that was discussed last month… Bay Points delegate said that his board was in full support of the extended hours trial and they made a motion to have the range implement the hours on a trial basis.  On another point or confusing to me was Walnut creek’s delegate is saying that it would be a complete waste of money (Labor hours) to try this because it MAY not work??!! Not even sure what sense that makes as we’ll never know if something will work or not IF WE DONT ACTUALLY TRY IT!!? This went on and on from Walnut Creek… so I guess you can say its ok for other clubs to extend hours at the shotgun fields and even install lights to further that endeavor… but heaven forbid should we talk about a TRIAL period to see if extended hours will work or not on the rifle / pistol ranges. After MUCH more discussion… It was finally voted unanimously by all the clubs to move forward with the new extended hours TRIAL. I must say I got pretty frustrated with all of the talk on just a trial so it was truly good to see the clubs all agree to move forward on this.

The range would be open as follows. Date to start still to be announced but no later than June 1st 2015.

Monday 9:00am till 8:00pm (Shotgun will be closed on Monday)
Tuesdays — CLOSED
Wednesdays — 9:00am till 8:00pm
Thursdays — 9:00am till 8:00pm
Fridays — 9:00am till 8:00pm
Weekends — 9:00am till 6:00pm

Those hours will be for the “Summer ONLY and are VERY Subject to change! As levels are studied staffing will/can be adjusted according to the management at the individual range masters which could see days and hours curtailed.

Next up was the Capital Budget and its included items…

These are proposed items only and still need to be discussed by the board. These are 2015-2016 items. If anyone would like more information on them please some to a member meeting and bring them up in the good of the club section so that we can discuss them.

  • Property trade with PG&E
  • ADA Modifications
  • ADA ramp at RP
  • Artificial Turf @ Field 6
  • Artificial Turf @ Field 2-5
  • Artificial Turf @ Field 7-9
  • Adding a skeet field overlay on #7
  • New Range Development
    • Complete Arch planning, design
    • complete engineering
    • prepare bid package
    • begin site prep
    • paving
  • POS system upgrade
  • Office Space
  • Sand Filters for water
  • redevelop existing well
  • add 6 pistol lanes and 6 rifle lanes
  • replace 1/2 of all pistol lanes
  • replace 1/2 of all rifle lanes
  • purchase bobcat for range use.

 

For the most part that was about it… I have to say it once again it was depressing to see other clubs seem to not want to improve the overall operation and look of the USI campus. To anyone that says that just isnt true… I would point you to the minutes of the meetings to see how the individual delegates voted on things that would either improve USIs image/grounds or improving its operations. I hope clubs can come together… I hope that we can make USI a great range. Till next time gang…