Advice on starting a new crappie club

[Thenson]

I am looking at starting a crappie club in southeast MO and would like some advice/opinions/tips on what needs to be done to make it a successful effort. Thank you very much!

[endo2075]

being from semo having decent places to crappie fish would be a start

[bowhunter012463]

My buddy and I was wondering the same thing. Depends if your wanting to have big tournaments or just a few guys and have friendly bet and enjoy some beverages after the fishing and have bragging rights. So please let us know how to start a club.

[CrappiePappy]

At the very minimum, you will need a President & a Treasurer. President to propose ideas on what the club will do, & a Treasurer to keep track of the money involved (if you intend to collect dues, buy jackets/hats/decals/trophies/etc for members). Members can vote on President's proposals.

Tournaments can be held for $$ or just bragging rights ... but, you will need a set of rules to go by. You can always use the major tournament organization's rules & tweak them to fit your club's needs. (that's what we did for our KY Fruit Jar Tournament Series)

You can also talk to the site members that are club members/officers in their state ... several states have their clubs listed as sub-category forums on their state forum boards.

You'll want a "name" for your club, and one that's not already in use (or probably not even one whose initials are the same as others) ... and a Charter probably isn't a bad idea, either.

Most important of all is having club officers that have the time & desire to make the club work, and members that are willing & able to put forth the effort to keep the club going.

... cp

[Thenson]

Thanks for the advice! There are 2 lakes in our county that are good crappie fishing lakes and I had the idea to maybe start a club and have rotating tournaments at each lake. There is only about one tournament a year in this area and I would just like to get organized enough to make this a regular thing. I kinda thought maybe just do a small entry fee at each tournament, like say $20 where people could afford to fish it and at the same time win a few dollars if they placed to make it worth people's while. I have also read people's comments about getting together and sharing stories and techniques and that is something I would really like to see around here.

[Cane Pole]

Don't buy a $1000.00 weigh scale.

[kickingback]

Thenson, I have also heard that the local city will need to be contacted if there is money involved. You will need to file for permits and that costs money. Then you may want advertisers or sponsors to donate items or prizes for the tourneys if you can get enough people to sell the idea to the sponsors. Sometimes that means buying items from them to get them to give some items as well. That raises the costs of entry fees.
Just be sure that were there is money involved, there is usually someone that wants a piece of the pie somewhere...

[Thenson]

Thank you for the advice kickingback! I was hoping people would reply with information like that as I am totally ignorant as to how it all works. If you are part of a club and have some knowledge or advice please share.

[magnum500]

I was in a small bass club and it made it fun to fish. Membership dues were $20 per person. Entry fee was $40 for a two man boat and $25 dollars for a one man boat. Payout was 80% of the take per tournament. Depending on number of boats you either paid two places or three. Divide your 80% payout by the number of places paid. With two boats payout was 65% first place and 35% for second. For three boats it was 50% first, 30% second and 20% third. The winnings are not that big but our whole idea was to get together and have fun with a little reward for good fishing. Records were kept for season and at the end of the year 20% club money was used to buy small trophies for the top three anglers and for the biggest fish( tournament was won by total weight for the boat but each angler had their fish weighed for individual record). We also had a dinner with the awards with some door prizes all paid by the 20%. This way when the season ended all money was spent on the members of the club. Just remember that it is all for fun. We had some people join our club that wanted to try and make it like pro tournaments and got WAY too serious about it and ruined the fun. Just keep it for fun and not profit and there will always be smiles and times.

[Mrs. Crappie Stalker]

You'll need to decide how you want to handle club finances. If you solicit sponsors and/or advertisers, you'll most likely need a tax id number. Easy to get, but then you'll need to file a return. You also need core members who are willing to participate in the chores of running the club. Look at other clubs' rules and tournament regs for ideas and also, you prob want to have folks who participate in your tournaments sign liability waivers.