Club Activities

Club Activities

The club is more than just hunting. For many of the members it’s the friendships, work days out in the field and everything that goes along with a social group. So, we try to make opportunities to enhance this experience. Work days are a big part of our year round effort, but we plan other activities that bring the membership together. Our largest event is hosting the Delaware State Calling Championship held on the last Sunday in August. One our members and Avery Pro-staffer, Allan Stanley (Click here to see Allan's resume') is the person responsible for the calling contest. Allan gathers several former world champion callers to create an unprecedented panel of judges. The 2006 World Champion Goose Caller could be heard at the 2006 Delaware State Contest. It would be simple to have the contest in a school auditorium, but hosting the contest at the club under a tent that is surrounded by wide open fields brings something special. The resident geese and doves flying overhead make the contest very unique. In the second year of the contest, the organizers added retailers, food vendors and sponsors such as; Dave Smith Decoys, Mud Buddy and Duck Water Boats which will ensure our success long into the future. Based upon the multiple raffles and door prizes the attendance exceeded 350 last year. Approximately 25 members volunteered time for parking, refreshment sales, time keeping and setting up the contest. Photos of the events are below and a web-site with contest details can be found here.

Every season begins at the end of the summer with a General Membership meeting. All of the members have an opportunity to get keys, vehicle decals, farm maps and other club paperwork for the new season. We get everyone together at one time to discuss any changes to our rules, new properties and let the new members meet everyone. Everything is locked down for the season and we discuss the practical aspects how we will hunt each property such as the number of decoys kept on site, blind access and expected scheduling. The season closes with another meeting in the spring to discuss the past season while it is still fresh. While we might discuss changing the mix of the leased farms, we really just celebrate the marathon that was the hunting season. This meeting is held at the Elks Club in Chestertown and we look forward to it every year.

During the long cold spring the club will often host hunting seminars at the clubhouse. These are well attended and acknowledged as very beneficial. We invite experts to the club such as Kevin Popo, two-time World Goose Calling Champion for a seminar on short reed goose calling techniques.

Another spring event is Volunteer Day. Club members gather before the nesting season to complete projects that will improve our habitat. We have built wood duck nesting boxes and hen houses to erect along our waterways. We make it fun for the kids and try and show how our small conservation projects can have a lasting effect. Some of our projects involve deer conservationism as well.

The club has hosted disabled veterans, active duty servicemen and the Wheelin’ Sportsman Organization for dove, duck and goose hunts through the season.

The discussion forums on our internet site has brought the club together in many different ways. We have an active bunch that post regularly. Due to this member interaction we are the 25th most popular hunting site ANYWHERE on the World Wide Web. We can immediately share hunting reports among the entire membership and our members that live far from the properties feel more connected. In 2007, a live chat module was installed as well, which will give us the opportunity to have live, real-time, meetings online. I envision that live chat will be utilized both by friends wanting to discuss scheduling hunts, and for more formal club meetings, where it is not practical for all members to travel to one location.

Lastly, the clubhouse brings members together each and every weekend to go fishing in the summer, shoot sporting clays or just to run the dogs at the farm. This is why the house is available all year long.