A Club for Everyone

Both clubs started as affiliated chapters but headed in different directions throughout the years. Both held tournaments but the emphasis on fishing in each club eventually changed. Both clubs gained and lost members throughout the years but retain a solid and loyal base membership. Both clubs have also succeeded through different methods of keeping the majority of the members satisfied.

While other clubs have come and gone throughout the years, the St. Louis Area Bassmasters and Mid-Lake Bass Club have thrived by sustaining rosters filled with contented members. Both clubs have had minor issues to resolve throughout the years, but each club has swiftly acted upon any discontent to prevent it from festering into a major problem that could cause rifts in the membership.

Here’s how two bass clubs have been set up to keep the members happy throughout the years.

St. Louis Area Bassmasters

This B.A.S.S. Federation Nation club holds eight tournaments a year for its members, but the Missouri chapter seems to place just as much or more emphasis on civic and conservation projects. “We have certain members that are wholeheartedly into conservation,” says Bill Lewis, club president. “Ed Vancil is our conservation director and he has a good working relationship with the MDC (Missouri Department of Conservation). And Gil Kauffmann is our youth director who does an outstanding job with the kids.” Mitch Thomas and Lewis have been in charge of setting up benefit tournaments for the club for several years now.

So good leadership has become a key to keeping St. Louis Area Bassmasters happy. “The guys (in charge) have hung in there for years,” says Lewis. “Everyone knows they do a fine job and get what they need done. So when it comes election time, nobody wants to step up and run against them because they know they have done a good job.”

Longevity of membership has shown how successful the St. Louis club has been in its 22-year history. Thomas is one of the club’s founders and some other members have been in the club since its inception. Lewis, who has been with the club for 21 years, estimates that the average length of membership ranges from 10 to 15 years.

In addition to its tournaments, the club conducts 12 to 15 CastingKids contests a year, holds benefit tournaments for various charities and works on conservation and community projects. The club stresses incorporating the whole family of each member into its activities. “We are more family oriented than most clubs,” discloses Lewis. “When we go to do a conservation project or CastingKids or anything else, all of the families are invited if they want to come and help.”

During its annual club classic last year at Mark Twain Lake, the club members and the families got together for a swim party. Each Saturday before their tournaments, the members and their families get together and barbecue rather than eat out at a restaurant. “We decide on the menu at the club meeting, so the food is all bought and everyone pitches in and helps cook.” Following their annual banquet each winter, the club also has a bowling party for the families.

The St. Louis club appears to be one big happy family that will do anything to help its members. “If a (club member’s) family has a problem and one or two guys get on our web site and say something about it, the other club members are there instantly for them,” says Lewis. “It is just a tight-knit group.”

Just like any other club, the St. Louis Area Bassmasters have had to resolve sticky issues to accommodate the membership. “Over the years, we have had to add stupid little rules about stupid stuff that gets started,” admits Lewis. “We never had anything in our rules about cell phones but we had a couple of guys start using cells phones (in tournaments) so a cell phone rule went into our bylaws this year.”

The biggest issue the club constantly faces is how to spend the money earned from fund-raisers. “We have our account set to where we feel we are fairly well off in case anything ever comes up,” says Lewis. “But there are some people in our club who think that money should to be spent.” Club veterans suggest keeping a surplus in the account and if money is needed for something, the club should just hold another fundraiser.

Club members are welcome to make proposals, but the club allows its board to set the rules. “Most proposals are approved or rejected by the board,” says Lewis. “The general membership usually doesn’t have to vote on too many things. Every two years we also have a bylaws committee with three clubs members and three officers chosen and they hash things out to see what needs to be changed.”

Despite its commitment to holding various activities other than just tournaments, the St. Louis club has been able to keep most of its members happy by letting them do their own thing. “We don’t pressure anyone,” Lewis says. “If they want to come into the club and just fish, they can just fish.”

He believes other clubs can set up the same formula as the St. Louis Area Bassmasters use to fill the needs of all of its members. “I know there are some clubs out there that do nothing for conservation or the kids; all they do is fish,” says Lewis. “We try to stay in the middle of the highway and try to accommodate both sides. It’s not that hard to do.”

Mid-Lake Bass Club

Ed Bryant recalls hearing about an affiliated Lake of the Ozarks bass club that was struggling to recruit more members than its original six founders. “It just wasn’t working for them,” Bryant says. “Nobody wanted to go to the meetings or do any of that stuff.”

So Bryant and his son James joined the club and were instrumental in changing its format. “Basically we took the club over, and over the years evolved it into a thriving fishing club,” says Bryant, now the club’s tournament director.

The club eventually dropped its affiliation and became independent so the members could strictly concentrate on fishing. “That’s’ what we do,” says Bryant. “We are a fishing club. We are not a social club. We are not a community club. We don’t have to answer to anybody except ourselves.”

For the past 10 years, the club’s roster has grown to 92 members who are strictly interested in fishing tournaments. “We try to hold the membership to about 100 because that gives us a maximum of 50 boats and if we get 50-percent participation it gives us 25 boats which is what we always have for tournaments,” says Bryant.

Screening club recruits usually prevents any future problems from the membership. Most recruits are referred by members and there is a two-week waiting period to join. Bryant notes this time period gives the club a chance to check a prospective member’s tournament winnings. “If someone recommends a guy who becomes a jerk, then we go back to the guy who recommended him (and put the onus on him to straighten the guy out),” says Bryant. “We just make sure they are of the character that we want in our club. We don’t want any guy that has had any rumors of cheating and we don’t want any professionals because we are a father-and-son, husband-and-wife type of club.”

The club used to have a unique way to settle differences that provided a good laugh for the members. “At one time we had a rule that said all disputes would be handled by a fist fight,” quips Bryant of the now defunct rule. “And nobody wanted to do that, so we didn’t have any disputes.”

If a problem does arise now, the club handles it immediately with a simple majority vote of the membership. “So then there is nothing left to fester,” says Bryant.

The Mid-Lake Bass Club keeps it simple for the membership by limiting its meetings. “We have one meeting at the beginning of the year when we go over the rules and any changes that anybody might want to make, then the membership votes on it,” says Bryant. “We have 30 to 40 guys who show up for that beginning of the year meeting, so we have a good say then.

“We also schedule our year in that first meeting and if it doesn't work for them, that’s too bad. We tell everybody to bring their schedules to the meeting and that’s why we have such a good turnout for it. There is no way you can keep everybody happy and we know that. So we set our schedule at that time and everybody adheres to it.”

The club requires members to fish four of the eight tournaments on the schedule to qualify for its championship. It holds back 10 percent of entry fees from each tournament and the $20 membership fees, which are all paid back in the championship. “Our bank account is drained at the end of the year,” says Bryant. He believes paying back all the money is the best way to keep his club’s members happy and coming back for more.

“In our club, you come, you pay, you fish, you weigh and you get paid,” says Bryant, who suggests other clubs can suit their members with the same formula. “Don’t try to overdo it. Keep it simple and keep it honest. Don’t go out looking for all that sponsorship stuff. Let your club grow from within and it will thrive.”

The St. Louis Area Bassmasters and Mid-Lake Bass Club have taken different courses to keep its members satisfied, but both have become success stories.

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