Saturday, March 15th was the annual ITBS Banquet in Ames, IA. This was my first year attending so I really did not know what to expect, but I was hoping to accomplish two things: meet a lot of new people, and have a good time. I managed to do both, and I think that pretty much anyone else showing up there in my situation would have been able to do the same.

What they call the Banquet is really a day-long event held at the Izaac Walton League of Ames. I was impressed by the facilities and hadn't been expecting there to be such a large amount of space at our disposal. The only other folks I saw there all day were a few guys down a ways at the gun range shooting pistols. Since they have this on the trailing edge of the winter season, it means that the weather for shooting outside might be iffy, but it does mean we have the place to ourselves.

Overall, the event is a pretty informal one with folks coming and going throughout the day as necessary. As scheduled, the gates opened at 10:00 am, at which point people started trickling in to help setup. I got there at 10:00 not wanting to miss anything, and the first person I met on the way in was Gene Winter (president of ITBS and owner of Winter Bow Shoppe of Waterloo), so I got to speak with him for a few minutes before helping with a few tables and chairs.

The Swap Meet they have scheduled is an informal event as well, with participants brining old stuff to sell/trade, pricing it, tagging their name on it, and setting it on the specified tables. If somebody wants to make a buy, they just take the item and hunt you down sometime during the day and get you your money. If you are attending in the future and thinking about getting rid of a few things, it won't hurt to bring them along!

Other informal events throughout the day include shooting, talking about bows, and more shooting. This can be done at either the indoor 3D range that they setup in the downstairs pistol range, outside at the archery range, or roving the trails stump shooting. I managed to accomplish a little of each and was pretty wiped out by the end of the day (sometimes it becomes apparent that I spend a lot of time indoors during the winter). Suggestions for you folks? Bring some bunny-buster arrows, blunts, hex heads, or something similar. It took me one field-pointed arrow ricocheting off into the trees before somebody lent me a hex-tipped arrow (thanks!). I hadn't figured on any stump shooting and only managed to grab a handful of field-points before I ran out the door that morning.

The only formal portions of the day do not start until 5:00pm when the meal is served. This year (maybe every year?) it was catered by Hickory Park and was amazing. I will go ahead and declare that it is impossible to leave this event hungry - if anyone proves me wrong they're welcome to let me know. As the meal winds down, club business starts up - they tie up a few odds and ends and nominate people for the election of Directors which happens at the May Rendezvous. The way I understand it, existing directors whose term has run up can either be replaced with one of the nominees at voting time or stay in if they so choose. I volunteered, so come this May I'll let you know how that turns out.

The final event of the evening is the fund-raiser auction for the club. Throughout the day members show up with their donations for the event so you get to admire them for hours before you have a chance at them. In some of the pictures here you'll see a few custom arrows and some staves that were on the auction this year, but also included were armguards, tabs, camo clothes, rolls of artificial sinew, broadheads, and more. And really, some of it ends up going for a very reasonable price. I picked up a set of 190gr Grizzly heads for $20 ($5 less than current 3 Rivers pricing) and I wish I had picked up one of the staves that went for $10.

So a quick summary to prep you for next year...

• Send in your RSVP and $15 (2008 price) - check www.iowatbs.com for details.
• Come and go as you please, but showing up early gets you a jump-start on meeting folks
• Lunch is not provided (5 minute drive back into town for food, or bring your own)
• Bring boots for stump shooting along the trails
• Bring blunts! (hex heads, bunny busters, etc)
• Bring lots of arrows! (though I only brought a few and survived just fine)
• Bring stuff for the Swap Meet and/or Auction
• Bring a few bucks for Auction shopping
• Figure on meeting a good group of folks

To sum up, it was an excellent time - I'm looking forward to the ITBS Rendezvous in May!