ATA Announces 2023 Board of Directors Election Results

Voters in the 2023 Archery Trade Association Board of Directors election retained two current Board members and installed one newly elected Board member.

Jon Lené, current vice chair of the Board and general manager of Bear Archery; Jon DuMars, vice president of sales at Pure Archery Group; and Steve Lambeth, national sales manager at Wildlife Research Center, Inc., were all elected by their peers during the recent election held January 31 to March 1, 2023.

“The passion, experience and expertise of the ATA Board of Directors is vital to addressing the needs of our members and the ever-changing environment of the archery industry,” said Jeff Poole, president and CEO of the ATA. “Those newly elected, as well as our current Board members, are leaders from throughout the industry and we’ll continue to leverage their expertise to help protect and grow archery and bowhunting.”

Bear Archery and Pure Archery Group will continue to hold their seats on the Board, with Wildlife Research Center, Inc., set to join.

“It’s an honor to be elected for another term on the ATA Board of Directors and thank you to everyone who voted for Bear Archery and myself to represent you,” said Lené. “I look forward to continuing to work with the ATA staff and fellow members on challenging issues facing our industry including growing the trade show, creating value for our members, and promoting the sports of archery and bowhunting.”

“I’m excited to bring my 20-plus years of archery industry experience to the ATA Board, and its committees, as we work to preserve and grow our great sport for all those involved,” said DuMars. “Pure Archery Group is dedicated to supporting the ATA’s mission.”

“The ATA and archery industry are facing many challenges, but I’m looking forward to the opportunity to promote the sport we are all so passionate about,” said Lambeth. “Every positive contribution we make as an industry and as ATA members can help create a brighter future for archery and bowhunting.”

The 4-year term for Lené, DuMars and Lambeth will begin April 1, 2023, and end March 31, 2027. They will join Poole, the ATA’s senior directors, current Board members and all interested ATA members at the 2023 ATA Board of Directors’ meeting held in St. Louis, Missouri, April 18-19.

"I want to thank departing ATA Board member Randy Kitts, who represented Black Eagle Arrows, Conquest Archery and Darton Archery, for his years of service,” said Poole. “We’re appreciative of the work he has done and the work he continues to do for the betterment of the industry.”

For more information, contact Allison Jasper at allisonjasper@archerytrade.org or (507) 233-8136.

 

IBO Announces New Indoor World Tournament for Genesis Class Shooters

The International Bowhunting Organization will hold the 2023 IBO Genesis Indoor World Championship on May 10-12, 2023. This inaugural event will take place in the West Wing of the Kentucky Expo Center in Louisville, Kentucky. This event is open to all NASP and other Genesis archers per the IBO Rule for the “GEN” class.

This class is for archers in NASP eligible grades 4-12 using the same equipment rules as required for all NASP events using the unmodified original Genesis bow and NASP Easton arrows. GEN archers will shoot from the neon pink stake.

Archers will shoot one arrow at each of the 30 species of Rinehart Targets, from unknown distances out to a max distance of 20 yards with IBO Scoring. An awards ceremony will be held on Friday evening after the last flight is completed.

The winning archer from each division will be awarded an IBO World Champion belt buckle. The top three archers in each division will be awarded with plaques. Twenty archers from each division will qualify to advance to compete in the 2023 IBO World Championship that will be held in West Virginia beginning on August 10, 2023.

“Working with our partners at NASP, this event will continue to advance our mission to build new archers and bowhunters” said IBO Vice President Ryan Bass. “We anticipate over 15,000+ NASP archers from around the country arriving to compete in NASP Bullseye and the NASP/IBO 3D Challenge during this same week. These are exciting times for our industry as we are seeing not only new archers being developed, but also family members coming back into the sport.”

Important note: Total capacity for this event will be 2,880 archers. Pre-registration will begin April 1, 2023. To register, visit: 2023 IBO Genesis Indoor World Registration

For more information, contact the International Bowhunting Organization at: (440)967-2137 or email ibo@ibo.net

 

S3DA Hosts 8th Annual Eastern Indoor National Championship

The Owensboro Convention Center in Owensboro, Kentucky, was the stage for the 8th annual S3DA Eastern Indoor National Championship on March 2-5, 2023. Nearly 1,000 youth archers from 118 teams across the nation descended on the convention center all vying for their shot at being named the national champion in their respective division and class.

The competition was tight, with 125 archers shooting one clean round (150) and 65 archers shooting a clean (300). This culminated in eight shoot-offs to determine placement.

S3DA Executive Director Holly Helton said, “The logistics of hosting an indoor event of this magnitude is incredibly intense with months of planning by an impeccably dedicated staff of employees and volunteers. The many hours of sustained collaboration and attention to detail did not go unnoticed. The end result was a great competition by scores of skilled athletes as well as the time-honored, and well-loved, tradition of visiting with their archery families. We are excited to begin work on our next eastern event which will be the S3DA 3D National Championship, to be held in Rend Lake, Illinois, in June and we guarantee, it will be an event you will not want to miss.”

Sherwood Forest Archery S3DA member, Madison Grubb stated, “I am a senior in the S3DA program, and I came to Owensboro, Kentucky with one goal – to shoot a clean 300. This is my second S3DA Indoor National event, and I am elated that we made the 8-hour trip. After shooting a clean round on Friday, I decided pure determination and focus would come back in my place on Saturday to knock it out of the park. I finished with a 300 and 43 X’s. To place in the top 10 of a very competitive female open class is a dream come true. Words really can’t describe the overwhelming emotions in that moment of knowing you just shot a perfect score.”

Several collegiate archery program coaches attended the event to recruit and speak with archers. Young Adults who podiumed were presented with thousands of dollars in scholarship opportunities from various colleges and universities. Vendors attending the event and marketing to the large crowd of archers and spectators were Lancaster Archery Supply and GAS Bowstrings (both S3DA National Sponsors), as well as B3 Archery and AEP (Arrow Engineering Products).

Owensboro Convention Center will be home to the 2024 S3DA Indoor National Championship. For more information regarding upcoming events, visit www.s3da.net.

 

onX Hunt “40X” Event Helps Raise $2M for Conservation, Access Projects in Minnesota

onX Hunt, along with partner Final Rise, recently helped raise $2 million at the company’s “40X” event at the 2023 Pheasant Fest & Quail Classic in Minneapolis, Minnesota, thanks to matching funds that multiplied the organizations’ $50,000 donation by 40X.

40X refers to Pheasants Forever’s ability to match every dollar donated towards projects in Minnesota by 40X thanks to Pheasants Forever chapters and partners in conservation. onX donated $25,000 to Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever, while Final Rise sold limited-edition hats to raise an additional $25,000. Together, after the 40X matching, that translates to $2 million raised for access projects in Minnesota.

The 40X event saw more than 1,000 attendees from across the country come together to support onX Hunt and Pheasants Forever’s shared missions of permanently protecting critical habitat for upland wildlife as well as opening more land to public hunting. In addition to drinks, live music and giveaways, attendees were able to pin their favorite upland hunting state on a large U.S. map. Six hundred pins were placed in 40 states, and for each pin, onX Hunt donated $40 to Pheasants Forever. onX rounded up that $24,000 total to a $25,000 donation.

“It never ceases to amaze me how passionate uplanders are about the pursuit of wild birds in wild places,” said onX Wingshooting Manager Ben Brettigen. “We are incredibly thankful for the Pheasants and Quail Forever team as well as the chapters and members who put in the work creating access and habitat in those wild places. Bird hunters from all over the country came out to support and celebrate these habitat and access opportunities at the 40X event, and we’re proud to have helped forge relationships among hunters and raise funding for the Habitat Organization.”

The 40X initiative is part of onX Hunt’s commitment to protecting habitat and increasing access to public lands. In the past 2 years, onX has helped support over 1,000 acres of public access across Minnesota, South Dakota and Iowa through Pheasants Forever’s Build a Wildlife Area program. Across the United States, onX aims to improve access to over 150,000 acres of public lands and build or restore 150 miles of trails by the end of 2023. The Minnesota access projects benefiting from this year’s 40X event will soon be identified. Of course, these public lands are home to upland birds, as well as deer and wild turkeys.

“We’re so blessed to work with partners like onX who truly ‘get it’,” said Pheasants Forever & Quail Forever Vice President of Corporate Partnerships Chris Kalis. “Not only does onX support our non-profit organization’s infrastructure through sponsorship support, but they take it a step further and contribute directly to our habitat and access mission. With grant partnerships we have in place, the 40X event is going to result in matching those contributions by a magnitude of forty times to help us do good things for our conservation mission. Thanks to onX and every uplander who contributed at the 40X event.”