GOAL Annual Meeting and Awards Breakfast

February 26, 2011

Breakfast, what’s not to like?  Stacks of pancakes, French toast, sausage, bacon, hash browns and really good coffee were all in my near future as I helped prepare the room for our Annual Meeting and Awards Breakfast.  Soon the room was ready, and we were greeting a steady stream of GOAL members who were unfazed by the snow/slush/freezing rain mix that had been falling for the last 12 or so hours.

Everyone arrived in great spirits, many of them veterans of last year’s breakfast meeting.  They were soon greeted by the Carriage House staff with tray after tray of food, and soon we were all sitting down enjoying the meal and catching up with old or making new friends.

After multiple trips to the buffet line we were welcomed by newly elected GOAL President Ron Knoll, who gave us a quick rundown on the state of affairs with GOAL and the membership.  This was soon followed by the pledge of allegiance by GOAL Director at Large Gary Wilk, and a quick blessing by B.O.D. Candidate Nancy Snow.

The awards were presented next, the first by Mike Yacino who presented his lifetime achievement award to Ken Ouimette for outstanding work preserving and protecting the Second Amendment.  Next up was Ron Knoll who presented the President’s Award to Pete McBride for his efforts in developing the cable access TV show the “GOAL Show”.  Pete was honored to receive the award and made special notice of his wife and family.  Jim Wallace took the podium next and asked that the entire GOAL Board of Directors come up for a special presentation to past GOAL President Jack Durkin.  Jack was presented with a beautiful new shotgun as a token of appreciation; he was the longest serving president of GOAL having served for 16 years!  Jack spoke briefly, discussing how he was honored to serve for so long. 

GOAL Director of Education Jon Green presented the next, the Vin Chiary Instructor of the Year Award to Ken Maurer for his outstanding work teaching and promoting the shooting sports, Ken was humbled to receive the award and had great things to say about his experiences with the shooting sports.  Following that, the GOAL Staff was summoned to the podium for the presentation of the Bob Luz award, which was presented to Pericles “Perry” Chicolas for his outstanding work as a club representative at Singletary Rod and Gun Club in Oxford MA.  Jim followed by presenting the Richard T Moore legislator of the year award to Rep Anne Gobi for her work on behalf of gun owners and sportsmen. Anne spoke about how the legislators have tremendous respect for Jim and how the 2^nd amendment is a constitutional issue and how we need to continue working towards educating the legislature. 

GOAL Executive Director Jim Wallace gives Pete McBride some Powerpoint Guidance

GOAL President Ron Knoll (L) with past President Jack Durkin who is proudly cradling his new shotgun

That concluded the awards portion of the morning and we were on to raffle prizes and then the business portion of the meeting. To start, Judy Candage, GOAL Treasurer reported on GOAL’s finances, GOAL is healthy financially!

This was followed by Jon Green who spoke about the year in education; he made special mention of Darius Arbabi a great friend and teacher who we recently lost after a long term illness.  He also discussed the variety of classes offered through The GOAL Foundation, and spoke of a few new classes offered, such as the Metallic Cartridge reloading class taught by Jim Finnerty who was in attendance.  He went on to discuss how he is very encouraged by the growth of the instructor and coaching classes, and how the sports of IDPA etc..  are having tremendous growth, and are especially popular with law enforcement officers.  He also spoke about the excellent growth of the junior shooting programs throughout the state and how they offer great potential for kids to earn scholarships to approximately 250 major colleges and universities.

Jim is followed with his legislation report, speaking about how the GOAL Civil Rights and Public Safety Act is back in play as H.1568 and how the bill has captured national attention.  He also gave a quick rundown on the new for 2011 legislation.  Jim also spoke about how we had a great record with the recent elections, with many of our endorsed candidates winning office.  Court cases were discussed; Jim spoke of how the MA courts still do not recognize the recent McDonald Case which recognized the 2^nd Amendment as a Civil Right, and the challenges that will present going forward.  He also spoke of the various places and events that GOAL was at during the year, lots of great times and people met!

With that the President made a motion to adjourn and that was it for another year!

The GOAL Staff would like to thank all who took the time to brave the elements and came out for the meeting, we look forward to a successful year!