It’s a wrap! The 2022 SCOPe Conference was a huge success thanks to all who attended. Once again Black’s Camp was an excellent destination with great fishing, food and the facilities make it a great location for our conference.
Some data about the conference. In total we had 23 SCOPe members present along with some guests. While this is a good number, we are still missing about 1/4 of our membership. I hope you know you were missed.
The membership meeting generated a lot of excellent dialogue and helped the board in setting ideas for the future conferences. Some of the decisions that were decided at the membership meeting include: the Traveling bar is no longer a viable option going forward and we will ask members to BYOB your spirits. SCOPe will continue to provide the beer and wine.
There was a lot of discussion about “what we want to get from the conference” and good ideas were generated, and notes taken for the 2023 conference and beyond. We feel this discussion will help the future of SCOPe and what we can expect going forward.
One issue that arose was the lack of information on the website. If you have not done so, PLEASE get Brian Carroll a biographical sketch of you with a headshot that we can post on the website. Keep it under 100 words and highlight what areas of content creation you are generating. i.e. John Doe is a content creator for YouTube and shares a new video weekly. Along with that, he writes for print and digital magazines and websites etc.… you get the idea…
We need these biographical sketches by Thanksgiving please.
One of the biggest topics was a discussion of moving the conference from the fall to a different time of year. March was discussed as a possible good time of year for having the conference. It is after-trade show season, but before turkey, there are still some small game activities and of course fishing is always good in March. We recognize some of this is dependent on the host location and their availability. We also know we cannot have a conference ready for March 2023 so it was decided we would have a “mini-conference” in the September time frame 2023 consisting of a weekend followed by a full conference in March of 2024.
The Board membership was adjusted to fill vacancies for 2023. The new board members are Brian Carroll, Tarra Stoddard, and Mike Watts. Brian Cope will fill the vacant spot of the board and serve for one year.
While it is not finalized, we are looking at Beaufort for the 2023 conference. More information to come soon.
Lastly, this may have been one of the more profitable conferences in recent memory. There are a few loose ends to tie up, but thanks to the generosity of Santee Cooper Country, Clarendon County Tourism, and the deep pockets of the membership at the auction, it appears we finished the conference with a profit of $6,476.43
SCOPe is strong! We are growing, and we are increasing our footprint in the space. It is important that each of us recognize that we are the greatest asset of SCOPe and we each can do our part to recruit and encourage others to pursue our passion of telling great stories about the outdoor lifestyle we love.
It has been an honor to serve as President of SCOPe once again. Thank you for trusting me with this organization that is dear to my heart. It remains one of my most humbling tasks to serve the members of SCOPe with whom I have the utmost respect. Going forward Philip Hunt will serve as President, and I transition to Chairman of the Board. I know SCOPe is in good hands and I am certain 2023 and beyond will see the best years yet.
Pete Rogers
President