Thank you to the many Bishop attendees who sent me photos. I organized them by photographer, burned them onto a CD and sent them to Tawni Thomson along with contact info for all photographers. Should the Bishop Chamber wish to use any of them, you'll be contacted directly. A small selection of member photos from Bishop is also available as a slideshow on the website. Go to www.owac.org and click "Bishop Photos by Members" on the front page.

All of you should have by now received via email a questionnaire for the new Member Directory. So far I've received about 40 responses. If you haven't filled out the questionnaire, please take five minutes to do so. If you misplaced the email or think your computer may have "junked" it, the subject line read, "OWAC: Directory Questionnaire" and it came from z.thomas@mac.com. Again, no final decisions about the format of the directory will be made without member input. At this point, I'm only compiling the information.

Finally, please send your Bishop tear sheets to Ken Jones at kenjones@pierfishing.com or 1701 Lakeshore Dr., Lodi, CA 95242. Ken has received only two so far, and I know there are more out there because I've seen several them. Not only are tear sheets a big help in securing conference sites, but by sending one in you're also entered in a drawing — a very small drawing at this point — for a free conference.

• OWAC welcomes new member Zeke Barlow of Camarillo. Barlow is an outdoors and environmental reporter for the Ventura County Star and also contributes multimedia content to the paper's website. Recently, like many of us, he wrote about the Eastern Sierra trout opener (see http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2007/apr/29/in-an-annual-ritual-thousands-of-southern-trek-a/) Barlow's work phone is (805) 437-0258; his email is zbarlow@venturacountystar.com.

• OWAC also welcomes as a new member freelance writer David Page of Mammoth Lakes. Page has written about sharks, diamonds and sex for the Discovery Channel's Everything You Need to Know series and about squirrels for the L.A. Times Sunday magazine West (see www.latimes.com/features/magazine/west/ and scroll down for Page's story, "Damn Cute Menace"). His book The Yosemite and Southern Sierra Book is forthcoming next spring from Countryman Press, an imprint of W.W. Norton. Page's work phone is (310) 339-9069; his email is davidtpage@earthlink.net.

• Freelance fishing and boating writer Ron Ballanti of Chatsworth is our third new member this month. Ballanti's extensive list of credits includes Sport Fishing, Salt Water Sportsman, Trailer Boats, Boating, Bass & Walleye Boats, Western Outdoors and WON, FishRap, Pacific Coast Sportfishing, Southern Boating, Fly Fishing in Salt Waters, Florida Sportsman, Sea, Dockside and Go Boating. Ballanti also operates Strike Zone Communications (www.strike-zone.net), which has a client list including heavyweights like C-Map, Suzuki Marine, Furuno USA, Penn and Teleflex, plus many more. Ballanti's work phone is (818) 349-4608; his email is ron@strike-zone.net

• Paul Sharman recently wrote to say that he had joined Fish & Fly, Ltd., a premier fly-fishing website and forum based in the UK but targeting the globe, as Operations and Marketing Director. Check out the site at www.fishandfly.com. "We would be pleased to receive any news pieces from OWAC members," said Sharman. Send them to news@fishandfly.com. For the complete news release on Paul's position click here.

• For those who may have suspected at times that the judging of writing contests was perhaps somewhat arbitrary, consider this: Lee Allen's feature "Archery Anglers" from Arizona Wildlife Views, which won first place this year in OWAC's Best Magazine Feature category, also won first place in the same category from the Rocky Mountain Outdoor Writers and Photographers and second place in the Shooting Sports category in the Outdoor Writers Association of America's Excellence in Craft Contest. Congratulations on the hat trick, Lee!

• Watch for the new book Woman on the Rocks: The Mountaineering Letters of Ruth Dyar Mendenhall, coming this summer from Wynne Benti's Spotted Dog Press. The collection of letters, edited by Valerie Mendenhall Cohen, covers the 50-year mountaineering career of one of California's first and most important women mountain climbers. For more click here.

• The annual Rocky Mountain fly fishing forecast publication Tight Lines this year includes a short story by Bennett Mintz. The story, about an aging steelhead guide, deals with every professional river-runner’s worst fear. In addition to forecasts for over 70 trout waters in Montana, Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming and Utah, compiled by interviewing biologists, shop owners, outfitters and top guides, Tight Lines annually includes essays and fiction by some of the nation's top angling writers. It sells for $8.95.

• The website associated with Zack Thomas's Baja trailer-boater's guidebook project is finally up and running at www.bajatrailerboating.com . The site includes recent photos of many of Baja's launch spots. By early July a report of Thomas's upcoming 10-day exploratory fishing and boating trip around the super-remote Vizcaino Peninsula will be posted.

Supporting Member Notes

• OWAC welcomes new Supporting Member The Yosemite Association, a not-for-profit educational organization dedicated to the support of Yosemite National Park through a program that includes membership, book publishing and sales, outdoor seminars, and visitor services. Established in 1923, the association was the first such "cooperating association" in the U.S. Revenues are used to support education, museum, research, and environmental programs in Yosemite through donations to the National Park Service. OWAC's contact, Pete Devine, can be reached at (209) 379-2646 or pdevine@yosemite.org. For more, visit www.yosemite.org..

• OWAC also welcomes the Tuolumne County Visitors Bureau as a new Supporting Member. Tuolumne County includes the northern half of Yosemite National Park, most of Stanislaus National Forest, the mountain resorts along Hwy 120 to Yosemite and Hwy 108 to the Sonora Pass High Country, and is the central region of California's Gold Country. Visitors can enjoy year-round recreation with hiking, biking, fishing, horseback riding, gold-panning and touring historic gold rush towns. Seasonal activities include skiing, snowboarding, snowmobiling, river rafting, fishing and boating. Marketing Manager Sandra Gordon can be reached at (209) 533-4420 or tcvbmarketing@mlode.com. For more, visit www.tcvb.com.

• United Anglers of Southern California partners with NOAA Fisheries Service, California DFG, Dana Angling Club and Oceanside Senior Anglers to take hundreds of youngsters fishing during National Fishing & Boating Week. click here

• United Anglers of Southern California recognizes Peggie Shedd at 2007 Fundraising Dinner with the Bill Ray Memorial Award, its highest conservation honor. click here

• MacDaddy's Fishing Lures introduces "World's Most Precious Fishing Lure" for its "Fishing For a Cure" anti-breast cancer campaign. click here

• Idyllwild Bureau of Tourism introduces Idyllwild Values Card. click here

• Troutstock, a celebration of all things trout, co-sponsored by Mammoth Lakes Tourism and the Mono Country Tourism and Film Commission, is back and bigger than ever in 2007. click here

Committee Update

Californian of the Year: Craig Hanson — TOP CALIFORNIAN
We have four solid nominations of Californian of the Year in 2007. Just to give you something to think about, a preview of the candidates include:
1. Bill Becher nominated State Senator David Cogdill
2. Tom Raftican nominated Tom Osborn, from United Angler's of SoCal Fisheries Management
3. Bill Ryan nominated Celia Diaz founder of Binational Emergency Medical Care
4. Liz Schwall  nominated Nancy Foley DFG's Chief of Police.

Ballots will be going out via mail soon - I'd like to thank everyone who made the nomination process a success.
Any questions please email sfangler@mindspring.com, or call Craig Hanson (415) 753-3504.

Raffle: Carol Martens — Carol is still accepting donations. Bring the items you'd like to donate with you for Calaveras raffle, but please tell Carol about them ahead of time so she can be better organized at the conference

• Costa Mesa angler Cheryl Duncan may have broken 30-year-old IGFA record with 8-lb. bonito on 6-lb. line. For more visit www.igfa.org and scroll down to "May HOT Catches"

• Summer and fall California B.O.W. (Becoming an Outdoors Woman) clinics address waterfowl, upland game and pig hunting. click here