*** 2016 ORC Report ***

A big thanks to everyone who participated in and helped out with the 2016 ORC.   For those that didn't make it down to Depoe Bay this year, you've probably already heard, but we had to cancel the fishing tournament part of our event.  Luckily we had an awesome pot luck, a very productive raffle and everyone was in high spirits. 

Another big thanks to our sponsors for their generous donations this year: Next Adventure (dry bags, glassware, registration service), Confluence Outdoors (WS Thresher, AT Paddle, swag tshirts), Fish-Field (swim baits, jigs, and crab trap), Kayak Shed (J crate and Hobie Insulated fish bag), Kone Zone (flashers, KillZone fish bag, crab trap), Hoggs Jo/Mar Hardcore Tackle (jigs and for setting up a mobile tackle shop),  Lancer Jigs (jigs and jig sales), Daiwa (Lexa Saltiga combo and new Lexa lowprofile line counter), Cabelas (gift certificates), Pro-Cure (captain's bag scents and raffle prize package), McKay Crab Traps (3 kayak crab traps), Kokatat (temptest paddle top), Masterbuilt (smoker), and Werner Paddles (paddle).  I'd also like to thank Paul (PNW) for bringing down enough Ninkasi beer to share with everyone.
 
By the way, have you seen the surf report and web cams for today, just 48 hours after we had to cancel the ORC?  Everything looks nice and calm.   It was that way about 48 hours before the ORC as well.  Oh well, maybe next year.

Some anglers had pretty good luck chasing salmon right at camp.  The overall effort was fairly low, but I believe 3 chinook and 1 steelhead were landed by NWKA members staying at Chinook Bend. Seems like it might have some potential as the official plan B tournament for next year.

The raffle prizes were well received and I was literally overwhelmed by everyone's generosity when it came to buying more raffle tickets.   (Next year there is going to be a 15 minute hiatus in ticket sales so I can actually eat a fish taco or two.)  I think having people write their names on the tickets went really well (except for Langston  ).   That said, maybe we do away with the duplicate ticket system and simply sell singleton tickets next year.  It would be nice to have a place to display the various prizes in advance of the raffle and to open ticket sales early as well.   A few pop-up tents might and tables might do the trick.  I realize my kimchi was a bit of a joke, but the winner seemed pretty happy with it and I was happy I didn't have to carry it back to my campsite.    I'm wondering if we might solicit our members for other hand crafted items for the raffle next year.  Many of our members make things that could be raffled off (custom rods, jigs, hand tied shrimp flies, wild game jerky, fish related art, etc..)

Once we get the check cut from Next Adventure for the registrations and combine that with the ~$2000 we raked in on ticket sales we will get a final number and we'll need to make some disbursements (insurance, reimbursement for the barn rental and a few odds and ends, and of course the donations to the charities).  I'll update this as better numbers come in.  Until then, my rough calculation is that we had about 90 registered participants and that over 80 actually showed up to the pot luck.    Oeverall we managed to raise about $5400 from the raffle.   The fees for insurance and other odds and ends will come from the $12 per registration that did not end up in the raffle.  That should be plenty and I'm guessing we'll have quite a bit extra in the end to either give to the charities directly or possibly start a fund to kick start the 2017 ORC.  Congratulations, I'm pretty sure that has to be the ORC record. 

Thankfully the insurance wasn't necessary and I really appreciate the way everyone stood in line to sign waivers anyway.   Having that insurance is a great piece of mind for those of us with our names attached as organizers of the event.  It also is helpful when soliciting sponsors.  A big thanks to the American Canoe Association for the insurance. 

If anyone is interested in helping with planning the 2017 ORC next year now is the time to PM me for more information.   There are some ORC related jobs that can be done by just about anyone, anywhere, but I'd really like a small dedicated committee that will be able to meet in person about once a month in the greater Portland metro area.   Next year will be our 10th annual ORC and I want to start early to make it the best ever.

The current ORC committee will probably meet in the next week or so to grab a beer and debrief about what did and did not work this year.  Feel free to give us some feed back here so we have something to discuss.

Brian
 

I would definitely agree that it would be really helpful to see all the raffle prizes while tickets are still available for purchase, it would definitely help ticket sales if folks knew exactly what they could win, we knew many of the prizes that were mentioned on the threads, but there were some new items I didn't know about. I definitely would've popped for a another $20-40 worth had I known a few of the items would be out there. I think how it was handled this year was about as good as it could've been given the limited space we were working with. If the weather cooperates having a prize pool area would be awesome.

I definitely appreciated the "You choose 'em" ticket and prize option, it allowed me to focus more tickets at things I really wanted... It ultimately didn't matter, but regardless. Definitely the single ticket with Name option should be easier, the only time I could see this being an problem is if someone just writes the first name and multiple people did that as well, it didn't happen this year, but it could get messy with single part tickets.