I am pleased to announce the Wyoming Wild Sheep Foundation convention in June 2011 was highly successful. The convention gross income was $110,673, and the best news was the expenses were $36,268. The convention netted $74,405 to use for sheep projects in Wyoming; this represents a 62% increase from 2010. Outside the convention, we were also fortunate to receive and phone auction three 2011 Wyoming Game and Fish Commissioner licenses, netting an additional $27,500 for sheep projects. These are terrific numbers! Hats off to everyone who sponsored, donated to, and/or attended this convention. I want to thank everyone for their generous work and support.

This past year has had many changes for WY-WSF. The board and membership voted to hire Kevin Hurley as our (part-time) Executive Director for the Wyoming Wild Sheep Foundation in February 2011. Kevin has done an amazing job organizing, prioritizing, and implementing functions the board has voted on. Membership lists are current, and WY-WSF is in a strong financial position. Kevin has also been instrumental in organizing hunt swaps with other WSF chapters/affiliates for our respective banquets.

Our goal is to increase communication to our membership, which will hopefully lead to higher attendance at our winter and summer conventions. The WY-WSF winter meeting is scheduled for December 2 & 3 2011 in Dubois, WY. Please see page 6 of this Rampage for details! PLEASE TRY TO ATTEND!

As sheep are harvested this year, there have been many great rams taken. The work undertaken by the current and past boards has directly resulted in high-quality bighorn sheep populations in Wyoming. Please keep supporting Wyoming bighorns through this great organization.

The board is currently working on establishing the Wyoming Wild Sheep Foundation Endowment. The endowment will serve as an avenue for donors to give to WY-WSF, in many different ways. If you have ideas or questions regarding the endowment, please feel free to call me at 307-235-7786.

On July 11th, members of the WY-WSF board attended a seminar in Laramie by Dr. Sri from Washington State University on studies that he is doing on bighorn sheep and domestic sheep interaction. It was a fascinating discussion, full of cutting edge science and discoveries. We have invited (and he has accepted!) Dr. Sri to speak about his research at our June 2, 2012 convention. We wish Dr. Sri the best in continued studies on the effects of commingling domestic and wild sheep; WY-WSF has again approved funding to assist Dr. Sri's ongoing research.

Best of luck to everyone this fall. Thank you for supporting the Wyoming Wild Sheep Foundation. Hope to see many of you in December in Dubois!

Michael J. Porter (Life Member #323), WY-WSF President