Mission – To conserve, protect and restore North America’s coldwater fisheries and their watersheds. Vision –
Dear Members & Supporters,

First and foremost, we hope you and your family are safe and healthy in this stressful and confusing time. Most of us living in the Upper Arkansas Valley are fortunate to be away from crowded cities and are able to find stress relief by going outdoors, fishing, and participating in conservation activities in a safely distanced manner.

Second, we wanted to let you know how your chapter plans to go forward until we can get together again. We are planning to do a short “virtual” Year in Review on November 11 at 7 pm with photos and slides of the year’s activities. We welcome all to attend for the evening half hour Zoom meeting with a short power point of what we have accomplished in the last year. We have a dedicated group of members who continue to serve you as officers and board members. That being said, we hope some of you will be interested in joining our board. This is a good time to join and learn as we will be having a reduced calendar of activities this winter.

Thanks to our recent online survey, we learned more of what YOU want from the chapter and what some of you are willing to contribute. As a result of this survey some new volunteers helped with construction of new step-over ladders we did for CPW under Pam Simpson’s leadership.

Depending on COVID, we plan a board meeting in February, and hopefully a member meeting in March, featuring CPW and fishing easements. Our Fishing Derbies will be penciled in for July 4th, in Salida (Ann & Henry Klaiman and Carol and Mike Perry will continue to lead this). The Buena Vista derby will again be on the Saturday before Labor Day. We need 1- 2 people to follow in the footsteps of longtime organizers Bob & Marjie Gray who are retiring from this derby. They have all the details summarized and written down in an organized step by step format. Hopefully our Stream Explorers programs will resume in the spring and summer. Always check our website calendar of events for the latest info.

We will be continuing our monthly newsletters thanks to our outstanding editor, Tom Palka and resident poet, Michael Harrington! If you’ve been out with a guide, outfitter or on your own, consider writing an article about your experience and include photos. Perhaps you read a good book, used a new technique or tool that you would like to share. Please submit articles or photos to Tom Palka at editor@collegiatepeaksTU.org.

To continue the educational, conservation, and informational programs and collaborations we’ve undertaken successfully for 35 years, we desperately need more of our 300 plus members to get involved. Even if you leave for the winter, it’s easy to stay in touch with today’s technology. Leadership by committee is challenging. We’ve tried and it definitely works better if we have a traditional president. Keith Krebs has served us extremely well for 6 years but is retiring. We are actively recruiting for a new president as well as a couple more board members. If you’d like to learn more about those positions, PLEASE contact Keith Krebs at 719-539-6359 or any of our other board members listed on www.collegiatepeakstu.org. It would be great to have new folks with fresh ideas join our great organization!

You will receive an email invitation to the Zoom Year in Review meeting.

If you are a chapter member, please vote on the proposed slate of 2021 officers and board members by clicking below:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/96D3HLY

The election slate for 2021 is:

President – OPEN
VP – Rick Helmick (2021)
Secretary – Karen Dils (2021)
Treasurer – Pam Simpson (2021)

New board members: Jim McGannon and Kim LeTourneau (2023) – Many thanks!

Continuing board members are Eric Heltzel and Larry Payne (2021), Bill Dvorak and Gene Milus (2022).

From the founding 7 members in 1985 (some of whom are still involved), we have grown to over 300 members. Please get involved and help our non-profit TU conservation organization continue its invaluable work.

Thanks for your continued support,

Keith Krebs, Chapter President – keithkrebsarchitect@gmail.com; 719-539-6359
Karen Dils, Secretary, karendils4@gmail.com, 719-395-8949