THE PAST
       The 1997 Hunter Tour saw us gathered for Tournaments in Arizona (2), New Mexico (1) and Texas (6).  The numbers of women attending these events has dropped from an average of 54 per event to 42 per event.   Part of that stems from holding too many tournaments, too close together.  Part of it may be attributable to my negligence in completing the Newsletter mailings as often as in the past.  Part of it may be from the abundance of tournament opportunities now available to women with the WPBA and six successful regional tours.  (We are still the biggest, though).

        The Tour Championship was held at Big Daddy's this year.  Granito Cloth sponsored the event by providing that great table cloth for the event.  Jim Buss donated two cues, to assist Big Daddy in efforts to raise the $2,000.00 guaranteed money added and of course, Wes Hunter, your main man, provided a $1,600.00 cue for raffle.  The 1997 Hunter Tour Champion is Shelly Barnes going away, with three wins in 1997.  Shelly is now ranked 24 in the WPBA and she will lose eligibility to play with us when she hits 20.  Go Shelly go-never fear I will recruit her to help with tournament direction. Rose McCrory of  Baytown, Texas defeated Shari Hudson of Houston for the $1,000.00 first prize.  Gail Roles won the "Most Improved Player" award and will play free for 1998.  Dora Valdez won "Sportsperson of the Year" and she will also play free next year. 

THE PRESENT 
        I expect to have The 1998 Hunter Tour calendar ready for the next newsletter and for flyer handout at the first stop. 

        Enclosed with this mailing are the flyers for the first two events of 1998.  We are also back to advertising each event in the American Cueist.  I just received the WPBA pro schedule through September, so I know what dates I can not schedule Hunter stops.  There will not be any events in March.  The first two are January 17-18 at Players in Pflugerville (Austin) and February 21-22 at Slate Street Billiards in Rio Rancho, NM (Albuquerque). The remaining six events will be in April, June, July, September, October and December. 

THE FUTURE 
      We really do have a new Tour Coordinator now.  I have trifurcated the job.  Dora Valdez will be the Hunter Tour coordinator.  Susan Dasher will be the tournament director for all events when the home site does not have its own director and Melinda Bailey will mailout the Hunter Newsletter and flyers.  I would like to add one more person to the mix to be responsible for writing up the tournament results article for submission to American Cueist, Pool and Billiards Magazine, National Billiard News and Billiard Digest.  It involves writing one article and faxing it to Dora.  She will route it with pictures to the various publications.  Think about it and let me know. 

HOW THE MONEY WORKS
      Up until this year Susan Dasher has absorbed all the expenses of operation of the tour.  For 1997 those expenses looked like this:
 

Second Chance Tournament Added Money	$900.00
Advertisement in American Cueist	$200.00
Colored Paper	$80.00
Envelopes	$85.00
Postage	$268.80
Copying	$250.00
Total	$1783.80

For 1998 the following changes are going to be made. 

        Second Chance Tournament Added Money will come from the $2,000.00 added, which reduces the main event added money to $1,900.00 First prize will remain $1,000.00. 

        Advertisement in American Cueist will be reduced to one half page at $50.00 per ad, however there will be an ad  for each tournament  rendering the total cost $400.00. 
 
 

Advertising	$400.00
Colored Paper	$80.00
Envelopes	$85.00
Postage	$402.00
Copying	$150.00
Total	$1,110.00

 I will be obtaining products from various companies and will raffle or sell them, with the monies raised defraying these expenses.  Of course donations of paper, envelops or random cash is always accepted. 

BE SURE TO BUY YOUR CUE RAFFLE TICKETS AT EACH STOP, YOUR WILLINGNESS TO INVEST IN YOUR OWN TOUR HAS KEPT OUR VARIOUS POOL ROOM SPONSORS COMING BACK YEAR AFTER YEAR. 

HAPPY HOLIDAYS.  GET THOSE PLANE TICKETS AND TRAVEL WITH THE TOUR IN 1998.