SFW-Arizona

[coueshunter]

Everyone, there is the FINAL meeting for Sportsmen for Wildlife this saturday at 9:00 at the following address:

 

National Bank of Arizona

6001 N 24th Street

Phoenix, AZ

 

meeting is in the conference room in the back of the building.

 

I personally am going to ask the following questions:

 

1. "Is there a written position statement showing that Don Peay/SFW will not go after additional Governors tags to raise money?"

 

2. "Is there a written position statement showing that Don Peay/SFW will not support, and in fact fight any legislation that is introduced regarding landowner tags?"

 

3. "Is there a written position statement showing that Don Peay/SFW will not support outfitter set asides like they just did in Wyoming that was voted down by the average sportsman and the Wyoming legislature?"

 

 

These are my personal concerns and I will voice them. I hope any and all other hunters show up for their own sakes and the sake of the future of Arizona. Maybe all is fine with SFW but based on their recent track record in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, I have some real Major Reservations about supporting them unless they write something down.......Allen Taylor.......602-454-2146..........

[CouesWhitetail]

Great questions Allen. Glad you are going there to raise them.

 

The meeting is Sept 10, only a few days away. Hopefully some of you will be going.

 

 

Here is the press release on it that I posted in another thread. Remember to RSVP by TODAY! See last line of press release.

 

 

SECOND NOTICE: PASS THE WORD

 

AZSFW MEETING ON THE 10TH, INFORMATION BELOW!

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Cindy Seff

To: Undisclosed-Recipient:;

Sent: Tuesday, August 30, 2005 12:34 PM

Subject: Fw: AZSFW MEETING ON THE 10TH.

 

 

Sent: Tuesday, August 30, 2005 9:50 AM

Subject: AZSFW MEETING ON THE 10TH.

 

 

To All: This is a meeting reminder for all of those who are planning to come to Phoenix on September 10th for the AZ Sportsmen for Wildlife meeting. You need to RSVP for the meeting. We want to be sure we can accommodate all of those who are planning to attend. We need all of the names of those attending! Everyone interested in helping us put together the best organization possible are encouraged to attend! If you are coming to represent an organization, and speak for it's membership, please advise us of your authorization to do so.

 

The purpose of this meeting is to have a full discussion of the issues surrounding the start up of AZSFW. We want majority consensus on as many of these issues as possible. We want to come out of the meeting with operating procedures that allow AZSFW to be effective conducting business, while assuring Arizona sportsmen and women fair representation and involvement in the process.

 

The meeting location is: National Bank of Arizona Corporate Headquarters

6001 North 24th Street, Phoenix

In the Conference Center at the rear of the property

9:00 AM start, finish sometime in the afternoon

 

Mr. Jim Burton will facilitate the meeting and control the floor.

 

Please pass this on to sportsmen and women who share a desire to make AZSFW an effective and potent organization, for the betterment of wildlife, wildlife habitat, and protection of our hunting and fishing traditions.

 

RSVP no later than September 8th, to Cindy Seff at: AzTrappers@direcway.com

 

 

 

Amanda

[.270]

i still have a real hard time believing that sfw is coming here because it wants to help Arizona. just flat can't make myself believe it. every place they've got a toe hold in they ultimately made some real enemies. Allen, as far as getting anything like in writing, i kinda doubt it and if they do put it in writing it'll be with enough added legaleeze that it won't mean much. Arizona is a pretty big state and has at least a few folks with above average IQ's. i don't see where a buncha outtastaters are gonna be able to be any more intelligent and have any more passion and real caring about conservation than the guys that already live here. and everywhere they've ever gotten some clout, they ended up using it against the joe hunter residents. landowner tags is the next big thing in Az. and i'm real confident that uso is affiliated with that effort somewhere. therefore, i'm sorta thinkin' that maybe uso and sfw have a little in common and are maybe even sorta partners. until someone from one of these "organizations" stands up and comes clean about how they are all tied together, i'll stay pesimistic. and i mean clean too. look at how long it took sci, rmef, even the nra, to take a position on the uso lawsuit deal. none of em would take a stand, either way, until it was pretty clear who would win. anyway, i'm for whatever is best for the state. not just a part of the state or one or more groups. all of the state. maybe these guys are legitimate. jury is still out. Lark.

[coueshunter]

Lark, will you be able to make it? I have another question for Don Peay but he probably will conveniently be unavailable for the Meeting: He sits on Conservation Force Board of Advisers who is the organization that supported the USO lawsuit. I would like to know if he is still on their board and I also want to know why Tucson SCI supported the USO lawsuit at the expense of all the Arizona sportspeople who opposed it..............Allen.....

[.270]

i'll send ya a pm, allen. Lark.

[ghost hunter]

When Pete gave his presentation to the group in Safford, he said that the intial board representation would be made up of people from the major sportsmen and animal groups in the state. They would be replaced by people elected from the current members.

 

As for land owner tags, Pete said flat out that they do not support them. Spoken, yes, written, no. As for govenor's tags, convention tags, 'wealthy tags'. he wasn't as enthusiastic.

 

I really doubt that they would support land owner tags, because those will just 'de-value' the govenor's tags, which they will probably be looking for to help fund this organization when/if it out grows the private and corporate donations that Pete says they have lined up.

 

SFW's credibility is very suspect at this point based on their performance in the other states. If they take off here and they follow suit with the other SFWs, I doubt that any other state in the west will have anything to do with them.

 

From the post above about the meeting, sounds like only those who want to belong are welcome.

[coueshunter]

I did not make it to the meeting. Did anyone go? Has anyone heard the general outcome? I will check on SFW website sometime today..........appreciate any info that can be provided..........thanks.........Allen.........

[.270]

Allen, what zakly was this meeting about? was it just sfw trying to decide whether or not to invade or was it a meeting with other folks and azgfd trying to decide how to the divy things up? heck, even if sfw does does invade Az., nobody has to join do they? i'm sorta confused. seems like sfw isn't even affiliate with Az. but they seem to feel that if they do decide to set up shop that then they're the boss. are all the other clubs and organizations just going to bow down to them or what? enlighten us. Lark.

[coueshunter]

From my understanding, SFW is already set up in Arizona-informally. This past meeting was to get input from sportsmen groups, non-profits, regular joe's etc.....to get the voice of what Arizona sportspeople want from SFW. I understand that Pete Cimellaro is the representative being paid by SFW for Arizona. I also understand that most all groups like ADA, AES, Antelope, Desert sheep etc......have given tenative approval for signing up with SFW. I also understand that any/all conservation groups will contractually be required to submit 10% of their gross receipts annually to SFW. I guess I am just very concerned that the SFW issue has went this far without very many people understanding what SFW is all about plus even though we as average joe's are told to get involved, I personally have not seen enough public information that would allow any person to know who to talk to or where to find out how to get involved. It all feels very political. I know since I did not make the meeting, anyone can say "tough luck, you should have been at the meeting"............concerned average joe...............AT.........

[stanley]

Hey Allen, I wasn't at the SFW meeting either but I'm looking forward to an update at next Wednesday's ADA Board meeting. At the August board meeting, we agreed that the ADA would participate in this past Saturday's kick-off, but the only decision official made was to attend and potentially provide input from a 'deer' perspective.

 

So far, the ADA board has NOT approved allocating 10% of our gross receipts to SFW, and has not yet been officially approached to do so. I don't know what kind of lobbying might be going on behind the scenes, but nothing has come in front of the board for approval yet. Certainly we can expect some lively debate when this gets in front of us for a vote.

 

I'll look forward to an update from Dom, et al. in the meeting next week. Can you attend the board meeting this month? Might be an opportunity to learn more and voice an opinion.... I think it's going to be at Tim's this month; 6:30 next Weds.

 

Look for the agenda from Tracey soon.

 

S.

[coueshunter]

I will be up elk hunting in unit 1 but look forward to hearing what transpires....Thanks Stan for the update..............Allen.......

[.270]

so if sfw decides to invade Az., then they automatically become the godfather of all the established groups already in Az.? with all of em givin' em 10% of all their money just because? is this like protection money or what? man, i dunno, sounds like a buncha bs to me. all these other groups work for years to get a working relationship with whoever they need to do it with and the sfw comes in and takes over. sounds a lot like the south side o' chicago. Lark.

[stanley]

Good analogy Lark! Pretty funny....

 

All I can say is that I will think long & hard before voting to give 10% of the ADA money to SFW. I think that SFW needs to stand on it's own, as opposed to skimming from the current grass roots organizations.

 

If the ADA has a special interest that we want lobbying support for, then maybe we can chip-in as needed, but I'll have a hard time with a flat 10% accross the board.

 

S.

[wetmule]

I have heard the 10% of revenues theory from each organization as well, and it is my understanding that, that rumor was put to bed at our ADA meeting. It was my understanding that it would be a set amount that would be contributed, and that it would be a reasonable amount in order to have a seat at the table. To ask any group to cough up 10% of their revenues is unreasonable, and not an option IMO, and I would definitely NOT support such a preposturous idea.