ADA statement

[Chef]

I also thought it was weird that the AZSFW lobbyist was sitting up there with the ADA board...

Ryan

 

 

I think you are confusing Tracey Martin who is the administrative assistant to the ADA.

She does a tremendous job and I adore her for being there through the years.

 

I assure you, if Susan Gilstrap was in attendance, she would not have sat back quietly as Tracey did.

[Chef]

You beat me to it Amanda!

Thanks for clearing things up.

You must have posted while I was typing.

[cramerhunts]

As always it was a pleasure seeing old friends and meeting new ones. I appreciate that the ADA gave us all time to voice our concerns and opinions and I am with the rest of you in the hopes that they listened and were able to make a decision. This is assuming they did make a decision and hopefully it will not be just to wait and see.

 

I will be attending the banquet this weekend as well and I truly hope it won't be my last. I will continue to donate my time and money when I can but the out come of this will determine where those donations are given.

 

And yet once again none of these discussions would be possible without this site and Amanda's dedication, THANK YOU!

[stanley]

As has been said, it was nice to see some old and new faces at the meeting last night. Unfortunately, I showed-up a bit late for the meal before hand and hence didn't really get a chance to personally meet many folks. I agree with the comments made that the meeting was fairly productive with plenty of room/time for all to voice their opinions. I appreciate the cordial and professional nature of John and the rest of the board. I also appreciated many of the comments from the attendees. Several folks were clearly more prepared than I was to comment, and I think that was a good thing.

 

Unfortunately, I'm not ready to re-embrace the ADA yet. I was very frustrated that the board was not prepared to make an 'official' positional stand on ASZFW. (Those that were there likely heard the frustration in my voice....) While most of the board members expressed individually that they didn't agree with what happened, they were not willing as a group to put out an official statement renouncing their support of AZSFW and the bill. The response was that they wanted to get input from their membership prior to finalizing that position. I thought that was what last night's meeting was for??? In addition, I have a problem with them wanting to get input from their membership prior to renouncing the support, because the fact is they did NOT get input from their membership PRIOR to supporting AZSFW in the first place. Just seemed like a cop-out to me.

 

Finally, I heard Pete C. use the reasoning that 'giving up these 300ish auction/conservation tag' is better than continuing to loose 2000 deer tags per year. As I thought about it on the way home, it smelled like great hypocrisy to me. I was part of the ADA board for a few years, and I continually heard the vibe that the ADA wanted LESS tags issued. So which is it??? Does the ADA want more tags, or less?

 

The other problem I had with last night's meeting was that I felt the general vibe was that the ADA was continually defending the situation through the night. I saw John and Pete continuing to defend the bill/AZSFW. Maybe it was just me, but that was the vibe I was left with.

 

Given the positive posts on last night's meeting, I hope that I am not coming across as a nay-sayer or too negative. Just my personal observations...... I will continue to support hunting through my own pet projects (youth camps, hunter education, trash clean-ups, etc....), but I just don't feel like I can support the ADA financially or otherwise at this point until they officially take a different position on this issue.

 

S.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[krp]

There was pure passion that is opposite of my opinion, I respect passion.

 

There was pure hypocrisy that I could argue the truth about for hours.

 

There was political naivety that had me shaking my head.

 

Kent

[runningbird]

Stanley, and Kent

I agree with everything you both said. I think the ADA does realize that they may be at a turning point. I'm not sure if they care or not. When I say ADA I am referring to the board as a whole, not individual board members. One of the reasons I am going to the banquet is to listen and see what happens. I have never been to any sportsman's banquet before and want to see what goes on. I am also going to try and get together with people I met last night. Honestly this could be my 1st and last ADA banquet.

 

I think it would be great if everyone that came to the meeting last night could continue to get together and talk about what to do at this point. We all talked before the meeting but we were so spread out that it made it hard to get anywhere. We had some great ideas last night and I think we ought to move on some of them.

 

I'm like the rest of you, I was hopping for and official statement and there comments that they really haven't discussed what happened just don't add up to me.

[krp]

I decided to have no preconceived issue to discuss, as I've addressed so many with my 'keyboard' already... thought I'd just listen and react to something on the moment. I hope I wasn't to out of line with Jim from azsfwc, bet he wished he didn't ask for questions... lol

 

The political naivety with regard to this legislation and the changing of the conservation funding field legally... especially in the ability to launder conservation funds into political lobby funds... which will also change the legal field of the 30 original tags that exist now and that 100% goes back to the control of G&F.

 

Their attempt to hide behind the conservation skirts from the backlash of this this political disaster is frustrating and why they intermixed the political and the conservation so that they are dependent on each to survive in it's current form.

 

We have to accept a short term hit on the conservation side while reorganizing in some form. Same as any family where you lose a supporting income or loss or abandonment... you can only tighten your belt until things straighten out... that's a reality ADA and the other orgs must accept.

 

Kent

[krp]

Mark, I'm setting up a meeting next week for a more localized issue concerning deer issues in the 40s units and Terry's idea to start some type of presence on the conservation front... but not excluding other areas, just there's an emergency happening there with the deer herds right now, seems the survey counts are down up to 70% from two seasons ago. We discussed some of this last night but you were at the other end of the table. PM me if you are interested. anyone else.

 

Kent

[CouesWhitetail]

Thank you to everyone who came out and expressed an opinion at last nights’ meeting. The ADA board strongly values people that take the time to get involved and who have a passion for wildlife conservation.

 

There were several requests last night for the ADA board to clarify whether we supported HB2072 or not. I think many on the board felt that our position was made known by prior posts in this forum, but in order to solidify that position, the board voted not to support HB2072.

 

There were also several requests from the public to clarify our future relationship with AZSFW and the ADA is re-evaluating our relationship with AZSFW. Many on the board felt it was very important to reach out to our membership and ask for their input. So we will be doing that by email immediately. We will take that input, along with input from last night to help guide us in our decision about whether or not to support AZSFW in the future.

 

This is a difficult issue for the board because we strongly feel that AZSFW has done some great things for sportsmen in the past. We also feel there is a very strong need for a group that represents sportsmen’s concerns in the political arena. We do not have a solution for this problem at the moment. As a board we do not agree with how AZSFW created the bill and how it was pushed through. We feel that AZSFW has not represented sportsmen well on this particular issue, nor have they communicated effectively with the sportsmen and stakeholders about the provisions of this bill.

 

The ADA board also voted to send a strongly-worded letter to AZSFW expressing our displeasure with the situation that this issue has caused both our organization and sportsmen in our state, and asking them for clarification on where that group intends to go from here. We want to know if there will be any measures put in place to stop a fiasco like this from happening again (i.e., more transparency and better communication with sportsmen). We want to know if the idea of this bill is completely dead or not. Once we receive feedback from our membership and the AZSFW, the ADA board will make a decision on future support of AZSFW. I know many of you will not appreciate the slow, measured approach to this and would prefer an absolute decision now. I can assure you that the ADA board will be addressing this issue and ask that you reserve judgment until the board has a chance to meet and discuss this.

[elkaholic]

I wasn't able to get to the meeting last night- heard it was a good turn out

but after Amandas statement - I'm scratching my head

 

I thought this was a special meeting to decide this issue not prolong it!

 

"Many on the board felt it was very important to reach out to our membership and ask for their input. So we will be doing that by email immediately. We will take that input, along with input from last night to help guide us in our decision about whether or not to support AZSFW in the future."

 

 

Why wasn't this accomplished before the meeting -?? I think I asked why the special meeting was needed when members could be emailed for their opinion- like over a week ago!

 

A strong worded letter ???? right back to where we were before the meeting!

 

 

so now it'll have to wait till the next regular meeting !?

 

In the mean time azsfw pushs another try around the outside in the late hours to stick us agin - pete - john - ed - art are smilin - to name afew and all the rest of guys at azsfw

 

Way to step up and show us what we can expect from the ADA! still walking the fence!

[runningbird]

17 guest looking right now. you all really should join up and let us all know your thoughts.

 

Mark

[javihammer]

OOPS...Sorry for being wrong about Suzane Gilstrap being at the meeting. I came in after the introductions and thought I heard someone address her as Suzane. I hadn’t eaten since 11AM and the lure of Carls Jr overrode my desire to stick around and confirm her identity before I left. Dumb assumption, I own the bonehead card for that one.

 

As for the ADA direction, I would hope the position statement condemns the concept and not just the approach of HB 2072. Ms America could serve me dog food on a gold plate and I still wouldn’t eat it. The concept of eating dog food is the problem. Hopefully future position statements will be free of the term “as written”.

 

Ryan

[AZLance]

Thanks to all the guys who showed up. Wish I could have been there...

 

Amanda's statement above says a lot. The ADA is not going to do anything. Back to square one...

 

Anyone willing to take bets on this?

[archerycrazy]

Don't for one minute beleive that HB 2072 or the concept behind it is dead. Until this session is done we are in jeopardy. There are numerous ways to bring it back and sneak it though at least one chamber in the legislature. If they don't get what they want this session, they will spend the next 10 months working on soething similar to sneak by us next year.

 

George

[.270]

Amen George. Vigilance. Lark.