Well i just talked to the President of SFW to find out how the vote went. They got the approval.
I was on the phone for over an hour talking to the guy. I have to say that my opinion was that when i brought up the fact that the nonresidents were to lose 25% of the tags in the normal drawing he was unaware that percentage was really the case. He kept referring to half of the total 5% and i kept reminding him that Don peay himself said it did come out to 25% of the total tags even though it was 2 1/2 percent of the total combined tags overall, but with nonres only getting 10% of all the states tags that meant SFW and the other groups were taking 10 times the percentage of tags from nonresidents over residents (2.5 of every hundred resident tags, 25 of every hundred nonresident tags). Then I stressed the fact that the average nonres guy will not attend the convention for vacation and $ reasons. It took a while to get my point across but i feel i did somewhat. Of course i was a little hot at first but I am very passionate about hunting as they at SFW are. I calmed down and it started to become a good conversation.
A few points i brouht up to him was this.... the nonres average guy cannot afford to fly out and spend rental and motel and valuable vacation time on this. He kept asking what the average guy was?, i said I am the average hunting guy. 2 weeks vacation and under 60k job. My point was this.... I come out there, spend 320 on airline, 100 on motel, 120 on rental car, 60 meals..... so roughly 600$ on something OTHER THAN WILDLIFE habitat. Dont you think i would rather spend 30-50 bucks directly on the application fee or an internet version of this convention drawing instead?? because i can tell you as the average guy the 600$ version wont happen at all for me and every guy i know applying as a nonres to UT. Why make the airlines rich instead of the F&G. Leave the nonres out of this completely on this event. I stressed that the average nonres was not even aware of this proposal!!. we dissagreed on that point as he said they asked several nonres guys opinion... Several???????Who?? Guys living in adjoining states who may have a shorter drive that a resident on the other end of the state? thats not an accurate number.
He also said i was the first nonresident to call up directly and state my point like i did.
I stressed him i am for SFW but this will not be a support gaining idea for them. I suggested that they conduct one of thier online polls they do for just the nonres ONLY to ask the following:
Can you come to such a convention?
Are you for this way of raising money (very important to gain support from the rest of the hunters other that UT)?
Would you rather spend hundreds on travel maing airlines rich or 30-50$ on an application instead directly funding wildlife?
One more debate. he said he polled the hunters if they would spend more money on an application fee and he said they couldnt afford a 40$ increase. I asked if they told the hunters that this was the alternative?? what about the nonresident on the same topic? after all, the nonresidents lost 25% of the normal drawing tags.
All in all after the heated conversation i did get him to say that things are not set in stone and percentages may need to be tweaked. HE DID SAY NONRES HUNTERS SHOULD EMAIL SFW with opinions so please let them know how you feel about this. The link is http://www.sfwsfh.org/contact.html .
His side of the coin was that we lost roughly one in 4 tags to the drawing but if we show up at the convention we have a chance to also get a part of the resident tags..... while competeing with a probably overwhelming resident attendence this didnt sound like a good deal, even if a guy could make it.
Also, I was under the impression this would take effect this year but he said it wouldnt until 2006. Thats a good thing as it gives them time to hopefully get thier finger on the pulse of the average nonresident hunter. I dont want to see SFW loose support from us, and told him that is why I was calling. I support 90% of what they are doing but this was a huge mistake that was not thought out as far as nonresident suport goes.
I personally would like to see the poll get posted and if i am wrong so be it but I firmly believe I represent the opinion of most nonres guys. Please lets give SFW the sportsman's voice on this. We all want habitiat improvement without making it benifit only the rich guy.
Please dont sit on the sidelines for this one. help SFW out in making the right decision.
Schmalts
I was on the phone for over an hour talking to the guy. I have to say that my opinion was that when i brought up the fact that the nonresidents were to lose 25% of the tags in the normal drawing he was unaware that percentage was really the case. He kept referring to half of the total 5% and i kept reminding him that Don peay himself said it did come out to 25% of the total tags even though it was 2 1/2 percent of the total combined tags overall, but with nonres only getting 10% of all the states tags that meant SFW and the other groups were taking 10 times the percentage of tags from nonresidents over residents (2.5 of every hundred resident tags, 25 of every hundred nonresident tags). Then I stressed the fact that the average nonres guy will not attend the convention for vacation and $ reasons. It took a while to get my point across but i feel i did somewhat. Of course i was a little hot at first but I am very passionate about hunting as they at SFW are. I calmed down and it started to become a good conversation.
A few points i brouht up to him was this.... the nonres average guy cannot afford to fly out and spend rental and motel and valuable vacation time on this. He kept asking what the average guy was?, i said I am the average hunting guy. 2 weeks vacation and under 60k job. My point was this.... I come out there, spend 320 on airline, 100 on motel, 120 on rental car, 60 meals..... so roughly 600$ on something OTHER THAN WILDLIFE habitat. Dont you think i would rather spend 30-50 bucks directly on the application fee or an internet version of this convention drawing instead?? because i can tell you as the average guy the 600$ version wont happen at all for me and every guy i know applying as a nonres to UT. Why make the airlines rich instead of the F&G. Leave the nonres out of this completely on this event. I stressed that the average nonres was not even aware of this proposal!!. we dissagreed on that point as he said they asked several nonres guys opinion... Several???????Who?? Guys living in adjoining states who may have a shorter drive that a resident on the other end of the state? thats not an accurate number.
He also said i was the first nonresident to call up directly and state my point like i did.
I stressed him i am for SFW but this will not be a support gaining idea for them. I suggested that they conduct one of thier online polls they do for just the nonres ONLY to ask the following:
Can you come to such a convention?
Are you for this way of raising money (very important to gain support from the rest of the hunters other that UT)?
Would you rather spend hundreds on travel maing airlines rich or 30-50$ on an application instead directly funding wildlife?
One more debate. he said he polled the hunters if they would spend more money on an application fee and he said they couldnt afford a 40$ increase. I asked if they told the hunters that this was the alternative?? what about the nonresident on the same topic? after all, the nonresidents lost 25% of the normal drawing tags.
All in all after the heated conversation i did get him to say that things are not set in stone and percentages may need to be tweaked. HE DID SAY NONRES HUNTERS SHOULD EMAIL SFW with opinions so please let them know how you feel about this. The link is http://www.sfwsfh.org/contact.html .
His side of the coin was that we lost roughly one in 4 tags to the drawing but if we show up at the convention we have a chance to also get a part of the resident tags..... while competeing with a probably overwhelming resident attendence this didnt sound like a good deal, even if a guy could make it.
Also, I was under the impression this would take effect this year but he said it wouldnt until 2006. Thats a good thing as it gives them time to hopefully get thier finger on the pulse of the average nonresident hunter. I dont want to see SFW loose support from us, and told him that is why I was calling. I support 90% of what they are doing but this was a huge mistake that was not thought out as far as nonresident suport goes.
I personally would like to see the poll get posted and if i am wrong so be it but I firmly believe I represent the opinion of most nonres guys. Please lets give SFW the sportsman's voice on this. We all want habitiat improvement without making it benifit only the rich guy.
Please dont sit on the sidelines for this one. help SFW out in making the right decision.
Schmalts