Legislative Update: DNR Kills SEEDS License Plate

[Randy]

What the DNR head did with his recommendation borders on discrimination.

What? What he did? All he did was voice his opinion in opposition. Maybe what the legislature did was discrimination.

Personally, I have no problem if tags are for gooberment programs. But if the program is private, the organization should rasie it's own money. But we all know how this got started. The first group who ever it was, SOLD it to the legislature. You know, if you will allow this we get a dollar and you (the gooberment) gets to keep the rest. No legislator is going to turn down free money. It was us, or the private program, that asked for the gooberment to get involved. We never should have asked for them to.

 

[Branchminnow]

BINGO!!!!!

But I think what I am hearing from Branch is he does not care all he wants is to support YOUTH programs.

Are the youth the most important YES by all means. Ill say this and go you one farther as far as what i think, It would suit me just fine if the next 200 turkey, 200 deer, 200 bear, were all killed by kids UNDER 18 years old, and it would not matter to me one whit, if none of them were killed by adults. You talked not lang ago about the maturity of a deer hunter, well this is about the maturity of a man, that has kids and can see the future through their eyes. would it be ok with me to have a kid with me EVERYTIME I went into the woods the rest of my life???? DERN STRAIGHT! I would love it, and Im almost there now!

So yes Randy I would rather support a YOUTH than you or any other hunter that has had your s and my opportunity.

 

[PWalls]

What? What he did? All he did was voice his opinion in opposition. Maybe what the legislature did was discrimination.

Sorry. I agree. The man has the right to voice his opinion just like everyone else does. Unfortunately for the SEEDS license plate issue, his opinion seems to carry a good bit of weight with the legislature. They ultimately were the ones who killed it and we should all remember that and not focus blame on a man who did nothing more than any of us would when asked and that was to give his opinion. It is a fact of life that some people's opinions are held in higher regards than others.

 

[JR]

Personally, I have no problem if tags are for gooberment programs. But if the program is private, the organization should rasie it's own money.

Randy, it sounds like to me you don't even have a 'dog in this fight'!!! Sounds like you either 1- don't have kids, or 2- could care less about promoting ANY youth program!!!! Either way, what difference does it make if the 'gooberment' choses to help promote a private party? The gov't would NOT be funding this... Only allowing another choice for the general public! I may not like all of the tags they offer right now, but you know what, instead of getting worked up over it, and/or worrying about them, I just CHOOSE not to buy one... End of story!!!!

 

[PWalls]

Are the youth the most important YES by all means. Ill say this and go you one farther as far as what i think, It would suit me just fine if the next 200 turkey, 200 deer, 200 bear, were all killed by kids UNDER 18 years old, and it would not matter to me one whit, if none of them were killed by adults. You talked not lang ago about the maturity of a deer hunter, well this is about the maturity of a man, that has kids and can see the future through their eyes. would it be ok with me to have a kid with me EVERYTIME I went into the woods the rest of my life???? DERN STRAIGHT! I would love it, and Im almost there now!

So yes Randy I would rather support a YOUTH than you or any other hunter that has had your s and my opportunity.

I'm with you on that one Brother.

 

[Branchminnow]

What? What he did? All he did was voice his opinion in opposition. Maybe what the legislature did was discrimination.

Personally, I have no problem if tags are for gooberment programs. But if the program is private, the organization should rasie it's own money. But we all know how this got started. The first group who ever it was, SOLD it to the legislature. You know, if you will allow this we get a dollar and you (the gooberment) gets to keep the rest. No legislator is going to turn down free money. It was us, or the private program, that asked for the gooberment to get involved. We never should have asked for them to.

His whole statement was totally illogical, he (or his agancy) talks about how hunter numbers are on the decline, well what better way is there to actually promote hunting except through our youth???????

He killed the bill with (and for the 1000th time ) HIS INFLUENCE!!!!! Not his authority.

 

[Randy]

Randy, it sounds like to me you don't even have a 'dog in this fight'!!! Sounds like you either 1- don't have kids, or 2- could care less about promoting ANY youth program!!!! Either way, what difference does it make if the 'gooberment' choses to help promote a private party? The gov't would NOT be funding this... Only allowing another choice for the general public! I may not like all of the tags they offer right now, but you know what, instead of getting worked up over it, and/or worrying about them, I just CHOSE not to buy one... End of story!!!!

On the contrary. I care very much about the future of hunting and fishing. I want a strong WRD to be able to take care of the resouce so the future hunters will have something and some where to hunt them. In fact, I originally joined the Network because it was going to be an organization run by hunters/sportsmen that did care about the future of this sport. And run by these sportsmen. That did not really happen and is another story all together.

You want choice? What if every private organization out there could have a tag? Each piece of the pie would be so small it would not even matter. I think the Network needs to get back to focus on what it was originally intended. Take the bull by the horns, support hunting and fishing, work to protect the future of the sport and and do it privately like so many great organizations do. The NRA, NWTF, DU and many others do quiet well raising money without having to depend on the gooberment.

 

[Mechanicaldawg]

BTW, Daryl, do you think the title of this article is honest? What if the title was "GON tries to steal mony from Georgia's Bob White Quail Initiative Program" would that title not be just as honest?

You don't think that the title was intended to mislead and incite people that don't understand the process? What was the motive?

Whether it was intentionaly aimed that way, it apparantly has succeeded in doing just that. Great work by a company that has claimed that educating sportsmen/women in the process was one of their goals.

Apply a little commonsense to the equation. If DNR had the power to control the legislature there would be no budget shortfalls within that agency.

MudDucker, I'd be surprised to learn that your source of info concerning this issue came from a few pro-baiting Reps/Senators that are upset over the baiting issue. I know that you are familiar with the legislative process and understand that while state agencies are given the opportunity for input, the final decisions are clearly made by the legislature and the Executive.

Even now, no one has answered the million dollar question: Why not produce and sale your own tags without government involvement?

This is a dead issue at this point anyway so I will not beat the air any longer other than to ask everyone to read post #20 at least one more time.

 

[JR]

...What if every private organization out there could have a tag? Each piece of the pie would be so small it would not even matter...

I must be an idiot, cause I still don't get it.... Someone stated earlier that the tag cost around $3 to make... ANY tag that is... And that the county office get's $1 per... So that is $4 (let's say) out of the price of say, $25... That leaves $21.... Again for ANY take... The Quail... Breast Cancer... or ANY of the school support tags.... Now, the remaining $21 is divided by the gov't and the 'organization'... And since we know the gov't ALWAYS gets a bigger 'cut', well say they get $14 of the $21, leaving $7 to the intended or represented org. of the tag... That's $7 the org. otherwise wouldn't have had....!!!! Now, HOW is it that the 'peice of pie' keeps getting smaller? Again working with these numbers, it would be $7 for ANY of the different tags you buy.... The only way the 'peices of pie' would get smaller, is if you mean with the SEEDS 'cutting into' the DNR/WRD Quail tags or something like that....???? Even so, I feel it is a choice we should get to make... I have a Quail tag, not because I give a crap about a stupid quail, but because it is one of ONLY a few choices I have to support some sort of wildlife in GA!

 

[Branchminnow]

Common sense??? Common sense tells me very plainly that if you have all these other groups who are already approved to recieve this type of benefit, then why not something that we care about?????? That being a YOUTH HUNTING AND FISHING program???? Of which there is NOTHING else in the state like it.

Sorry post 20 still dont make sense.

 

[JR]

Even now, no one has answered the million dollar question: Why not produce and sale your own tags without government involvement?

Exsposure!!!!! As in, statewide... With little to no advertising expenses... ANY tag that is avalible in GA can be found on the DMV website, along with a brief write up of what it is for, or what it supports, along with how much $$$ goes to the org., from the purchase of the tag....

 

[Branchminnow]

I have a Quail tag, ....it is one of ONLY a few choices I have to support some sort of wildlife in GA!

Thats the very reason I bought one when they first came out.

 

[Branchminnow]

Exsposure!!!!!

Thank You I was hoping it was as obvious to others as it was to me!

 

[Randy]

Well if there was an unending demand that would be the case but the fact is for the most part sportsmen are going to buy tags that they feel are going to support sportmen's issues and vice versa. No breast cancer person is going to buy a sportsman tag, they are going to buy that breast cancer tag.

So to keep it simple let's assume there are 100 sportsmen willing to spend money to buy a tag hopeing at least some of the money goes to their cause. (I know some that will not spend 25 dollars knowing that only 7 of that goes to a good cause). Anyway, so we have 100 guys willing to spend the money. We have (we'll just say two types of sportsman tags for right now) two types of tags to decided from. If we asume a 50/50 split the each organization would get half that money. Now add a third tag. Now each organization gets 33% of that money. Now see what happens if you open it up to more and more organizations? Let's take it one step further. Suppose that one organization for some reason (maybe free advertisement in magazine or something) gets a larger uneven share of this money. Now the other two are not only not getting that original 50/50 nor the 33% but they may be getting little or nothing.

See, the amount of choices out there do determine what these organizations get. Then throw in some slanting like advertisement and the table really tilts.

Yes, if I were in Mr. Holcomb's shoes, I would have the same opinion!

 

[Randy]

Exsposure!!!!! As in, statewide... With little to no advertising expenses... ANY tag that is avalible in GA can be found on the DMV website, along with a brief write up of what it is for, or what it supports, along with how much $$$ goes to the org., from the purchase of the tag....

"Little or no advertising?" Are you kidding? Do you tink that GON would not have full page advertisement for it's readers (which is BTW a lot of exposure) telling them to rush out and get a SEEDS tag to support it's organization!

 

[Branchminnow]

Well if there was an unending demand that would be the case but the fact is for the most part sportsmen are going to buy tags that they feel are going to support sportmen's issues and vice versa. No breast cancer person is going to buy a sportsman tag, they are going to buy that breast cancer tag.

So to keep it simple let's assume there are 100 sportsmen willing to spend money to buy a tag hopeing at least some of the money goes to their cause. (I know some that will not spend 25 dollars knowing that only 7 of that goes to a good cause). Anyway, so we have 100 guys willing to spend the money. We have (we'll just say two types of sportsman tags for right now) two types of tags to decided from. If we asume a 50/50 split the each organization would get half that money. Now add a third tag. Now each organization gets 33% of that money. Now see what happens if you open it up to more and more organizations? Let's take it one step further. Suppose that one organization for some reason (maybe free advertisement in magazine or something) gets a larger uneven share of this money. Now the other two are not only not getting that original 50/50 nor the 33% but they may be getting little or nothing.

See, the amount of choices out there do determine what these organizations get. Then throw in some slanting like advertisement and the table really tilts.

Yes, if I were in Mr. Holcomb's shoes, I would have the same opinion!

There are 20 people that I know that have already said they would buy one, and guess what they dont have either of the other specialty tags. So that part of your argument dont work either.

 

[Branchminnow]

"Little or no advertising?" Are you kidding? Do you tink that GON would not have full page advertisement for it's readers (which is BTW a lot of exposure) telling them to rush out and get a SEEDS tag to support it's organization!

Yep they would be stupid not to, but alas every hunter and fisherman in the state dont subscribe to the magazine. But I will let you in on a little secret,a pile of the folks (of which there was around 260 ) at my last banquet are subscibers to the magazine either but they are now Networkers and would buy the tags in support of the program, for kids.

 

[Randy]

There are 20 people that I know that have already said they would buy one, and guess what they dont have either of the other specialty tags. So that part of your argument dont work either.

You may certainly add some to the demand. Heck we'd probably add to the demand if there was a rainbow tag. But you know you will take some away from what is already being spent. That part does work!

 

[Randy]

Yep they would be stupid not to, but alas every hunter and fisherman in the state dont subscribe to the magazine. But I will let you in on a little secret,a pile of the folks (of which there was around 260 ) at my last banquet are subscibers to the magazine either but they are now Networkers and would buy the tags in support of the program, for kids.

You made my point better than I could. I bet out of those 260 at least 130 are now buying a sportsmans tag and would switch to a SEEDS tag. So right there Mr. Holcomb would have lost 130 tags. Of course he wants to keep his money! I would.

 

[Randy]

what is the hold-up in making progress? is it people, or systems/process, or competitive differences?

Yes, yes, and yes.