NWTF Rumors

[ECOPREDATOR]

I was a member for many years and Im strongly considering joining again.
But with all that's went on with the Keck situation Im still undecided. I can understand not divulging the information to non-members but any card carrying, due's paying member should have the right to know what goes on with it's board/board members. Full disclosure should not only be expected but granted. I and Im sure most here would not blindly give their money to any one group or org.

We would love to have you back.

I sincerely wish we could provide a full list of reasons. Legally it would be a very bad move for us.

If you knew all the facts, I think most everyone out there would say "OK, I totally understand that, happens all the time to businesses everywhere". I can promise there are no scandalous affairs and front page news stories here....just an organization that out grew its leaders....

Your money is going for the right reasons, conservation and hunting heritage. That IS one of my main jobs here and I can promise you that.

[ccleroy]

I will agree MW and BV are the best that could have been caught to fill the slots.....Keck did a great job at the helm of publicity for NWTF as far as percieved by me and I hated to see him go TBH....I don't know how they will be able to keep up with all they do but they give it a good face and voice if nothing else....some might not like him but he did have the passion for turkeys or either I percieved it as that especially in my old GOTL videos I have......hopefully everything gets back on track with them and they turn back into the CO they are supposed to be....

[ECOPREDATOR]

Rob and I were good friends and he was a tremendous voice for the NWTF. He put the NWTF front and center in the conservation world for many, many years. As a TV spokesperson he was absolutely unbeatable.

Michael and Brenda have big shoes to fill in that regard and they are doing a great job so far. However, neither of them have CEO in their title.

IMHO, a CEO is the business backbone of an organization and does most of his work behind the scenes. That's who we have in charge now.

I wish Rob and all the other folks the best of luck and wish it could have all turned out differently for them.

[2thDoc]

so...sounds like the two dudes that got fired, got fired for cause. seems to me they werent doing their job, but were fired under the guise of some sort of fraud. odd it went down like that. also seems to me that rob keck liked those guys that got fired and wished they were still there.

still fishy, ECOP....and I am sure you recognize that.

i have been a member and a sponsor many times. not sure if i am current but must admit i prefer to give my money to charity orgs that aren't privately owned these days....

[ECOPREDATOR]

Tooth, You don't have the whole story, but your getting a WHOLE lot warmer!

No one with the NWTF ever said anything about fraud, at least I never heard that as an acquisation. The "take back" site and a number of misinformed confidants were the one's who brought up that word and those acquisations.

So think of it this way, if you were PO'd at a group for letting you go and wanted to raise a lot of questions about how their money is/was being spent......you might just throw that word out there??? Would cause a lot of steadfast members to start questioning the NWTF....and of course the NWTF would have no recourse because we would be legally liable for refuting any statements due to a pending lawsuit.....hmmmmmmm.

As far as Rob liking those guys, he and Carl were college roomates and best friends......you do the math.

Oh, what do you mean by "privately" owned??? Wish you would renew and come back to the flock!

[2thDoc]

please correct me if I'm wrong...(because I still think the NWTF can and has done great things for the wild turkey and conservation in general) but isn't the NWTF privately owned? meaning "someone" is personally benefitting from donations? not all monies go to conservation efforts?

[2thDoc]

i guess i should explain b/c it seems to have a negative connotation and I am all for the American Way of people thinking of things that make money...

but unlike DU that has very open records and always says they spend 87cents of every dollar directly into their efforts...etc.etc.etc and like the Flyway Foundation that doesnt even make enough to pay its board...

isnt the NWTF a bit different in that they are privately owned?

[LabLuvR]

I'm with TOof on this one. After being a devoted fan of NWTF I gave up. Why? Because I have yet to see a financial statment of any shape or kind. In this day and time I'm sure the NWTF wants to be very transparent about it's operations, so where are the statements? If by some chance I have missed something then please tell me where to find said information and I will gladly review my stance. IThanks!

[Tater]

The turkeys are here, job complete. Maintaining should be the focus now. What are the biggest threats to the birds in place now? Habitat is one, Land acquisition should be a priority. Hunter recruitment or lack thereof is another, focus on youth should be a priority.

I was a member for many years, but haven't been for just as many. The straw for me was a combination of things involving the banquets that I won't get into here, but rest assured, it was not alcohol related as I personally never felt compelled to go to one.

[ECOPREDATOR]

Dang guys, I'm glad JAB posted this and made me see how unaware yall are of who the NWTF actually is and what we do.

We must be doing a terrible job of telling folks who we are, where we spend our money and what we are all about.....if our home state doesn't even know these things that doesn't say much for our efforts to tell the story.....

We are indeed EXACTLY like DU, just like Pheasants Forever, Rocky Mountain Elk, The Nature Conservancy and a slew of others. We are NOT privately owned and do not have stockholders, etc. We have the exact same non-profit status, the exact same overhead for employees and programs and we too are legally required to be completely transparent in our finances. Always have, always will....

We are governed by a board of directors who are NOT paid and are just dedicated volunteers for the organization. The CEO works for them and the rest of the employees work for the CEO. In other words, the BOD ultimately calls the shots. They are elected each year by the membership in an open election.

Here is the link to our annual finances. If you do the math you'll see that just like DU we spend between 85% and 90% of our funds on conservation or education program related activities. Check out the whole annual report for a run down of activities.

http://www.nwtf.org/annual_report/financials.pdf

http://www.nwtf.org/nwtf_newsroom/annual_report.html

The turkeys are here, job complete. Maintaining should be the focus now. What are the biggest threats to the birds in place now? Habitat is one, Land acquisition should be a priority. Hunter recruitment or lack thereof is another, focus on youth should be a priority.

AMEN brother. EXACTLY what we are doing. Did you know that we just signed an agreement with the USFS and the NRCS IN SOUTH CAROLINA to do habitat work on ALL the National Forests in SC AND to provide private landowner assistance including planning to ANY NWTF members that are interested?? Did you know that we are putting together a major fundraising effort to help purchase land for a WMA called the Belfast Plantation near Laurens???? Did you know that we do upteen JAKES events to recruit youth hunters in SC and around the nation. I'm guessing most of the guys on here didn't know that.....Why???

Visit our website PLEASE! If you want to get involved let me know. We're doing good stuff and we need great volunteers!

[wbrown609]

Does the NWTF support the Global Warming, Climate Change, etc. bill?

[cudexter]

IMO, we do not know these things for two reasons

1) we don't look it up.

2) We are not told this info

1 is our fault, yes, but as it reflects poorly on the NWTF membership, it also reflects poorly on NWTF.

2- you can argue that you shouldn't HAVE to tell us this info, since we can look it up- but if you want to change your image (which you should) and you want people to know what you've shared here.. you have to GIVE that information out.

at banquets, through mailing information, through advertising.

People are lazy, and though the information is under their nose, you have to allow them to find out without any work on their part.

[ECOPREDATOR]

That's a good one and the answer is yes and no. It's a hot topic in the news and we're not really ready to say we [humans] ruined the world, but we also recognized that climate change is happening and some actions need to be made to contradict the long-term effects.

The NWTF supports and always has supported conscientious and efficient uses of our natural resources. I know that sounds like a canned answer and it is.

What that means is while we support "some" of the proposed energy and climate change initiatives we have a hard time signing off carte blanche on some of the broad sweeping statements about "global warming", wind energy, offshore drilling, etc.

We try to stay out of the issues that don't affect hunting and the conservation of wild turkeys and other associated upland game.

We do support woody biomass use if it's done correctly and we TOTALLY support active forestry management like burning, thinning and timber harvest.

Some of the new biofuel initiatives have us quite concerned. We would hate to see the millions of acres of native grass (AKA brood and nesting habitat) destroyed and plowed up to plant corn, sorghum or something else used to make fuel.

Does that answer your question? If not shoot me a pm and I'll be glad to elaborate more.....

[ECOPREDATOR]

IMO, we do not know these things for two reasons

1) we don't look it up.

2) We are not told this info

1 is our fault, yes, but as it reflects poorly on the NWTF membership, it also reflects poorly on NWTF.

2- you can argue that you shouldn't HAVE to tell us this info, since we can look it up- but if you want to change your image (which you should) and you want people to know what you've shared here.. you have to GIVE that information out.

at banquets, through mailing information, through advertising.

People are lazy, and though the information is under their nose, you have to allow them to find out without any work on their part.

Absolutely. If you don't start seeing more information provided at NWTF banquets you let me know. Our staff (all of our conservation field staff works for me) has been working their butts off to provide this info to the fundraising staff. If it is not being used I need to know about it.

How do you guys propose that the NWTF tells it's story better. We obviously aren't reaching you guys now.....give me some ideas. I promise I'll pass them on to the appropriate folks.

This post has been a better exchange of information than our own NWTF message board. AND I only got on the SCDUCKS site to keep up with the dog folks and pimp out my big ol lab!!!

[jwilliams]

Lets have the straight poop about what really happened with the big three leaving and put an end to speculation. I was a member for a number of years but whenever you asked for information from the NWTF they always turned a deaf ear to the request. While I know that Michael Waddell and Sarah Valentine are good people I think they are spread too thin to do their jobs as spokes persons for this big of an organization. Like to know what their salaries are as well if you could let me know Ecopredator.

as a non profit, I am sure it is public info...Should be on the financials..

[ECOPREDATOR]

as a non profit, I am sure it is public info...Should be on the financials..

You are right, we are required to do a 1090 (I think that's the right numbers, I'm not the accountant). It does share some salary info, but it won't share the contractual agreements.

Like I said, we can't afford to pay them an extraordinary amount of money and we don't. However, they have lots of sponsorship deals and money making venues of their own. We are providing an audience through our membership and they are telling our story. A symbiotic relationship

[wbrown609]

That was a politically correct bs answer. Let me rephrase the question and add some more. Does your organization support the bill as written? Has your organization lobbied any congress members regarding this bill? Does your organization make contributions to congress members or political parties? If so, can we see a record of where that money went?

[cudexter]

That was a politically correct bs answer. Let me rephrase the question and add some more. Does your organization support the bill as written? Has your organization lobbied any congress members regarding this bill? Does your organization make contributions to congress members or political parties? If so, can we see a record of where that money went?

Call NWTF office and speak to someone that you KNOW is qualified to answer the question. Then post it here.

[ECOPREDATOR]

Does your organization support the bill as written? Has your organization lobbied any congress members regarding this bill? Does your organization make contributions to congress members or political parties? If so, can we see a record of where that money went?

As a 501c3 organization we cannot lobby or make contributions to public officials. Part of that non-profit status thing. That's why the NRA has their ILA branch so they can lobby congress without losing the NRA's non-profit status.

We do support certain provisions in the bill and we remain neutral on others.

We occassionally do a letter writing campaign with our members and we certainly provide scientifically written statements of support or opposition on certain provisions and amendments.

As far as the current energy bill goes, we are letting a lot this play out. We have made a few statements as I previously mentioned supporting active forest management and cellulosic biofuels (tree limbs and slash = biofuel). We have also made some cautionary statements about plowing up CRP and the prairie to produce ethanol.

That's about the best answer I can give you.....I haven't even read he whole 1000+ page bill and prolly won't....my brain hurts just watching FOX News!

[ECOPREDATOR]

Call NWTF office and speak to someone that you KNOW is qualified to answer the question. Then post it here.

I'm the Assistant Vice President of Conservation Programs.

I'm pretty qualified I guess.....

I have nothing to hide and I don't mind educating yall about the NWTF as long as you are willing to listen.

Sounds like we've done a damn poor job up until now.