It's time for one Federation.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Gary Morris on September 16, 2010 at 11:51am

This is an open letter to the members of the Washington State Bass Federation, The BASS Federation Nation of Washington, and to all bass anglers in the state of Washington.

I am writing this letter because I feel it is way past the time for all of us to unite into one organization again. I believe that it is time that we started working together rather than working against each other. In my honest opinion, I feel like the worst thing that has ever happened to us was the break up of the Bass Federation into two factions.

As we have seen, there is room for more than one organization but at the same time it is also easy to see the State Federation was much stronger when we together as one. We had bigger turnouts at our qualifier tournaments. Our clubs were growing at a much more rapid and steady pace then. And we had more pull with WDFW too.

So to get to the point I believe that it is time to put an end to us vs. them. BASS verses TBF. We should all be working as one to better the sport of bass fishing in the state of Washington.

If we could make this happen this is how I envision things working:

1. We could elect one state president and then have a TBF Contact and a BASS Contact that would report to their respective national organizations and back to the Washington Federation President, the board of directors, and each club’s members.

2. All of the bass clubs would belong to one State Federation and the members could choose their affiliations. Each individual club member could be either BASS or TBF member or they could be members of both if they wanted to fish both qualifiers.

3. We could also combine our qualifier tournaments into one weekend with Saturday being for one and Sunday the other national organization. Each day would be run by whichever organization the participants are qualifying for. We could hold our tournaments at different lakes that are close to each other so that we would not be fishing the same body of water.

4. We could fish bodies of water like Lake Sammamish and Washington, Banks and Roosevelt, Tri-Cities and Boardman, Moses and Potholes. We could fish the same bodies of water every year and flip flop which organization fishes which lake. We could even do the same format with our youth championships.

5. This format would save our members gas expenses and it would give all of them more opportunities to qualify for regional and national events.

6. It could also increase the participation in both the BASS and TBF qualifiers because most anglers would fish both since they were there anyway.

In closing I will say that I feel that combining our efforts truly makes sense. It is time that we combined forces and focused our energies toward the betterment of the Federation angler by uniting under one organization with both affiliations instead of both competing for the same anglers.

Thanks for listening,

Gary Morris

WSBF President

Permalink Reply by Chris Lambert on September 16, 2010 at 12:51pm

That's a great idea! This would really increase the level of competition within our Federation and make the State Teams even stronger.....I'm in!

There does need to be one stipulation....Aaron can only qualify for one national championship per year:)

Gary Morris said:

This is an open letter to the members of the Washington State Bass Federation, The BASS Federation Nation of Washington, and to all bass anglers in the state of Washington.

I am writing this letter because I feel it is way past the time for all of us to unite into one organization again. I believe that it is time that we started working together rather than working against each other. In my honest opinion, I feel like the worst thing that has ever happened to us was the break up of the Bass Federation into two factions.

As we have seen, there is room for more than one organization but at the same time it is also easy to see the State Federation was much stronger when we together as one. We had bigger turnouts at our qualifier tournaments. Our clubs were growing at a much more rapid and steady pace then. And we had more pull with WDFW too.

So to get to the point I believe that it is time to put an end to us vs. them. BASS verses TBF. We should all be working as one to better the sport of bass fishing in the state of Washington.

If we could make this happen this is how I envision things working:

1. We could elect one state president and then have a TBF Contact and a BASS Contact that would report to their respective national organizations and back to the Washington Federation President, the board of directors, and each club’s members.

2. All of the bass clubs would belong to one State Federation and the members could choose their affiliations. Each individual club member could be either BASS or TBF member or they could be members of both if they wanted to fish both qualifiers.

3. We could also combine our qualifier tournaments into one weekend with Saturday being for one and Sunday the other national organization. Each day would be run by whichever organization the participants are qualifying for. We could hold our tournaments at different lakes that are close to each other so that we would not be fishing the same body of water.

4. We could fish bodies of water like Lake Sammamish and Washington, Banks and Roosevelt, Tri-Cities and Boardman, Moses and Potholes. We could fish the same bodies of water every year and flip flop which organization fishes which lake. We could even do the same format with our youth championships.

5. This format would save our members gas expenses and it would give all of them more opportunities to qualify for regional and national events.

6. It could also increase the participation in both the BASS and TBF qualifiers because most anglers would fish both since they were there anyway.

In closing I will say that I feel that combining our efforts truly makes sense. It is time that we combined forces and focused our energies toward the betterment of the Federation angler by uniting under one organization with both affiliations instead of both competing for the same anglers.

Thanks for listening,

Gary Morris

WSBF President

Permalink Reply by Keith Brooks on September 16, 2010 at 4:05pm

Very interesting proposition... Many questions come to mind though. Would clubs need two sets of officers? Would either organizations liability insurance cover a clubs event if the club was mixed membership and not 100% either one or both? How about youth and conservation hours, would clubs get to count the same man hours twice? I look forward to airing some of this out at the WSBF meetings in Ellensburg this weekend...

Permalink Reply by Gary Morris on September 16, 2010 at 4:17pm

Insurance - Yes, the club would be covered. It's members would still be members of either the TBF or BASS. The club could be mixed. Look at how many clubs don't have the 100% national membership that they are required to have now.
Officers - No the clubs would not need two sets of officers. Everything would stay as it is.
Youth & Conservation - Those are requirements of the WSBF not the national organizations. That is all on a state level so the club would only have to do it once.

And yes, I think it will make for an interesting meeting this weekend. And hopefully we have a huge attendance so that we can discuss the possibilities. Personally I am just tired of the whole them vs us thing. It's time to move forward and remember why we all joined a club to begin with. We shouldn't have to choose a side. We should have one state level organization with two national alliances. We are all in a club for a reason. We should try to make our state stronger and the only way is to unify the Federation once again.

I am sure I will get hate mail over this but frankly I don't care. It's high time we started moving forward. Hopefully this will get people talking and we can make something happen for the good of all.

Permalink Reply by Gary Morris on September 16, 2010 at 4:24pm

LOL!

Chris Lambert said:

That's a great idea! This would really increase the level of competition within our Federation and make the State Teams even stronger.....I'm in!

There does need to be one stipulation....Aaron can only qualify for one national championship per year:)

Gary Morris said:

This is an open letter to the members of the Washington State Bass Federation, The BASS Federation Nation of Washington, and to all bass anglers in the state of Washington.

I am writing this letter because I feel it is way past the time for all of us to unite into one organization again. I believe that it is time that we started working together rather than working against each other. In my honest opinion, I feel like the worst thing that has ever happened to us was the break up of the Bass Federation into two factions.

As we have seen, there is room for more than one organization but at the same time it is also easy to see the State Federation was much stronger when we together as one. We had bigger turnouts at our qualifier tournaments. Our clubs were growing at a much more rapid and steady pace then. And we had more pull with WDFW too.

So to get to the point I believe that it is time to put an end to us vs. them. BASS verses TBF. We should all be working as one to better the sport of bass fishing in the state of Washington.

If we could make this happen this is how I envision things working:

1. We could elect one state president and then have a TBF Contact and a BASS Contact that would report to their respective national organizations and back to the Washington Federation President, the board of directors, and each club’s members.

2. All of the bass clubs would belong to one State Federation and the members could choose their affiliations. Each individual club member could be either BASS or TBF member or they could be members of both if they wanted to fish both qualifiers.

3. We could also combine our qualifier tournaments into one weekend with Saturday being for one and Sunday the other national organization. Each day would be run by whichever organization the participants are qualifying for. We could hold our tournaments at different lakes that are close to each other so that we would not be fishing the same body of water.

4. We could fish bodies of water like Lake Sammamish and Washington, Banks and Roosevelt, Tri-Cities and Boardman, Moses and Potholes. We could fish the same bodies of water every year and flip flop which organization fishes which lake. We could even do the same format with our youth championships.

5. This format would save our members gas expenses and it would give all of them more opportunities to qualify for regional and national events.

6. It could also increase the participation in both the BASS and TBF qualifiers because most anglers would fish both since they were there anyway.

In closing I will say that I feel that combining our efforts truly makes sense. It is time that we combined forces and focused our energies toward the betterment of the Federation angler by uniting under one organization with both affiliations instead of both competing for the same anglers.

Thanks for listening,

Gary Morris

WSBF President

Permalink Reply by Daryl Snodgrass on September 16, 2010 at 5:13pm

Sounds good to me. Iron out the specifics and put it on paper, so people can understand there options. The sooner the better.

Daryl

Permalink Reply by Russ Baker on September 16, 2010 at 5:20pm

Great idea Gary!!

Permalink Reply by Harold Erickson on September 16, 2010 at 5:40pm

This is a great idea it truly is a win- win idea. just bring everything back to just fishing.

Permalink Reply by Jordan Doucet on September 16, 2010 at 8:22pm

I like the idea Gary. Thanks for throwing this out there. I'm curous to hear what Ken Day and Mark Byrne have to say.

Permalink Reply by Larry Austin on September 17, 2010 at 5:02am

I really like the idea Gary

Permalink Reply by Jerry Wilson on September 17, 2010 at 7:43am

How could anyone not like this idea? The only reason no to like this idea is if it doesn't benefit you.

Permalink Reply by BigBass Dez on September 17, 2010 at 9:44am

Im in favor of the idea Gary However i do have just a few concerns , I would interested in knowing if this would change how the qualifing anglers are selected for the state teams ?
Would this merger have any impact on the annual Budgets for both chapters ?
What if an angler qualifies for the state team on both sides , would that be considered a conflict in the eyes of either chapter ?
will the final decision be determined by way of a vote from both boards or by all participating B.A.S.S & FLW menbers ? ..

Dez

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