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It's time for one Federation.
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
Views: 158
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Gary Morris on
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I knew that somehow I would get some flak for proposing this. But it is what it is.
Tom, that is what the quarterly meetings in Ellensburg are for. So that the clubs can all come and suggest things to make the Federation better. But it is like pulling teeth to get anyone to show up. Roy is there from Chelan every time and he has input. Sometimes it is negitive and sometimes it is positive. But he brings the issues his club has to the meeting and we all get to discuss them as a group. Some clubs don't come. All members are welcome too. As are you.
The origional reason for this post was to try to do something good for the anglers. All of the anglers. Not just the TBF side but everyone. I wanted people to talk about it in an open fourm situation. I should have known it would change from what can we do to make this better for everyone into you screwed up.
I have been lucky enough to have Joe Jacoby in office with me since day one and I could not have done it with out him. We are both leaving at the end of our term and we thought that we could bring a little bit of unity back to the state by trying to bridge the BASS and TBF gap. That is all this post was supposed to be all about. To get people talking again.
Those of you who have helped and supported us during our time in office I thank you. To those who have issues with us I am sorry. I never did anything to intentionally hurt anyone or leave anyone out. Am I perfect? Hell no. Have I made mistakes. Yes I have. But at least I stood up and tried to make a difference. -
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Permalink Reply by Tom Melowitz on
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Gary - my response was not meant to be flak but suggestions to go forward. I don't think that some clubs ( Chelan is probably an exception) know why participation is diminishing. And I also don't think you can get that answer at the Federation meetings with a single club representative. I think that has to happen at a club level.
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Permalink Reply by Doug Jorgensen on
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Some may have issue with what I said. Do not get me wrong, I value what Gary and Joe have done for the Federation. They came in during a horrible period of uncertainty when we switched over to being affiliated with FLW. I was not envious of their position and congradulate them on moving us out of that time. However as with any elected position I think they have given their best, but it is time as a Federation to move on. Gary and Joe can only come up with so many new idea's and deal with the frustations of making everyone happy. I believe we need new energy and a fresh attitude in moving forward. The Washington State Bass Federation is about fishing, lets get back to that and let the TBF deal with the politics.
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Permalink Reply by Jerry Wilson on
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The proposal is to have one state federation and the members could be either one or the other. Nobody mentioned combining anything other than the tournaments on the same weekend in the same area. And neither BASS nor FLW have any say in what we do as a state. And they already do it in some states now so there is a precedent. So by flat out saying that it won't work is a defeatist attitude.
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