Howard Vincent retiring from PF
- Thread starter benelli-banger
- Start date
benelli-banger
Well-known member
Not sure what their goal is for that $35; my guess is it’s to obtain members, who then participate in local banquets, who are a constituency to use as leverage with politicians, and who give to PF in greater amounts through other giving programs. I don’t think the basic membership fee of $35 is the primary funding source for PF…I think it’s more involved than that. Hope so.
OK, just looked at their audited financial statement ending 6/30/21; total support and revenue was about $98 million for that fiscal year, of which $4.6 mil came from membership dues and about $3 mil came from banquets. There are about 130,000 members. Most of the 98 million is spent on habitat projects; admin is 2.7% of their expenses….quite low, IMO. Most impressive to me is that they hold around 500 youth events annually…if we’re not recruiting young hunters, habitat is doomed. Look at the facts if you haven’t…easy to access, pretty user friendly. No, your $35 won’t result in a sweet WIA down the block from where you live in a year or two…even if it did, people would probably find something about that to lament about too.
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Hutcho
Active member
I'm president of our local chapter and it feels like that is what they want from it. They push very hard to have membership drives. The local chapters don't see a dime of that, but even if we did it would be such a small amount it wouldn't make a difference. From my experience everyone on the paid staff as been super helpful to our efforts. The biggest complaint I have is getting people to actually show up and help. Maybe it's just my area, but seems like lots of talk to no action from most people unfortunately.
benelli-banger
Well-known member
Kudo’s to you sir for actually getting involved!!!!! Sorry to hear it’s hard getting people to walk the talk…not surprised. Let me/us know where you’re located and when you have something that needs some boots on the ground…I live in Duluth and don’t consistently support our chapter here, not sure where the habitat is that we’d be fundraising for…if you’re in MN somewhere I’d consider helping, I retire next spring and travel to SD a lot in the spring and summer. Again, thanks for giving your time…sending $35, or $350, or $3500, is the easy part…actually doing something is the hard part!
benelli-banger
Well-known member
Ignore everything else, good or bad about PF; they hold about 500 youth events annually…
benelli-banger
Well-known member
FWIW, I’ve had hunting land in SD for 22 years, have hosted North of 100 different guys in that time. To date, I can count on one hand how many have offered me $ or their time to help with taxes, food plots, misc expenses. Some I accepted, some I didn’t (some are very creative and very adamant)…no matter, anyone who was thoughtful enough to offer got/get preferential treatment…it’s kind of a rare thing, based upon my small sample size/demographic group. Oh, we’re never getting skunked, I can assure you of that! Other than by actual skunks…
Bottom line, doing something, anything, is important. If you can’t get behind PF, gift a landowner who is doing good $35 to a local restaurant out in their neck of the woods and let them know that their choices and their efforts are appreciated. Blow their minds and visit them in the spring before planting is in full gear…much fun!!!!
Bottom line, doing something, anything, is important. If you can’t get behind PF, gift a landowner who is doing good $35 to a local restaurant out in their neck of the woods and let them know that their choices and their efforts are appreciated. Blow their minds and visit them in the spring before planting is in full gear…much fun!!!!
4shot
Well-known member
I love pheasant hunting. I’ve been debating about paying the dues just to get some gear that promotes pheasant hunting. $35 for a hat and a gator? Not a bad deal, don’t seem like there would be much left to help with a cause. I did see that scheels had some PF gear that I liked and may buy. If I was a member I’m not driving around looking for that PF sign out in the field and feel like I’m owed something for my $35 bucks. BB mentioned is that a little bit here a little there isn’t gonna bring back GREAT hunting. I was from central Iowa when hunting was really really good. That was because every mile or two you had multiple 40-60 acre fields in the CRP. With the new hybrids and minimal till farming practices those farm are now really profitable. I also feel that farmers are now more row crop then raising animals and have more time to make their farms look like the cover of “Wallace Farmer”. Mowing more road ditches and water ways to make their landlord think they real care about how things look. In this environment your gonna reap what you sow. Last year I had one of my best hunting years ever. Spent a lot of time scouting, traveling, and hunting. Someone said on here that they felt like their success hasn’t changed over the years, he’s constantly moving and hunting where the birds are. Like the Kansas hunter said, the birds are here you just gotta find them. There out there, we just gotta go hunt em up!
benelli-banger
Well-known member
I think the model that PF (and other similar organizations) are running starts with attracting a membership base, and building from there; membership dues are about 5% of total revenue. 2.7% of revenue goes to admin, I can support that. Ask any of these annoying charities that cold call at dinner time…LEO support “charities” often…they hang up when asked! They’re above 50% oftentimes!
Munster927
Well-known member
Agreed. It's a "show of force" type thing. The membership dues aren't really driving habitat or projects, but what they are doing is creating a collective group of people that when they go to lobby for something they can say "Look, 140,000 people want X". It's a lot more powerful when the numbers are strong.
It's like if in your town, 2 people show up to city hall and say "can you fix this pothole please", not a lot of action will happen. Now if 10,000 people show up? That's going to have more weight.
BrownDogsCan2
Well-known member
I wish scheels or cabellas or another would do a round up for conservation with du or pf. I do it most of the time with the pet store or at cabellas and have no idea where it even goes too. A plus would be a recognizable organization like that I think it would increase their membership.
Hutcho
Active member
I'm in Missouri. Joplin area to be exact. There's not much for quail down here anymore so I get that people aren't excited about helping the quail group. We do try to do a bunch for youth though, that has been our main focus and even with our low activity we did get the honor of the statewide youth award(it's in last months QF magazine). I'm really proud of that partKudo’s to you sir for actually getting involved!!!!! Sorry to hear it’s hard getting people to walk the talk…not surprised. Let me/us know where you’re located and when you have something that needs some boots on the ground…I live in Duluth and don’t consistently support our chapter here, not sure where the habitat is that we’d be fundraising for…if you’re in MN somewhere I’d consider helping, I retire next spring and travel to SD a lot in the spring and summer. Again, thanks for giving your time…sending $35, or $350, or $3500, is the easy part…actually doing something is the hard part!
We did a youth event/pollinator project and co-oped with my work(power company in this area) and it's been pretty amazing to see all the different groups contacting us to see if we can help them with their projects too.
At the end of the day these projects aren't doing anything for the quail population. But it is definitely getting the name out there and hopefully it starts driving membership numbers so that we can actually do some stuff that does help. I absolutely hate the COVID excuse, but I would be lying if I said that didn't hurt us too, our chapter started in the fall of 2019.
I did just see an email about a new program for public access. I need to get a minute to dig in and see if it's gonna be a good one or not.
Hutcho
Active member
For anyone interested here is one of the new land projects. Looks like it's part of the new build a wildlife area program. $50 bucks gets you in and you get a premium OnX with that donation. Hard to not make that donation, half off OnX and your dollars get used for habit....
remy3424
Well-known member
Yah, their goals on the national level are changing, they are wanting to get 75,000 acres permanently protected and improve over 9 million acres of upland habitat...it is hard to get behind that kind of changes. How would that help anything, boycott them fellas!
If you donate to the "Call of the Uplands", those funds go toward that project. The local chapters get to use the locally generated funds (mostly from the activies and sponsorships from the banquits) how they deem best, (get on the board if you want a say in this) whether that be toward legistative causes, youth education, habitat projects, food plots, put toward local land acquistions or toward the new Call of the Uplands project. The way it seems that KS members here do not support PF, KS hunters should hope the successful chapters put some of their funds into the Call of the Uplands and maybe they can see some new opportunties without help at all. The fairest way financially would be to help in the areas where the funds come from, but I doubt that will be a factor, so there is hope out there.
remy3424
Well-known member
BrownDog, that is an excellant idea! I go through an Arbrys drive-through a time or 2 a month and they have the round-up for a local woman's shelter, hard to not do that....I will guess a big percentage of the Scheels, Caleblas, Base Pro store shoppers would do that...less than a buck, but it has to add-up!
Hutcho, thanks for stepping up there....I hope they double your salary this year!!!! Maybe you have a state or national connect and could suggest BrownDoog's idea for the "round-up" at outdoor stores. I love that idea! Midway USA has done that for quite a while for the NRA and it has generated millions and millions of dollars!
Hutcho, thanks for stepping up there....I hope they double your salary this year!!!! Maybe you have a state or national connect and could suggest BrownDoog's idea for the "round-up" at outdoor stores. I love that idea! Midway USA has done that for quite a while for the NRA and it has generated millions and millions of dollars!
gimruis
Well-known member
Not a big fan of the youth events. Here in MN they have a youth waterfowl weekend PRIOR to the general opener, they have a youth deer season PRIOR to the general firearms opener, and they let youth turkey hunters hunt the ENTIRE 56 day spring season when everyone else is limited to one 7 day season. Its completely bogus. The youth hunters get a dose of reality when they turn 18 here.
None of these existed when I was a youth hunter, which isn't that long ago. I don't approve of any of these special events or seasons here. If I wanted to hunt, I went on opener like everyone else did. Not during some special season before everyone else gets a fair crack at it. Pretty soon there's gonna be an early youth walleye season or an early youth pheasant season and they'll be catching spawning walleyes or blasting hens.
Hutcho
Active member
I'm gonna mention it next time I talk to someone. We just lost our regional rep so it's extra chaotic right now lol! I LOVE the idea, I would definitely do it every if it were an option. I know PayPal has an option to do a donation everytime you send a payment, and I'm pretty sure there is an Amazon smile deal too.
Hutcho
Active member
That's a crazy long season! IF we have a youth season it's like the weekend before regular season. As a father I like the idea of it as it's not a crazy busy with all the people. That said I haven't taken advantage of it yet so maybe it's just as bad.
Our youth events so far have been limited to fishing, clay shooting, and dog demonstration. They really love it though. I would like to do a kick and shoot mentored "hunt" one of these days. Gotta get them really excited and hooked before they realize how bad the numbers here are
benelli-banger
Well-known member
I may be wrong, I don’t think the PF youth events mean that they can influence the GFP or DNR to schedule a youth hunt….but those are generally already a reality, which I’m fine with. I think these 500 youth events are various activities that introduce or encourage kids to get involved with hunting/shooting types of activities. Everyone’s entitled to their opinions, tough to expect the sport and habitat to propagate without positive experiences for young folks in some manner, shape or form.
gimruis
Well-known member
I'm all for getting youth involved in these outdoor activities, but not at the expense of all the other hunters.
What do you think happens when they start shooting at ducks 2 weeks before everyone else? The ducks LEAVE! What do you think happens to the big bucks when there are hunters in the woods with rifles 2 weeks before everyone else? They bucks LEAVE. The DNR is alienating the existing core of hunters by trying to give a younger demographic an advantage. Everyone should have the same opportunity to hunt or fish if they buy a license. It should not be dependent on age, race, gender, etc ... and we're heading down that road.
I didn't mean to specifically call you out on PF and their events. As of right now, there isn't a special youth pheasant season but I can only hope it continues to stay that way.
Hutcho
Active member
From my limited experience the youth events have nothing to do with actual hunting season. Usually it's like our fun and gun day, or we did a pollinator event. Anything that involves youth gets thrown in that bucket. The "hunts" are very strict on the rules. It's a 1 kid in the field under constant supervision from a volunteer, a separate volunteer to handle dog(s). This picture says it's all worth it!
