My best hopes for TBF leaders

[Mojo]

 

Good Morning - I will try to summarize many folks thoughts and create an idea here - on this forum - that may help our organization.

I truly want to express my thanks to the hard volunteer work that the current members have done. Michigan is in its 8th year of recession, longer than any in the union, and with a  world recession now weighing the national economy - it  only drowns the horrible Michigan economic front further from the attentions it should be receiving.

The DNR of Michigan, strapped with budget issues, have little time or resources to even hear of cooperative effort requests, so it is understandable that the TBF has not been able to put significant constructive programs together to improve lakes fishability. That -  conservacy -  is what I am truly interested in supporting.

I want to read FLW and see Michigan's chapter putting in stakes or other items to create fish habitat in a hurting  or declining lake(and not on St Clair for that lake needs no help). Why couldnt we take up the issue of "local fish kill offs" (that occur because of the repeated low cost week killers currently being promoted as an econimcal way to combat weeds). We could prevent what happened on Pontiac Lake.

So this would be my best hopes from the leaders of the TBF. Now back to the positive. Because of our weak economy we do have limited options, and I STRONGLY feel the current team has maximized efforts by promoting the youth events, the cross roads for troubled children events, the handicapped fishing events. I apologize only that I couldnt be in town as I work so much out of Michigan, that I missed some of these events. They are win - wins and warm your heart and make you human     .

Youth is the one of the 3 pillars of the MI TBF. The 2nd is Conservation, while the 3rd is Tournaments, mot in any order.

What I cannot support are board members who are only looking to drive up TBF membership to increase tournament winnings for themselves and focus on this pillar only. And I apologize from the bottom of my heart for stating this publicly but this is some members agenda. These efforts would be more constructive if the 9 member board took up the following format below:

The 9 board members categorize themselves into one of the 3 pillars, and that way we have 3 board members each as a committee for their pillar. They, with the help of the TBF volunteers, focus on their pillar instead of 6 focused on tournaments, 2 on youth and 1 on Conservation. That way you have 3 arms moving our TBF of MI forward.

Maybe that one or two people who care only of Tournaments volunteer into that subcommitte and their efforts become more useful. But we have to re-organize this state to become more functional to deliver what our charter intends.

So go to the meeting today and listen for what drives each candidate. Pick the the 3 guys that dont chum around, but will challenge each other and remind each other at every meeting what the charter of the MI TBF is  - and why they need this reorg.

Thanks for letting me chime in.

Mike

[dartag]

is there a reason this even could not be held in southern mi.  i think you would get a better turnout.   i can't justify the expense of fishing that far up north since i don't fish the BFL's. 

[WayneC]

Gotta love the "3 Pillars" concept!  Way to go Mike!

[djkimmel]

is there a reason this even could not be held in southern mi.  i think you would get a better turnout.   i can't justify the expense of fishing that far up north since i don't fish the BFL's. 

It was at St. Clair 2 years ago, and the Grand River the year before, so in 3 years we went west, southeast, north. Now they are going north again. Don't know after that, but I'd guess it will rotate some more. Seems like a pretty fair rotation to me, but I'm pretty easy to please.

Regardless, mojo is the smart one. I only wish for more just like him.

[Bender]

Dan, you are just biding your time until Lake Ovid comes up aren't you?

I'm the same as dartag, if it were down here I would probably do it. I don't know if I will be able to make the trip up there. I do understand that it makes for a great weekend at the beginning of the season for the guys also fishing the BFL.

[yukonjack2]

I wanted to throw an idea out there, and this has not been discussed within the TBF to date, but was putting together ideas from other anglers/members and would like you guys to chime in what you think.

hold three TBF State Team Tournaments Qualifiers per year within the TBF (1 in the SE, 1 in the West, and 1 in the North/Central) with a regional board set up to choose the location and garner club help in that region to run it.  Then based on the top XX%, say 25 to 33 for argument sake, they qualify to fish the State Team Championship later that year to qualify the state team for the following year Regional?   The State Team Championship lake would rotate lakes based on Club and Board member input, with intentions being announced a few years out giving members enough time to get maps, learn navigation, practice at their leisure for a prestigious State Championship there the following year?  So, for Example it might go like this:

State Team for 2010 (qualified for Argument Sake in 2009  process TBD)

June 2010  --   West qualifier on Muskegan(lake picked by west region)
July (Early) 2010   --    North/Central qualifier on Torch/Elk(lake picked by Nprth/central reg)
July (Late) 2010   --   SE qualifier on LSC (lake picked by SE region)
Aug 2010   ---   STATE Championship to Qualify 2011 Team (to XX% from each qualifier)
Sep(Early)  2010   --   Regional with 2009 qualified State Team

Any eligible club can send equal number of boater/nonboaters to any regional they choose, but can only qualify once to fish the State Championship.

In this uncertain economic time, this allows local anglers to fish closer to home (ie lower cost) with an opportunity to make the state championship, as well as provide more working capital to allow complete support financially of sending our state team to the regional and our two qualifiers to the Nationals. My thought is who would not want an ALL expense paid trip to the regionals and nationals with a chance to fish the all americna and/or Forrest wood cup. I would encourage M. Modorak and/or D. Cummings to chime in here about their experiences at the Nationals for everyone to see.

This is just some ideas I was pulling together, and wanted to hear from you guys what you think?  I will collect all info from here as well as talking to as many members as posible for ways to improve the qualifying process and bring it forward to the State Tournament commmittee to make this a better TBF state chapter going forward.   

thanx for your constructive input.


Jack Cahn
2009 TBF Board Secretary

[Mark117]

THEN I SPEND TWICE AS MUCH MONEY TO MAKE THE STATE TEAM?GAS, FOOD, AND LODGING.....FISHING TWO TOURNAMENTS? MAYBE IN THE FUTURE? LET'S FOCUS ON MEMBERSHIP... THEN WE CAN HAVE 50 BOATS AT EACH EVENT AND NOT ONLY 15 BOATS? ONE TOURNEY A YEAR IS O.K. FOR 50 BOATS? HAVE MORE BOATS, HAVE MORE TOURNEYS?

RESPOSE TO MIKE "MOJO". I LIKE THE 3,3,3? YET THE TBF NEEDS MORE MEMBERS! STRENGTH IN NUMBERS IS SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT? WITH MANY MEMBERS YOU HAVE MORE VOLUNTEERS AND MORE $$ TO SPEND ON YOUTH, CONSERVATION, AND TOUNAMENTS... YOU MUST HAVE SOME MONEY TO RUN A BUSINESS.

THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO VOTED FOR ME.  I WANT A RECOUNT? LOL!!!!!!!  MAYBE I SHOULD HAVE USED THIS FORUM TO TELL EVERYONE ABOUT MYSELF AND HOW GREAT OF A PERSON I AM??
OR MAYBE NOT?  ;DANYWAY, GOOD LUCK TO THE NEW BOARD.  THANKS TO ALL THE VOLUNTEERS THAT HELPED OUT AT THE SHOWS TO HELP THE TBF GROW??  OUR NEW TARGET IS 4000+ MEMBERS BY 2020...LIKE THE   IN/TBF?  SPREAD THE WORD!

                                           MARK 1:17

[Mojo]

Jacks idea has some legs.

Each regional would need about 30 boats to qualify 10 pairs each.  Being close to home  COULD get that kind of turn out. Being local would allow the local clubs to rally more ppl to fish home waters. If you walk through it logically, - it actually could be a walking stick to raise membership. But it needs those local clubs to get involved and make their event a 'big' deal. 

Think of the bragging rights when the west siders whomp the SE siders in the main event and send 4 of the 6 pairs to regional (Not that it would happen cause we all know the SE guys rule)? 

Downside - cost of a second event. This second event could be partially offset by the income of the first event. Need someone smarter than me to play with the numbers, but there could be some help in the form of gas cards etc to the 30 pair that advance. In a 3 to 1 advancers format, if each local first event was $50, then each advancer would carry forward $120 for gas ($30 or 20% to TBF) ? Enough for to/from and practice at least ? 

Maybe the first event is (example June 2010 and state championship is Sept 2010 to see who goes to the 2011 event) spread out so cost spreads out.

Remember this is one idea that COULD:

* Raise membership
* Raise TBL awareness
* Get individual members involved
* Make the State Event more prestigious

I think we all need to noodle other ideas the COULD accomplish these goals in Michigan. 

BUT - IF YOU ALWAYS DO WHAT YOU ALWAYS DID, ....you will always get .... you know the rest.

John or anyone else - Any other ideas that would drive towards those 4 above stated goals

Floor is yours ...........

Mojo

[MBell]

I know Ohio and Indiana have used regionals to qualify for the state championship in the past.  It does take a lot of extra time and expense to compete in the regional format. I could see Michigan growing into this type of format, but right now we just don't have the members to support this type of system. 

I think our priority on the tournament pillar should be to raise funds for tournament equipment.  Right now with no equipment we are tied to FLW, which limits our options.  I feel with the right dates and locations for the state championship, we could increase our membership significantly over time.  I also recall at the meeting that part of the tournament equipment was a trailer.  Is this necessary for a group our size?  Who is going to tow it?  My priorites for tournament equipment would be as follows.  1. Scale 2. Tanks/Aerators 3. Weigh Bags.   

I like the three pillars concept, but I do place an emphasis on the tournament pillar simply because it's where we draw the majority of our membership from and in turn support the conservation and youth pillars.   

Thanks, Matt

[Mark117]

OK MIKE YOU ASKED.... I HAVE WORKED THE SHOWS IN THREE DIFFERENT CITIES TO GET THE WORD OUT ON THE TBF OF MI? I HELPED OUT ON THREE DIFFERENT CLUBS TO BRING IN 10+ NEW MEMBERS? I WILL BE BRINGING 10+ NEW MEMBERS TO FISH THE STATE FISH/OFF THIS YEAR?  HOW AM I DOING SO FAR? 
I ENCOURAGE EVERYONE TO JUMP IN AND GET THIS PARTY STARTED! 
    100+ MEMBERS X 10 NEW MEMBERS EACH= 1000MEMBERS???

HELP ME MAKE IT HAPPEN...

P.S. sorry for tooting my own horn?? 

                                          MARK 1:17

[Skip Johnson]

Thats a great idea Jack but can you make it the grand river instead of muskeegan 

The way I understand your intent Jack is we can fish either the one closest to us to save some major cash and we still have a state championship but ample notice to pre fish it and it (the championship) rotates from area to area each year and location is  voted on a good couple years in advance, so we then have two tournaments instead of one but narrow down the best anglers from each region to fish the championship thus getting our 13 qualifiers?

if thats your intent I like it....BUT.... we need to make these tournaments NOT be on the same days as the B.A.S.S. federation nation championship like they are now, thats just not right IMO and also not have it overlap the stren central or northern and of course the BFL so we truely get all who want to participate. 

[Mojo]

OK MIKE YOU ASKED.... I HAVE WORKED THE SHOWS IN THREE DIFFERENT CITIES TO GET THE WORD OUT ON THE TBF OF MI? I HELPED OUT ON THREE DIFFERENT CLUBS TO BRING IN 10+ NEW MEMBERS? I WILL BE BRINGING 10+ NEW MEMBERS TO FISH THE STATE FISH/OFF THIS YEAR?  HOW AM I DOING SO FAR? 
I ENCOURAGE EVERYONE TO JUMP IN AND GET THIS PARTY STARTED! 
    100+ MEMBERS X 10 NEW MEMBERS EACH= 1000MEMBERS???

HELP ME MAKE IT HAPPEN...

P.S. sorry for tooting my own horn?? 

                                          MARK 1:17

Now thats something each club leader should strive for !!! Who else can say that about their area ? John - What seemed to be the hook that drew ppl to join ? Can you share it with us without the capital letters ??  ??

[Mojo]

I know Ohio and Indiana have used regionals to qualify for the state championship in the past...... I could see Michigan growing into this type of format, but right now we just don't have the members to support this type of system.....

I think our priority on the tournament pillar should be to raise funds for tournament equipment.....  My priorites for tournament equipment would be as follows.  1. Scale 2. Tanks/Aerators 3. Weigh Bags.   

I like the three pillars concept, but I do place an emphasis on the tournament pillar simply because it's where we draw the majority of our membership from and in turn support the conservation and youth pillars.   

Thanks, Matt

Good point - I believe a 9 persons board had better have the capability to roll 3 large rocks uphill, hence I still want to pursuade them to form their own sub groups so each pillar has legs.

I agree the tournament pillar HAS to drive the TBF.

I hope the youth and conservation can move on its own approved projects.

I know that if 20 or 30 of us non board members get behind just one of these pillars - There cannot be any reason we arent hugely successful ..

Mojo

[csfishslayer]

Mojo Could not agree with you more on the topic. But it seems to me thing always end up back at tournament Fishing. I would also like to see more effort go into conservation. Just my thoughts 

[yukonjack2]

Cast and Blast:

As you know our season is fairly short.   Take away the Bass Champ, strens, BFLs, FLW tour events, BASS opens, NBAA, ...... and more that I am sure I left out(inadvertently), and I think it leaves us with maybe 1 weekend.   I am synical here, but you get the idea.  you can't please everyone with our limited time, but we always do look at other events and try to stay away from other major draws.  As far as the Bass goes, we were really handcuffed to the first BFL date up tll this point.  Now that we are breaking away fro that requirement for 2010 and beyond, this allows more flexibility to schedule as best we can and work with the other groups such that we can both capture the maximum number of anglers. 


Everyone Else:  This is by far not detailed for all specifics - I just wanted to throw a concept out ther and see how well accepted or rejected it may be.  The detials of this need ot be developed over the next few months with the input from all the membership.  With that said, I know we may be smaller than surrounding states, but think a regional idea would draw enough boats to compete with any local run tourney in that area currently.  In addition, I would say that we qualify a % of participants at each one the the state tourney rather than a fixed number, thereby making it fair no matter how many show up at any given regional.  More on this later as it is developed.

[Mark117]

castnblast, the grand river is my first choice. THANKS!

mojo,
IDEAS TO MAKE THE TBF GROW... TELL THEM ABOUT OUR FIRST CLASS YOUTH PROGRAM! get their parents involved? TELL THEM ABOUT THE FIRST CLASS STATE FISH/OFF! competing against 12 man teams from 6 different states? TELL THEM ABOUT ALL THE BENEFITS AND DISCOUNTS ON PRODUCTS FROM OUR GREAT SPONSORS! ranger, yamaha, minnkota, lorance, etc. TELL THEM WE NEED EXTRA SUPPORT ON MANY ISSUES WITH CONSERVATION! catch and release, bass seasons, dnr, clean up?


csfishslayer,
250 anglers fished the bfl's last year. With hopes of making the all american....that is the goal of many fisherman. to make the year end championship in any trail?  making the state team in the tbf state fish off is the short cut to the all american? i enjoy the chance of fishing one $100 state fish off to go on and try to make the all american/flw living the dream!  the tbf has something for everyone. youth, conservation, and one tournament...the state fish/off!!  the big debate is eastside/westside to draw more members.  THE TBF IS NOT ALL ABOUT TOURNAMENTS!!
always remember...... some people fish for fun, some fish to eat, and some fish to compete?  thanks

                                        MARK 1:17

[csfishslayer]

All IM saying is More effort needs to be aimed at conservation. All I ever here anyone talk about is the State fish off. As mojo said in the First post there are three pillars of the TBF ( conservation, Youth Fishing and tournament Fishing ) I never hear much about the conservation Efforts. The topic always seem to be about the state fish off which Is a great thing but it's not the only thing. I truly Hope the new board will aim just as much focus at the conservation pillar of the TBF as they all the other pillars.

[MBell]

All IM saying is More effort needs to be aimed at conservation. All I ever here anyone talk about is the State fish off. As mojo said in the First post there are three pillars of the TBF ( conservation, Youth Fishing and tournament Fishing ) I never hear much about the conservation Efforts. The topic always seem to be about the state fish off which Is a great thing but it's not the only thing. I truly Hope the new board will aim just as much focus at the conservation pillar of the TBF as they all the other pillars.

How can we focus more on conservation?  What do we do?  IMO We build a large strong membership to represent and defend our interests when necessary, such as the VHS and Bass Season Issues of the recent years.  Maybe educational seminars for the public or other ways to inform the public on how to maintain our bass resource.  I don't really have an idea of what needs to and can be done on the conservation front, can someone give me some direction?
-Matt

[jcox7]

Mojo,

Thanks for all the input I love reading ideas if I think they are great or not.  You could be a huge asset to the TBF please give me a call and we can see where you can fit in and help.  Dont take this the wrong way it is not aimed at you many people can get on many boards and say what is wrong but few people are willing to help.  It seems to me that ideas along do not get things done effoert must be put out by many not just few.

Thanks
Jeff Cox
734-260-2999

[csfishslayer]

How about and adopt a lake program they do this with roads. And it some what works we could find a lake here in michigan that is in need of a tune up. Or maybe work with The DNR to educate the Recreational Boater on how aquatic Species are spread from lake to lake. Or maybe work on getting an open bass fishing season like they have in other states. Or maybe we could even help to better educate the youth anglers on how important catch an release    Fishing is. then you have other issue like weed kills By lakes associations . pollutants making there way into the great lakes. paper factories dumping there waste into are river systems and so on . I understand we cant stop all of these things but we can make an attempt. IMO.