TBF State Championship

[jcox7]

Just a reminder all entries and monies are due on May 22nd this year to fish the State Championship.  If you still have not registered to fish this event this is one you do not want to miss the achiveable prizes at the end of this road are amazing picture yourself fishing next year for 1,000,000.00.  If you would like to fish this and need more info contact anyone in the TBF and they can help you or give me a call at 734-260-2999

Thanks,
Jeff Cox

[WayneC]

You can see a complete follow-up article about this event on the www.michigantbf.com front page.  On that page click on...

Read more about Championship here.

...in the section about the Championship.

[Mark117]

LETS GET THIS PARTY STARTED!
COME ONE, COME ALL! The TBF state championship!!!!

ANYONE CAN LIVE THE DREAM!

We need more members....Lets all get involved and grow this federation. Tell your friends, tell your family, tell everyone!

FOR EVERY NEW MEMBER THAT SIGNS UP BEFORE DEC. 25, 2009 AND PAYS THE FLW AND THE TBF DUES......I WILL DONATE $1.00 FOR EVERY NEW MEMBER FOR A BIG BASS POT AT THE STATE CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNEY! LET'S HIT THE MARK OF 1000 NEW MEMBERS.
                   AIM HIGH,
   
                      JON "ALWAYS LOOKING FOR HELP" JEZIERSKI

P.S. Just think $1000.00 big bass pot? now your talking...

100 current members x 10 friends = 1000 new members

[Mark117]

Cool, This has been read 300+ x's......Any rich man or business out there that wants to match my $1.00 per new member offer?
Let me know.
Thanks for all the views. Let's get out and tell our friends!

For all the B.A.S.S. FEDERATION NATION MEMBERS there is no shame in belonging to both federations. I DO! They are both quality groups.

Its all about YOUTH, CONSEVATION, & FISHING......PERIOD!

Can't we all just get along?

                                        Thanks for all your help,
                                                                           Jon

[motocross269]

I can't find anything on the when and where's of this years state championship. I went to the TBF website and all I saw was the results and articles from last year. I have heard rumors that there was going to be two this year..

Does the 70 dollar cost of membership include my FLW competitor membership??  Are you guys going to get that money paid in before early December?? I had issues last year and had to update my membership to register for the BFLs the first week of December for the MI division...(Even though my memberhip expired 12/31)..If I remember right you have to have membership coverage on the dates you are registering for....This year we will need our membership to cover through 2010...This will become really important soon for the Stren guys...

There have been so many different things thrown out there it is getting confusing..I will try to make the meeting on Sunday but I may have to work...

Jon what BASS Federation club are you in.....??

[Mark117]

I'm sure TBF dues will be $40. FLW dues are $35 for everyone in most case? Most likely two STATE FISH OFFS (2010,2011) for one small fee! Sorry for all the problems you had last year. This year will be different I promise! With more help from the board and Jeff Cox at the controls we will grow and become a fine tuned machine. All questions will be answered at this meeting on Sun. at 1 pm at BPS.

I was with bassin, bums, and babes B.A.S.S. federation club, but this year I'm thinking about my own club. WANT TO JOIN?

                    Thanks for all your questions,

                                                      Jon

ATTEN. ANGLERS: FLW dues are paid directly by the angler? Please keep your flw membership up to date. Thanks

P.S. Things in the work for the July 11, Muskegon state fish off?

1. OPTION POT WITH 100% PAYBACK
2. BIG BASS MONEY & PRIZES (MAYBE BOTH SMALLIE & LARGIE?)
3. NO ENTRY FEE?
4. COOK OUT AT WEIGH-IN
5. RAFFLE FOR PRIZES?

[djkimmel]

NOTE: FLW dues are no longer paid directly to FLW Outdoors if you are a TBF member. You will pay the $35 to your club. Your club will send TBF Inc (national office) and FLW Outdoors dues to TBF Inc who will pay FLW Outdoors.

Things have been made a little confusing because a number of plans are in the work including some that contradict previous votes, and present bylaws. The November 1 meeting should be interesting and I hope there is a good turnout so clubs can make sure this new board knows what they do and don't want. The board needs to know what the majority of the presidents/clubs want and meet that need, rather than get caught up listening to a squeaky wheel or two.

At the one mandatory member meeting in April a proposal was made to have a 2nd state championship in August to move TBF to qualify their state team a year in advance as the old federation does. Previously, the majority of clubs had said they don't like the year long wait after qualifying so TBF of Michigan has always qualified the same year as the divisional. The proposal made in April to have a 2nd state championship in 2010 to qualify the 2011 state team was trounced with only 2 votes for support. Seemed clear to me the majority does not want that change.

Present TBF of Michigan president Jeff Cox was not at the April meeting due to family reasons and he apparently does not have minutes for that meeting yet so he was not aware that a vote had been held with a clear majority not wanting the change. I was told there is a question the vote was even held, but I do keep good personal minutes and I was on the board at that time. Regardless, Jeff wants to propose it again so it will be up to the presidents present at the November meeting to decide if they have changed their minds. Or possibly, the board could just do it anyway maybe. Won't know until the meeting, but I hope they listen to the clubs and leave it up the majority. The first step to success is doing what most people want.

I've already shared my opinion with Jeff that I feel it is not fair to ask members who have other interests and/or do not fish the state championship to subsidize other peoples' entry to that single event. I think it is particularly risky in this economy. Every time in the past this has been done in any organization I've belonged to it has caused problematic resentments. That is my opinion based on over 20 years of experience in various board positions. The dues structure change will probably be up to the members present at the November 1 meeting. My concern about coming up with a number of important or significant changes are this meeting is the previous poor turnouts we have had at this time in the past, and that members are used to deciding the important changes at the April meeting.

I would hate to see changes like this and the bylaws, particularly with the short notice, voted on by only a small number of members at this meeting. Mistakes might be made that way. If there is a good turnout, then I hope the majority rules and whatever is decided works out well afterwards.

[motocross269]

As I stated in an Earlier post and Dan confirmed here "You cannot renew your FLW membership without going through your club if you want to retain your Federation status"...

The Board of directors needs to get this membership status worked out at this meeting in November....That gives the presidents a month to get their dues turned in so our status is good for the December registration....I am going to call FLW tommorrow and see if my memory is serving me right from last year and our dues have to be paid (For 2010) in order to register for events in 2010.....I also want to find out if I go ahead and renew my membership and bypass TBF will I be able to register for TBF at a later date and still get preferred status for tournaments...

I am being asked to sell TBF to bring other anglers into the organization and at this point I am not really sure what I am selling...State championships, State championship location,  Cost of membership, etc etc...
Again a couple of the tournament guys I have talked to are very interested in the Jr programs for their kids along with the Jr state championship so that is still a good, solid selling point....

[djkimmel]

I was thinking about your situation and thought if you only wanted to join FLW Outdoors now, I would think they would let you pay at FLW Outdoors for now.

[motocross269]

I was thinking about your situation and thought if you only wanted to join FLW Outdoors now, I would think they would let you pay at FLW Outdoors fo no/

I think that is what I will do.....There is a place where you log into to renew where you can check "Join FLW without renewing TBF" or something like that....

I'll have to reconsider my membership once I get a handle on where all of this is going and someone can give out "concrete" answers or at least be on the same page...I was working on puting together a club of dual enrollments but I think I will step back and see how things develop..

Eric...I try to do at least one event per year with the TBF. Show, Jr state fish off whatever..If everyone that fished the State fish off did one event a year TBF would be way ahead of the game..How many guys did you get to work Novi last year?..Myself and maybe a handful of others?? Your statement implying that only members that attend meetings should have a voice is BS...My voice should be represented by the president of my club and the board members through emails or phone calls...Isn't that the function of officers??
If a Majority vote does not apply and the TBF board is going to make all decisions..(Dues, State fish off) as stated in your comments then really why have a General meeting???

[WayneC]

There was a motion and a vote taken by the presidents at the meeting about having two State Championships in one season with the intent of changing the way we send the team.  There wasn't any support for it with only two votes in favor.

It would be good to resolve this prior to the meeting so there isn't any time wasted on it.  If an active board member would respond to this it would help.  Dan was active at the time and his post is the closest thing I've seen to minutes for the meeting.  The presidents need time to review the minutes before approving them at the next meeting which is just days away.

As it stands, I haven't received any notification about anything since attending the last meeting.  Other than Brian Belevender and the Youth events has the board been doing anything?

[FOB]

I believe Dan and Wayne are correct Eric.  Since the motion for 2 state tournaments was not a bylaw change, it was brought up and defeated at that meeting in a vote by the Presidents in attendance that day.  As also stated by Eric, there is supposed to be a bylaw already addressing this.  I belief it was a motion to show if the President supported to go on the 1 year wait rotation rather then same year.  And yes, it was soundly defeated. 

Then at the State Championship another poll was passed out to ALL participants who were there and wanted to fill it out.  I was told the result was to move toward the 1 year wait like BASS.

If I am wrong on this, please let me know. 

[djkimmel]

Interesting Ralph. First I've heard of that poll. I was not able to attend the event. I'm glad I'm apparently not the only one who remembers the motion in April to have two state championships and go to qualifying a whole year in advance did happen, and got only two votes in favor. The more one, two or three people keep pushing the same agendas, the more I question if the present board understands that if you start going against the majority very much, you will end up only with the minority. A leader knows you have to be in touch with what most people want, not what a few people want.

Experienced persons, and persons who have the selflessness to think of the entire variety of existing and potential members it takes to make a true federation know better than to make that mistake. Experienced leaders know you will hear from persons who don't have the experience to understand this and/or who are only interested in a small part of the scope of what makes a federation, and that if you listen too much to these types of persons at the expense of the more numerous broader interest members, that you will end with a tournament circuit instead of a federation.

I like a good tournament circuit, but we need more than that quite often to accomplish the more important goals of preserving and protecting our resource and sport. We need federations too. A federation needs to meet the needs of many different persons with various interests.

I will be at the November 1 meeting with my copy of the available bylaws along with the one approved change. A number of motions put forward for this meeting in the last couple weeks seem to contradict those bylaws. A couple persons have asked that maybe I should just sit back and let these 'new' guys try their things, or even wash my hands of the whole thing. That doesn't seem like the right thing to do. The least I can do is show up at the meeting and make sure the present board is reminded organizations have bylaws and rules for a reason and that I hope they do not forget what those reasons are.

The bylaws clearly state that clubs must have 30 days to review bylaws changes before the meeting they are voted on. There are a bunch of bylaw changes - that frankly aren't signficant enough to warrant a rush job - that I know most of you have only known about for a week or so. According to the bylaws, they cannot be voted on this Sunday. Dues also cannot be changed by the board until February.

Now if a respectable quorum of club presidents show up Sunday, and they want to vote for a dues change, that is up to them. I have already stated my opinion on a dues increase. I think in this tough economy, the board needs to be absolutely sure that most clubs / members will be okay with the dues increase. Regardless, the bylaws do not allow a vote to change any bylaws Sunday even if the 2/3's majority wants to vote on them.

A mistake was made and the individual should be apologized to by the board for the inconvenience, but the entire federation clubs' rights and bylaws are more important than trying to make up to one member for a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes. Good leaders know the right way to correct them and make sure things are done better and correctly the next time.

[WayneC]

Thanks Dan for providing the forum for TBF.  This discussion should help to get a few things cleared up so we don't waste time on Sunday.

Are the bylaws on the TBF site up-to-date?  I'm not seeing anything about 30 days or even what Eric is saying about one month.  I see, "The Secretary will send out notice prior to the April meeting."  Somebody help me out here.

I'm also seeing that bylaw changes must be submitted to the secretary in writing by February then the vote is in April, and only April.  Am I looking at the right version?

I see the proposed bylaw changes in the board minutes for March but nothing about the outcome of the vote in April.

--------------------

Hi Ralph:  I remember the questionnaire but there couldn't have been anything binding about that.  It was open to anyone to fill out and turn in as I remember.
-------------------

Eric:

Gotta help me out here too!  You've got, "The minutes from the April meeting confirm this fact..."  I haven't seen these.  The last posting for minutes looks like they are for a March board meeting.  Where are they available?

This one too, please: "Six amemdments were proposed in September"  This is something else I'm not aware of.  What happened in September?

I'm really not trying to be difficult but there's this one too: "Chapter presidents were notified on October 20"  I haven't received any notification at all.  Is there somewhere I can find this?

Finally, if you could straighten this out:

"The presidents voted on two proposals, neither of which pertained to the state championship"

"I motioned to hold a state championship on August 23, 2009 at Muskegon Lake to qualify our 2010 state team. The motion was defeated"

Was this a third proposal or was this one of the two?

Thanks!

[djkimmel]

The online bylaws never got updated with the one bylaw change that was voted in at the April 2009 meeting. According to Jeff Cox, he has yet to receive a copy of the April minutes. I would think that means no one has a copy. I don't either. I do have several pages of detailed notes on all business that was handled at the meeting since I was on the board that day.

There was an obvious attempt to move TBF of Michigan to a 1 year wait upon qualifying for the state team. It was soundly beaten. Everyone knew the intent and the presidents rejected it. Semantics are irrelevant on that topic. The majority of members I talk to still tell me the same thing - they hate waiting a year after qualifying. I wait to see if there has been any significant change in the feeling of most clubs hoping there is a substantial enough turnout at the meeting to give a true showing. Otherwise, mistakes could be made.

Here is the one bylaw change that was made - replace subsections A, B, and C of section VII - Providing for Amendment of Bylaws:
A. A bylaw change must be sent to the secretary by the last day of the month which occurs two months prior to any general meeting, to be considered during that meeting. More specifically, by December 31, February 28, and September 30, for the meetings in February, April, and November, respectively.

B. The secretary will send out notice one month prior to that meeting.

C. Each Chapter President at that meeting will get one (1) vote, each Director will get one (1) vote. A 2/3 majority will be require for the motion to pass.

Since the secretary did not send out notice on these new bylaw changes at least one month prior to that meeting we cannot vote on them for several reasons. First of all, none of us has any idea when these changes were actually proposed. It could have been the day before Jeff sent them out by email way past the one month prior to the meeting requirement. How are we to know now? That's part of the issue.

Secondly and obviously, B has not been met (meaning we also cannot really know if A was met) and therefore voting on bylaw amendments without proper notice would be a bylaw violation. Finally, bylaws exist exactly for these types of issues - to make sure the board knows their limits, has rules to follow and the clubs know the board will not overstep their power, possibly at the expense of the clubs. Which is also a self-defeating action - obvious to me, but apparently not obvious to persons with little or no experience. All 3 conditions have to be met to vote on bylaw amendments November 1 and they have not been met - at least one, possibly two. The clubs have not had the at least one month review and preparation time. Knowing they would have this protection was the main reason this change passed.

In addition, it was discussed at the April board meeting that the board would appoint a review committee including non-board members to look at the entire bylaws and make recommendations on changes. I believe many members who were told this expected this to be the route taken between now and the February or April meeting. I would trust that method, but still expect the proper notice.

[FOB]

In addition, it was discussed at the April board meeting that the board would appoint a review committee including non-board members to look at the entire bylaws and make recommendations on changes. I believe many members who were told this expected this to be the route taken between now and the February or April meeting. I would trust that method, but still expect the proper notice.

Dan,

I have been asked, and accepted chairing the bylaw overview committee.  Based on all the discussion with the bylaws, it is clear there needs to be some clarification made to wording, then voted on to accept.  I have already notified the rest of the committee and we will be meeting Sunday to set up times.  I am committed to have everything done to present in Feb..



Here is the one bylaw change that was made - replace subsections A, B, and C of section VII - Providing for Amendment of Bylaws:
A. A bylaw change must be sent to the secretary by the last day of the month which occurs two months prior to any general meeting, to be considered during that meeting. More specifically, by December 31, February 28, and September 30, for the meetings in February, April, and November, respectively.

B. The secretary will send out notice one month prior to that meeting.

C. Each Chapter President at that meeting will get one (1) vote, each Director will get one (1) vote. A 2/3 majority will be require for the motion to pass.


I believe this was changed as well.  Something in the wording about a special meeting can be called to vote on a bylaw any time by the board if needed.  Regardless, I also did not get these bylaw changes until the 20th of this month, and have not had a chance to get with my club to discuss.  As President of a club, we should be representing the club opinions, not just voting on what we think.  Look at our government the last X number of years!

[djkimmel]

Exactly... glad you get it and glad you are willing to volunteer your time to help out the right way.

[WayneC]

Now that everything has been made crystal clear, I'm ready for the meeting!  Remember to set your clocks back and see ya tomorrow.

[Mark117]

UFC... Big john McCarthy?  "LETS GET IT ON!"    Relax, I'm kidding!

Just think if we all just fished for fun? What a perfect world?

[djkimmel]

Sure... if we did all just fish, we wouldn't have an early bass season. We would be starting on July 1. Everytime I go fishing, it is fun, and I enjoy it so much the better knowing I always try to do the right thing for everyone.