Washington needs a hound training season!

[Smiley]

If at all possible you need to get bird dog guys on board with some sort of " HUNTING DOG COUNCIL " or something like that I am sure they will or at least many will see a benefit to having hound guys running a buffer for them and getting numbers up for both types of hunting it is a great way to get numbers and develope an alliance.

[George Streepy]

That is a good idea. I thought of a Sport Dog type thing, but for right now I am just trying to remember when meetings are coming up. The more we get involved the better and with any luck it will turn into something more.

[Smiley]

Yes Goerge a Sporting dog association would work fantastic . You need to figure a way to get as many people behind you as possible and most guys will prefer others being on the front line and most know that running hounds will always be the front line of defense for their way of life .

[brian j cerelli]

my problem with some houndsmen views are on this event thing, we dont do it because we have good water race dogs, or to make some money for our selfs. we do it to keep our dogs doing something for the 3 months of down time.... but more inportantly to raise money that goes into fighting for our rights as hunters, our club has raised a few thousand dollars with a few of these events, with the idea of using it to fight for something. it might not be alot of $$$$. but unless guys got people willing to just give money out for nothing, its alot better then just talking about ideas. we have people that can put on events, but since we held a few last year, now that makes it a field trial club to some, and they wont join. i dont know what else to say other then anyone is welcome to come to a meeting, lets talk about these kind of issues and try to get a game plan. like i said before this will be brought up at our next meeting, it might not make a difference, but its a start
Brian

[Dewatto]

plot/walker,

I my self, am very aware of the work LCSA does and the perpose of your club. I left one of the clubs in my area just for the reasons you stated. That club would spend thousands of dallors on trophies every year and not a single penny on fighting the anties. I could go all day on the ammont of money that was wasted on coffee cups,hat, and tophies.

The field trials and water races are very important for these small clubs, and they dont generate very much $$. The issue has always been the spending for me. I would join LCSA in a minute becouse of all the hard work they do for houndsmen in Wa. state but I live about 100 miles north and wouldnt be a very active member. So I have a single membership through the WSHC.

[George Streepy]

Brian,

I have paid dues to LSCA (when I remember). I am sure I didn't this year but have in the past. I made the 3 hour trip down there to attend a couple meetings. I am not trying to take your efforts away from you folks at all. Anything is a good thing. I just had the idea of a volunteer based system to try and remind people of the issues. Someone will post on here about a meeting coming up but it always seems to be the same few people worried or talking about it. And I forget about it in the weeks before it happens. I have been a member of a couple different clubs, I would pay dues and pretty much never hear anything else. Most of the time when the next year rolled around I never got a reminder about membership dues, and with the exception of a couple email/newsletters I received from LSCA, I was never contacted. Clubs that have generated big numbers didn't do it by waiting for people to contact them, they sent stuff to the prospective member.

My little plan here probably won't amount to anything but a waste of effort. I understand that. I need to try something. If people contact me and help me by letting me know what they have seen coming up or what is on their mind, I will gladly devote some of my time to passing it onto other people. I am willing to do a monthly newsletter type thing and forward it to everyone that will take a second to read it. This is stuff that the Hound Council should be doing but from what I can tell they are not. I have been a member of different clubs for a long time. Granted I haven't paid dues on time every year, but I have never received anything from the Hound Council whatsoever in my life. That is going to do nothing but drop members.

My point in all this is you can't sit behind a computer whining about loosing your hunting. You need to do something. And the fact is no one out there is really working very hard to recruit people, and to keep them informed. I may be way off saying field trials are a distraction, but it is how I feel. If people think they are getting something they will give money. But when dues are paid and the person never hears anything again, they will probably "forget" to pay their dues the next year. If the hound council wants to step up and get proactive with addressing hunter issues and not sigh and roll their eyes everytime it is brought up I will gladly give them any contacts I manage to come up with. But for now I feel like I need to do something to keep people informed.

Phones and computers!!! It is just to costly and time consuming for people to travel all the way across the state to attend a meeting in SW WA. That is why I hope people will contact me and we can start sending them info. I will take the time to call folks that don't have a computer. I will email anyone that will let me have their email address. And I will do it for free, no membership dues or anything. Just get a way for me to contact you.

Brian, sorry to get so long winded, and don't get offended. This isn't an attack on the folks who have been surely doing more than me for years. Just trying to make some points from my perspective and figure out what will work to keep people informed.

Thanks for your time,
George Streepy

[brian j cerelli]

i know we were doing a newsletter, and stopped doing it for some reason a year or so ago, that is something that should be on our list of things to get going again, we did try to contact old members from last year to get ideas for 2012, and try to get our ducks in a row.. i think we are all in the same boat about the wshc and what they are doing for our hunting... thats sort of why they formed this club, my only point was after a few events, we are instantly a water race/field trial club, and some people think we are nothing more, i hope we can have events and fight the fights, but it takes more then a few guys to do it. thats all i was trying to get across,

i would like to be on that list of people you can contact about up coming topics
Thanks Brian