Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 360: A New Era in Deer Conservation with Nick Pinizzotto, Kip Adams, and Lindsay Thomas Jr

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Ep. 360: A New Era in Deer Conservation with Nick Pinizzotto, Kip Adams, and Lindsay Thomas Jr · Wired To Hunt Podcast

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your home for
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Mark Kenyon. All Right, welcome to the Wired Hunt podcast,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: brought to you by Onyx. Today the show, we are
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: taking a step back from the hunting strategy that we've
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: been focusing on so much over the past couple of weeks,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: as we're getting ready for late summer and early fall
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: and all the excitement, and instead we're going to talk
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: about the people and organizations that are working day in
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: and day out to make sure that we have deer
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: to hunt and places to hunt them. You know, we
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: talked a lot about deer conservation and advocacy and that
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: kind of stuff over the years, but today we're we're
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: possibly discussing the biggest change to that whole world when
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: it comes to deer since we started this whole thing,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: this podcast, and probably farther back than that. I'm gonna
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: let our guests explain exactly what's happening themselves, but in short,
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: there are some very signal can changes coming for the
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: major deer conservation organizations that many of you are familiar,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: the people we've been talking to over the years, the
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: organizations that I've been involved in and many of you,
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: and these changes that are coming down the line, as
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: you're going to hear, they're hopefully going to lead to
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: better outcomes for US deer hunters and for the deer
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: we pursue and the places we enjoy exploring while we
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: do that. So we're gonna talk to Nick Penzotto of
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: the National Deer Lions and Lindsay Thomas Jr. And Kip
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Adams from the Quality Deer Management Association. They're going to
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: be discussing what these changes are, why this is all happening,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: and probably most importantly, what does this mean for US hunters?
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: What can we expect in the future for the resource,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: What can we as hunters You'll be doing to be
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: more engaged, you know, what's needed from us to make
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: sure that deer and deer hunting are here along into
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: the future for our kids and their kids and so on. So,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: if if you're pumped about the upcoming hunting season and
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: you really want to be thinking about tactics and strategies
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: and hunting plans, I don't blame you. I'm right there
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: with you, but don't short change this conversation and skip it.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: To get to the next honey how to because if
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: we don't get this stuff right, if we're not strong
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: advocates for deer and deer hunting, we won't get to
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: enjoy the fun stuff for very long at all. So
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: with that out of the way, let's get to chatting
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: with Nick, Lindsay and Kip and learn exactly what's going
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: on in the dear conservation world and how it's going
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: to impact all of us. All right with me now
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: on the line. We have got Nick penzelto Lindsay Thomas Jr.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: And Kip Adams and and rather than trying to do
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: the usual introductory chit chat like we do, I just
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: want to jump right into the news because in my
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: introductory marks just before this, I kind of teed things up.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: We've got a pretty big announcement set of updates and
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: news for for everyone here today. And Nick, can you
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: just tell us what is going on? Why are we
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: all here together to chat today? Absolutely jumping right into it? So, yeah,
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: we uh have just recently announced that the National Deer
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: Alliance and the Quality Deer Management Association are essentially becoming
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: one organization, which is probably surprising and shocking news to
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: some even even us initially when we started working on
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: it UM. But the real brief history for those who
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: have been following along back in two thousand fourteen and
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: into it was really the Quality Deer Management Association that
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: got the ball rolling, that started the National Deer Alliance.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: And here we are about five years later announcing that
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: we're coming back together, and we're very excited about it,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: and we're very appreciative of you've given us this opportunity
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: because many of us have been on your show, whether
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: from a t d m A or NBA perspective, and
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: you were personally involved and we got rolling, and so
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: this is a really this is a really cool discussion
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: we're having right now, and we're excited for it. Yeah,
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: it is, and it is coming full circle in a
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: lot of different ways. And like you mentioned, I've gotten
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: to know all of you in different ways individually and
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: with q d m A and the n d A
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: and and now seeing this i'll come together. It's it's
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: it's exciting, but it's also I'm sure from the outside
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: looking and a lot of people have questions more so
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: around the why why is this happening? There? We've had
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: tough times in the conservation world recently with COVID nineteen.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: I'm just curious if you can give us a little
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: bit more context as far as what what really led
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: to this, the specific things and why this is why
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: this is is like a clear win. This isn't like
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: a fallback option, right as I understand, this is like
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: a this is a really exciting move, nothing negative. Is
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: that the right way to interpret it? Yeah? I love Actually,
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: I love the way that you frame the question, and
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: because that's one of the aspects of this that we
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: want to make sure it gets out and that is
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: number one. So these these discussions, they actually at the
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: very earliest stages, began before any of us realized that
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: COVID nineteen was going to shut our lives down. Um.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: So this is back early the earlier part of this year. UM.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: At that point, UM T d m A had a
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: transition and at their CEO position, and so we just
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: had some early discussion like, hey, there's there's some opportunity here.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: Let's you know, let's let's just have some conversation about
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: how at the very least this might be an opportunity
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: for the two groups to work more closely together. And
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: while that was just started starting to just get out
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: of the starting blocks. Hope it happened. Travel kind of
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: got shut down, banquets got shut down, which are a
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: huge part of the fundraising mix for two D m A,
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: And all of a sudden it just became a little
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: bit more of an urgent discussion. Just from the standpoint
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: of number one. It's a different it's a different day
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: in a lot of ways, not just because of COVID nineteen,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: just the way with with modern society, the different ways
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: that we can do business now effectively, the different ways
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: that we can raise money, and so you start asking
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: yourself questions like why why do we let something like
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: COVID or some other fact that we can't control. Why
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: does that have to completely control how we raise money,
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: for example? And so that forced us into just some
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: sort of alternative thinking about just from a general business perspective,
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: how we could do things more efficiently. The days of organizations,
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: for example, having these big, giant headquarter buildings and everybody
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: drives to the office, and you know, even even those
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: types of things are part of the conversation because at
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: the end of the day, the only thing that's necessary
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: and the reason we all exist is because of the
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: mission and it's not for any of these other reasons.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: And that's that's one of the things that with COVID happening,
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: I think that just sort of woke not just it's
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: not even just us in the conservation world. I think
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: business in general has woken us up to this idea that,
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: you know what, there may be better ways, more efficient ways,
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: more cost effective ways to get things done. And so
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: the business aspect was part of it. Um. And then
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: I mentioned the vacancy at the CEO position, and UM,
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: I guess one of the things we probably should have
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: said at the outset is that I have been the
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: president CEO of the National Deer Alliance since it started,
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: and so um, what will happen now is I will
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: be the president and CEO of this new organization yet
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: to be named. And so that was also another opportunity
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: my interest in doing that. I've I've been had affiliation
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: with g d M a well before I was with
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: the National Deer Alliance through the Dear Steward Program and
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: a life member. Um, so that all made a lot
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: of sense too. And so it really was just a
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: lot of different circumstances that hould us together and very
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: quickly in our conversations. It's what we called it. We
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: called it a joint venture. I think it was you
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: know what, guys meeting number too. By the time we
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: started saying, you know what, we're actually a heck of
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: a lot stronger together and it's a lot more efficient
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: and cost effective, and we've got excited about it really quickly.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: That that makes a lot of sense. I'm I'm curious though,
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: to hear what the I'm curious to hear from from you,
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: Lindsay or Kip on the q D May side. You're
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: kind of what's been going on for you guys behind
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: the scenes leading up to this too, because because you
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: have the added uncertainty around not having a CEO for
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: a while, trying to figure out what the new direction
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: is from your leadership standpoint, and I know you were
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: part of of a group trying to help decide that
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: that step next step forward and then this comes about. Um,
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: I'm just kind of curious to hear from one of
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: you and your perspective of of of why this seemed
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: like the right fit for q DM A. UM. You know, Nick,
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: from your perspective, you're the CEO of the National Deer alliance,
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: UM a relatively small organization, while with the q d
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: MAY you've got a larger staff, you have tens of
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: thousands of members, you have you know, a thirty plus
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: year history and legacy of what you guys have been
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: about what you have done. This stands as a pretty
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: dramatic departure in ways. In some ways from that. UM,
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: I'm curious about where your guys heads were at through
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: all this and where you think things are going now. Lindsay,
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: I'd like to respond to that first, and Mark, I'll
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: tell you. You know, Nick did a really nice job
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: given a detailed answer on kind of why this is good.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: I'll give you the short answer. This the answer your question.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: Is this good for dear? Absolutely? Like this is really
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: really good for deer and for deer hunters, and uh,
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: you know this is in no way a fallback position. UM.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: If you take a look, the NBA was doing very well,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: continuing to grow and have bigger influence. Q d m
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: A has you know, our DearS to a program that's
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: so successful, our white Tail Report that was so successful,
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: Fielder Fork. We had all these things that we're really
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: doing well for us, So we could have easily gone
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: and continue the way we were both organizations and continue
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: to be very successful and represent deer hunters and represent
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: the resource. But as soon as we started looking at gosh,
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: you know, we do some things together, there's some duplication
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: of efforts. Um, should we do this, you know, get
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: back together and continue working much more closely together and
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: then do stuff that we haven't done before. And we
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: quickly realized absolutely, this would be good for us, This
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: is good for NDA, but ultimately it's good for deer
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: and hunters. So this is all around the win win
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: and from QDM as in. One thing that was very
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: important for us is the you know, the change in
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: leadership that we had earlier this spring. We spent the
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: last four months with with the five person team leading
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: qd M A and that was really really good for
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: us because we got to bring in everything at the
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: different departments we're thinking, we're doing, and and enabled us
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: to ward much more closely together than we have in
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: a long long time. So as we started looking at
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: that and how we could better use you know, other
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: staff resources, how we could combine our efforts, uh, this
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: whole talk of a joint venture just fit into that perfectly.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: And so I went from it wasn't just where should
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: we do this or not? Holy how how can we
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: not do this? We need to do anything possible to
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: take the opportunity we have here and just run with us.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: So from our end of it, and I hope I'm
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: not step around Lindsay's toes here, but qum a side
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: of it, we see this as a huge win for
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: for deer and deer hunters, and ultimately that allows to
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: just make a very easy decision on our party. Yeah,
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: let's do everything possible to make this happen. Would you
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: add anything, lindsay? Wow, Yeah, I keep covered it pretty
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: well and I don't disagree with anything you said. And
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: that's very much where we were on this, and he's
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: right that. UM, if this had never come up CUTU
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: may would be fine. Um, we would make it through
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: this tough year. UM, like of a lot of other
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: conservation groups that are struggling with this, but making it
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: through we good bye. We'd make some of the tough
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: decisions that we've had to make. UM, we've made some
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: of the you know, we would have made some of
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: the changes we've had to make and been forced to
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: make by the pandemic. UM like switching gears on fundraising
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: and saying, okay, well, you know it can't be in
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: person events. What are we gonna do? How are we
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: going to replace that? And we found alternatives to that.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: So it really was a situation where the whole team
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: came together and was saying, you know, what are the
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: you know, we've got to make some difficult decisions here, um,
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: and you know we handled those. What can we do
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: now to go forward? We worked on that. You know,
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: you may was gonna be fine. But when this conversation
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: and this this option came up, this idea, you know,
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: it just made sense to everyone as we looked at it. Um. Yeah,
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: As kept mentioned, we were in a CEO transition. We
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: were already the boarded named the five of us as
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: the temporary executive team. We were already had that question
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: in our mind of CEO. And I think it's if
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: you know, looking around the industry, Nick certainly was one of,
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: if not the top guy we would have talked to
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: and gone to as someone we'd love to have at
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: ahead of our team. UM. And and you know Nick's experience,
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: You've known him, you know, as long as we have,
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: and he he's a two hum a life member. He's
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: a level two. Dear Stewart just very a long term
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: uh dug in with qum A and the entire industry.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: So he had been a strong candidate. But but looking
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: at Nick raised the bigger question of wait a minute,
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: what about you know, why are there these two organizations
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: and how can we maximize on efficiency and effectiveness? If
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: rather than just you know, looking to try to grab Nick,
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: what if both groups said how about a marriage here? Um,
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: how about we bring the entirety of both groups together?
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: And um and yeah, like kid said, as we started
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: looking at that, it's just everyone was really struck by
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: the opportunities um at a time right now where we're
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: all realizing, not just us, but everyone throughout the conservation
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: community is realizing changes have got to be made, and
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: in many cases it's changes that were overdue. Um. So
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: it just it's a good time. It makes sense. Um.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: It is a path that sort of emerged in the
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: woods in the in the thicket of that we said, oh,
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: this is this is the path we need to be
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: following it. It's it's it just makes sense. Um. Certainly,
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: I mean initially when we were in the CEO transition,
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: and it was the five of us in positions of
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: leadership we had not really been in before making major decisions.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: It was stressful, and we were looking at a time
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: when um, you know, banquets, we had to close all
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: these banquets, significant source of fundraising for us. Yeah, we
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: were all under a lot of stress. We were all
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: you know, relying on each other to uh discuss these
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: situations and how to handle them best. So when this
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: first came up, some of us, you know, most of
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: us were a little like, whoa hang on one thing
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: at the top. You know, it almost seemed like maybe
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: a little too much. But that was the initial reaction.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: And within um, the first conversation with Nick about maybe
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: was there a bigger picture here? The lights sort of
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: went on and everyone realized, Okay, let's don't miss this
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: opportunity because we're feeling stressed with these other decisions of
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: running a nonprofit organization. So so I think, given all that,
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: then I want to spend most of our time talking
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: about and and maybe it's even dreaming a little bit.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: Maybe maybe we're getting ahead of ourselves, but I'd really
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: like to spend time dreaming about, talking about hearing what
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: your ideas are about what is the future. How do
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: we now take this this new move and and catapult
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: deer and deer hunters and in the conservation space to
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: that next step where we're doing good things for the
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: resource and for the people. Um So I saw want
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: to spend a lot of time there. But before that,
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: I do think that there's probably some people listening who
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: might be fearful of change in some kind of way.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: People that are you know, hardcore lifelong quality Deer Management
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: Association members who are involved in the grassroots who have
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: participated in the serious nuts bolts, you know, dirt hands
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: in the dirt kind of work on their land, real
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: advocates for that core original cuting a mission. Now with
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: this new move, as I understand, there's gonna be expansion
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: of that mission. And I'll let you guys, you know,
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: clarify er or correct me on any of that. But
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: as I understand it sounds like this is a widening
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: of the mission. This is a widening of the net.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: This is not just white tailed deer anymore. This is
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: all dear species. This is not just people that are
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: managing for deer in private land. This is this is everything.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: This is private this is public. This is both on
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: the ground and your back forty, but also national policy.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: Um so there's there's a bigger picture things here. So
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: I gotta believe there's some people who are wondering, well,
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: what's this going to mean for my quality White Tales magazine,
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: What's it gonna mean for my branch meetings, for my
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: educational events, for my dear Steward course, for my APR
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: initiative in my state, whatever it is. I think there's
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: question marks for those people now that are listening. Can
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: either one of you or any one of you three really,
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: if you feel like you can, uh speak to that
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: a little bit, help us understand what those current CUTEI
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: main members, in particular those very involved in a lot
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: of the things you're doing, what do they have to
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: be aware of, look forward to be prepared for anything
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: like that? Okay, go ahead, lets you I don't I'm
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: gonna touch on the first part. I'll turn it right
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: over to you from the communication side that I don't
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: think they need to be nervous about anything here. Certainly
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: they should be anxious, they can be uh you know, inquisitive,
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: But some of the same questions we had an amount
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: of Hey, if we work more closely with NDA, you know,
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: does that mean we're gonna lose the core focus what
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: QT MEGA was based on, or what we believe in
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: or what we do and uh, the answers that is
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: not at all. We're not losing our our focus. We're
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: not losing the things we want to do. We are
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: just gaining an opportunity to expand on those and and
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: take them even to a higher level. Uh. Right now,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: mark a full third of KET and they members don't
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: own any land. Um. Some people incorrectly look at us
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: as you know, the landownership organization, but that's not true.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: We have a third of our members that that don't
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: own any land. You know that they hunt public land,
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: they hunt friends land. Uh. So we've had a big
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: person the last few years, you know, to be able
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: to do more policy work, particularly for public lands, to
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: have a bigger focus in our magazine, and you know
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: on some hunting related stuff versus management stuff. So we're
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: we're not losing any of that. We see this entirely
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: as keeping our core beliefs and just having a bigger
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: opportunity to have more impact actually on the landscape. Keeps
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: exactly right. On that And that's just exactly what I
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: was gonna say and mark this transition you're talking about,
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: I mean, it was pretty much already underway for q
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: d m A. You know, we were broadening out. I mean,
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: look at what the success we found with the Field
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: of Fork program that Hank Forrester piloted here under us,
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: you know, and that was showing us the great potential
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: in reaching out to non hunters and bringing them into
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: the family, and so we were heading that way. We
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: were trying to grow that. That was one of the
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: most exciting things to come along recently at q d
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: m A. Not only were we trying to grow that
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: program and expanded into more states and more events and
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: reaching more new hunters, but trying to also be there
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: for those new hunters in a way that we never
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: had before in terms of content and educational information. So
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: those chefs were already under way. You know. Uh, there
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: never was and never really will be. I don't think A,
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: you know, time to put up the mission accomplished banner
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: over quality dear management. But I think you can make
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: an argument that q may have come a long way
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: in thirty two years, and um, it's not even argument
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: the statistics are there every year in our White Sail
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: report that will show you where we've come as a
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: nation and throughout the history of qum may in terms
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: of buck age, structure of the harvest, and how more
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: hunters are killing you know, an older adult bucks than
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: they than ever before UM and how populations are balanced,
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: and hunters no more about doe harvest and habitat than
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: they ever have before. We're not ever gonna quit talking
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: about that something like I said, We're never gonna say
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: mission accomplished, but certainly we've reached a point in the
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: history of deer hunting here where QUTEN is pretty much
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: the primary, the primary and dominant philosophy in the minds
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: of most UH deer hunters. So that allows us to
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: kind of move on and look at things like spend
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: more time on things like hunter recruitment through field to fort.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: Kip has spent you know a lot of time in
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: the last few years working on policy in a very
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: you know, in effective way. Matt Ross has got the
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: deer stewart program going well. Both Kip and Matt will
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: still be there. They're part of this, They're still part
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: of the leadership team. UM Hank Forrester, the who piloted
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: the field of fork program is still with us. I'm
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: still here. Who has you know, I've run quality white
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: tails in the content for a long time. And my
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: team and in the staff underneath us are going into this,
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: you know. And when you look at who we are, UM,
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: even look at Nick, who like I said, is a
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: Lettle too, Dear Steward and a life member. Um, when
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: you look at each of us and who we are,
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: this new organization is still going to have the values
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: that qdm A always had. We're still going to be
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: interested in and want to talk about food plots and
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: uh buck aide structure. We're never gonna get away from that.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: But the need was there for us to broaden our outreach,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: broaden our efforts. And when you take when you look
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: at the things we were doing that Nick and NBA
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: were duplicating again, it's just the perfect marriage. We come together,
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: We we enhance and become more effective on policy. We
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: continue the Dear Stewart education, We enhance the hunter access
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: and hunter recruitment efforts that both groups were working on.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: So it's just a it's really an intensification of a
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: process and a transition that was already going on that
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: that from the outside looking in that has been apparent
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: as well. I've seen that, I've sensed that, we've We've
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: talked about it in past podcast too, So it does
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: make a lot It doesn't make a lot of sense.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: And I hate to keep parking on this bit though,
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: but I and you don't want to be the person
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: stuck in the past, right, But there has to be
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: some little part of you guys that there's something I
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: don't know if it's romantic but nostalgic or sentimental about
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: the Quality Deer Management Association. And that name is going
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: away right like we're changing the name. This is a
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: new organization. So essentially this is a celebration of the
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: new organization. And and and because I just don't like
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: saying new organization, I don't like saying that yet to
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: be named, I'm just gonna call it the Wired to
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: Hunt Deer Association just because it's short and it sounds
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: good and I think it's gonna ring to it. So
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: I'm just gonna roll with that. Um No, But whatever
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: the new organization is, um that, we're celebrating that new future.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: But there's also like looking at what we've achieved up
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: to this point. I'm just kind of curious if either
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: one of you, Kip or or Lindsay. Um, I don't
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: know what, what are your thoughts on the closing of
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: that chapter. Is there any sense of uh, nostalgia or
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: or is it just hey, gung home moving to the forward. Um,
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: just curious if if there's any of that kind of thought,
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: because I gotta believe there's some people that are gonna
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: be like like, Wow, this is kind of the end of
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: an era, and it's it's a good thing, but it
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: isn't the end of an era. Well, Lindsay and I
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: talked about this as we did it all of the
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: other staff, and um, yeah, I struggled with that for
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: a little bit. You know, I have been acute member
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: staff members since so too so uh one of my
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: closest personal friends is Mr Joe Hamilton's who you know,
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: who founded the organization, and uh, you know, I just
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: have such tremendous respect for Joe and what he has
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: done to our profession in addition to founding kd m A.
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: So there was definitely a part of that, you know
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: that it made me feel a little sad for Joe
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: more than anything else. UM, partly because as we went
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: through and we realized, you know what, we all agreed
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: unanimously that the qt MAY logo was really what was
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: more important than just the name. The fact that that
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: symbolized not just a buck and not you know, an
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: incredibly grotesque large buck, but you know, just a solid,
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: mature dear that included the female of the species. UM,
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: that logo was very important. It is more dear to
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: me than than just the name. So I said, I know, hey,
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: like I really feel strongly that we should keep the logo. UM,
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: I'm fine changing the name as long as we have that. UM.
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: Then with a conversation with Joe and said, hey, you know,
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: kind of because what's going on you. I'm really interested
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: in your thoughts here. You know, Joe is you know,
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: he's in the seventies now, but he is very forward thinking,
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: you know, and very understanding of how to be successful.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: And uh, he said, look, we have changed that name before.
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: You know, it started as a South Carolina q d
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: M A and went to the North American q d
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: M A, then the q d M A. And he said, hey,
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: you know, as long as we continue to do good
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: work and stand by what the principles of this organization are,
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: then that's all we need to be concerned about. So
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: when he said that, I was totally fine if if hey,
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: if changing the name was going to be better. Now
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: changing the name was worse. I've been the first one
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: fighting against it. But there's the name has always come
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: with some potential baggage just having the word management in it.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: There are some who don't know us just see it
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: that thinks, well, if it's management and lady, you have
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: to be a landowner, so that must not be for me.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: And uh, that's not true at all. But that belief
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: is definitely there by something that we have surveys to
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: show that. So uh So there was always a little
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: bit of hang up by a certain part of the
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: hunting public out there relative to that. So so I
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: don't see losing that name is a bad thing. Um.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: I see us continuing to evolve. Um, I see us
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: keeping the logo, which is extremely important. So um I'm
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: good with it. And especially given that the founder is
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: and uh and he sees this as a positive thing,
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: and it's just the next chapter in uh in our life.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: I'm totally a piece of the mark. What do you
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: think line, Yeah, I'm I'm agree with that too. It
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: would be real easy. And this this is something that's
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: been on my mind all this year, both in relation
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: to this discussion and the pandemic and everything else. It's
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: real easy to, um, not change because change is difficult.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: I mean it always is. Change like this is always difficult,
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: and it's hard to take sometimes in that sense of
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: nostalgia or it's against you. You know, you want to
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: preserve what you've got, and it's easy to sit there
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: and do nothing and stick with the status quo rather
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: than do the harder thing and change when you need to.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: And I just think that if ever there was a
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: time when, um, we need to all sort of realize
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: that sometimes you need to take action and take the
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: difficult path because it is time to change, um, and
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: that everything will be okay. This is that time. And
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: that's that's where I've settled on that is is that
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: it's not easy. I mean, it was Joe himself who
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: told me, you know, and told our group and talking
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: to us that everything is always changing. That's his outlook
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: that and that's the truth. Um, change is always going
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: around us, and sometimes you have to open your mind
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: to the possibility that the change will be good and
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: though difficult, and that's that's where we are, and this
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: is where I am on this is that um Um, Yeah,
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: it's not gonna be easy. Have not been to talk
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: about this in some ways, but overall it is the
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: right time. And there's no doubt in my mind that
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: the benefits, the positivity of this, the potential of this
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: means we need to This is the right thing to do.
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: And I think, you know, even though I'm sitting here
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: talking about change again, goodbye to what I said about
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: who we are, you know, as a group of people,
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: there's a lot about this group that is who we
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: are is not going to change. Um. Just adapting to
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: the times, I guess if is the way I would say,
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: adapting to remain relevant and effective. So here's the interesting
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: I guess I look at the moment we're in right now,
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: and I compare this to the moment we're in about
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: five or so years ago, two fifteen, give or take
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: that period, we had started seeing some numbers that were
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: con starning as far as deer harvests. We're having back
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: to back years of bad e h d um. We're
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: of course seeing the hunter recruitment numbers that were concerning
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: They're all these little flashbulbs that were telling us, oh, there,
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: maybe maybe things aren't as great as we thought in
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: the deer hunting world. And some of that led to
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: lots of different conversations within the industry, within the conservation world,
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: and ultimately led to the creation of the National Deer
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: Lines which was going to be this national organization which
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: could help address some of these issues at a top level,
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: very all inclusive, much more policy driven, which which ended
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: up you know, coming to fruition, nick taking the helm,
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: so on and so forth. Now tell me if I'm
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: wrong here when I say this, but it seemed like
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: that was driven by a concern about current events, like
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: there's things going on that said, hey, we need a
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: stronger a stronger organization to attack this type of issue.
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: Bringing to the picture NDA, now here we are about
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: five years later, We've got this, this next set of events.
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: This leads us to whatever this new organization is going
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: to be. How would you look at the is there
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: is there a certain similar set of deer related issues
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: that also make this more important, or would you say
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: this has been more driven by the things we talked
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: about that being COVID leadership. UM, changing times, but but
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: not as influenced by Hey, the dear world is going
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: in the shifter. To excuse my french, UM, I don't know, Nick,
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: can you can you kind of speak to these two
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: different situations we found ourselves where really within the last
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: twenty thirty years, we've we've seen two big changes in
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: the deer conservation space, um, kind of evolving off of
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: each other. But UM, reflect on that, Ken, Yeah, and
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: and so having lived in on the front lines as
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: you were talking, many of these things were rushing back
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: into my brain. So UM, so the reasons that the
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: National Deer Lines was created, Um, not only have those
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: those issues not gone away, they're still there, but in
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: some ways they're even they're even more dire. So for
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: an example, when we first started NBA, we did a
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: strategic planning process and went through that entire process, and
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: one of the items on our list to work on
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: was diseases. But it fell on like number three year,
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: number four on the list. And before that first year
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: of the National the Airlines was complete. Chronic wasting disease
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: was rapidly spreading across the country. We're adding adding new states,
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: adding new areas within states that hadn't had it before.
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: And so by the next time we did the strategic plan,
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: we had the updated in c w D became what
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: we worked on, and so that was That's probably the
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: most significant thing that happened. It was the most abrupt
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: thing that in the meantime, other things that continued to
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: happen was more loss of hunters, um, loss of quality
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: places for people to hunt, or or maybe perceived loss
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: of those places and people just unable to find places
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: to go. That was happening, um continued infringement on on
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: our heritage just by bad policy or misinformed policy. And
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: I actually had felt that I feel this way right
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: now that we we kind of took deer for granted.
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: We we didn't think about the idea that seven out
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: of ten people that hunt anything that buy a hunting
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: license hunt deer in the next species is not even
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: anywhere close to that. So if you think about the
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: money that's generated off the backs of deer and people
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: who want to hunt deer for all of wildlife conservation, like,
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: why would we ever take deer for granted? And I
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: felt like that was happening now in the meantime we
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: made some strides with the deer line. So for example,
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: we testified twice in front of Congressional committees in recent
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: years and it was on c w D. But it's
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: been a long time before anyone from the deer world
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: really had a chance to get in front of Congress,
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: for example. So we had a lot more success in
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: places like Capitol Hill and state legislatures because we pushed
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: for it. So I felt that the whole reason for NDA,
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: and I remember saying this many different times, because I'll
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: be honest with you, when the NBA first started, I
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: was one of the people out in the audience but
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: didn't think it was a great idea in my mind
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: at that time. And it's it's so funny thinking about
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: this as we as we come full circle, I thought
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: that we should have just invest more in t d
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: m A and let it happen. But low and behold,
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: things happened the way they did, and maybe it was
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: meant to happen that way. But what happened, though, was
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: one of the things we never we hadn't been able
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: to do that nb A was grow and there were
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: reasons for that. Number One, when we started, we said
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: right off the BAT. We weren't going for paid memberships
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: because we didn't want to compete with the other deer groups,
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: and in fact, we wanted to try to bolster their memberships.
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: And so UM competing for funds or UM not having
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: paid members you add all that up and you you
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: just don't You're unable to get the resources you need
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: to grow to a level that you need to grow too.
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: So I was the only staff person up until January
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: of this year, and that just was never going to
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: get it done. And so when you look at the
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: resources that t d M may already brings with the
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: success that NBA was starting to build, I just thought
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: to myself, listen, we could grow NBA like we could.
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: We could change the way we do business and try
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: to attract a bunch more dollars and add staff. Or
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: we've already got t d M a sitting here that
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: has a lot of great staff resources, they've got dedicated people,
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: they've got a robust membership and dedicated volunteers and a
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: strong board of directors. Wouldn't it make a lot more sense?
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: So let's let's just bring the family back together here.
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: NBA went off and sort of incubated, got its feet under.
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: It had a lot of six tess but now it's
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: time to come back home and make the family stronger.
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: And that's really how I view this. So even though
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: you had mentioned about it's gonna be all deer now
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: and those types of things, it's primarily going to be
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: all deer on the policy front. So when we advocate
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: for deer, we're gonna advocate for all all North American deer.
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: So it's not not like all of a sudden tomorrow
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: we're gonna go out and start working on mule deer
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: habitat and Wyoming for example. We have a very strong
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: partner in the Mule Deer Foundation that already does that,
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: but we are doing policy on behalf of mule Deer
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: for the Mule Deer Foundation through the NBA, So that
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: will continue um and we will still be able to
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: hold those very core programs that that q d m
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: A is very passionate about, combined with ndia's policy, and
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: I look at this as more for everybody, not less
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: for anybody. What do you you kind of mentioned how
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: nd A how went out, and you've worked on this
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: stuff and you kind of incubated for a while, and
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: now It's kind of coming back to quting May because
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: because qut May was part of what what kind of
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: launched the NDIAT there. I'm kind of curious, having been
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: out in the wilderness now for some number of years
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: NICK as a one man organization, pushing hard on the
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: policy front, trying to do all that. Now you come
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: back to the Quality Deer Management Association and taking the
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: leadership home there. What if you were to analyze the
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: legacy of n d A or your experience, the good
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: and the bad, what you achieve, what you wanted to
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: achieve but maybe didn't UM. Can you point to anything
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: that you feel that you can bring to the cut
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: You may now specifically on that side that is is
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: UM that represents like a big positive change that that
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: now this new organization can take advantage of because you've
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: got all these learnings, you're out there doing these things,
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: but you lacked the staff, additional support, additional resources. Now
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: you have that. I guess I'm just looking. I'm curious
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: about what examples there might be if some of these
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: things that you can take from that experience that now
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: you're given rocket fuel to you can do something big
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: and really exciting with other any examples a jump to
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: mind on that front. Well, the policy answers the easy
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: one because I think one of the things NBA was
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: able to do and it's not it's not, by the way,
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: like that q d m A wasn't doing policy. Kip,
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: who we have here on the phone, has done a
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: ton of policy work for g d M A. But
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: the other thing is Kip's also done a ton of
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: other work for q d M A, and he never
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: was able to just be a policy person um and frankly,
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: with all of the other skills that he has, I'm
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: not sure he should be just doing policy right uh.
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: N DA, we were able to just have that focus
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: on policy, and I think what it did was it
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: taught us that we can have impact, like all of
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: a sudden, when there was an opportunity to testify in
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: front of a congressional committee. We got the opportunity when
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: we were setting up meetings with our partners with legislators
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: on Capitol Hill. We were getting those meetings. So it
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: allowed an entity to show if we have if we
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: have full focus in this area, which is a critical,
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: critical area, then we can actually make some impact. And
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: I think before that it was just a little bit too,
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: uh piecemelk you will um this Kimp will tell you
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: that there are so many different deer issues that go
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: on across the country on on a daily basis. It's
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: just you. You just kind of respond to what is
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: out there. But someone might ask you to do in
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: the case of q d M A with the number
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: of branches, um, and you've got all kinds of local
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: types of requests coming in. It's just impossible for anyone
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: to do all that and then also try to push
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: an agenda on Capitol Hill, which unfortunately, I mean, believe me,
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: it's not an aspect of the work I enjoy, but um,
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: it is what it is. Somebody has to do it,
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: we have to be there, and it has to be
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: a concerted effort on that front. So I think it's
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: it's NBA has proven that if we're not just reactionary
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: and we're proactive, we can make big strides on the
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: policy front. And I think that's what the five years
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: really allowed us to to. UM And a matter of fact,
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: the person that I had hired, Torn Miller, the first
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: hire at NDA, is a policy person and so I
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: can even just tell you bringing him on addition in
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: addition to the work that I was doing. Policy is
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: a is a big time, full time job for for
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: at least one person, and then you have to have
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: other people that can play into it. And as much
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: as I hate to say it, it's just it's really
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: just the reality. As much as we love doing all
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: the boots on the ground habitat work and recruiting and
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: new hunters and getting people interested in what we do,
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: the real battleground is the white collar aspect of what
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: we do. And that's that's not fun for anyone. That's
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: not fun for deer hunters to hear about. But if
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: we don't play the policy game, everything else that we
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: love to do is in big time trouble. So um,
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: I would say that's really the biggest piece. Yeah, yeah,
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: Like you said, it's not necessarily the fun part, but
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: if you don't get that checked off, the fun part
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: never comes. So I'm glad that the having people working
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: on those things, and there will be continuing to be
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: people working on those things, and I think that's maybe
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: where we need to go next, is is what we'll
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: be working on in the future. Um. As I've heard
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: in this conversation today and in some previous discussions. The
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: way I kind of if I had to sum all
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: of this up, it's we are we are taking the
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: best of these two strong organizations full of passionate people
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: about deer and deer hunting, and combining them so we
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: have a more efficient, more effective, better fueled engine to
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: drive positive change for deer and deer hunters. So this
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: is kind of like a two point all of everything,
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: and it all sounds really good. We have more resources,
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: we have leadership, we have we have a set of
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: new ideas that can help us take us in the
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: new direction, take that next step. It's two thousand twenty,
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: it's a new day. Lots of things are changing. I
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: want to understand more clearly what that new direction is,
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: what those new things are that we can achieve. Um,
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: I'd be curious to hear from all three of you,
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: but I guess maybe Nick, since you are now the
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: CEO of this organization, I'm curious, could you could you
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: articulate for me. Um, Let's say we're sitting in front
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: of the the new not the cut staff, the new
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: organization staff, and you're gonna give the pep talk. This
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: is what we're gonna do. These are our top three goals, Um,
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: could you give me that pep talk? How what we're
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: gonna do, How we're gonna do it now that we've
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: got everything that we always wish we had. Yeah, Yeah,
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: And I've given this pep talk I think a half
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: dozen times in recent weeks the board members and even
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: staff and so on, so it's it remains fresh in
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: my mind. So, you know, Mark, it's less about the
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: top three things and more about challenging ourselves to to
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: look wider across the landscape. And this the big picture
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: of deer. I mentioned earlier that deer have become they've
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: they've been taken for granted in my view. And the
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: other thing that's that's really sort of scary and disappointing
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: is that, let's take hunters out of the equation. For example,
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: the average person out there knows very little about deer
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: to begin with. I mean, how many national news articles
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: have we've seen that were about deer, and they've got
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: a picture of a red deer, you know, not even
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: not even a North American deer in the picture, because
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: they don't have somebody that knows what a freaking white
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: tailed deer and mule deer looks like right, um, that's
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: that's frustrating. And so everybody lives with deer around them,
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: whether it's a white tail or a mule deer um,
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: and they have no idea what they have no idea
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: about deer, and they also have absolutely no idea about
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: what they mean to broad wildlife conservation. But we know
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: that people generally care about wildlife and conservation, so really
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: they better know something about deer. And so setting our
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: hunters aside for a second, because we were hopeful that
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: our hunters will always be there and we and we
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: have every bit as much for them tomorrow as we
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: had for them yesterday. That's not going to change. But
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: we need to broaden an awareness for this animal period.
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: And when I talk about going to talk to Capitol
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: legislators on Capitol Hill, that's all well and good, and
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: we have some impact, but the reality is worldly backed
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: by about four of the population, maybe five will being generous,
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: that even hunt in the first place. And so when
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: you're competing against everything else that's going on in the world,
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: as bad as something like chronic wasting disease, for example,
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: is it's hard to be heard. So until we start
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: growing our ranks of people that are more aware of deer,
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: who are more sensitive to the needs of deer, who
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: understand what declining hunters mean to all conservations. It's gonna
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: be really hard to move the ball down the court
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: on Capitol Hill and state legislatures because we just do
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: not have the numbers. We need more numbers. And in
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: my way of thinking, if you, if you allow yourself
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: to dream and be optimistic a little bit, this broader
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: push of awareness, this this broader becoming a little bit
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: more of a conservation, more holistic conservation organization that has
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: a great message about our most iconic game animal in
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: North America. I think that leads to hunter recruitment. I
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: think you combine that very powerful campaign for deer with
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: a program like Field the Fork, which were only scratching
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: the surface of how effective that can be. UM and
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: and messages like if you look at even even with
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: the meat eater, your your affiliation there, you're reaching audiences
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: that frankly we have is just a deer group really
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: hard for us to reach. UM. I think it was
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: Kip earlier who said, or maybe it was Lindsay that
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: said that even just our name quality to your management
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: association in some ways put up barriers unfairly because q
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: d M A has always been way more for dearer
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: than what they've ever gotten credit for. But okay, we
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: can't just throw that away. I mean, that's reality. What
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: people perceive you to be is essentially who you are.
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: But we need to capitalize on learning like how did
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: how did you reach those audiences? How can we work together?
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: We want to work with the forward thinkers. We want
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: to get out of our comfort zone. If you look
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: at some of the images that come from that Field
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: to Fork program, and I'll tell you I've had to
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: present this to boards of directors and so on here
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: in recent weeks to get this down the road. Um,
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: I asked, uh, I asked Hank Forster at t d
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: M A, Hey, send me, send me a few pictures
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: that you like from the Field to Fork program. And
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: so actually I said send me one. He sent me
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: a few because he couldn't pick one. And then I
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: looked at him and I couldn't not use all of
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: them because I loved them all and I put them
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: in the presentation and I challenged our boards to say, listen,
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: we need to be comfortable being uncomfortable right now. If
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: we're going to move the needle here, and we need
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: to be willing to talk to people that are the
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: hardest people to talk to. Now, I'm not saying we're
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: gonna throw all the other stuff away that we already do.
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: That's the furthest thing from the case. What I'm really
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: saying is we're investing by doing this, We're investing in
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: the long term future of our sport, and more importantly
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: than all of that, the long term future of this
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: animal and frankly, the North American model of wildlife conservation,
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: which so depends on robust deer herds for for people
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: to hunt so um. I get passionate whenever I think
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: about it and talk about that. But because no one
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: else is going to do it, we have to be
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: the ones to do it. And I believe very strongly
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: that that our team is bought into that, and I
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: think in time we're gonna get membership bought into that.
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: And I envision the time where we have people who
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: don't ever desire to hunt a deer it will purchase
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: a membership to our organization, much like folks who would
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: belong to like Trot Unlimited, Ducks Unlimited. That's that's that's
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: our vision I think going forward here, and so if
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: I can, if I can rehash it back to you,
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: tell me if I kind of get the moral of
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: the story here, which is out the gate at least
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: more important than saying, hey, we're going to find the
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: solution of chronic wasting disease in the next three years.
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: Are more important than saying we're going to increase public
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: land access by in the next five years. More important
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: than any of those. The first thing we have to
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: do right, and the first thing that this new organization
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: has the opportunity to do, is to grow this family
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: in a significant, meaningful and different kind of way. Open
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: up the gates to not just the usual folks, but
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: new folks, those in the hunting community and outside the
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: hunting community, those in the rural areas and the urban areas.
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: Let's let's grow the family. Because once you've got a great,
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: big family that cares about this stuff, then you can
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: mobilize them and get them to take care of public
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: land access issue A or chronic wasting disease issue B,
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: whatever it is. When it comes down the line, the
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: most important thing is building an engaged and passionate membership
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: that can do something. Because if there's anything I found
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: from some of the things that follow on the public
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: land side, it's when you have a large membership that
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: does something that really interesting things happen. So I would
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: just say is that they kind of get the moral
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: of what you're describing or aspiring to. Nick. Yeah, and
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: and and what we've done is we've and it's it's
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: nobody's fault, but we kind of forgot the fundamental is
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: what it means to engage people. And so when you
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: ask our community, you bring up the whole, the whole thing,
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: the whole situation of well, we need to recruit more hunters. Okay,
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: well let's have a conversation about that, because what ends
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: up happening is we turn that into how quickly can
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: we get a gun or a bow into somebody's hands
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: and get them out into the woods. If you're if
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: you're coaching a person to play football for the first
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: time and they've never played before, you don't check them
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: out and equipment and throw them out on the field
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: and say, Okay, we're gonna run sweep um. And that's
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: what we try to do. In the hunting world, you
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: gotta teach the fundamentals. You've got to get them interested
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: in the idea of that. You gotta love the game first,
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: and so we need we need people to love deer
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: and not just think about it in terms of I
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: don't want to hit one with my car um, or
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: I wish somebody would pick up that dead deer along
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: the road, or it's eaten my flower's arden um. So
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: and I think part of it is is that even
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: CEOs of conservation organizations have have tended to be measured
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: on all the wrong things. They're measured on how big
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: is your membership or how how many you had mentioned
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: like did you conserve this many acres? That's important, that
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: is that is important, for sure, But it's the movement.
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: It takes a long time. You can't make this change
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: happen in the snap of a finger. You can't make
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: this change happen. Look how long if you talk to
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: to to Kip and lindsay, how long did it take
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: for more than half the people that shoot a buck
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: to shoot one? That wasn't a year link that took
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: many years. And we have to have that same appetite
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: for playing a long game if we want to bring
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: people on board. The beer you bring up a great
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: question then, um, which you brought up, how CEOs of
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: conservation organizations are judged? Um? How should we how should
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: we judge this new organization success or your success? Nick?
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: If we if we were to point the mirror back
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: and say, okay, five years from an hour or whatever
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: time length you think is appropriate, Um, what would be
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: some of the things we should look at and say, Okay,
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: yes they've done it or no they haven't quite um
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: anything kind of mind. Yeah, I mean I think that
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: I don't think that it's Lindsay that mentioned about never
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: being done. You don't hang up and say you've accomplished
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: the mission. So that's a change constantly changing landscape there.
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: But I think it's a couple of things. I think
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: number one it is are we a financially healthy and
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: stable organization that is building for the future. And think
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: that's that's one part of it. Um. Do we have
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: we have we moved the needle in terms of the
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: people that we have engaging on policy for for deer,
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: for wildlife conservation? Have we improved our footprint on UM
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: in the policy arena? Because that's the other thing that's
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: frustrated me over the years is that deer. Despite being
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: the most most iconic game animal that we pursue, we
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: haven't had the biggest voice when it comes to impacting policy.
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: And that's even with our partners when we get into
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: in the meetings with our partner organizations. So, UM, I
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: think that's part of it. Um. But I think ultimately,
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: in some ways, you know, maybe I shouldn't have mentioned
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: membership earlier, because in some respects it is important. But
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: I think what's more important is not necessarily how many,
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: but who are they? Are we still just a member
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: ship of forty two fifty something and up white guys. Now,
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: if we are we're in big trouble. We're in big
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: trouble in the future. Or if we attracted young people now, um,
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: do we have people wearing our gear and our merchandise
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: that don't intend to even shoot a deer, but they're
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: sensitive and they're supportive of what we do. UM. I
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: think those are the things to me are are ultimately
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: the more important. And I don't know in terms of years, UM,
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: you know, you you just don't know. UM, I guess.
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: I guess we have to to learn what the right
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: messages and we have to see how people respond to it,
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: and we need the more importantly, though, the most importantly,
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: we need to be willing to change along the way
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: until we find it and not just say, well, you
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: know what, this is too hard. Let's just let's just
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: get back to figuring out how to grow the biggest
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: deer and and hunt them. And that's just shortsighted. We
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: need to play the long game here. So then let's
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: send a similar question over to Kip and lindsay, Um,
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: you've been in a role with q d MAY for
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: a number long amount of time now, and when opportunities
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: like this come about where there's a big change in
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: leadership or direction or the organization as a whole, as
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: is this case, there's always this feeling, at least I've thought,
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: there's this feeling of there's this new beginning, there's a
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: new hope that we can finally do this or this thing.
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: I've always been passionate about what we didn't have the
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: energy to do, or the time to do, or the
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: people or something. I gotta imagine there's been something for
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: you in the back of your mind. You've always wanted
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: to have this opportunity to tackle in a new way
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: or better way, or something. Um, I'm curious if you
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: could speak to anything like that. I asked Nick what
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: some of his goals or dreams were for the future. Um, Kip,
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: would you have is there anything on your wish list
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: for this new organization or this to do better than
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: we used to do list, anything like that that comes
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: to mind as far as what you foresee for the
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: future of this. Yeah, you know, to add to a
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: question you asked earlier that I kind of prefaced my
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: answer here. You know, are we doing this out of
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: necessity or or not? In the answers? You know, I
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: think there's a lot of things that are formed out
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: of necessity, things that have to happen. I don't see
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: this as being one of those at all. I see
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: this being done out of an opportunity, capitalizing on an opportunity.
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: And what I'm so excited about is I was heavily involved,
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: you know back in two thousand and fourteen, you know,
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: when we first started going through this, you know, it
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: was all excited about, Man, we're gonna have this, you know,
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: this new thing now that we can do a lot
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: more advocacy work and we can be more focused on
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: what we're doing. And uh got to go through, you know,
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: the naming of it and sitting in and all that
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: stuff and all the creation, and all of a sudden
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: it was gone. So I mean, but we just worked
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: for months to do something that we knew was right
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: for for for deer hunters, and then we knew was
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: what was best for the resource, and then all of
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: a sudden it was gone. And now and not that
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: it was competing against us, but you know, there was
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: certainly duplication of a lot of the things that we
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: were doing. And you know, Nick and I spoke at
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: the same conference in a lot of cases about what
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: we do this, and we do this. I'm thinking it's
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: it's almost the exact same things. Like this just seems
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: crazy to me. So I am very excited that, you know,
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: this is what we set out to do, you know,
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: a number of years ago, and now we're finally getting
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: a chance to do it. So second chances many times
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: can come around, we have that now. So uh, I
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: think it's great that we really have a chance now
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: to do what we thought we were going a while ago,
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: so we can be more focused on what we're doing
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: have a bigger impact for for the future of deer
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: hunting and that is extremely excited to me. Not only
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: is the QDM a or currency and make staff member,
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: but as a hunter and as a father that have
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: two young hunters, knowing that this is the right thing
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: for the future. So I'll do everything I can to
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: protect that, you know, while I'm here, but long after
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: I'm gone. I want to make sure that you know
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: that my kids and hopefully someday grandkids, you know, have
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: some of those same rights and opportunities and privileges that
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: i've to hunt the healthy deer hurt and uh, this
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: is this is a step in that direction. So, um,
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: I am super excited about that. What about you, Lindsey,
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: What's what's on your your wish list or anything like that. Yeah,
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: I guess that. Um, there's there's always the unexpected that
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: comes along, so it's sort of hard to say, you know,
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: here's the duration and like to see us go. I mean,
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: we've we've always been a science based organization and always
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: will be. And when new science comes up, whether it's
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: related to c w D or policy matters, or hunting
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: the animal itself or whatever, it can lead to changes
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: in the direction of your mission and your organization and
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: your focus points based on that new information, and certainly
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: q you may has has done things like that in
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: our history, where new science let us to focus on
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: new educational focal points, but that that sort of unexpected
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: is always coming along, comeing along. I think though, that
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: when I think back over the trajectory just of my
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: career at QOMNY, how much I love being here and
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: engaging with our members and writing and teaching and being
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: involved in things like trail camera surveys and how do
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: you know why it matters how much fat there isn't
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: a deer's kidney, and you know the difference between annuals
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: and perennials. You know that I feel like, as I
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: said before about looking at the trajectory of philosophy among
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: deer hunters in North America, we've moved the needle on
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: that we have educated hunters on those things, and there's
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: so much more knowledgeable than they used to be than
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: than they were before. Well, in the last few years,
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: I've personally realized through watching the Field of Fault program
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: and what we've touched on there, that for a hunter
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: who knows all those things that we just talked I
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: just talked about and and really is up on the
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: habitat and the herd management and all of that. Suddenly
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: discovering that instead of talking to someone about food plots,
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: that there's someone else out there who might need you
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: to show them how to feel dressed a deer, and
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: taking knowledge you you sort of always took for granted
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: of your own that you never really shared with anybody
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: because you always thought, well, that's just the basics, and
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: realizing that there's a whole community out there, untapped of
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: people who need you to show them that, people who
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: need you to help them understand when you're sitting in
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: a deer stand how to be still and why you
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: should be still, and what you should be looking for
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: and all the all of the basics that come with
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: deer hunting. And it's it's been inspiring to me and
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: a lot of us on the team to to pivot
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: toward some of that in helping folks who need that
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: kind of help. And I think that's what I'd like
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: to see, is okay, So we can measure in the
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: trajectory of the North American deer hunter how they've come
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: up the curve on herd management and habitat management. We
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: can argue that compared to thirty years ago. The average
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: deer hunter is way more knowledgeable by all that and
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: produces way more successful food plot today, and you know,
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: knows how to balance the deer herd with their habitat,
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: knows how to identify some plants and all that. I'd
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: like to my wishes. I'd like to be part of
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: the new phase of this organization that leads to the
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: point where we can measure and say the modern American
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: deer hunter now has become someone who knows how to
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: talk to people who don't hunt and people who don't
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: look like them and don't fit in with their you know,
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: old deer camp social group and teach them, get excited
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: about teaching them and taking them and if we could
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: see that become the next modern philosophy of the North
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: American deer hunter. Yeah, there's my wish. Yeah, I like
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: I like that one a lot, lindsay. And that that
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: brings up a great question, which is what does this
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: change mean for the field of FARK program. We've talked
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: about it quite extensively here in the podcast, and most
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: everybody should be pretty well aware of what that has
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: been to this point. But now new organization, new leadership,
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: new energy, maybe new opportunities, Nick or or anyone else
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: if you wanna jump in. But but what do you
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: guys foresee in the future for Field to fork? Given?
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: Uh this new moment. Oh yeah, I'll start and I
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: let the guys that have been more experienced with it
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: talk more. I love I love with with the guys
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: have said so far. UM, I'll just say from my
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: perspective is that I'm going to be fully committed to it. Um.
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: It was one of the things that we brought up
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: in one of our earliest conversations we started working together
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: as a staff, and so in my view, like, let's
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: figure that thing out, let's invest resources in it and
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: and see where it can take us, because I think
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: it is one of those outside the box. Clearly, it's
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: one of those outside the box programs in terms of
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: how we think and how we do business. UM. So
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: I'll just say I'm committed to it, and I'll let
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: the other phone is taken away from there. I don't
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: think there's any way that this group goes forward without
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: looking at the success we've had with that. And by success,
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: I don't necessarily mean you know, measurable and national scale.
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: How many hunters have you recruited? I mean what Hank
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: discovered by reaching out to adult non hunters with a
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: food focused message, UM, and the success he found through
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: that that we discovered this, UM, you know, this untapped
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: group that was out there that and and then entirely untapped.
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: I mean, certainly Steve and the Meat eat Or crew
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: have been very effectively reaching folks like that for years now.
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: But you know, with Hank's method of putting ourselves in
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: front of them in public places and asking them to
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: taste innocent and asking them do they want to learn
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: to hunt? And the success we found with UM folks
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: saying yes, and the success we found with running them
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: through a program of teaching and guiding and training. What
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: we saw from that with the result these people going
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: through that short program and then literally going out hunting
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: on their own, buying hunting equipment, taking other people all
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: within the same season. UM, being with them when they
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: took their first year, being with them when they cook
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: their first year, and and guiding them through that process
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: and realizing that, UM, we could build something. We should
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: build something bigger out of this that's much needed. So
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: it's one of like I said, I think It's one
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: of the things we've hit on over the years that
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: UM really surprised us in in the response and the results.
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: And I don't think there's any way this group goes
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: forward without making that one of the major UM, you know,
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: cornerstones of what we do to address hunter access and
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: hunter numbers. UM, We've got to expand it. That's going
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: to be a challenge, UM. And it was already a
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: challenge for q um A before came along. Is how
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: do we make this bigger? How do we bring more
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: mentors in? How do we get more hunters to see
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: this opportunity and participate? That challenge is still there before us,
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: and UM, I think under Nick's leadership and with this
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: this new direction, the new group, UM, we're going to
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: to solve that question and go forward and and really
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: make a difference in a measurable way. Yeah. And I'll
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: jump in real quick before you kept and just say
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: that you mentioned something Lindsay that I think is an
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: important thing to note on is that, yes, folks like
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: Steve and what we're doing at meat Eator, we reach
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: a lot of people and a lot of them are
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: non hunters, and they get intrigued and they're interested and
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: they're curious. Um, so we've got this wide top of
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: the funnel and we're capturing people there. But as they
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: get down further and further down there where they start
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: listening and watching and they're intrigued and they're interested, a
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: lot of people still get to a point where they
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: hit this roadblock. And that is the roadblock of finally
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: getting out there in the woods or buying a gun,
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: or trying to gut their own deer, or trying to
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: find a deer in the woods by themselves. Um. So
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: many people really struggle once they get to that point.
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: And that's where the Field of Fork program just fits perfectly.
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: Is is that like Closer, It's like the closing picture
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: at the end of the game that comes in And
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: that's where Field of Fork really works. As you guys
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: win the game there. We can get us in the game,
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: we can get us you know, give us a lead
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: heading into the last inning, but you guys have got
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: to win it for us. With that kind of program,
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: I feel like that's the that's the potential I see there.
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: I've I've experienced firsthand people just like that that we're
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: intrigued with the content, we put out there, but still
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: couldn't quite do it all on their own and then
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: got involved in the field of fork program and had
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: a real person helped them with these things, and that
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: made all the difference in the end. So personally, I
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: will just tell you I absolutely echo what you're thinking
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: that and um, I'm excited about that, Kip. Did you
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: have any other thoughts on that? Yeah, we we are
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: fully committed, you know, as a staff, to to go
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: on forward with that, you know, and expanding it. We
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: know we have a model now that works, and that's
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: super exciting because you know, you can see as as
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: we lose hunters and hunter's age out, you know, the
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: wildlife profession. We've known this for for well over decades.
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: You know, we've been watching the you know, the trends
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: and just seeing a drop and drop. But the all
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: the the youth programs and and different take one, make
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: one programs and mentoring programs. Uh, you know, those are
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: all great programs, and we're going to continue working with
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: youth and encourage others too. But you know, they have
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: never moved the needle. And so the fact that we've
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: actually developed something here that really can move the needle,
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: we have measurable impacts that that it will work is
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: incredibly exciting, not just for us, but you know, for
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: all of the hunting community. So yeah, we we recognize
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: the value of what we have, UM and we are
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: absolutely going to going to take that for small as
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: we can because you know, that's that's exactly the shining
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: star that the hunting world needs. And uh, well, we're
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: very fortunate to have been a big part of developing that. Um.
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: We have worked with it enough at local levels that
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: we have mastered the fact that exactly how you do it.
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: So now the next step is, hey, let's just figure
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: out how to scale this up and make it so folks,
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: you know, outside of the wallet community or outside of
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: you know, hardcore hunters can can take the materials and
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: actually contribute to the solution as well. So, um, we
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: are at a really good place with that. So and
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: I can assure you that the Kumy staff is fully
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: invested in it and understands the value really of what
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: we have and how important it is to the future
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: of hunting. Hey, Mark, let me tag on one thought.
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: They're real quick to what kids just said, is that um,
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: if to anyone who's listening, and go and well, it
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: sounds like you guys are just going to become you know,
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: the field of four folks and and reaching out to
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: new hunters. But the way I see that is, um,
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: we all know that the hunting population, deer hunters are
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: are aging as a group, and we're concerned about the
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: numbers and the falling off. This is a way for
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: us to create a source of new new voices, new
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: our new customers, rather for our other messaging or traditional messaging.
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: Because you take these folks, give me the wood, you
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: get them hunting, You teach them, you know, how to
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: field dress, in process, eat, cook, they're on deer, they
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: go out, they buy a gun or a bow, they
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: participate more. Well, guess what they That puts them on
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: that stairway that we all followed, each of us, says
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: deer hunters. That has them, you know, next year thinking
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: about buying a trail camera, and you know, maybe the
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: next year thinking about or what if I planted something?
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: Or how can I improve habitat, or you know, the
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: next year thinking, hey, in this choice I make in
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: which deer I shoot, there are implications for my future
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: deer hunting. So we're putting these people on the track
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: that puts them sort of closes the circle and brings
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: them back around to the traditional messaging of our organizations
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: about wise deer management. So that's why, you know, going
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: back to what I said earlier about how we'll never
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: really get away from that, we will always be here.
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: And really, I guess you'd say one trying to be
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: a one stop shop for h deer hunters from start two,
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: evolution through for those who want to, you know, take
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: you further into into deer management, we'll be here for
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: that as well. So we've we've kind of heard about
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: what we have heard. We've heard about what's happening. We've
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: heard about what your what your dreams and envision is
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: for this thing going forward. As far as organizational focus
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: goals um growing the membership. But an organization is only
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: as strong as at least I think, is only as
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: strong as its members in this kind of situation. Uh,
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: you can have a great staff, you can have great ideas,
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: you can execute in a lot of great things, but
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: if if your membership doesn't engage, if your membership doesn't
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: take action on things, there's not a lot you can do.
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: It really makes a real significant difference. My question then
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: for you is this, I've heard your wish list for
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: the organization. Now I want to know what your wish
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: list is for the hunters out there listening. Um I
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: know one thing that came up five years ago was
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: this idea that there are more deer hunters than any
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: other type of hunter out there, right, but a much
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: smaller percentage of those hunters are members of a deer
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: organization than other species like duck hunters. There's got much
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: larger conservation organization participation for example. That's one thing that
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: I know back then we were talking about, like, man,
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: we gotta get folks, these deer hunters need to get
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: more involved. Simply become members. That's an easy wish. I
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: don't know if that wish has come true or not.
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: I'm curious to hear now your pep talk for the
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: hunters listening, for members or future members, hope really, um Nick,
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: what would be your talk to those people right now?
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: What do we need from them to to take advantage
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: of this new moment. This isn't just a new moment
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: for for you guys. This could be a new moment
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: for all this deer hunters and the future of our resource,
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: of our places, of this thing that we love to do. Um,
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: what would you say and what would you wish for
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: these folks to uh to do? I think the first
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: thing I'd say is that this isn't happening for for
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: us as much as it seems like it is in
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: terms of the organization or us on this call. This
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: is this is necessary for deer and the future of
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: the sport that we love, the future of the animal
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: we love. And so our job, frankly, is too make
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: it as easy as possible for people who care about
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: deer to engage in issues, to engage in habitat conservation,
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: to get involved with hunting if that's what they choose
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: to do, And so we have to make it as
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: easy as possible for that to happen. And that's what
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: we see our jobs as being. Keep people informed, motivate
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: them for action, get them to take action. And that's
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: where deer hunters need to get to And because it
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: starts with deer hunters right now, that nobody we talk
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: about this future of more people caring about deer, while
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: the reality is the ones who care most about deer
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: right now are the hunters, and are the people who
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: have taken the step to sign up for an organization
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: like q d m A or others, so we need
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: we need their support. For sure, we need to keep
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: the ones we have, but we also need It's as
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: simple as nudge and a buddy sometimes, or you know,
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: maybe it's as simple. I have a good friend who's
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: a long, long term time member of q d m
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: A who has bought memberships for others to get them
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: interested and show them what's happening, because he recognizes we
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: need to grow the ranks. So the pep talk would be,
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: this is not the good old days for deer. We
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: can't take them for granted like we probably up to
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: this point. And if you're someone that really cares about
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: the resource and really wants to see us a strong
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: future for this animal, then your options are do nothing
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: and just hope it gets better, or engage. Being a
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 1: well rounded deer hunter now is far more than just
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: understanding what food plot mix to grow or what is
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 1: the best bullet or broad head who has the best
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: mapping app on their phone. That's helpful, but you have
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: to be more well rounded than that. What are the
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: issues that really impact my sport? Maybe they're local, It
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: could be something just as much as a local management
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: decision all the way up to the federal government. And
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: it's not really hard to just jump into our system
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 1: and send off a letter or make a phone call.
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 1: So I would say the challenges ask yourself to do
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: a little bit more this year beyond just what it
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: takes to pursue a dear Maybe it's set yourself a
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: personal goal to make one or two phone call, sort
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: of recruit a body to be interested in issues, because
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: if we don't do it, like I said earlier, if
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: we think we're just gonna wait around and someone else
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: is going to do it, or if you look to
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 1: an organization like guards and say, oh, well they got
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: that taken care of, Um, that's not how it happens.
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: We're a team. If you if you join and you
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: become a member, you're one bus. You're not just someone
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: that joins us to get as a magazine or whatnot.
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: You are one of us, and therefore we expect you
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: to be part of that and to be excited about it. All. Right,
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: then let's let's flip it over to to you guys,
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: kipping Lindsay with with a similar question, what would your
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: what would your wish list be for the for the listener,
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: for the hunter. What are your marching orders for the
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: member or future member the hunter? What would you have
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: to say kip to them? Well, I think you know,
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: I'm very proud of the fact that the average hunter
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: today is is so much more engaged and then we
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: were pin or twenty years ago. Uh. The other more
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: knowledgeable about deer. They they know more about the animal,
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: how it sees, how it hears, how it moves on
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: the landscape. Um, they talk with the State of Wilife
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 1: agency more So. I think that's all very good, that's
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: very good for the future hunting. But my wish list
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 1: is we engage at even a higher level now, you know,
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 1: with the organization and take a look at cut and
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: Made this past year. You know we have you know
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: plus from our fifty tho members. Uh, but we had
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: over three million unique visitors to our website. So you know,
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: we have a tremendous number of people out there that
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: are used in our information and our resources, which is
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: exactly what we want. That's why we build it and
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 1: create it. We want them to use it and be
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 1: more knowledgeable and be better stewards of the natural resources.
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: But my wish list is that you know what, they
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: like that material, UM, so they take the next step
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: and get more engaged with us and enjoy the organization.
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 1: And you know, the way we look at it, all
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 1: of the good stuff that we can do. Um, as
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: we have more members, we can just do more good stuff.
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: You know, more how to videos on you know, dear
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: addressing deer and do this and that and all of
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 1: these things are it's amazing to the request that we
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: get for we write an article on this, will you
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: do a video on this? Could you develop a program
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 1: to do this? And you know there's we would love
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: to do those. And as more people join, UM, that's
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 1: just more opportunity for us to give back to them
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 1: and help the future of hunting. So so that's my
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: wish list. So real quick, lindsay, before you jump in,
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: I'm just gonna throw a little aside in now that
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: I've got uh some of the leadership of this new
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: organization cornered and at my will, UM, I don't think
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 1: you do have this because I always have my membership expire.
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: Please make sure that OTTO renew is an option so
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: that I don't need to keep on being like oh, crap.
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: I haven't got my magazine for a few months. I
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 1: need to go renew again. Can we just make that happen? Yeah, yeah, no,
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: you can already do that with q many, so we
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: will absolutely make sure that that continues perfect. And then
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: that's a that's a good stegue to you, lindsay, do
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: you have any final marching orders or wish lists for
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: for the Hunter, for the snare, anyone like that. Yeah.
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: One thing when you said this jumped to my mind
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: was something that Nick actually put in my brain back
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 1: during uh speech he gave at the Southeast Dear Study
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: Group meeting back in February UM and it was he
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 1: and Brian Richards were kind of doing a tag team
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 1: presentation on chronic waste disease. But really what Nick what
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 1: he kind of came down to what And it's been
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: on my mind ever since, and and it goes beyond
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: c w D, but he really was focused on c
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: w D B, which is an extremely important issue that
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: this organization will be dealing with going forward. It's it's
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 1: going to be one of the big ones. And what
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: Nick said that I left there with was our state
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: wildlife agencies really are going to be ineffective at managing
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: c w D unless they have the support and participation
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: of their hunters. That's what it comes down to. That's
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: that's what we've seen, is that to deal with this problem, um,
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 1: you need a cooperative effort between hunters and their state
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: wilife agency. And so that's you know, I guess one
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: of my big wishes that I think and in this
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 1: organization certainly will be working on is how to help
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 1: those two groups work together, not see each other as opponents,
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: but see each other as teammates. And I'm not saying
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: that every hunter has to, you know, listen to your
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: agency and do what they say, but engage with them,
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 1: connect with them, listen to them, consider what they have
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 1: to say when particularly when it comes to chronic waste
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 1: disease and CWD management in the states that have that,
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 1: So beyond just cwds, there's so many other ways that
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 1: that relationship can be beneficial for the future. Having those
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: wildlife agencies that manage our deer have good, good, positive
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 1: working relationships with their constituents, their hunters, and it's a
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 1: two way street. It is one that the agencies need
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: to take seriously and carefully how they engage with and
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 1: include their hunters and and keep them in form and
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 1: listen to them, and it works the other way. Hunters
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 1: need to do the same. So again going back to
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 1: what Nick said that really we you know, we're not
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 1: gonna be able to save c w D unless we
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: get these two groups together. But it goes beyond that.
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 1: So I think that's there's a wish for me that
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: is something that can be a big part of this
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: new organization Nick is going to be leading can focus on. Well,
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 1: I think I feel like this is a good place
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: for us to to wrap things up. We we've heard
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: about what's happening, We've heard about what we're hoping to
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 1: accomplish in the future. We know a little bit more
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: about what we as listeners and hunters can do to
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: try to help drive some of that positive change too. Um,
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 1: thank you guys, thank you for your time, Thanks for
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: sharing this with with with myself in the wire Dunk community,
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna speak for the community a little bit myself,
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: but we're we're all excited and we want to be
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 1: part of this new positive change too. So with with
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 1: all that said, then Nick, the last thing we gotta
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 1: over is what people should do right now when they
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: turn off their phones, when they hop off the treadmill
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: or get out of the truck or whatever it is.
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 1: What actions should they take right now? Should they be
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 1: should we be waiting till there's a new website a
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: new name for the organization become members then? Or should
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: we should we become members of q d um A today?
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: What he want us to do right now? Yeah? I mean, so,
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: I'm glad you brought up membership because if you're already
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 1: a member of q d um A, you're a member
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: of this organization and your membership terms will remain the same.
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: If you're listening to this though, and you're not a member,
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 1: there's there's really no reason to wait. Uh, we'd love
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: for you to sign up right now. Um. Of course
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: we're gonna make some announ announcements here a little bit
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 1: down the road in terms of name and whatnot, but
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: your membership will still will still be good. So I
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 1: think that's one easy thing that you can do, is join. Um,
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 1: if you're not prepared to do that just yet, and
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 1: you maybe you want to wait a little bit longer
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: till the names announced, you want to hear more. That's okay, um,
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: but definitely go to our online reach go go to
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 1: the q d m A website, our social media pages,
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 1: and also in the national gear lines because we still
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 1: are going to be operating in parallel here for a
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 1: while until we can get um the necessary things in
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 1: place to bring us book together. So those will those
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: will be great places for information. And uh yeah, that's
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 1: a that's a good way to to start getting engaged,
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 1: because again, as I said earlier, it's about everybody else,
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: even more so than it is about us. Perfect all right,
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 1: Well to Kip Lindsay Nick, thank you guys. I'm really
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 1: excited to see where all this goes. Thank you for
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: the opportunity. We appreciate it. They're always good talking to you. Mark.
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: Thank you for the opportunity for us to be here.
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 1: This This is a big deal, you know, for us,
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 1: and so we thank you for us, for your help
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 1: and what you did to make this happen, and certainly
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 1: now to be able to get this out there to
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 1: us why an audience is possible for sure, my my pleasure.
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 1: I'm excited for you guys. I'm glad that there's it
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 1: seems like some some positive directions, some positive energy good
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 1: stuff happening, and I'm very really glad to hear that. So, uh,
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 1: you know, you always know how to get a hold
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: of me anything I can do to help. I'm consider
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 1: me a third wing of your operation here to help anyway. Ken,
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 1: That's exactly what we consider you. And thanks for being
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: such a great friend of both groups. Hey, no problems,
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 1: he thank you guys. All right, guys and gals, that
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 1: is today's episode. I hope you enjoyed that one as
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: much as I did. Um. You know, if you want
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: to see what he'th spin up to and justin as
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: we talked about last week, make sure check out that
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 1: White Tail Addictions YouTube channel. Um, there's some cool hunts
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: over there, And if you want to stay up to
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 1: date on what I'm up to, make sure you are
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 1: following my articles over in the Meat Eater dot Com.
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 1: I'm writing weekly columns over there, lots of good stuff.
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 1: Make sure check that out, and then of course follow
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 1: Wired Hunt on Instagram where you're gonna see my stories
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 1: and what's happening in my hunting world and the other
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 1: things that got going on. So appreciate you tune in,
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 1: Appreciate checking it all out. Good luck, out there is
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: your scouting and preparing for hunting season, and until next time,
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 1: stay wired to hold