I just wonderd how many on here were members of the NWTF. And if not why? In the past I've noticed some hate on here towards the NWTF. How come?
I joined when I first started turkey hunting years ago; same thing with the USGA when I started golfing. Have let both memberships lapse, tho.
I'll post up. Yes I'm a member, and no I don't agree with all they do but the truth is they have done a lot of good, but they have forgotten their roots imho.
Nope! Short version of why not. Them taking credit for something they had little involvement in. Plus taking advantage of good, hard working, dedicated volunteers.
No. Not really any reason.
I should have mentioned I am a member the chapter in my area does a good amount of work on the public lands around here
Although I think the NWTF has done a lot of good for wild turkeys and wild turkey hunters, the organization of late has dropped into survival mode due to the economy. They have recently been making poor decisions based on dollars rather than good sense, and that has alienated a lot of good volunteers that have been staunch supporters in the past. I am one of those. Until they show me that they value their volunteers more than the dollar bill, they will have a hard time regaining my respect.
Here in New Mexico, we had a situation where they had to make a choice between "money" or "ethics" related to the leadership here,...and they chose "money". Hence, much of our state leadership,...some of which had been the backbone of the state organization for decades,...said "adios".
Yes
Yepper, I'm a member, they've done a lot for the bird population here in PA, so therefore they get my dues every year.
YES
Yes.
I have never heard a valid discussion that shows the NWTF does more harm than good for the wild turkey population....
Pretty simple though, without Missouri, states like Pennsylvania, and the NWTF, the wild turkey population would not be what it is today...
$35 per year - $25 gift card to Bass Pro = no brainer for me....
mudhen
Quote from: Gooserbat on March 04, 2014, 04:45:55 PM
I'll post up. Yes I'm a member, and no I don't agree with all they do but the truth is they have done a lot of good, but they have forgotten their roots imho.
^^This^^
Unfortunately, yes. I coughed up $300 for a life membership in the 70s. I soon lost interest as (1) I realized that there was little they could do for the non-migratory Wild Turkey; (2) I saw them taking credit for the work of the state game agencies (God bless them). A guy on the recent Turkey Thugs NWTF praising video was bragging about the NWTF trapping and transporting Wild Turkeys in Mississippi in the 50s when the NWTF was not created until 1973. The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks did a marvelous job of trapping and transporting turkeys in the 50s. We have far fewer turkeys today than we did in 1973.
I don't give the NWTF credit for what we have today, nor do I blame them for the decline either. I do blame them for the fact that I have to have a reservation to be able to sit to a turkey because of the huge increase in the number of turkey hunters. As far as habitat goes, I blame the clear cutting practices of the timber industry and CRP which caused many a bugging area to be converted to pine trees at taxpayer expense.
For the most part, I have forgotten about the NWTF and it seems that they have forgotten about me, too, since I haven't received their girley magazine for quite a while.
yes
Nope.
Quote from: silvestris on March 04, 2014, 06:06:45 PM
. We have far fewer turkeys today than we did in 1973.
Really I didn't think any state had less than they did back then
Mississippi probably does have less turkeys today.
I'm an NWTF Silver Life member....it was given to me by the NWTF.
As far as restocking turkeys the NWTF has never restocked any turkeys in any state....it was all done by the state game and fish commissions.
The NWTF was just along for the ride.
Yes but only active at the convention. Not interested in local chapters.
yes
Quote from: L.F. Cox on March 04, 2014, 07:01:11 PM
As far as restocking turkeys the NWTF has never restocked any turkeys in any state....it was all done by the state game and fish commissions.
The boxes looked good for the photo shoots though.
I have been a member for 22 years I am also a sponsor member, Three Rivers Longbeards President and JAKES Coodinator. Both my kids are members into 2040 something from signing them up at all the events we attend. My wife is a WITO member as well. If you turkey hunt any at all you should be a member. Also be involved in your local chapters as well.
About 1993 I joined the NWTF because I loved turkey hunting and wanted to give something to help. I went to some meetings and it was always the same people running everything all the time, new members would come, make a few meetings, and quit coming because they saw what was going on. I hung in for awhile and the Youth hunt was scheduled, this was before season even opened. It was scheduled for the last day of the season, On PUBLIC land! That kind of showed me what the NWTF was all about, I can guarantee you the children of the higher ups in the NWTF didn't have to wait until the last weekend or hunt public land. I still hung in there I don't know why. I loaded up my 12 year old daughter as she was my hunting bud, she had patterned a 12 gauge 870 with 2 3/4 #6's and earned the right to be my turkey partner. We went to the scheduled last day hunt, I had not killed my first bird as of yet. Parents were going up to the NWTF local chapter officials !! Begging them to take their kids and help them get a turkey. Eventually I got into a discussion with the head guy and it came up that I had tried calling some birds, he grunted and told me that I was educating the birds, didn't make any attempt to tell me what I was doing wrong just acted like the turkey god. I packed up my daughter and we went back home. I eventually got my first bird, was told it was 5 to 6 years old. My partner was with me. We had a good time. Since then I have not had anything to do with the NWTF, I am glad that many states are making a youth season for deer and turkey hunting, it gives the youth a real chance to get a deer or a turkey. Not to just try to take leary leftover birds.
Here's what the late Parker Whedon had to say after attending an NWTF convention.....best I can recollect it was something to the effect that it would be real hard to find a real turkey hunter in place.
Yes, been a member for many years and will continue to be as long as some good comes out of the organization for the wild turkey.
Yes I am a member. Remember that any organization that is a lobbyist for the good of the hunter and strives to acquire and create habitat for wild game species can't be all that bad. As with all of the other big name conservation organizations, there is always going to be some politics involved. I just think the good that they do overshadows the bad that exists.
was for several years,finally wised up and quit them
from what I've seen they do nothing in Mississippi and they are alot more worried about money than turkeys
:popcorn: I'm guessing this one might go 4 or 5 pages
Quote from: Shoregobbler on March 04, 2014, 08:16:53 PM
Yes I am a member. Remember that any organization that is a lobbyist for the good of the hunter and strives to acquire and create habitat for wild game species can't be all that bad. As with all of the other big name conservation organizations, there is always going to be some politics involved. I just think the good that they do overshadows the bad that exists.
x2 I agree there may be some bad but I'd definatley say there's more good
Quote from: mudhen on March 04, 2014, 05:59:55 PM
$35 per year - $25 gift card to Bass Pro = no brainer for me....
mudhen
I've been thinking about joining for this reason and I'd think the magazines would help a new hunter like myself.
I'm a member but just got their latest magazine and in it you'll see a classic non-profit mistake. Building a new taj mahal. Read the spin. Somehow it will save the habitat and save the hunt. I'm sorry...are you kidding me? A new building? So that will be my last dues check. Building an expensive edifice and then insulting my intelligence with the spin. Classic. Projects like that have a way of being an organization's undoing. Seen it many times
Not anymore. Never again. Keeping my reasons to myself.
Nope!
I've been a member since I was 12 years old, now 29. I wasn't really involved until I was 18 and since then have done more and more through our chapter. As with most groups like this, of course it is money driven but you want to see some productivity. I'll be right there with some of you that in my area I have seen nothing done as far as helping improve habitat. MN has now gone to youth being able to hunt the entire season through our DNR. However the NWTF has year after year had a "drawing" to help introduce kids to turkey hunting. They have reached out to Chapters to take kids hunting. Now don't get me wrong I have been taking someone new every year since I was 18. I went through years where they rejected kids tags through the NWTF when they could still just buy a tag through our DNR. All of this was done to allow a certain number of kids to receive a few treats from the NWTF. To this day after going a few years of that fiasco I have gone back to getting a group of guys to just introduce kids on our own whenever they want over am entire season and not have to jump through their hoops. I hope some year soon things take a turn and isn't so driven to appease the uppers with money.
I was a member years back but let my membership lapse. Just to be fair I also let my Trout Unlimited membership lapse. IMO both of these organizations are overated.
Quote from: srmturk on March 04, 2014, 09:31:06 PM
I'm a member but just got their latest magazine and in it you'll see a classic non-profit mistake. Building a new taj mahal. Read the spin. Somehow it will save the habitat and save the hunt. I'm sorry...are you kidding me? A new building? So that will be my last dues check. Building an expensive edifice and then insulting my intelligence with the spin. Classic. Projects like that have a way of being an organization's undoing. Seen it many times
I agree I don't see the need for the the new building but as you said it comes with the territory. But for that matter have you ever seen the NRA building? It's a regular sky scraper and ain't none of us complainin about that it's just the way it is. But I believe we as hunters should stick up for these organizations that stick up for us
Quote from: Ruger M77 on March 04, 2014, 09:06:50 PM
Quote from: Shoregobbler on March 04, 2014, 08:16:53 PM
Yes I am a member. Remember that any organization that is a lobbyist for the good of the hunter and strives to acquire and create habitat for wild game species can't be all that bad. As with all of the other big name conservation organizations, there is always going to be some politics involved. I just think the good that they do overshadows the bad that exists.
x2 I agree there may be some bad but I'd definatley say there's more good
X3. I am also involved with our local chapter. We will host a Jakes Day for our youth and take some youth turkey hunting on private land one week before the regular season starts. I can understand why some have been turned off by NWTF, but I want to be a part of giving back to a sport that gives me so much pleasure. :)
Yes. We have a good chapter here that is involved in the community. Can't speak for other chapters, but the one I'm part of is a good group of folks.
YES I am a member and I will be until the day the Good Lord takes me home; why? I am envolved in anything that promotes hunting and especially hunting Turkeys; is the NWTF perfect? in no way but neither am I; is the NRA perfect? no, but they get my vote AND money as well; the Good points of the NWTF far out weighs the Bad ones; does it need improvements? YES SIR but the only way it will improve is to be a part of it;
I am PROUD to be a member of the NWTF and am very thankful for what they have done and are doing for what I truly love, The Wild Turkey and Turkey Hunting.
Yes, I am. Been a regular attendee since 1994 of local banquets, am a charter member of my local chapter created in 2001, and am an immediate past president of the local.
Our NWTF has a new mission, and has a great purpose behind it. At our level, we are hell bent on educating our youth on the awesome resources we had known and had for years. We are in the schools teaching, at local fairs and schools introducing kids to shooting and archery activities, and promoting all sorts of things that most sub-urbanites may have never had access to.
As for the new Hunting Heritage Center being built in Edgefield, most, if not all of the funding is coming from private donations, versus dipping in to membership dollars, etc... That is because a lot of these corporations see that the NWTF's mission is one that is achievable and real. They want to be a part of the NWTF's next success story.
Quote from: rempumpman on March 04, 2014, 11:06:12 PM
YES I am a member and I will be until the day the Good Lord takes me home; why? I am envolved in anything that promotes hunting and especially hunting Turkeys; is the NWTF perfect? in no way but neither am I; is the NRA perfect? no, but they get my vote AND money as well; the Good points of the NWTF far out weighs the Bad ones; does it need improvements? YES SIR but the only way it will improve is to be a part of it;
I am PROUD to be a member of the NWTF and am very thankful for what they have done and are doing for what I truly love, The Wild Turkey and Turkey Hunting.
What he said^^^^^
I was for a long time, a long time ago. Also, the Mule Deer Foundation, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and a lot of the others, but sooner or later they pull some bone headed move that pisses me off so I dump them. But only for a while. I usually come back around because I get invited to a banquet and the cycle starts all over again...
Well this is a good topic....Currently im 31 years old and co president of our small chapter (really just the two of us, people come and go as they please) with a good friend of mine about my fathers age. I participate as much as possible but it always seems like the NWTF takes takes takes. Im located in the heart of the chicago suburbs where turkey hunting is not the latest and greatest topic. Our whole mission (Just speaking for my friend and I) is to give children a chance in our area to experience the outdoors. They will never have a chance with their parents, so we want to try to at least give them the opportunity and the decision is really up to them if they like it or not. I attend the convention and spend anywhere from 2K to 3K for "donations" every year for the last 3 years. I'm a huge collector of turkey calls, so thats where they get most of my money. Whether it be at their auctions or my own NWTF banquet. We asked for $300 dollars last year to put on our own archery clinic for children and were denied. So where did the 6K profit from our banquet and all our hard work go? I hear about the big projects and I guess I just have to assume because I never see the benifit personally, whick is ok, as long as it is going to the cause. I will still support but sometimes ask myself why. Everything I do with the NWTF cost me pocket money. I can only hope that we are doing good for the children and environment. Why did you have the bring this topic up!!!!
Quote from: VaGobbler on March 04, 2014, 11:20:47 PM
Yes, I am. Been a regular attendee since 1994 of local banquets, am a charter member of my local chapter created in 2001, and am an immediate past president of the local.
Our NWTF has a new mission, and has a great purpose behind it. At our level, we are hell bent on educating our youth on the awesome resources we had known and had for years. We are in the schools teaching, at local fairs and schools introducing kids to shooting and archery activities, and promoting all sorts of things that most sub-urbanites may have never had access to.
As for the new Hunting Heritage Center being built in Edgefield, most, if not all of the funding is coming from private donations, versus dipping in to membership dollars, etc... That is because a lot of these corporations see that the NWTF's mission is one that is achievable and real. They want to be a part of the NWTF's next success story.
Keep drinking the koolaid.
The path of the NWTF as we know it is far from a "success story."
:popcorn:
No
I was for many years but after witnessing things on the banquet committee, my view of them has changed. Yes they have done great things but like someone else said, they've forgot what their path was or where it is.
:TrainWreck1: :TrainWreck1: :TrainWreck1: :TrainWreck1: :TrainWreck1: :TrainWreck1: :TrainWreck1: :TrainWreck1:
Quote from: Ruger M77 on March 04, 2014, 10:02:54 PM
Quote from: srmturk on March 04, 2014, 09:31:06 PM
I'm a member but just got their latest magazine and in it you'll see a classic non-profit mistake. Building a new taj mahal. Read the spin. Somehow it will save the habitat and save the hunt. I'm sorry...are you kidding me? A new building? So that will be my last dues check. Building an expensive edifice and then insulting my intelligence with the spin. Classic. Projects like that have a way of being an organization's undoing. Seen it many times
I agree I don't see the need for the the new building but as you said it comes with the territory. But for that matter have you ever seen the NRA building? It's a regular sky scraper and ain't none of us complainin about that it's just the way it is. But I believe we as hunters should stick up for these organizations that stick up for us
There is a real big difference in the NRA and the NWTF.....
Without the NRA we would have already lost our gun rights.....the NRA protects our rights as US Citizens.
The NWTF wouldn't be missed if it dissolved tomorrow.
To the good.....the NWTF vacuums very large sums of money out of the states and in return puts on a few jakes events to prepare the next generation for the cleansing.
I am not a member for a variety of reasons. I don't care for their web site and their message board is poorly managed. The market is ripe for a competing organization.
We sure don't need two blood sucking organizations.
Quote from: L.F. Cox on March 04, 2014, 07:38:40 PM
Here's what the late Parker Whedon had to say after attending an NWTF convention.....best I can recollect it was something to the effect that it would be real hard to find a real turkey hunter in place.
Strange comment I've never been to a convention but I know a guy who goes every year He also kills more turkeys than anybody I know every spring in several states on public land
Knowing Parker I didn't take it to imply there were none there....just that given the size of the crowd one would be hard to pick out.
Quote from: L.F. Cox on March 05, 2014, 09:18:13 AM
Knowing Parker I didn't take it to imply there were none there....just that given the size of the crowd one would be hard to pick out.
Ok gotcha :icon_thumright: Im not saying its all good I just seen what the local chapter was doing around here so I joined. I would like to get involved in the things they do on the public lands that I hunt on.
yes
I am not. Reason being, I don't see them standing up for the turkey population in my area of Tennessee. We have a 4 bird limit across the state and liberal fall seasons. Some places can handle this, a lot of areas cannot handle this and our populations have went way down hill. No NWTF chapter in my area has taken any kind of stance to get changes to happen. If I saw them trying to change things, I would join.
Was now Not......why? My personal reasons. What do I think about the NWTF? Well, like most I think they are headed down a path that will lead them into a pot hole of trouble. So many reports of Chapters closing their doors, why? non-support ..... this is what I am hearing from talking to many chapter members....can I back up what I am saying, sure can, as far as the NWTF having a big hand in repopulating birds here in Missouri...LOL...is all I can say. As far as the Nationals, when I went last time and they has a PSYCHIC BOOTH setup, I figured it would be my last. Again, my personal reasoning behind my opinions are mine.
Yes, but I'm not really involved. I get a Bass Pro gift card and a subscription to the only turkey magazine still in print. ;D
I've been a member for 30+ years.
Thanks,
Clark
Off and on. The local board is made-up of the same husband/wife group for about 20 years. No new folks getting involved. The banquet used to draw 350, now about 200. Most small business' can't support as they did years back.
I don't know the answer, some of it may be that landowners are now closing-up their places to local turkey hunters and leasing it to rich people that want a place to race their 4 wheelers on the weekends. Times are achangin', I'm afear'd.
Quote from: L.F. Cox on March 04, 2014, 07:01:11 PM
As far as restocking turkeys the NWTF has never restocked any turkeys in any state....it was all done by the state game and fish commissions.
The NWTF was just along for the ride.
I think without the NWTF pushing and lobbying it would have been much less a national effort and solely state by state with little interaction or restocking done.
That much money had to be good for something besides Rob Keck's hunting trips.
Used to be but seen nothing that made me want to continue to be....
Yes, I have been a member for going on 20 years.
I think they do quite a bit of good here in PA.
Yes I'm a member ! :icon_thumright:
vaturkey :newmascot:
Yep. I'm also on the local committee here in Omaha.
yes
yes, have been for a couple years now.
I went to one local NWTF event, gathering..or whatever it was many yrs. ago with a friend who was a member. That was enough for me.
Due mostly to some great people with a local chapter and the effort they put into JAKES events, I remain a NWTF member after 27 years. I volunteer my time each year to help out at these events and if my membership helps them out at all, then it's worth it. These kids have a great day, all for fun and all for free.
no but I should be
This is my first year as a member, only because a very good friend invited me to attend the local banquet.
The NWTF is so full of krap its coming out there ears..... no I don't belong.