Wanted. Free Humor to Uplift the Moment

[Boarman03]

Dealing with AZGFD. Need some humor to help me calm down. I came up with this:

Do you know why AZ hunters are so focused on hunting?

After dealing with AZ Game & Fish one feels the need to kill something! 😁
 

 

[Boarman03]

How does AGFD offer a Hunter Safety class that requires a final in person Field Day meeting without having the classes available?

There are a couple in Tucson, one in Yuma, one in Mohave. Go figure.

Oh, and you get 180 days to take a class that doesn't exist locally.

I need to be drawn for a hunt.😁

[Fern]

Lol I can attest to the field day class being a pita to get in. 
I took online course but didn’t complete the last exam until I had a field day scheduled. 
woke up early one day couldn’t sleep at 5 am and happened to check and there was a class at Ben Avery with 25 spots. 
by 9am it was sold out 

I heard they now offer a complete online course but haven’t seen

[idgaf]

You can buy the point now

[wildwoody]

Imagine that.. You'll get thru it, they just make you work for it..

[Azmuledeer]

My arizona hunter safety card is valid in Colorado new mexico and utah not in arizona where i took it 

they can pound sand the point is not that important to me 

[Dano562]

Took me almost the whole 1 year grace period extension AZGFD did to get my daughter into her class right after covid. Classes filled up in minutes when they sent the emails out. 

[Boarman03]

6 hours ago, Dano562 said:

Took me almost the whole 1 year grace period extension AZGFD did to get my daughter into her class right after covid. Classes filled up in minutes when they sent the emails out. 

They say they don't send emails out now and that I have to check.every week.

There is a strictly online course for over $100.00. I really don't know how much more they do for the field day but it took nearly a full day just to get through the online portion and it was packed with most everything. 

I don't understand why that one can't have one additional section online to cover the field day.

I thought they wanted to encourage hunter Safety, not discourage it!

[Bocephus]

What gets me is that I have reached out to AZGFD multiple, multiple times trying to see what I need to do to become a volunteer field day instructor because so many people need it. I've called and every time I'm transferred to a phone that just rings until it goes to voicemail. I've also left voicemails with no response. I emailed them and  finally got an automated response that says, "Due to changes in Department Volunteer administration we are not currently conducting new volunteer trainings. However, if this is something you are interested in, please reply back with your name, address, and phone number." Seems like they'd jump to get new volunteers in the system, especially for field days. You pay for the online course, then you can't get scheduled for the field day. Then your online course "expires" after a year if you haven't done the field day, making you have to pay again to take the online course again... Makes no sense to me.

[bigorange]

Thanks for sharing that…I was just about to ask how many folks had actually volunteered to be instructors. That sums that up…no matter how many volunteer it’s broken. 

[matt]

6 hours ago, Bocephus said:

What gets me is that I have reached out to AZGFD multiple, multiple times trying to see what I need to do to become a volunteer field day instructor because so many people need it. I've called and every time I'm transferred to a phone that just rings until it goes to voicemail. I've also left voicemails with no response. I emailed them and  finally got an automated response that says, "Due to changes in Department Volunteer administration we are not currently conducting new volunteer trainings. However, if this is something you are interested in, please reply back with your name, address, and phone number." Seems like they'd jump to get new volunteers in the system, especially for field days. You pay for the online course, then you can't get scheduled for the field day. Then your online course "expires" after a year if you haven't done the field day, making you have to pay again to take the online course again... Makes no sense to me.

Are you on Facebook at all? I know an instructor on there. I could put you in touch if that helps?

[Bocephus]

1 hour ago, matt said:

Are you on Facebook at all? I know an instructor on there. I could put you in touch if that helps?

Yes, I'll PM you thanks!

[IA Born]

The HE program is frustrating as he!! right now.  We just hosted a 30-seat in-person class in Flagstaff and it was going to be my last class as an instructor until a couple of fellow instructors/friends talked me out of quitting.  We've lost over 70% of the instructors state-wide over the last year (since Dec 2021, actually) for various reasons and we're looking at losing more.  The New Instructor Training is on hold while AGFD "revamps" the NIT program, but we're not being told when it will be operational.  Its the only volunteer training program currently within AGFD that is not operational and creating new volunteers.  We lost over half of our instructor team in Flagstaff because of the various BS that was going on.  I absolutely get and support the frustration many of you are having at not having the online field days being offered, but we're simply short-handed across the state with no end in sight.  One of the reasons I was ready to quit, though, was the general attitude of some of the parents I had to deal with.  I had one dad call me out of the blue and start yelling/bullying me into getting his son (on the wait list) into the class, even though I have no control over an automated system and is wife missed the email invite that was sent.  He started berating me that he's been trying to call and email me about his son.  He got real quiet real fast when I fired right back that I have no records of incoming calls or emails from him, but that I'd been talking to his wife.  He actually tried to strong arm me over the phone while I was driving my son home from school.  I had a few of those instances while trying to set this particular class up.  Berating and bullying volunteers who have no control over the automated system and are short-handed is never a good approach, no matter how frustrated one is.  To be fair, though, I did explain to several parents who wanted their kids to take the field day that we simply didn't have the capacity to take on additional students due to the limited number of instructors available and needing to stick to the AGFD HE Policy of Instructors : Students ratio.  If I let one kid in, I'd have to let everyone who asked in and we just didn't have enough instructors for that many students. 

For those of you looking and willing to travel, we will be offering several online field days for online students this spring through fall up here in Flagstaff. 

My suspicion is that, eventually, everything will move to an online-only class (no field day) to match what TX and CA are currently offering, which are reciprocal across all states nationwide under IHEA standards.  I hope I'm wrong.  

[Boarman03]

9 hours ago, IA Born said:

The HE program is frustrating as he!! right now.  We just hosted a 30-seat in-person class in Flagstaff and it was going to be my last class as an instructor until a couple of fellow instructors/friends talked me out of quitting.  We've lost over 70% of the instructors state-wide over the last year (since Dec 2021, actually) for various reasons and we're looking at losing more.  The New Instructor Training is on hold while AGFD "revamps" the NIT program, but we're not being told when it will be operational.  Its the only volunteer training program currently within AGFD that is not operational and creating new volunteers.  We lost over half of our instructor team in Flagstaff because of the various BS that was going on.  I absolutely get and support the frustration many of you are having at not having the online field days being offered, but we're simply short-handed across the state with no end in sight.  One of the reasons I was ready to quit, though, was the general attitude of some of the parents I had to deal with.  I had one dad call me out of the blue and start yelling/bullying me into getting his son (on the wait list) into the class, even though I have no control over an automated system and is wife missed the email invite that was sent.  He started berating me that he's been trying to call and email me about his son.  He got real quiet real fast when I fired right back that I have no records of incoming calls or emails from him, but that I'd been talking to his wife.  He actually tried to strong arm me over the phone while I was driving my son home from school.  I had a few of those instances while trying to set this particular class up.  Berating and bullying volunteers who have no control over the automated system and are short-handed is never a good approach, no matter how frustrated one is.  To be fair, though, I did explain to several parents who wanted their kids to take the field day that we simply didn't have the capacity to take on additional students due to the limited number of instructors available and needing to stick to the AGFD HE Policy of Instructors : Students ratio.  If I let one kid in, I'd have to let everyone who asked in and we just didn't have enough instructors for that many students. 

For those of you looking and willing to travel, we will be offering several online field days for online students this spring through fall up here in Flagstaff. 

My suspicion is that, eventually, everything will move to an online-only class (no field day) to match what TX and CA are currently offering, which are reciprocal across all states nationwide under IHEA standards.  I hope I'm wrong.  

Thank you for your response. When a program has failings the problem is always at the top. Upper administrators erroneously believe they know best when it's normally the boots on the ground guys that know where the problems are and how to fix them.

Too much arrogance and foolish pride by administrators cause so much grief!

Thank you to/for those that are trying and let's keep up the pressure on the admin until they listen and get it right! 😆 

[IA Born]

6 hours ago, Boarman03 said:

Thank you for your response. When a program has failings the problem is always at the top. Upper administrators erroneously believe they know best when it's normally the boots on the ground guys that know where the problems are and how to fix them.

Too much arrogance and foolish pride by administrators cause so much grief!

Thank you to/for those that are trying and let's keep up the pressure on the admin until they listen and get it right! 😆 

I appreciate that greatly.  My best, honest advice is to start calling/emailing the commission with your displeasure.