Anybody see this?

[mbiewer]

the first rule of hunt club, is dont talk about hunt club

[wildwoody]

there gonna doit, its all about the benjamins

[Swivelhead]

This is an important issue, I strongly recommend all of you contact the commissioners with your take on this proposal. I will attend the meeting tonight. I'd like to learn more before I contact the commissioners with my opinion on the matter.

 

This is likely the start of a dedicated hunter type program. Utah has such a program. As I recall Utah also has tons of auction tags. It would seem somebody wants the Utah model here in AZ. The SFW auction tag concept was soundly defeated here in AZ. Time to roll up the sleeves and defeat this proposed elitist hunter program in our state. Unfortunately, money talks. The commission and G&F will always listen to any proposal that brings $$$$$ to the table.

[elkaholic]

http://www.azgfd.gov/inside_azgfd/docum ... -32014.pdf

go to page 7 look at the propose for future

exclusive sales or special offers tied in with guides/retail partners- LEGAL AND LEGISLATIVE PROCESS PENDING

its all a ploy to get what we defeated when we stopped the hp2072 and azsfw - its here agin to accomplish the same thing in a roundabout way its the same thing to give special treatment to those who can pay for it

they stick in a sentence that they think will not be seen - what new laws are they going come up with so this "Hunting Club" can provide those services !

if this club is successful we'll see the same results had 2072 passed!!

 

we better wake up as it here agin!!!

[elkaholic]

this was on a different site i copied for your thoughts and opinions

 

http://azgfd.net/artman/publish/NewsMedia/What-would-you-think-of-a-new-online-club-for-hunters.shtml

Here are the Commission Meeting notes from May where this insanity is further described, the minutes from April 11th also provides some details (page 14).

http://www.azgfd.gov/inside_azgfd/documents/CommissionMeetingMinutesMay2-32014.pdf

http://www.azgfd.gov/inside_azgfd/documents/20140411-12CommMtgMinutes.pdf

Well, the people that tried to bring Arizona hundreds of auction tags, worthless expos and premium pricing at the species level are at it again. Despite the clear direction from the public that premium pricing and diverting tags from the public draw is generally despised by most Arizona hunters. This crafty group is proposing a club you can sign up for through the new Arizona Game and Fish portal that is being built. This club would have different levels, each level providing increasingly more benefits for those willing to pay higher club fees. The portal would track your club membership and store it with your “profile” information. I assume the website will serve up services commensurate with your profile, sort of a gatekeeper if you will. Unlike some clubs where you get a hat and a patch, the benefits of this club would provide options to club members unavailable to the unwashed masses of non-club but licensed Arizona hunters. Benefits like turning a tag back in and getting your bonus points back.

Surprisingly absent in the description was anything proposed to prevent someone from using their points to bonus up a group application and then surrendering their tag (while everyone else on the application hunts) and doing it again the next year and the next year. I guess if you are a platinum CLUB member the concerns and hunt opportunity of non-club members are of little concern. Screw em.

I can see a whole lot of bad coming out profile based services like what they are currently proposing. In an era where hunter recruitment is difficult, costs for gas and other items are increasing, tags and application fees are up. We now have a plan to add another layer of costs being proposed in order to ensure that hunters have a shot at the whole pie THEY ALREADY OWN. This idea manages to conflict with the North American Wildlife Model and chips away at our future hunter base at the same time, BRILLIANT! You cant make this stuff up.

Here are some other questions I have…

-How will the development of this new HOV lane for rich people be funded? Will any portion of the newly increased application fees go toward funding this garbage? It would be kind of sad if Average Joes are forced to tie their own noose.

-Will non club members be required to use the portal for necessary things like applying for the hunt draw, if so can they opt out of third parties obtaining their profile information? Will profile information be available for sale?

-What kind of business entity will this club be? Is it going to be another 501c3 living off the public dole by pilfering “incentive” tags from regular decent draw hunters? If so, we already have enough of those.

-Is there a proposal in place to earn a higher club membership by doing things like helping out with a wildlife banquet? (Utah actually does this so it isn’t a stupid question, they call their club the dedicated hunter program and it is a train wreck). If so, this would be like Average Joes being forced to tie their own noose and flipping the hangman some freebie tags for the privilege. Insult to injury I think they call it.

-Will this portal be developed independently for Arizona or will it be developed by a third party company that will develop it on top of existing code (that would inherit the bad design constraints and policies from some other state…..like maybe Utah).

-One of the benefits proposed was “early draw results”. How will this be accomplished? I always felt like I was entitled to the earliest results AZGFD could provide. Part of my 13 bucks. Would additional time be added to non-club members in order to make club members feel special. If so, big thumbs down on that idea.

-Was the lack of any controls for someone bonusing up a group app and then surrendering their tags and getting their points back an oversight or by design? We already have an issue with people bonusing up other people on group applications, this would only seem to exacerbate the problem.

-Is there a specific financial need for a portal that nickel and dimes hunters? Just because there is technology to do it doesn’t mean it is a good idea. I was looking at meeting agendas for the last few months there seems to be a lot of budget money being transferred and pleas for grant requests. I didn't see many signs of financial desperation.

-Why wasn’t this club membership idea killed earlier? Where is the common sense? Don’t we have people that are supposed to be advocating for public hunters….what the heck? How did this big stinky turd get past them?

I could go on and on. If you think this is as bad an idea as I do you need to attend the public meetings about this. The meeting times and dates are in the first link above. The first meeting will be at the Game and Fish offices off of Carefree Highway tomorrow night (Thursday, June 26th) from 7-9 PM.

With the fairly new legislation conveying more power to the Commission a portal like this could fast track some really bad stuff for Average Joes if we have the wrong mix of Commissioners in the future. This is one of those cases where Average Joes need to roll off the couch and show-up to the meeting, the entitled antler crowd will certainly be there and they are squeaky wheels. Numbers matter and this is every bit the risk that expo auction tags and the premium pricing proposal was. The Arizona Game and Fish portal has no business providing an infrastructure that divides hunters and provides exclusive access to hunt opportunities that should be available to anyone willing to pay the time and monetary cost to acquire the tag.

[creed]

Did this come up at the commission meeting this weekend? I couldn't attend or watch online due to family issues but was wondering if the Customer Portal Project is the same thing or something different. It was on the agenda for discussion.

 

Not sure how I feel about this.