Trad Gang
Main Boards => Hunting Legislation & Policies => Topic started by: Larry O. Fischer on December 29, 2006, 01:33:00 PM
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This is directly from the Archery Trade Association'WHA Commissioner Addresses
ATA Summit
Six months ago David Farbman and his World Hunting Association ran headlong into a public-relations meat-grinder when he announced plans for a “catch-and-release” hunting tournament in which contestants would dart deer inside a fenced game farm.
Many people in the hunting industry thoroughly trashed Farbman, but rather than dwell on his high-profile mistake, this lifelong hunter stood up, sought out leaders in the hunting community, told them he wanted to learn from the experience, and asked how he could help them promote and defend hunting through his Internet-based efforts on his Web site, www.worldhunt.com. (http://www.worldhunt.com.)
“That’s why we invited David to speak during our 4th Annual ATA Archery and Bowhunting Summit meeting in Detroit earlier this month,” said Jay McAninch, the ATA’s CEO and president. “Even though we didn’t agree with David’s first idea, we’ve since learned that he’s a very bright guy who has incredible expertise in the Internet. He and his people operate on a different level and talk a language that’s spoken by teens and college-age kids. They share our desire to introduce that younger crowd to all kinds of hunting, including bowhunting.”
The World Hunting Association’s Web site is far more than just an online library and reference source, Farbman told the Summit’s 90 attendees. Rather, he described it as an “online social community or network” where 24 hours a day hunters can swap stories, videos and articles, play online games, write critiques of videos and TV shows, and make their pitch to participate in the WHA’s online show.
“This isn’t standard Internet and it isn’t conventional TV,” Farbman said. “The Internet never sleeps, and it tracks what’s happening every second of the day. We had 300,000 unique visitors in October alone and we hope to be over 1 million each month by early in 2007.”
Farbman said he wants to do everything possible to attract young people to hunting. “We’re losing the younger generation because many of them never developed an interest in the outdoors,” he said. “We want to show them that hunting has a coolness factor. If it’s not cool, you won’t sell anything to college-age kids. You have to put things in front of them that appeal to them, and there has never been a better time than now to recruit that age group. There’s more kids in college today than ever before. If you can speak their language and show them what’s cool about hunting, you’ll get them.”
McAninch said Farbman’s message struck a chord with the Summit’s attendees, which included ATA manufacturers and retailers, state and federal wildlife-agency staff, and leaders from conservation organizations like the National Wild Turkey Federation, Safari Club International, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Pope and Young Club, the North American Bowhunting Coalition and the International Bowhunting Organization.
“I guess the take-home lesson is that even though everyone disliked David Farbman’s original idea, the man himself is incredibly talented and can help us in many ways,” McAninch said. “He has a gift for taking things and turning them around with innovations that knock people’s socks off. We found a lot of common ground, and we’re looking forward to working with him further.”
s newsletter
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In other words the ATA smells money. We couldn't get them to say a word before about any of it.
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Heh. I just tried to check out the website to see how much it has changed and my work firewall blocked it as "inappropriate content." I've been getting on tradgang for years, and it doesn't block it...
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So does TBM now support the WHA also Larry?
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IT'S ALL ABOUT THE MONEY, HUNTING ISN'T COOL..
IT'S HUNTING.
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Im not likeing the sound of this at all,so far.
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Don't go reading something into my post that is not there. We at TBM oppose the WHA, and all they stand for. I posted the information from the ATA newsletter as a service for all to see where they are going and who is supporting them. FYI we are not members of ATA, but many archery manufactureers are, so start putting pressure on them.
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Thanks for answering that Larry. I appreciate your straight-forwardness. You may want to check in on some of the other sites where you posted this, questions and rumors grow when threads like these go unattended.
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Boy oh boy . . . the ATA sure is a frustrating organization. So many good people are members, but they constantly make decisions that I disagree with. Thanks Larry for sharing this and I am glad that TBM is not a member. With more and more of these decisions from ATA, I am finding it hard to patronize in good conscious these organizations.
And, by the way, their idea that WHA is what we need to get the kids into the sport is simply stupid. Larry, when you were president of PBS, Ralph wrote a fantastic column in the magazine about developing kids when they are young so they can come back after college. I agree that the distractions of the late teens and early 20's don't fit well with hunting. The trick is to lay the foundation in the youth so that when they are ready to come back after college and sowing some wild oats, etc, they can do so. That's how dad did it with me and I am now as passionate a traditional bowhunter as anyone on this planet.
Farbman SUCKS!!!
Ted Kinney
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Just a question : if you get college age kids into hunting because it's 'cool' what will they do when it's 'not cool'? Pass legislation to turn the forests into developments?
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The ATA needs to send McAninch packing! He's the one that welcomes the x-gun in the archery only season and promised to help them out! I despise this money grubbing person that is willing to sell out ALL of bowhunting for the all mighty dollar! :readit: :banghead:
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this is exactly what brought back home to traditional archery.when i learned to shoot a bow,it was a recurve.didn't shoot a wheelie machine for about 5 years,and then got caught up in the hype.i'm scared to admit this,but at one time during my wheelie stint i thought traditional equipment un ethical,not enough killing power,not accurate enough,too many bad hits.i was hook line and sinker compound.shot the big i.b.o. and a.s.a tournements.then i got envolved with an archery shop shooting for them and got to go to some of the ATA trade shows.that's when it hit me like a ton of bricks.most modern archery manufacturing companies don't give a damn about archery.it's all about the next big selling gizmo,what's the fastest,where can we make the most money.if any of you ever get the chance to attend an ATA show you'll see what i mean.some of the stuff they try to push to the consumer is rediculious.it's 100% about money.needless to say i came back to traditional shooting and will never look back.it seems to me that the simplicity and enjoyment is something the big companies don't really care about any more.and to even give the WHA a chance to speak at there venue just reassures me i made the right decission years ago.