Northshore Chapter Trout Unlimited Board Meeting Report for April 13th,
1999
BAN discussion and vote:
The main topic of interest at the April 13th Northshore Board
Meeting was the Ban All Nets (BAN) Initiative. As many of you
may have noticed your TU State Council recently distributed a
letter outlining their feelings on the BAN initiative and this
provided for some lively discussion. It is evident that the
Northshore Chapter membership feels that this is an extremely
important issue and not one that TU should just ignore.
Initial discussion focused on the letter. The consensus
opinion was that it provided very few compelling reasons for
TU to oppose BAN. It was even suggested by several attendees
that the reasons were so weak that there must be some other
hidden agenda. At this point several people suggested that the
Chapter draft a letter requesting that the State Council
remain silent on the issue as TUšs official public stance.
Subsequent discussion revealed that even this position was not
acceptable to the majority of the board members and a motion
was made to direct the TU State Council to issue a public
statement of support for the BAN initiative. While recognizing
that such a stance may lead to a change in the public
perception of TU as an organization there was a far greater
concern that not coming out in favor of this Initiative may
lead to a the loss of an opportunity to spare fish stocks from
unselective over-harvest and more importantly may doom TU as
an organization in Washington State through a drastic decrease
in membership. Several long-time TU members present at the
meeting stated that they almost ripped-up their membership
cards after reading the State position, and that they still
might. While the State Council may feel that there are
compelling reasons for not supporting this initiative this
view doers not appear to be shared by the vast majority of the
membership at large. A voice vote to require the State Council
to support BAN passed unanimously with a single abstention. As
a result of this we urge all TU members to attend the May 1st
State TU Council meeting in Vancouver WA and pro or con, let
your voices be heard! This is your opportunity to let the TU
State Council know that this is a very import issue to you -
their constituency. The meeting will be held at the Roadway
Inn in Vancouver. [Hotel phone: (360) 256 7044] Cascade Park
221 NE Chalov Drive Vancouver WA 98684 (I-5 South to 205,
exit on Mill Plain Boulevard (first exit north), Chalov Drive.
Meetings usually start at 8 am.
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I'd rather be lucky than good!