Re: Two New Announcements
Bump.......................
Re: Two New Announcements
Is it just me, or was the BCWF late to the dance?
Re: Two New Announcements
Late to which dance? If you expand I'll try to answer.
Re: Two New Announcements
Hi Rob,
I think the BCWF is doing a fantastic job and it’s always easy to complain from a second line. Thanks first of all for your fantastic work...
There are two strategic topics that however concern me to a certain degree at the moment. In the context of the current anti hunting movements (“trophy hunting”) and the counter-strategy of both the BCWF and BCWSS.
Firstly, there is a lot of activity via social media and e-mail newsletters, which is great. When taking the demographics of hunters and the portion of rural hunters into consideration, I think it’s not a huge surprise that only 8% of BC hunters have signed so far.
Secondly and more importantly, the anti hunting movements are very successfully activating a large opinionless population, instead of only instrumentalizing their inner core, which would be a pendant to our strategy.
Example; let’s say there is a young uninformed person in downtown Vancouver, reading about the violent hunters, of course that person quickly clicks on signing that populist petition, as it is effortless and seemingly the right thing to do. Our organizations are yet not able to produce scalable campaigns like the Antis do, because there is no approach toward larger non-hunting audiences. I think a scalable, non-hunter addressed campaign needs to be created, to cope with these higher numbers the antis achieve.
Re: Two New Announcements
Had BCWF no inkling Bill 4 was in the works?
Re: Two New Announcements
Quote:
Originally Posted by
BowsUp
Had BCWF no inkling Bill 4 was in the works?
BCWF had an inkling that Bill 4 was in the works. In fact, I was able to speak to members of the government team that were working on this "common sense" gun legislation pre-Covid and got a very good idea of what their worldview is. I don't do the firearms work and my conversation with the government employees working on this was a one off, but you won't be surprised to learn that they didn't strike me as well informed policy makers.
BCWF has some well informed volunteers working on this file, but there are only so many hours in the day and there is a lack of volunteers for a lot of this stuff. Those volunteers meet with government, but other people meet with government as well, and on top of that the current NDP government is (and I know I'm going out on a limb here) probably pretty pro-firearm restriction in general.
Government responds to what voters demand. If the BCWF president sends a letter to the Premier it helps, but if that letter is backed up by more letters from regular people then our claim to be a 43,000 member drive grassroots organization carries way more weight.
- Meet with your MLA and your MP. Tell them what you care about. Let me know that you've done that. If it's a Zoom call take a screen shot of the call.
- Send them a letter. If you don't feel comfortable writing your own, use our template and edit it to make it personal. Let me know that you've done that.
- If you're well informed about firearms volunteer your services. We need more help. Like I said in the OP -If you would like to get more involved with the BCWF, join us and attend the AGM..
Re: Two New Announcements
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Rob Chipman
Government responds to what voters demand. If the BCWF president sends a letter to the Premier it helps, but if that letter is backed up by more letters from regular people then our claim to be a 43,000 member drive grassroots organization carries way more weight.
This^^^^^^^^^
When the elected official is made to believe this will be an election issue for them, the'll take notice. If they can simply dismiss it and tow the party line, they will. Inundate them with letters, emails and phone calls voicing your concerns as a member and voter.
Unfortunately, I believe that the majority of members of organizations like BCWF/CCFR do no more than submit their annual membership fees.
Re: Two New Announcements
Quote:
Originally Posted by
dany
Hi Rob,
I think the BCWF is doing a fantastic job and it’s always easy to complain from a second line. Thanks first of all for your fantastic work...
There are two strategic topics that however concern me to a certain degree at the moment. In the context of the current anti hunting movements (“trophy hunting”) and the counter-strategy of both the BCWF and BCWSS.
Firstly, there is a lot of activity via social media and e-mail newsletters, which is great. When taking the demographics of hunters and the portion of rural hunters into consideration, I think it’s not a huge surprise that only 8% of BC hunters have signed so far.
Secondly and more importantly, the anti hunting movements are very successfully activating a large opinionless population, instead of only instrumentalizing their inner core, which would be a pendant to our strategy.
Example; let’s say there is a young uninformed person in downtown Vancouver, reading about the violent hunters, of course that person quickly clicks on signing that populist petition, as it is effortless and seemingly the right thing to do. Our organizations are yet not able to produce scalable campaigns like the Antis do, because there is no approach toward larger non-hunting audiences. I think a scalable, non-hunter addressed campaign needs to be created, to cope with these higher numbers the antis achieve.
Thanks for the kind words.
We understand that BCWF needs to up our game. This isn't lost on anyone, but, in fact, the whole hunting community needs to up it's game. Again, the regular refrain - helps us. Volunteer. We can provide a list of things that need to be done.
That said, I think it's clear to most of us (and has been for a long time) that there is a minority of hunters (say, 10% of the population) and a minority of anti-hunters (again, let's say 10%) and a wide 80% of voters who are ambivalent. Most of us understand that they are the real target and your recommendation that we produce scalable campaigns like anti-hunting organizations do is a no-brainer. What's the obstacle?
Again, the first obstacle is a lack of hands on deck, especially people with professional management experience who understand how to get things done.
Second, is agreement on what the message should be. We're still at the stage, as a community, where we haven't agreed on that message. We know that most non-hunters are generally supportive of hunters who hunt for meat. We also know that most non-hunters don't like the idea of trophy hunting. We just witnessed a stand off (and by no means a nasty one, but still) between Weatherby Fan and KodiakHntr over exactly that issue, and let's be honest - both make good points, meaning the conclusion is: we haven't agreed on the message yet. We have some serious team building work to get completed before we create a scalable message.
There are lots of details to be expanded on that subject. BCWF is trying to address it. We can talk about it on the forum but the real way to make a difference and get traction is to volunteer and put a shoulder to the wheel. (That also means a lot of guys need to let bygones be bygones. Some of our most scvage battles are between ourselves).
Re: Two New Announcements
Great points Rob. Last year I wrote a few different letters to both my MP and MLA about logging old growth forests, dfo's mismanagement of salmon stocks, increasing funding for wildlife mgt, asinine gun control policies etc. And the only replies I received were the "auto reply" saying they received my letters and that's it. I've called both their offices and still have not been able to get a hold of either.
And to add insult to injury they both got re-elected with even bigger margins than last time (Ravi Khalon and Carla Although) and that's part of the problem - some of us live in NDP/Liberal bastions and highly unlikely that the BC Liberal or Conservative candidates will unseat these incumbents. So why the heck would they show any interest in addressing my concerns?
Requesting a meeting over zoom is a very interesting idea. However I don't know how to conduct a zoom meeting as I don't have a webcam; guess I could use the camera on my phone? And that's another problem we have - many hunters aren't technologically savvy enough to know how to even conduct zoom meetings. Maybe the BCWF could dedicate a webpage or send out a letter to members explaining specifically how to conduct zoom meetings with their elected officials?
What do you recommend for situations like mine where my MP and MLA couldn't care less about my concerns about habitat/fish/wildlife mgt etc. and most likely won't lose their seats any time soon?