QDMA Middle Tennessee

[duckriver]

Is there still a mid Tenn group that meets?

 

[8 POINTS OR BETTER]

I've been wondering the same thing. I haven't seen Pursuit Hunter on here in a while.

 

[duckriver]

I used to get emails saying when they were going to have them and haven't in a while. I would like to join

 

[8 POINTS OR BETTER]

Here is a link to join QDMA's National site. If you get the Bass Pro gift card and use it, its a heck of a deal.

http://www.qdma.com/corporate/welcome-b ... AA&om_mid=

 

[duckriver]

Thanks bud. will do that now

 

[Bayou Buck]

I've been wondering the same thing. I haven't seen Pursuit Hunter on here in a while.

I haven't heard anything in a while either. I did see one of his real estate signs the other day in Franklin. Maybe I should call that number

 

[duckriver]

Almost 150 people have looked. But nobody knows. Wonder if it doesn't happen anymore

 

[Bucket]

My understanding is the QDMA had issue with the middle TN branch not hosting a fundraiser banquet and was going to revoke their branch charter. Unfortunate because I really enjoyed the meetings I was able to attend.

 

[Pic IN the Casa]

I remember PH talking about having a fundraiser and asking for interest to volunteer and donate merchandise at one of the last meetings.

 

[treefarmer]

I contacted our QDMA rep. Justin and he said:

"They have not disbanded yet, but have not had any events... We need some new committee members to help get things going again. If you or anyone else might be interested in helping I can talk to you more in detail about it. Feel free to give me a call anytime.


My cell number is 901-233-4021."

 

[duckriver]

Any of y'all ever been on this committee?

 

[jmb4wd]

My understanding is the QDMA had i ssue with the middle . TN Ifnch not hosting a fundraiser banquet and was going to revoke their branch charter. Unfortunate because I really enjoyed the meetings I was able to attend.

While I was not an officer of the branch, I attended most every meeting of the branch from the very early planning stages.

I too was surprised that the meets just kind of stopped. I felt as if PH did an excellent job at setting up meetings and having excellent speakers and topics.

I remember talk briefly about the fundraising banquet that was to come along. I would have guessed that we averaged at least 25 members a meeting and most meeting had members from Kentucky and West TN in attendance.

If QDMA had a issue with us not having a fundraiser, I'm sure we could appeased them.
Without them revoking the charter.

I must say that I'm pretty dissatisfied with their decision if it all boils down to the almighty dollar.

 

[Stick'n'String]

We started the original mid tn branch back around 2007 and met the same fate. Had great meetings and interest but national office wanted us to commit to raising xx amount of money which meant we had to buy a product package from them for the raffle and auctions. We just didn't have the volunteers willing to step up to organize the banquet and we had to disband. I was glad to see it picked back up but wasn't able to participate now with a house full of kids.

I'd love to see just an educational group stay up and running. Lord knows I don't need to spend anymore money on fundraising that I could be spending on food plot seed or tractor equipment. LOL

 

[BULL MOOSE]

Seriously? It should have been made clear that forming a charter including an annual fundraiser that reached out to find new members and others that would like to donate money to support wildlife research and healthy deer.

How do you think that the organzation can place bodies in the field to support you? It is not $25 memberships. JMO and a fact.

 

[Stick'n'String]

It was made clear and in our case we tried to generate enough interest to get volunteers to help organize. End of the day I wasn't willing to take on debt for product to sell at an event I was going to have to organize and run without enough manpower to effectively execute.

My situation was different back then, no kids and flexible work schedule, so I can't fault anyone. When we asked for help organizing most that attended our ed events weren't able to due to family, work or other reasons and I wasn't willing to try to do it solo.

End of the day I was mainly interested in the educational events and money raising wasn't why we wanted the chapter. We hoped to spread the story of the benefits of qdm and we're successful without needing to ask for donations. Unfortunately that didn't meet the expectations of the national organization so we folded.

 

[duckriver]

Is there another organization that focuses on basically the same things like qdma that may not require a mandated fund raising event? Just get together and promote growing deer, helping habitat, getting kids involved. that kinda thing?

 

[JandSCattleCo]

Most of these organizations have the fundraiser s to help with their conservation efforts. NWTF in tn is starting a conservation effort to save thousands of acres of wildlife habitat. At the state banquet the other night they said the US is losing 6500 acres a day. A DAY. That's the size of Yellowstone national park. If ou buy a $35 membership and they then give you a $25 bass pro card, $10 isn't going to go that far...

 

[TheLBLman]

I would simply ask,

"Is it better to have a local chapter go forward without an annual fund raiser, or is it better to not have local chapters fold in large part because of annual fund raiser requirements?"

It was made clear and in our case we tried to generate enough interest to get volunteers to help organize. End of the day I wasn't willing to take on debt for product to sell at an event I was going to have to organize and run without enough manpower to effectively execute.
. . . . .
End of the day I was mainly interested in the educational events and money raising wasn't why we wanted the chapter. We hoped to spread the story of the benefits of qdm and we're successful without needing to ask for donations.

I can certainly relate to what Stick'n'String posted.
We had an East TN Chapter a decade ago.
IMO, the main reason it ceased to exist was because of the fund-raising requirements.

I have since noted several other chapters come and go,
and suspect the localized fund-raising requirement was the main cause of their disbanding.

For those who haven't been involved in such an endeavor, it can be very time consumptive, even financially costly to those assuming the responsibility.

 

[duckriver]

I would simply ask,

"Is it better to have a local chapter go forward without an annual fund raiser, or is it better to not have local chapters fold in large part because of annual fund raiser requirements?"

I agree.

 

[BSK]

Is there another organization that focuses on basically the same things like qdma that may not require a mandated fund raising event? Just get together and promote growing deer, helping habitat, getting kids involved. that kinda thing?

Not that I'm aware of.

 

[CAW]

It's a little surprising to me that QDMA operates this way. It would seem to me that if the goal is truly quality deer management, then having chapters educate hunters with little or no expense to the organization would be a priority to the association. If it's all about the money, then don't call yourself an "association", call yourself a company.

Chapters can contribute revenue to an association without having fundraisers. Just ask anyone that operates a B.A.S.S. chapter. They have done it successfully for decades. As the members become more educated on the association, they recruit other members and help the association grow.

I have been a QDMA member for over 10 years, but sometimes they can come off as an elitist organization and the requirements they put on their chapters is a good example of that.

 

[jmb4wd]

Seriously? It should have been made clear that forming a charter including an annual fundraiser that reached out to find new members and others that would like to donate money to support wildlife research and healthy deer.

How do you think that the organzation can place bodies in the field to support you? It is not $25 memberships. JMO and a fact.

I know it takes fund raisers to run QDMA. I eo old have donated and still will if we have one.

I talked with the President about the banquet and he mentioned it at our meetings. I personally was just waiting on date and time.

We just haven't had any contact from the chapter. It was like ok see you next time and haven't heard any thing since.

 

[BSK]

Chapters can contribute revenue to an association without having fundraisers. Just ask anyone that operates a B.A.S.S. chapter.

Are BASS Chapters not required to hold fundraisers? Are NWTF Chapters required to hold fundraisers? Although I'm critical of the QDMA from time to time, I am a supporter of the organization. That said, the organization's appearance of being focused so intensely on fundraising from the local Chapters has always struck me the wrong way. I would love to see how the budgets work for hunting organizations that don't require fundraisers by local chapters.

 

[duckriver]

Chapters can contribute revenue to an association without having fundraisers. Just ask anyone that operates a B.A.S.S. chapter.

Are BASS Chapters not required to hold fundraisers? Are NWTF Chapters required to hold fundraisers? Although I'm critical of the QDMA from time to time, I am a supporter of the organization. That said, the organization's appearance of being focused so intensely on fundraising from the local Chapters has always struck me the wrong way. I would love to see how the budgets work for hunting organizations that don't require fundraisers by local chapters.

Me to. If the numbers could be worked out
It sounds like it maybe time for someone to start a new organization.

 

[CAW]

Chapters can contribute revenue to an association without having fundraisers. Just ask anyone that operates a B.A.S.S. chapter.

Are BASS Chapters not required to hold fundraisers? Are NWTF Chapters required to hold fundraisers? Although I'm critical of the QDMA from time to time, I am a supporter of the organization. That said, the organization's appearance of being focused so intensely on fundraising from the local Chapters has always struck me the wrong way. I would love to see how the budgets work for hunting organizations that don't require fundraisers by local chapters.

I was in a BASS chapter for years. We were not required to do any fundraisers. BASS was happy to see us help grow their organization and man did it grow! Organizations targeting people who enjoy the outdoors could learn a lot from BASS.

And let me be clear - I am also a supporter of QDMA. But I do not like them forcing chapters to do fundraising for their organization as a requirement to operate as a chapter. The chapter is helping to spread the word about QDMA and that should be enough. If they can do a fundraiser, great. If not, QDMA should just be happy that the chapter is helping the cause in terms of education and awareness.

 

[Stick'n'String]

My comments weren't made to trash qdma or come across negative of the organization. Also I am not currently involved with the most recent mid tn branch so I have no idea what the status is.

I would have happily ran a fundraiser (even though it wasn't my primary goal of starting our chapter) but as with most things of that sort once volunteers were requested the crickets started singing. Our first event featured the infamous BSK and we had over 100 in attendance so there was no lack of interest in attending but participating was another matter.

In my opinion the qdma national office didn't do a good enough job selling me on why the banquet was required or would benefit deer or deer hunting. NWTF, Quail Unlimited, DU, Delta Waterfowl all have good sales pitches on how the money raised will make an impact for their respective sport.

 

[duckriver]

100 people sounds like a great turn out for something like this. Differently shows the interest is there.

 

[PickettSFHunter]

Cookeville might still have a chapter, Im not sure, I havent heard anything out of that since October. I really want a chapter in this area for the educational aspect and understand that fundraising is part of it but I'll just say that it was issues other than with the QDMA or fundraising that turned me from going to any more of the meetings. I will say the fundraising part is a pain in the butt in my opinion.

 

[diamond hunter]

I wasat the last Middle Tennessee meeting and enjoyed it.So,is that chapter still going and what would it take to have the fundraiser they ask for? How much money are we talking about?Can the fundraiser be held at the ag center?If not,I know a place in Goodlettsville.

 

[TNlandowner]

Gentlemen,

Of course there are two sides to every discussion. In short, QDMA has wonderful concepts and programs. However, it takes $$$ to drive their programs. They place a lot of this financial burden upon local chapters, who are usually 100% unpaid volunteers.

W.P. may remember our QDMA branch in west TN (Forked Deer River). We enjoyed several great events, with guests such as Alex Rutledge and Stan Potts. Our focus was creating awareness of the benefits of new deer management concepts along with providing learning opportunities.

For two years, we held the required annual fund raisers. Unfortunately, we were forced to run the 2013 event with money as the primary goal. Justin attended and witnessed the failure of our Paris event. We were forced to charge unreasonable entry fees, even for members of QDMA. As one may guess, only the committee members attended the event. As suggested, the QDMA placed the burden of the financial loss upon our group of volunteers. During a meeting afterwards, Justin blamed our volunteer branch president for the failure. He would not consider the case of NWTF's tremendous success without a door entry fee. They raised a lot of money and enrolled several thousand members during the event.

As a result, the QDMA removed our charter. We are now an independent group, with interest from a few national organizations.

We welcome anyone wanting to participate in our events.