Nailed it,,, I didn’t re-up my nta membership this year… I did however re-up my fur takers and Illinois trappers.

Yep, my membership renewal sits on my desk until I see some change in this kind of crap happening…….

Life members have no say. Just the elite.

Sounds like a good reason not to become a life member of any organization. They can become sour over time.

I for one remain unclear on the alleged "FACTS". I have talked to some folks and read quite a bit of what has been presented here and in the lead-up to the election. Seems to be high on emotion and short on facts. But that's just my take.

That also seems to be Dave and Kare Linkhart's take in a plea for unity:

"So many half-truths, twisted truths, and pure fantasy falsehoods were directed at not just the opponent in the race, but ALL of the leadership in the NTA."

Its truly sad to see.

Time to bury the hatchet.

Won't be happening with me or Trapperman. They've gone too far.

The lawsuit and Toby's accusations about the Ethics Committee fiasco notwithstanding, the FACT is that the NTAs legal counsel threatened me and John Daniel's political opponent Roy Dahlgren with lawsuits for stating facts about the association. They then had ethics charges filed against me, Toby, and Roy for the same reasons. I believe those are the FACTS that most people are the most upset about.

I see there dropping membership price for new people.
I did not renew
I hope you got them worried Ms A.

The response I received when I let them know I was unhappy with their decision.

Thank you for your note of concern; however, I do not believe that "the NTA" expelled anyone. When a person joins an organization, the person agrees to abide by the rules of that organization. If the organization is the National Trappers Association the rules which govern elections, meetings, the ethics of the membership, etc. are set forth by the NTA Board of Directors. Then there are committees, staffed by NTA members, who oversee these various rules.

EXAMPLE: If an NTA member (not "the NTA") felt that another NTA member had violated the NTA rules on ethics, then the complaining member lodges a complaint with the NTA Ethics Committee against the member that he/she feels had violated the ethics rule.

Then the NTA Ethics Committee (not "the NTA") investigates the complaint and invites the accused party to refute the alleged charge of violating the ethic rule.

Then the NTA Ethics Committee (not "the NTA) determines the outcome.

The NTA is operated by a Board of Directors when in session and an Executive Committee when the Board of Directors is not in session; and ALLWAYS the Board of Directors has veto power over the Executive Council and can at any time undo any action of the Executive Council.

The NTA Committees are made up of NTA Directors AND non-directors. When you hear that "the NTA" did this or that "the NTA" did that - it is not true. "the NTA" does nothing - its members are the ones who control the issues. What it boils down to is that the NTA is run by NTA MEMBERS who care about the future of trapping and conservation.

Take Care
Jim Buell

Oh that’s rich! The same Jim bs that called myself Shelly and Cindy seff liars and said nothing to see here when we brought it to his attention his buddy Dave sollman was totally out of control. Ethics committee is only a weapon those in charge can use!

I reckon I could employ the same tactics here. If someone replies with something that I think is false and hurtful, I could banish them from here rather than just deleting the reply.

What Jim failed to mention is that the ethics committee has no non-directors on it, but is made up of a majority of EC members... Brian Cogil, Mike Sievering, and Rusty Kramer all serve on the Executive Council and were all present on my conference call with the Ethics Committee.

I asked them during that call if they really wanted to weaponize that Internet Policy they were slinging around and so set the precedent that anyone that chooses to run against an incumbent officer in the future will not be allowed to post anything against his opponent without ethics charges being filed against them. Apparently they did choose to set that precedent.

As to the rest of what Buell said, it's mostly accurate... the process he described is how it works. The committee was supposed to tell me who filed the charges against me, but they did not. I do believe though, from what I could decipher from the wording of the heavily redacted complaint letter that was sent to me, that charges were not filed by a run-of-the-mill member, but by an officer of the association.

Uhm, you know better than that. The precedent has been set for the NTA to refund a lifetime member some of his or her money and allow them an exit

I will no longer attend an NTA event. I will no longer donate any money that has a chance of funneling to the NTA.

If the convention is ever held in MN again I will not attend. It has been 30 35 years since I've missed a MN convention. So be it.

I was waiting for the decision to be made on this and did not renew my NTA membership at our convention in September due to that. l agree 100% with Paul on his decision, l will renew my FTA membership and hopefully get others to support the FTA through memberships.

Im also going to speak to the NCTA Board of Directors about no longer sending yearly donations to the NTA.

Im throwing the NTA election ballot in the trash.

Thank you Paul for your leadership on this.

No Steven it's even worse now, that member wanted and DEMANDED his money back and got his wish. Toby was tossed out and not given his money back!

New policy is what threat level are you during an election, that's the criteria to gauge whether your worthy of being a coveted member of this secret squirrel society or not.

There was a narrow window after the dust settled last time to right the ship and get some of the lost members back but that time came and went and the damage that's been done this go around can't be fixed.

After all this turmoil I don't see any decent honest person ever even attempting to run for any of these office's again, who in their right mind would? The old guard won and they can maintain whatever power they think they have till the whole thing falls apart.

huntrap247, just curious but who did you send your original email to? The office?

No decent, honest person will even be allowed to run if this bylaws amendment passes.

The NTA might have its bylaws and such but there is still a 1st Ammendment right to free speech. The NTA can NOT get around that no matter what their silly one sided rules say!

That applies to the government. Not an org or individuals.

We learned throughout this experience that the bylaws are now just a suggestion, no one has to go by them, rules are out the window, anything goes.