I join the NTA as a lifetime member sometime in the mid 1980's Trapping was a booming fast growing activity Many serious trappers where making enough money in the business of trapping for fur And many more got involve i the business of making and selling products that that where part of the trapping industry . It could be said that trapping for profit and money was at it's peak during the past 200 years That fact that everyone wanted to be a trapper had a very obvious downside to those who where trappers before the sudden increase in those that took up the sport and made it a business to them .It was a time that groups such as the NTA and many state associations had a whole new group of people to try to convince them to support an organization that supports trapping and trapping rights I believe that we all need to do our part to keep our trapping /hunter / gun owner rights Many American citizens have died to keep this country the greatness nation in the world In the early years of my lifetime membership I made donations while only small in amount of money I tried to make some
when possible .As time went on however the NTA had situations that where never explained to those who where paying the bills by their donations. The people in charge and often the people involved in those situations did not deal with those problems in a way that would be considered to be appropriate to the general membership if they knew what was happening .tt at least to me seemed that some where protecting their own butt or someone else's butt that had abused the integrity of the NTA Maybe some of the issues that happen where dealt with behind closed doors out of necessity But there have been several times that at least gave the appearance that there was alleged misbehavior by the people in charge and it was swept under the rug Either the one that was accrued of the bad act was protected or the accuser was discredited I do not recall all of the details But I think more than once either the accused was protected or the accuser was discredited by the reigning people in charge It has been more than one occasion that some explaining was due necessary and never given And the general membership was not even informed about any part of the situation The NTA has taken on the appearance of a good old boys club at least when it applies to certain ways that the business of the association is conducted. I admit I have no first hand knowledge of the accusations that where part of the supposed issues I think of in the same way s Bob Dylan wrote in one of his songs You Don.t Need a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Blows If I am completely off base with my comments and observations than I am a misinformed lifetime member of an organization
that could have been serving its members in a much better way If they have used the resources given to them by those that made donations to cover for the lack of leadership and integrity that is a black eye for all that where a part of the ones that what involved in the misbehavior . I will close by saying the questions that never were addressed by the leadership are the reasons I have discontinued my donations to the group . And making bylaw changes to make it even more difficult to get answers to anyone questioning the authority of those making the rules that benefit them selves creates an smell that none of us needs a weatherman to know which way the wind blows

I drug this over here since new yorkers are sensitive.

You brought up GREAT points in that NO ONE ever explained what action's were taking if any concerning issue's that several brought up through the years. Im not going to go back through all the internet chatter concerning Sollman as alot of it was just ranting, not factual. The factual stuff never hit the internet! With that said his last year of office manager/ceo / whatever he called himself he never set foot in the office that year! I brought that up at the bod meeting as he had moved on and was wanting NTA to join in with 2 other group's he would represent, the board had to approve the contract. NTA would be on the hook to him for 100 grand a year from now on basically. NTA under his leadership was already 280 grand in the hole from borrowing from the lifetime funds to keep the doors open and none of it had ever been paid back since i think 1998, this meeting was in 2006! Did get it passed we would pay back 119 grand with interest while i was on the board. Rath wouldn't go for the 280 figure cause i didn't have a paper trail to it so i took what i could get.

I brought up the fact he got paid his last year and never went to the office, had to drag that info out of one of the employee's at the time against alot of objecting from his fan club on the board at the time. Several other issue's were brought up as well by myself why this was a bad idea. Cindy Seff brought up even more issue's to the board concerning him and lastly ChrisM explained yet another big mess concerning him. In my mind it was a no brainer to reject the contract proposal after the board was informed on what was really going on, none of which they had seen in any board mailing we had received the past year. The vote total to keep him was 21 for and 23 against! 2 votes is the only reason he wasn't kept on until what little money NTA had left was drained.

That's how that board operates, much like run of the mill members you see on here, you can draw them a picture with a crayon and they still don't get it or worse, decide to attack you instead of just looking at what is said it's more about WHO say's it.

That 2006 board meeting was John Daniels first board meeting as a director and he voted to keep Sollman, I know cause he was sitting beside me and we argued about it, i chalked it up to him just being new, now im not so sure that was it. He didn't like the idea of Sollman not being there to defend himself but Sollman is the one who decided not to attend, by then his arrogance was at such a point he figured he would be a shoe in to get re hired since he was so wonderful. He was a smooth talker, had he attended ive no doubt the board would of approved his contract but I don't think he wanted to answer some of the question's some of us would of asked. At the same time this is going on im being attacked daily on the internet for being pro sollman/wills, lol.

Would be nice if NTA reported to members what action's were taken or not taken and the rationale for why but it's been a secret squirrel society for so long now they don't know how to be open and transparent about anything and never will. Why all these problems they have drive's me up the wall, the place is sooooooooooooo simple to run yet they make it 100 times more complicated than it really is. And now it's so complicated to run a regular member out in the field is too dumb to be President of it !