Quote Originally Posted by MrBill View Post
Hey, Paul,

In your post that started this thread you asked us what we thought, which some of us have responded to. What do you think?

Bill Boni
What do I think? I ran for NAFA Mtn director in 2010, I'm sure a couple of folks who were on NAFEX back then might remember, Eric Tabb ran against me, I ran partly because of all the shit and shenanigans I heard about the internal workings of NAFA, so I figured what better way to find out then to get on the board. Be careful what you ask for, because you might get it, so I ended winning, with my term starting on January 1st 2011. At the time Larry Dickerson was president, Bob Welle VP, treasurer April Davenport-Rice, all who started their work with NAFA in January of 2010. I was replacing Bruce Haak as Mtn Director, who had served three terms (6 yrs), big shoes to fill. I credit Larry, Bob, and April for being top professionals, the strides that were made under their watch in terms of fixing the NAFA cash flow and budget, and bringing NAFA into the 21st century with a web presence and communication capabilities were nothing short of revolutionary for an organization that was behind the times.

What did I find in those board meetings? Were there hidden agendas and confrontational issues where board members were stifled from raising words of objection, graft and underhandedness? Unfortunately not, there was no intrigue, nothing, zero, zilch, nada. It was all business, and everyone and anyone could speak their mind. The NAFA board meets every third month, once in person at the NAFA meet in November, then again in January, March, June, and September, so 5 board meeting per year. I think the shortest meeting that I participated in was around 1.5 hours, the longest maybe 2.5 hours. Larry was a strict parliamentarian, so anyone who has ever served on a board knows the advantage of being able to stick to Robert's Rules, otherwise things descend into chaos very quickly.

What did we talk about at those meetings? Early on mostly the state by state adoption of the new federal regs. Dave Eslicker was spearheading this effort and interfaced with all 49 states clubs, or falconers for states without clubs, and with the states G&F dept when requested, or necessary. If you don't think this was a major effort by NAFA you are an idiot, NAFA was there at every step, from working with the USFWS to author the new regs in 2008 with George Allen to final state by state implementation by the December 31st 2012 deadline.

What else? I found out that when you serve on a board that there is a lot of organizational housekeeping chores, things like budgets, meet planning, publications, personnel issues, and member issues. It's all kind of blur to me now, if anyone is really interested I could go through each and every agenda over the 3 1/2 terms, 7 years, that I served and provide some the highlights, but I'm not going to do that this morning.

What did I take away from my time as director? I found out that my initial reasons for running for director were unfounded, there was no overarching hidden agenda, or back room politicking, all I witnessed after 7 years were people who were critically aware that the falconry community needed NAFA to be a leader, a constant desire to meet member expectations given the limitations of a volunteer organization. I found that falconers seemed to believe that NAFA has "operators standing by" to take calls on every bit of falconry minutia that crosses their mind. I can't count the number of times I heard "Why doesn't NAFA _____?" Fill in the blank. My stock reply was always, "Write a proposal and I’ll submit it to the board, and if it's approved, then you will have to step up and do the work." NAFA is a volunteer organization run by volunteers, if you want something to get done you had better be prepared to contribute your time and effort. People seemed to confuse the meanings of the words complain and contribute, cuz complainin’ ain’t contributin’! Very few people took me up on my offer.

Does NAFA have shortcomings? You bet. Volunteer organizations are not efficient, that's my opinion based on observing NAFA. Since those who serve don't get paid, nearly everything else gets attention before dealing with NAFA issues. That’s just life, NAFA will always be a volunteer organization. I wasn’t and am still not happy with most of the directors who I don’t think communicate well with their directorate. During my time as director I sent out emails to the Mtn directorate after every board meeting informing folks on what happened, and how I voted, I was the exception and not the rule, most directors are very out of touch with their directorate, it frustrated the shit out of me, and still does. Communication, or the lack thereof, is the biggest issue in every relationship, whether it’s with your spouse, or an organization and a member.

NAFA and the big picture? All of the mudslinging at NAFA that certain falconers seem to enjoy, most of those are personal grudges, or misinformation, or just weird ass people. Without NAFA there would be no falconry in this country period. In the words of Neil Degrasse Tyson “The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it”, same goes for NAFA, NAFA is North American falconry whether or not you believe in it.

There you have it, I could go on and on, but I don't want to bore you any more.