Beebe and Webster - NAFA, when?

[wyodjm]

I totally agree it is all about flying our birds, I would love to just do that. But to say NAFA is a nonevent, well, when they persuade the Feds to change the regs to something that won't allow you to fly your eagles or some other stupid regulation, then it is no longer a nonevent. And yeah, sure, you can still fly them, we all can fly any bird we want, but do we really want to be looking over our shoulder the entire time we are flying? I would like to keep it legal and the only way to do that is to make sure NAFA does what the majority wants. That isn't happening now. And for anyone to think they don't have influence with the Feds, well, they are living in a dream world.

This isn't going anywhere. NAFA doesn't have as much pull with the feds as many people are saying. That's propaganda and it's fear mongering.

I was a member of NAFA for over 30 years. I also worked with the feds and several states regarding eagles for over 20 years on NAFA's and Wyoming's behalf. I'm saying this as politely as I can. NAFA doesn't have that much pull with the Feds. Certain individuals within NAFA may have certain working relationships with certain feds, but that's about the extent of it. But, so do I. I also have a working relationship my state Game and Fish Dept. That doesn't mean anything.

Here's the bottom line. Down the road, if NAFA continues on its current path of inner sanctum, ivory tower politics, it will be just happy when the membership dwindles down to perhaps under a thousand of dues paying, no questions asked, no confrontation members. NAFA doesn't represent the majority of licensed falconers. It probably doesn't want to because it would have to be more accountable.

The majority of licensed falconers in the U.S. currently don't belong to NAFA. Say what you will, but you can't argue with the math. NAFA isn't a falconers' union or a religious cult. It's just a club. In my opinion, it has very little credibility. If NAFA ever changes, I'll join again. So would 1,000+ other people.

I'm not trying to argue with people. I'm just trying to provide solid information. There's so much bad information out there. NAFA just is what it is.