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NFSA Conservation Group


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From another thread:

 

stavey:

first of all let me apologise to toerag for slightly going off track a bit on this thread but we always seem to end up talking about the same thing ie, fish stocks/conservation/who's to blame/etc,etc,etc, partly this time down to me, so we are back to the same old arguements and opinions. this is ok and sometimes quite amusing and gives us something to talk about and i suppose after all this is a forum and it serves its purpose well for that. [get to the point stavey]right why am i stating the obvious? well i think we all want the same thing but lack any clear and agreed plans, we have all got are opinions on the only org that is meant to represent us have'nt we and its no good just throwing money in to it and hoping it will do all we want it to do, but at the same time if they expect rsa's to input finance then they have to lias a bit better with them than they have, also lets have some clear ideas and proposals on the most important things to us "conservation" and what we want, not who has qualified for the next tin cup then may be we can get behind them. what do ya think are we barking up the wrong tree, should i risk and invest my fifteen or whatever quid? they seem to be all we got.or have i lost the plot? answers on a postcard..............

The problem is Stavey, how do we tell you cost effectively?

 

No one has the time to spend monitoring all of the angling site forums.

 

There's the NFSA website, but only a small proportion of anglers visit there.

 

Paying for space in angling magazines etc is very expensive; there's far better ways of spending anglers money.

 

Although material is sent to the magazines, it's put in at the editor's discretion and they prefer to interest readers with 'How to' articles and tackle review. Very little information on conservation/the NFSA is used.

 

Of course, information is sent to members and presentations made around the divisions, but you have to be a member to be 'in the loop'

 

Anyway, this is a presentation made at the AGM on Saturday.

 

It was much, much better and impressive being there to be talked through the slides and able to ask questions but here goes:

 

(ps if anyone can provide a big enough audience, someone from the NFSA CG could arrange to come and visit your club etc and give a presentation)

 

 

NFSA AGM 2005

Conservation Group - Update

Richard Ferre.

 

 

Conservation Group Update.

 

• Who are we?

• What are we fighting for?

• How will we get it?

• What changes do we want?

• What have we achieved this year?

• What are our plans for next year.

• What do we want from you?

 

 

What are we fighting for.

 

To improve the abundance and size of fish for Recreational Sea Anglers. (RSA.)

 

MORE FISH - BIGGER FISH.

 

 

How will we get it?

 

• Having Clearly Defined Goals

• Intensive Government Lobbying.

• Stronger Presence on SFC’s.

• Educating people about RSA.

• Support on Local Issues.

• Persistence and Determination.

 

 

What changes do we want?

 

• A greater say in fishery matters.

• Increased Minimum Landing Sizes.

• Controls on Gill Netting.

• A right to fish.

• Ban on near shore trawling.

• Recreational Sea Fisheries.

• Control of Discards.

 

 

What have we achieved this year?

 

• A plan and a set of requirements.

• Hard evidence of the importance of RSA.

• A voice now being listened to.

• Increased presence on SFC’s.

• Involvement in the future of our fisheries.

• DEFRA to set up an Inshore Group

• Local Battles Won.

 

What are our plans for next year.

 

• Use increased SFC representation to good effect.

• Continue Government lobbying/pressure on key “wants”

• Continue to support local issues.

• Review proposals with Scientists.

• Increase number of CG reps.

• New catch/release code.

 

 

What do we want from you?

 

• Help drive NFSA membership up.

• Support the CG (finance & words)

• Promote positive image of NFSA

• Write/Email MP on key RSA issues.

• Support the BASS plan.

• Practice responsible angling.

• Go Fishing.

 

 

Tight Lines - leon

RNLI Shoreline Member

Member of the Angling Trust

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Guest jay_con

Still not sure. Im sure youll tell me im wrong and more than likely I am. But what have they ever done for anyone other than Bass Fishermen and anglers south of the Thames.

 

3 years ago I phoned them with an important issue. 3 years later im still waiting for the "Promised" return call.

 

Leon actually did all he could to assist in the end.

 

Long Live SACN.

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Originally posted by Leon Roskilly:

[QB] From another thread:

 

Paying for space in angling magazines etc is very expensive; there's far better ways of spending anglers money.

 

Although material is sent to the magazines, it's put in at the editor's discretion and they prefer to interest readers with 'How to' articles and tackle review. Very little information on conservation/the NFSA is used.

 

• :cool: Not quite true. I'm happy to print information from the NFSA, SACN, BASS, SAMF etc. all I ask for is that the originators sift and weed it to make it short, sharp and snappy, something anglers want to read, they don't want to read through 6 pages of A4 to find 1 paragraph of useful information. Unfortunately this rarely happens so it doesn't get printed. Being a free paper, every page costs money to produce, which hopefully is covered by advertisers, 6 pages of A4 takes a lot of adverts to cover it, one page of A5 takes a lot less. Take that onboard and you will get a lot more information printed. :D

 

[ 22. May 2005, 12:59 PM: Message edited by: Norm B ]

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hi leon, hope the agm went well, looks like it may have been a bit more constructive for you, and us? thanks for taking on board the comments from my thread. i understand all what you have said in your reply and also agree but the problem my club has had with the nfsa is correspondance and i dont think we are the only ones? for example, notification of the agm yesterday, no letter or email in advance of when, where, time etc, and also by accident on my part i was made aware by the chairman by email that my club was'nt even a member of the nfsa, which was totaly untrue and later corrected by someone who looked in there data base properly, now i am hoping because of this error by them this lead to consequently no correspondance being sent out to us for the last year, i dont know? these type of instances does not encourage many of our 100 or so members to take up personal or private membership of the nfsa i think there maybe two to three that have, im not good at maths but its easy to see that from my club alone they are missing out on atleast something like £1500 potential, just because of poor correspondance not good im sure you'l agree. get this simple thing right" because it is simple to put right, by no more effort then it has taken me to type this for instance, and i can then maybe try to convince my sceptical club members to get behind the nfsa and put their hands in there pockets for a little bit more.

I Fish For Sport Not Me Belly

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Hi Leon,

 

I took out a pm with NFSA a few weeks back online.

 

To date I have not had a reply.

 

I was going to invest in a NFSA baseball cap and blazer badge but certainly not before receiving a reply and membership.

I fish, I catches a few, I lose a few, BUT I enjoys. Anglers Trust PM

 

eat.gif

 

http://www.petalsgardencenter.com

 

Petals Florist

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sorry leon, i did not mention as to answer your question on how the nfsa tell pm or affilated club members news and whats going on etc, well like any organisation does with their members, letters or even by email would be a start. they have all the the info for addresses on their data base, apparently?

I Fish For Sport Not Me Belly

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Hi Stavey,

 

If you are a Personal or Individual member you get sent a regular newsletter.

 

If you belong to a club (which pays £10 to affiliate), then the club gets sent the newsletter.

 

Obviously, if a club has 500 members, only ten of whom are Individual/Personal members, it is not possible for the NFSA to send information directly to the 490 other members, that would cost the NFSA nearly £150 each time just for postage, and a lot more for printing, despatch etc.

 

In fact, it was highlighted at the AGM that the servicing of affiliated clubs was costing the NFSA more than they pay.

 

Members who have supplied email addresses to the NFSA, and indicated that they will accept emails from the NFSA will also get emails from time to time.

 

Of all of the clubs/organisations that I belonged to (until I retired on a small pension recently), the NFSA had just about the lowest membership fee, yet is attempting to do a job as big as any and bigger than most.

 

Unfortunately that means that they are trying to service a membership of some 5,000 Individual/Personal members with just 1.5 full time staff (just think of the number of phone calls and emails that they get every day, let alone all of the other work they are doing) It's no wonder that it's sometimes frustratingly slow in getting a reply, or some things stay at the bottom of the pile seemingly forever.

 

(Even though those working for the NFSA put in an incredible number of unpaid hours and David Rowe has forgotton what a pay rise is like!)

 

No excuses for that, but strangely, if they could double the membership, they could use that additional funding to deal with everything much more efficiently (there are economies of scale involved).

 

The NFSA isn't some commercial organisation, it's an organisation of anglers trying to do a big job with what's available, depending on other anglers to muck in and support them (apart from the 1.5 paid staff, there are a lot of members doing unpaid jobs, often meeting their expenses out of their own pockets to try and ensure that sea angling has some sort of future).

 

The problem is that anyone can pick up a rod and go down to the beach and fish without being a member of anything, and by far the majority of anglers do just that.

 

But that freedom to fish is constantly under attack, rights are being eroded constantly, venues lost to anglers and our fish stocks are being managed in ways that are disasterous to anglers interests.

 

Whether those that are fighting, are fighting a losing battle, or are able to make some headway, depends very much on the numbers of anglers that are prepared to support the NFSA, and other organisations, both by dipping their hand in their pocket, and by assisting in more practical ways.

 

By the way, the NFSA has established a ring-fenced conservation fund that any angler can donate to, confident that their donation will be used for conservation purposes only and not used to pay the rent etc.

 

Tight Lines - leon

RNLI Shoreline Member

Member of the Angling Trust

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Guest stevie cop

I sympathise Ken, I'have experienced what you are talking about. Can Leon or Tom tell me whether Mr Bishop, membership secretary, is still on the payroll? If he is, what the hell does he do with so much time and so few members? I know that he isn't an angler, because he told all the members of my club a few years back that he wasn't.

 

I hope he isn't just using the NFSA to earn some easy money when there are people who are working very hard for no payment.

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By the way, the NFSA has established a ring-fenced conservation fund that any angler can donate to, confident that their donation will be used for conservation purposes only and not used to pay the rent etc.

 

 

In the past week alone , the ringfenced conservation fund has received £650 in donations, I gave a conservation update/presentation to the Essex NFSA div , they then made a considerable donation from their own funds.

 

For the first time in a long while the NFSA agm was a great deal better, with good presentations , from the various groups. ie conservation , team england, coaching and child development.

Some serious issues have been addressed and changes are now being made .

It was good to come away from the AGM , feeling positive and not the negatives of old.

The NFSA still requires more memebers , ( fresh blood , new ideas, finance etc) but with the positives from yesterdays AGM , it will make it easier to attract new anglers to join.

 

cheers

Tom

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