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Indiana Deer and Elk Farmers' Association |
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Indiana Deer and Elk Farmers' Association |
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December 10, 2007
Dear Members;
As all of us are well aware, the past few weeks have been trying times for our Association. Many have questions as to the latest developments of our Organization and its future direction. This letter, as well as monthly membership mailings that are scheduled for the next several months, are designed to keep everyone up to speed on any IDEFA developments. If you have any questions or concerns after you read these informational mailings, please do not hesitate to contact me or any other Board member. We’ll do our best to help answer any question or reservations that you may have. I have included a contact list of IDEFA’s current Board members to assist you with any needed communication.
The Board is excited about the future of IDEFA and our industry as well. There are a number of developing projects (to be discussed later in this letter) that should help to secure the future of all of Indiana’s present and future cervid farms. The success of these projects will be directly linked to each member’s active participation and support. In addition, we have our upcoming annual meeting on March 1, 2007. This event will require planning and lots of help. Eight open Board seats will be up for election this year. Please begin now to let us know who you think should be nominated for these positions on the Board. We’d like to prepare short biographies for each of the individuals that plan to run for election on the Board. It’s important that we give everyone plenty of time to think about the best people to represent the organization. So the sooner we hear from you, the sooner we can get this information out to our membership. A detailed mailing will go out in January announcing our annual meeting’s time and place and the specific help that is needed to have a memorable event.
The Board would like to announce the hiring of Mike McCarty on a trial basis to record Board meetings and phone conference minutes. This decision was made primarily to minimize conflicts with the recorded minutes, facilitate a more efficient distribution of the minutes to the Board and to allow all of the Board members to focus fully on the topics being discussed. Many of the administrative jobs of this Association are very time consuming and as all of the Board members have full time jobs it can be very difficult to get everything done in a timely manner. At some point the Board will likely need to seriously consider hiring someone to handle all of the administrate duties of the Association. If you or someone you know has the talent for such a task, please contact a Board member and let us know. In this mailing you will find attached the approved meeting minutes since 11/13/07. Please take time to read them and offer your thoughts.
We have talked about IDEFA’s committees in the past and I want to bring them up again now. Remember, committees are the workhorse units of any organization. IDEFA currently has eight committees and I feel that they haven’t been utilized to their fullest potential. I’d like to encourage you to contact one of the committee chairs outlined below and let them know that you are interested in giving them a hand. If we’ll all pitch in and help, there’s nothing we can’t accomplish. Sitting on the sideline makes it way too easy to nit-pick or criticize those who are trying. When we get involved, we take ownership of our Association and we become determined to make it work! Many of our committee chairs need help. They shouldn’t be expected to carry the entire work load by themselves. Get involved!!!
Audit & Ethics Committee Rick Miller 812-343-1522
Bylaw Committee Leslie Clodfelter 765-721-1538
Cervid Management Committee Ben Waldbeser 574-658-4885
Fund Raising & Food Mark Borkholder 800-814-0602
Hunting Preserves Lee Fritz 574-298-3831
Membership, Newsletter & Communication Jon Mulherin 260-438-5164 (Resignation is forthcoming - Need a volunteer to take over)
Public Relations & Legislative Cliff Carley 317-502-6999
Lamar Miller 765-395-8230
Scientific Advisory Committee Brad Thurston 317-372-8493
During our last Board meeting we formed a new bylaws committee. Although the Board approved a couple of amendments to our bylaws, this committee’s job is to thoroughly review our current bylaws and forward their recommendations to the Board during our January 3rd meeting. If the Board approves any amendments to the bylaws, they will be announced to the membership prior to our annual meeting. All bylaw amendments must be approved by a 2/3 vote of the membership before taking effect. A couple of the preliminary amendments to our bylaws allows for direct membership replacement of vacant board seats and an annual membership vote to fill the officer positions on the Board (President, Vice President, Treasurer and Secretary).
Included in this mail packet is a copy of the letter that the Board has agreed to send to Governor Mitch Daniels. This letter calls on Gov. Daniels to help clear up the conflicts and ambiguities in the laws regulating our industry. This is one key element in a Strategic Plan that IDEFA’s attorney, Mike Thomasson, has formulated on behalf of the Association. During our January 3rd Board meeting, we will discuss and decide on other key elements of this plan. Specifically, the Board will be deciding whether or not to move forward with a notice to Indiana’s DNR to clear up the laws regulating our industry. This issue must be addressed if we are ever to have a secure future for our cervid operations.
Some have compared the DNR to a sleeping dog that shouldn’t be awakened or provoked. As I see it, the DNR is anything but sleeping. In 2004, DNR director John Goss attempted to destroy Indiana’s deer farming industry by passing an emergency order that prohibited any new game breeder’s permits from being issued. Then in 2005, director, Kyle Hupfer, announced that all forms of fenced hunting would be prohibited. Then just this year, a local DNR officer announced that Paul Hochstetler’s game breeder’s permit would not be renewed and that his animals would be killed if he couldn’t get rid of them by a set deadline. Each of these DNR actions was totally unprovoked. It is truly a fallacy to believe the DNR is a sleeping dog. In fact, I contend that the DNR spends time carefully planning their next move before dropping their bombs on us. As long as I have been in the deer business it seems that the DNR has always been one or two steps ahead of us. I wonder why? It’s certainly not because they are sleeping. It’s time to take claim of our private property rights and stop waiting for the DNR to take them away. We need to pick our own battlegrounds not theirs! IDEFA’s goal is to be a self regulating industry under the oversight of BOAH. However, if we don’t achieve this goal and we ultimately have to answer to the DNR, then the DNR needs to provide us with crystal clear and predictable rules to follow. This is the only way we can continue to afford to invest in our futures in this business. In preparing to contact the DNR, Mike Thomasson wants us to compile a list of questions that we would like the DNR to clarify. Please submit your questions to a Board member at your earliest convenience.
The Board looks forward to hearing your input on these very important issues.
Sincerely,
John Murrell
IDEFA President
IDEFA Board of Directors
Mark Borkholder 800-814-0602 574-646-2104
Cliff Carley 317-562-9999 317-502-6999 (cell)
Leslie Clodfelter 765-522-5638 765-721-1538 (cell)
Lee Fritz 574-633-4406 574-298-3831 (cell)
Frank Keeton 317-852-8960 317-286-8019 (cell)
Rick Miller 812-342-3228 812-343-1522 (cell)
Don Morris 765-661-8106 (cell)
John Murrell 765-748-0509 (cell)
Brad Thurston 317-872-6760 (office) 317-372-8493 (cell)
Ben Waldbeser 574-658-4885
John Yoder 260-768-8158
January 1, 2008
Dear Members;
Many of you may have received letters from Rodney Bruce pretending to be the president of IDEFA and attempting to update the membership on matters concerning the Association. The IDEFA Board of Directors would like to remind our members that Rodney Bruce is no longer the president of this Association nor is he any longer a member of IDEFA. In that Rodney has been expelled from the Association, he is not permitted to attend any IDEFA functions. Rodney’s avenue to address the Board’s concerns is through IDEFA’s attorney Mike Thomasson. The Board unanimously agreed that all future dealings with Rodney would be handled by Mike Thomasson. Once Rodney meets the criteria set forth by Mike Thomasson, he will be given another opportunity to be heard by the Board. Until such time, the IDEFA Board denounces the letters written under the name of Rodney Bruce as they are divisive, inflammatory and littered with incorrect and unfounded statements. The IDEFA Board is unified in this matter and does not support in any way the letters that have been or may be written to our membership by Rodney Bruce.
Sincerely,
IDEFA Board of Directors
January 17, 2008
Dear IDEFA Members;
Another month has come and gone and it’s again time to update everyone on matters pertaining to IDEFA, as well as industry developments outside of Indiana. Just last week, the Top 30 Sale was held in Bloomington, IL and as usual, it was a tremendous success. The Sale continues to shatter records each and every year with the sale grossing over $4.8 MILLION! The top selling bred doe brought $130,000 and the top selling buck fawn sold for $270,000. WOW!!! Can the deer business get any better?
Here at home, IDEFA has continued to make progress on several fronts. Preparations are being made for our annual IDEFA meeting. Due to conflicts with a couple of other industry events, we have chosen March 15, 2008 as our meeting date. The meeting will be held at the Honeyville School at 4075 S. 900 W., Honeyville, IN. Doors will open at 8:00 AM and the meeting activities will begin at 9:00 AM. An itinerary for our annual meeting will be provided to the membership in our February mailing. Members should submit nominations for anyone interested in running for the 7 open Board seats, with a short biography, to Junior Anderson, Floyd Miller or a current Board member. We would like to prepare a voting ballot ASAP, so please submit your nominations immediately. Limited booth space will be available on a first come first served basis for a fee of $15 per space. If you would like to help in any way with this event or would like to reserve an advertising booth, please contact Junior at 1-800-366-1487 ext. 1110 or Floyd at1-800-322-5872.
As many of you may be aware, the DNR recently visited Cliff Carley’s and Rick Miller’s farms and asked them to acquire a game breeder’s license for the deer that they own. Both individuals believe that the language of the current game breeder’s license is not appropriate for their cervid operations, and as such, have refused to purchase a license. Both Rick and Cliff were issued tickets by the DNR and they plan to challenge theses tickets as well as the language of the game breeder’s license in court. Although Rick and Cliff will be responsible to pay their own tickets, the IDEFA board unanimously voted to have Mike Thomasson use this situation to challenge the current game breeder’s language. IDEFA will assume the financial obligation for this endeavor. If successful, the entire Indiana cervid farming industry could benefit. On 1/3/08 the Board unanimously approved Mike Thomasson’s Strategic Planning Document (attached). The plan’s long term goal is to stabilize all viable markets for farm raised deer by challenging the DNR to modify the language of the current game breeder’s license. Achieving our goal through this process will require considerable time, patience and diligence on behalf of the association and our attorney. For this reason, Mike Thomasson has recommended that all deer breeders go ahead and fill out and submit their game breeder’s license applications. Based on the outcome of Rick’s and Cliff’s cases, as well as how our Strategic Plan proceeds, Mike will inform the members of this association as to his next recommendation.
Included with this letter are the board meeting minutes from our12/6/07 & 12/19/07 phone conferences and our 1/3/08 Board meeting in Kokomo, IN. Please take the time to read these minutes as they will outline the details of many items that have been tackled by the Board. We have also attached several other documents with this mailing for the membership’s review. The Cervid Management Committee has prepared a draft of the cervid management program. Please let us know your thoughts and any input that can make this program more beneficial to you. As was mentioned in our January IDEFA mailing, several proposed bylaw amendment changes will be submitted to the membership in our February mailing. These amendments will be voted on at our annual meeting.
The NADEFA Annual Conference & Exhibition will be held in Fort Wayne, IN, February 28 – March 1, 2008. Please make plans to attend this event. NADEFA continuously works on behalf of the cervid industry and deserves our full support. Donald Schmucker has volunteered to assist NADEFA with the conference. NADEFA would like IDEFA to provide help with the Friday night auction as well as some of the booths. If you would like to give a hand at the conference, please contact Donald Schmucker at 574-518-1699.
Thank you for your support and input.
Sincerely,
John Murrell
IDEFA President