Here's NYSBCF's current status.
This is an update of conference calls and personal conversations that I have had over the past several weeks with both BASS and TBF. I will continue to give you updates throughout the week of the National tournament if I am able to get online.
BASS - Bass has initiated conference calls with the presidents, youth directors, and conservation directors of each state federation. These calls were intended to promote their position and answer any questions that were raised. The information that was shared during these conference calls was no different than the information that has been made publicly available by BASS. They have admitted that the approach that BASS took in the controversy could have been a bit more professional but they are still stating that they did the right thing by pulling the memberships of the state representatives. Subsequent to those meetings, there have been a couple of state presidents that have also been banned from BASS due to activities in their individual states. In those instances, it is my understanding that BASS has temporarily appointed interim presidents to represent those federations. There is information coming out of BASS (during these conference calls) that leads me to believe that if a state decides to not re-affiliate with BASS, there will be an attempt to dictate where the existing money belonging to the federation should go. For example, what I heard is that BASS's position is that any money remaining in the federation accounts at the point in time when the decision is made to not re-affiliate with BASS belongs to the affiliated federation (which they will help to form in your state). This is going to come down to an interesting debate around the money in my opinion.
I also talked with the tournament director who would be running our Divisional tournament (in NY - September 2006) this coming year. He was very clear that regardless of the affiliation choices that each state makes, there will continue to be a BASS affiliated federation in each state going forward. This was a very strong statement about BASS's intent should states decide to leave.
TBF - TBF initiated a conference call with all state presidents earlier this month to answer questions and discuss the possibilities that have been noted on various web sites. During this conversation (Ted and I participated), TBF made it very clear that a decision must be made by each state about affiliation choice prior to leaving the National event in January. During this conversation, I in turn let them know that New York State was not prepared to make a decision of that magnitude until January 22. They also announced that a business plan had been shared with the state federation presidents, but I have not yet received a copy. There are meetings scheduled January 7 & 8 with TBF to which BASS has been invited and say they will attend. At that meeting, we are to receive the TBF business plan (what services they plan to deliver, when, how, etc.) as well as a full set of financial information for this organization. After this conference call, I had a private call with our representative to address some very specific questions that I had. They were - why the pressure to decide by 1/14. This felt to me like the pressure that BASS was also trying to exert so that people didn't have time to make informed decisions. The answer from our local representative was that many states have been very involved in this process for the past several months and had all the information that they needed to make a decision. The given reason for the urgency was the need to secure insurance for the states. I personally don't see what difference one week would make and they have agreed that NY could make a decision the following weekend. That being said, the current set of decisions is that 29 states have already decided to dis-affiliate with BASS and go with TBF. Our representative also said that<
