Come join TBF of Michigan youth club at BPS Sat Jan 19 11 AM

[djkimmel]

We are having a TBF of Michigan youth meeting with activities at Bass Pro Shops in Auburn Hills on Saturday, January 19 starting at 11 AM.

Any youth aged 11 to 18 is fully eligible to join and participate in our youth state championship.

Hope to see you their with your kids. We'll include a live demonstration on the big BPS fish aquarium. Ask the greeters at the door to direct you to our events.

[Ranger_Boats_Team_North]

I LOVE FISHING WITH TBF OF MI I HAVE ONLY FISHED FOR 1 YEAR AND THAT WAS LAST YEAR THIS YEAR I WILL BE FISHING TBF OF MI TOO. I CAN'T WANT UNTILL THIS WEEKEND IT SOUNDS LIKE WE ARE GOING TO HAVE A LOT OF FUN AT BPS WITH THE TBF OF MI. I WILL BE PARTICAPATING IN THE JR. ACTIVIES ALSO!!!!!

[Bass Pro Shop Doug]

Thanks for the post Dan!

We wish to thank the The Bass Federation of Michigan Board Members and it's General Membership for understanding our donation policy.

In the past Bass Pro Shops donated heavy to few tournament fishing organizations and as time progressed there were more and more organizations seeking the same donation given to other tournament organizations. In doing this we unfortunately shut out many noble  organizations that focused their efforts in educating the youth in their given conservation cause. A few years ago we made the decision to treat all conservation organizations equal and in doing this there was a change in the donation process. No longer did we do the huge donations, we now focus our community relation efforts primarily on supporting events or organizations that are directly involved with either natural resource and wildlife conservation, or that offer educational programs that help youth and novice adults to get involved with outdoor activities. Ten's of thousands of people who enjoys the great outdoors have benifited from the many donations.

We sincerely appreciate The Bass Federation of Michigan in understanding that for Bass Pro Shops, it's all about the kid's and novice adults. We thank you for using our donation as we requested, we thank you for your support and most of all......we thank you for making a difference and asking us to play a minor role in your projects.

On to another topic; We have more events than we have ever had in our history and we wish to let you know that you are more than welcome to promote your functions/ organization within our store. We wish to support you like we support Detroit Area Steelheaders, Lake St. Clair Walleye Association, National Wild Turkey Federation and the many others, we offer support in the way of free meeting space (Please see me 6 months in advance as our events are planned that far in advance and our range may booked) discount coupons for the purchase of raffle items or banquet prizes and the ability to introduce you to the many guests that walk through our store.  Please go to basspro.com and then look at the Detroit / Mi location then look at events to see everything. Our Spring Fishing Classic is Feb. 29th - March 16th, this event is not on the web site yet as I was just given permission to release the info to the public. I would be more than happy to advertise that your group will be at any event but please understand that we are six (6) months out for advertising and this dictated by my creative department.

We are looking forward to supporting your youth again this year, we wish you all the success in recruiting more youth and we wish that you have an abundance of volunteers interested in making a difference for 2008.

Thank you,

Doug Phillips

[djkimmel]

Thanks so much Doug and Bass Pro Shops. Kids need to be given something wholesome and fun to do like we all were.

You touched on novices too. We can't forget that there are teens and adults that would take up fishing if someone helped. I was happily surprised how many new adult anglers I had the good fortune to talk to at the Novi show this past weekend.

TBF of Michigan is about youth and conservation. I hope that we continue to leave the tournaments to the organizations that want to do that. Our one adult state championship is more than enough to provide the awesome opportunities for advancement our partners bring.

Otherwise, we need to concentrate on youth and conservation.