Posts: 32958
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | OK
Let's clarify what happened last year and why MuskieFIRST is involved again with the contest this year.
Last year, the Expo just plain took the contest over without discussing anything with us, despite all the entires come from the artists on this board (a copyrighted portion of OFM's overall publication platform), and even advertised it here without our permission or consent, took an advertiser we had on board we had just a bit before lost and advertised them here as the title sponsor of a contest they basically just hijacked.. (they still do advertise them over my strenuous objections, this is way beyond our permissions here)... so we actually lost money on a free contest designed to benefit the NPAA we were offering in concert with the expo in the past.
None of this has a thing to do with John; he is completely dedicated to the contest and his personal motivations are to display your art for everyone to enjoy. It mostly was a confused and perhaps unintentional move by the Expo management. We had a few rather heated conversations during and after the train wreck that occurred last year, did our best to understand the needs expressed here, and reorganized the contest with the auction on OFM, not at the expo, offering our 'involvement' in a cooperative effort to fix what happened last year.
The Milwaukee Expo will be the main focus of the event beyond the busy voting that occurred in Chicago. LOTS of folks stopped by, enjoyed the lures, and voted. The online voting doesn't need to be up for an extended period of time. In today's world of social media, the 'now' gets it done; there will be plenty of votes on and offline.
It's important that the online voting takes place as close to the time of the auction as is possible for obvious reasons.
So last year OFM had basically ZERO involvement and couldn't change a thing, had no involvement in the structure, voting, rules or anything else last year. This year, we stepped in and informed the expo folks that the artists on this board would not be allowed to be exploited, and although it's not exactly we would have done things, agreed with the contest format as acceptable and moved forward.
I have received a flurry of emails and PMs about this. I am quite aware of the couple folks who have done their best to submarine this effort, and we have tolerated all we will tolerate of the pot stirring from that quarter. I suggest they step out and leave the good folks who are participating to benefit the NPAA Kids and Family Fishing program. We have about 20 lures in the contest, and all are excellent representations of the craft. The voting is fair, expanded widely, and the rewards will be much larger for the winners AND all the entires. OFM covers the majority of the tournament based and show based NPAA kids events, and the images of a room full of kids holding their first fishing rod ever and wearing an NPAA Future Pro shirt is pretty rewarding, I'd hope. The very much appreciated and generous entries, hard work by John, and vastly improved relationship with the Expo will result in hundreds of kids entering the sport. And most importantly, the artists who enteredwill be recognized properly in the process.
Any questions or comments should be emailed me directly. [email protected].
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