00:00:09 Speaker 1: From Meat Eaters World News headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This is Cal's wee Can Review with Ryan cal Callahan. Now here's Cal. 00:00:20 Speaker 2: Hey, what's happening, friends and neighbors. This week's special drop Cal's week in Review, our weekly insertion of extra conservation knowledge. We have a very special guest, someone you may know, Steven Ranella. Steve is not here in his official capacity as like the man at the helm of Meat Eater, but in his capacity as a Teddy Roosevelt Conservation Partnership board member and at risk of talking about a topic that may not seem like a real, oh intriguing area of perview, I guess I don't know. 00:01:00 Speaker 1: Inquiry inquiry There you go. Some people there might not be dudes at home dying to know about what boards, what what nonprofit boards are all about. 00:01:09 Speaker 2: Yeah, but you know, folks always want to know about how they can be involved in conservation groups, and we get a ton of that at the ASCAL email. So I thought it'd be good just get do a quick hitter here with old Steve about why the heck a guy who's as busy as he is is on the board of a conservation group which is an unpaid position. You're volunteer. Why you doing it? 00:01:40 Speaker 1: I'm doing it because, man, it's a it's a big conversation. I'm doing it largely because I was asked. I was invited to do it. I have a ton to say about being on it, but I didn't. I didn't uh pursue it. Now recently I did, Like I was recently at a fundraiser event for a different conservation organization, and I sort of dropped a hint that in the future that would be of interest to me, you know, but with with the TRCP or Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. They I didn't realize, but I I, you know, maybe I was cultivated as a board member, Like I was invited into certain discussions and did some fundraiser stuff and eventually got the invitation to do it, And without really knowing what it meant to be a board member, I became a board member and I am. There are a lot of different kinds of board members. I see that there's like different roles at board. There's ways to be a valuable board member, and I have I feel like I have a fairly I make a fairly narrow contribution to the board at TRCP, and uh, you. 00:03:01 Speaker 2: Know, in my experience you're you're referencing. There's board members who are very well connected with people who are in a position to make financial contributions to a nonprofit. There's board members who are well connected, well studied, and can help inform and guide the CEO in policy or marketing decisions for the organization. There's board members who have all of those skills or their their previous jobs gave them an added layer of insight into areas that that your nonprofit that you're exploring works on. 00:03:52 Speaker 1: Right, So, I'm not sure at the latest count at t RCP there might be about I'm not sure to lays count around twenty four board members. So with TRCP, let's think about that partnership thing for a minute. So, just to help people get up to speed on what TRCP does, I'll start by what they don't do. Okay, you have a bunch of there's a lot of conservation organizations that do a lot of habit like habitat work. They do land transfers, they're very involved on the ground doing on the ground conservation work. Okay, rim Ducks Unlimited National Turkey Federation, like they're doing on the ground habitat work, among many other things, Okay, helping out helping out federal agencies, helping out state agencies like doing you know, down to the business of like removing old fencing or prying. 00:04:47 Speaker 2: A chainsaw, setting things on fire. 00:04:50 Speaker 1: Yep, like real on the ground stuff. TRCP is. Trcp's focus is federal policy. So as much as everybody loves this say like that, howeverybody loves to hate lobbyists, you don't really there are lobbyists that work against you, and there's lobbyists that work for you. And TRCP is on the ground in DC, influencing, guiding federal policy for the benefit of hunters and anglers. So we know that that under the Biden administration, there's a lot of spending on infrastructure. Okay, so they're going to have this big pot of money they're going to spend on infrastructure that's already happening. No one's going to stop that. What can be done out of that infrastructure spending when they go to spend that infrastructure money, how can that be guided to be beneficial to wildlife? Okay? How can habitat and wildlife benefit from infrastructure spending? And maybe you know overpasses on migration wildlife migration corridors. Right, another area of federal policy, we have a big thing called the Farm Built, huge piece of legislation that impacts private land conservation all over the place. 00:06:00 Speaker 2: Many people call it the single largest piece of legislation that impacts conservation. It's the biggest conservation thing that we have in our pocket. 00:06:11 Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's like that. At TRCP, conversations about the farm built never go away. How can we influence the crafting of the farm bill to benefit wildlife, to benefit hunters and angers. So that's kind of stuff they work on. Let me give you one more example, the deep Water Horizon oil spill. Okay, when all that money came in for cleanup, how can we how can that money be best spent to rehabilitate fisheries? In that case, money could go in crazy directions, right, like people can find all this like tangential stuff for that money, Like how do we keep that money on task for fisheries? So those would be areas that that the TRCP plays in the partnership is that on certain issues they represent a wide array of conservation organizations. So of those twenty four board members, Becky Humphries, who is running National Wild Turkey Federation, was a board member. She currently is the Becky Humphries is currently they interim interim CEO and president of TRCP, but she at a time ran NWTF and held a board seat at TRCP. So there's a type of board member there right. The CEO, I don't know what the title of the US at Pheasants Forever was a CEO, president's CEO whatever. Howard Vincent very successfully ran Pheasants Forever at the same time he held a board seat at TRCP because they would collaborate together. So that's like a type of board member. At a time. They might have board members who are people from the sporting goods world. Okay, So there's a time when there's a brief period when the CEO of r I was a board member at TIERCP. Okay, So that's another type. So you know, the sporting goods world plays into the conservation space you have that you'll have other donors that there are other board members who are just great financial assets and I don't want to diminish their work. But TRCP has a board member, for instance, of she represents a family endowment. That's a family endowment that invests very heavily in wildlife conservation. She was a board member at TIERCP. There are also board members that are that have great fiscal chops, right, great financial chops. 00:08:51 Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a great point, right, because boards are typically comprised and there can be extra positions, but you have like an officers group of a board chair, a vice chair, secretary, and a treasurer yep. 00:09:05 Speaker 1: I think they call the Executive Leadership Committee or something, and those board members are really good at like you're running a business. Right, There's there's banking involved in all kinds of fiscal stuff, and so they bring all this expertise and those are the ones on board calls. You're hearing a lot from them about just like the management of it. Right. What I feel that my role as a board member is fundraising and awareness raising and uh, this is not going to come as news anyone at TERCP, but I'm never going to be more than that. Like that's what that's that's what I am, and that's what I do and that's what I have room for. And so that's where I try to contribute and with Ian. 00:09:55 Speaker 2: Your uh, your your however you guys do your call, your monthly calls or a couple of months, you know, however, your whatever your schedule is. Though, I imagine, uh, there's room for discussion on how TRCP is going to weigh in on certain issues that I can't imagine you abstain from. 00:10:17 Speaker 1: Okay, I'll say, yeah, I'll clarify that I get interested in messaging, you know, But all in all, I'm probably not well. I'm not. I have a lot of conflicts to keep me from being involved in a lot of the day to day stuff. I voice opinions about things I try to help with with with messaging and priorities, but for the most part, for the most part, I keep up to speed and what the organization does. I'm supportive of what the organization does. And I have never gone in and had any kind of a hissy fit about anything on why we're talking about this or I don't feel that to be my role. I could picture later in life I might have more room for that, but I just don't want. I don't want to oversell. I don't want to, like, in any way, over sell how I'm involved with it, you know what I mean? Yep. 00:11:15 Speaker 2: But then one thing that I think people may find interesting right, is like, right now TRCP has has is in a transition period. Had a long time CEO at the helm of TRCP for fifteen years. Yeah, he's stepped down. You're in this interim CEO period, meaning that you have a temporary CEO. There's a search going on trying to find that new leader for the org. 00:11:46 Speaker 1: I've tried to be involved in that, and that's part of. 00:11:50 Speaker 2: The duties of a board. So the board can casually be referred to as the boss of the CEO. 00:11:58 Speaker 1: I don't think. Yeah, maybe people that might not be a thing that's well understood. Is that's an interesting dynamic. It is because that they're governed by a president CEO who is mostly presenting to the board of directors. They're mostly like at the helm, presenting about what they're doing, presenting about priorities, right, and looking for some guidance. But they're like the boss of the room. But they're not right. They serve at the pleasure. They serve at the pleasure of a board, right, And so it does create like you can't become when someone runs a nonprofit, someone runs a nonprofit conservation or gets set up with this structure. They're not a dictator right. 00:12:55 Speaker 2: Right right, and oftentimes like I'm on the We've covered this a bunch, but I'm on the board. Just just became the chair of the board for back Country Hunters and Anglers. We just went through a very the exact same thing we had. Our longtime CEO stepped down. We went through a search, we interviewed a bunch of candidates, and we have a brand new CEO, Patrick Berry. And it's really interesting this this brand new person of the organization is running the organization, but weekly and for the executive committee and monthly soon to be every other month, kind of presents the organization and in certain aspects kind of asked for permission to say like, Okay, this is where we want to go, what we want to do. How's that sound everybody right? And it's like, okay, have you considered this might be? That's typically the way the board informs. That's that's interesting. I like where you're headed, but have you considered going this path or have you considered asking this partner organization for help. Hopefully that's not too vague for everybody, but that's kind of how we're not there to manage, but it's an oversight. 00:14:30 Speaker 1: Committee. Yeah, I think that in business too, Like if you're going to put someone forward to do a job, you can't hamstring them with second guessing, you know what I mean, Like like you're there to do a thing. Like if you were going to bring in a really a very effective person to lead an organization and they feel like they're constantly in permission asking mode, you. 00:14:53 Speaker 2: Could see how they wouldn't be in ass kicking mode. 00:14:56 Speaker 1: Yeah, it's hard to get it's hard to get effective. So I think that that's I guess that's one of the areas that I don't That's one of the things I don't do a lot of is uh, why aren't you doing this? And why aren't you doing that? I feel like you should be over here. It's just it's just not Later in life, maybe I would have maybe I would be more of a pesky you know, more of a pesky board member. And there's a role for pesky board members and around and around us bringing on a new one and initiating a search for a new CEO at TRSP that brought a lot of board members forward in a way where like a lot of Sunday afternoon phone calls and you know, it was like it demanded a lot of people, right, and so in those moments, I think you do need to be willing to step up because there's nothing worse. You know, this is a little bit contradict my hands off policy. There's nothing worse than being invested in an organization and then later having this like, well, I wish it had been this. I wish you had done that. I wish you hadn't done that. But you were never part of any of those convers stations. But you're a board member and now you've. 00:16:04 Speaker 2: Had the ability to be a part of right. 00:16:06 Speaker 1: And you chose not to. And then you do like there's a term I like where someone is called parachuting in someone parachutes into the middle of a conversation that's been going on for a long time, and you have a what in the world, why did anybody? It's like, buddy, there was a lot of conversations about this. You chose not to get involved in it. Now you're gonna have a you're gonna have a fit about this now, and. 00:16:30 Speaker 2: You're hurting the whole process because now we gotta slow down. 00:16:32 Speaker 1: And dude's that's not a super helpful board member, which is kind of why I don't. Yeah, I don't. I just I feel like I I as a board member, I feel like I know my role and I'm and I'm aware there's probably some there's probably board members that look and and and they probably feel that I don't maybe pull my weight, but uh later I will. Well. 00:17:00 Speaker 2: But that's the other thing is like it's a volunteer board, and in these times of transition, when you're asking people to step up, it is it's a lot. And at the end of the day, boards are comprised of a select group of people who are diverse enough in their areas of expertise to where if everybody can contribute something from their area of expertise, it creates this whole package that's going to help guide the ship. That's that's what your group contribution is. And at the base level, that's your responsibility as a as a board member to be like, you know what this is where I can I can chime in if it's appropriate. I've seen this before. Through this, my cards are kind of on the table, and that's going to help guide the conversation on policy or the next fiscal move, or the the logo change or all the all the things that may come across the table. 00:18:11 Speaker 1: There's someone I'm close to who sits on the board of a nonprofit that's not in the conservation space, totally different area, and it it almost strikes me it's almost crass, this this organization. When you're a bored, they come to you and say, there's a there's an expectation. There's an annual expectation of X dollars. You can give it or you can find it. Yep. But that's the expectation. Yep. And it just lays it lays it right out, dude. It's like, that's what this is ye. And that that is a board that is not a managerial that is not a managerial board. It's not an expert tease board. It's like you get a you get a thing on your resume for X dollars. Yep. It's it feels so transactional. 00:19:15 Speaker 2: But it's very it's very common. 00:19:17 Speaker 1: It's probably I'm guessing it probably is common. Yeah, and that thankfully isn't That's not how this organization is run, Like TRSP does not run. That's not my experience. That trs right. 00:19:31 Speaker 2: So I'd like to just talk because this is such a huge topic. But tr CP on the partnership side of things. When they go in to an elected officials office or even going to the Fish and Wildlife Service or Department of the Interior. Oftentimes they have gone to a ton of the conservation organizations the Trout Unlimited, bha Is Tier or Pheasants, Forever's Mule, their foundation and said, hey, all of these conservation groups and all of these business interests, you know first Light meat eater or of us, all of these business interests and then can even be like endowments foundations are in agreement. Here's our letter that says we're very concerned about the way your department's handling this or what just recently happened in regards to the BLM rules that came out and consequently a big stir up in Congress to knock back some of these rules. A letter was just presented that says, hey, we're in favor of these chains just as we understand them to mean X y Z, which are very beneficial to the conservation of the habitat species, wild lands, waters and access to them type of things. So trying to uh condense the message and condense the power. 00:21:22 Speaker 1: Yep. 00:21:23 Speaker 2: And here's a nice little package for you to know that this is how we want you to to follow through. Right. 00:21:32 Speaker 1: We had a we had a conversation we see with Becky Humphries, who's the inter interim CEO of t RCP, and we were talking about like a an aspect of what you're getting at, which is, so we're gonna have, you know, big election in November, and there's an issue of how are you gonna whatever administration comes in, how do you lay the groundwork and approach and then administration or the continuation of the Biden administration or incoming Trump administration, how does the conservation community come and lay out to the administration. Here's some areas we'd like to cooperate on. Here's some concerns we have. You're going to have certain appointments. 00:22:17 Speaker 2: Yeah, and by the way, what would you like to accomplish How can we help with that? 00:22:21 Speaker 1: Yeah? Exactly. And then you're going to make certain appointments. These are some great names we'd love for you to look at for the appointments. That would be people that we're going to interface with on conservation issues. And where's their room to cooperate? Where are we not going to be able to cooperate let's not blindside We don't want to blindside you, right, Like, so heads up, this is gonna be a big issue going forward, even if you know you're not going to get cooperation from an administration, it's considered, you know, a good way to partner and a good way to plan together to say we're going to have friction around this. Don't want to be a surprise, but this is gonna be an area of friction for us. If you're going to continue down the path that you seem you're gonna continue down, we want you to know that that we're gonna probably stand in opposition to you on this. Heads up or is there way you know? So you're you're doing a lot of this at the federal level, You're doing a lot of that relationship building you know, not me, but that the organization is right. 00:23:26 Speaker 2: Yeah, And it's kind of like the outdoor industry, right Like, the same names kind of pop up in different places throughout a career, and it's good to have that communication. 00:23:39 Speaker 1: Yeah, right, But yeah, it's funny that way in which that way in which industry gets involved is let's say, let's say you go look at over the years, uh bass pro shops has been up. You know, they've been a TRCP supporter. Uh. Imagine coming from that perspective, you're serving this enormous audience of outdoorsmen who are buying products to hunt and fish to enjoy the outdoors. If you're if you're looking out long range, like any like executive leader should be, You're like, man, I need to pursue that. I need to look out for the interests of my clients, my customers, who they're participating with. My business depends on them having access to these resources going forward. So a long range planning for the business would be, how can I align with the conservation world to make hunting and fishing remain strong in America and to make sure people have places to go boating and go hunting and go fishing, because I need to protect my business long term. And so they get you know, the really forward thinking ones get involved in the conservation thing as not just because it's doing the right thing by the environment, it's doing the right thing by their bottom line. Yeah, the future of your business. Meaning if you sell fishing boats and you know that fishery stocks are declining, Uh, that don't look good for selling fishing boats, you know, and so that's a part of that's like a part of the nonprofit space is like you're partnering with for profit enterprises who are willing to spend money to promote a conservation message. So you see a ton of cooperation between like a nonprofit organization like TRCP and many others and for profit enterprises and they maintain a balance. You know, there's a balance there where it's like they support the mission and do funding, but the conservation organization needs to have the autonomy to not become like an errand boy for the corporate interest. But it's got to be the corporate interest has to say I'm trusting you on these issues to pursue your things, and good leadership maintains that they take the money and stay on task and don't become, like I said, you don't become a corporate errand boy. But there's certain things you're working. 00:26:17 Speaker 2: On which can involve those exact same conversations that you just outlined, right, like, well, what do you want to accomplish, mister bass Pro or Cabello's or meat eater or whatever. Okay, here's where we might have some friction on that, but this is where we agree and that's how you you build out that that trust or that cooperative agreement in the beginning, right sure, and when we. 00:26:42 Speaker 1: Talk about. 00:26:45 Speaker 2: You know, we all like like that set it and forget it. Thing like we see the the TRCP sign on letter right where like great, click through it auto fills in your stuff and it goes out. B h A has one, pheasants forever has one. You might do a couple because you're getting bombarded for the issue, do jour and you should do those things. And it helps all of these organizations say well, yeah, we sent out this is how many people signed on through our sign on letter. When they go and they talk to that representative or senator, and that person can be like okay, great, that means something, and then they're going to pivot and be like, okay, listen, aids, we've heard from the conservation groups. And then it's like okay, well, actually here's somebody from and I used to do this on the first light side of things. Here's somebody from a business in Idaho. And I'd come in and I'd say, hey, this is what we do. This is how many employees we have, this is where we're located, this is the customer that we sell to. This is their average income kind of you know, give some demographic information and say, by the way, like we don't have a business if you guys push this thing through and it, you know, shuts down access to public lands or divest public lands for for a for instance, and then hopefully you have a bunch of businesses that are empowered to do the same thing. And then they go okay, hey, it's we've heard enough from the business people, and then hopefully there's okay, well the gosh, there's like a soccer mom of four kids here from and she just wants to talk to you, and and that lady has the same messaging right yep, she's like, this is where we live, this is how much we make, this is what we do on the weekends. 00:28:54 Speaker 1: It means a lot to us that that business thing you see is a thing you see played a lot and like our business, our company is signed on to some of these I know TRCP has put somebody together where that speaks to certain people in the political spectrum. Meaning when you do those robo letters, let's be honest, no one's reading those letters. They're put them in two piles. Yay, nay, right, they're putting in two piles. Now. The business thing is, I feel is a little bit different, where if there's an issue and you can come and be like, you know, here's two hundred and fifty businesses that are saying this conservation issue is gonna impact our bottom line and impact our ability to create jobs and keep jobs, which is X amount of jobs, yeah, and it's X amount of revenue. That that speaks a lot like if there's an invasive species that's gonna destroy, you know, a fishery, and then all those businesses that contribute to that fishery say like, hey man, I don't care what you gotta do, take care of this problem because you're hurting our bottom line here or potentially can destroy my business, and that's gonna be a hard conversation for us to have. It just speaks to a different political mentality. 00:30:12 Speaker 2: Yeah, because we all like to put things in buckets, right and be like, Okay, well I got the boat people, and it's like, oh, it turns out there's also the bird watching people and it's all tied into the same thing. And then pretty soon the ideal scenario is like every pivot that person makes, they get the same story. From what at least appears to be a very different slice that political pie. 00:30:39 Speaker 1: Yep. And picture those situations where you're like, I got the bird watchers on my case about this, I got the hunters on my case about this. I got the damn Marinas on my case. 00:30:49 Speaker 2: Yes, exactly, the people who love wolves, the people who hate wolves, that you know, and then all of a sudden they're like, turns out we're crazy, like it was. It turns out we wasn't amed idea or however it gets. 00:31:01 Speaker 1: Spil out exactly like I got everybody pissed off of me. Now we're gonna walk away from this idea. And that what we really saw, Like I think the great example we saw that and it was a real is around twenty fifteen twenty sixteen the movement around divestiture of public lands, which which comes up now, and then you know, there was there was a version of it in the eighties, there was a version of it in the twenty teens, a big push and it was one of those areas where you saw almost universal disapproval from conservation organizations at a grassroots level, disapproval of that plan, and then a real pushback from the outdoor industry around that plan and and that push. I mean it lived down in some ways, but that push kind of like rose and died yep, right, because there was a great coalescing of forces and a great coalescing of conservation boards that really just came out and showed how unpopular that idea was. And we don't see that a ton you know that we saw it with Pebble Mind. 00:32:14 Speaker 2: Meaning like not that many the broad diverse coalition that came together on that issued doesn't happen for every issue. 00:32:24 Speaker 1: No, you don't see it come up in my recollection. I can think of in my recollection, I can I can think of Pebble Mind being like industry environmental groups hunter Angler groups right, and an around divestry of public land. I feel like there was like industry environmental groups, hunter angler groups right really made it just made it very clear their displeasure with that plan became very clear. 00:32:55 Speaker 2: Yeah, which is awesome to have those moments of being like, Okay, we're all in this, in this thing together. 00:33:02 Speaker 1: Yeah, right. And at other times you see and other times you see something different play out. And I have been witness to I don't want to get into detail about this, but talking about being on a board of a nonprofit. I'm not saying anything I shouldn't say, because this is of course, this is true. There are areas where there's you hit, areas of internal conflict. There are areas, like I've been privy to conversations. I don't want to get into specifics on it, just out of respect for the organization, but there are there are these kind of like general areas of friction yep, among board members, which should be expected, it should be healthy. But like policy driven things where this group of twenty four board members have varying opinions about certain issues yep. And that I see can cause you know, a slowness of movement. 00:34:08 Speaker 2: But you could argue too, like that's the way a board should be constructed. 00:34:12 Speaker 1: How would you not want it that way? 00:34:13 Speaker 2: Right? 00:34:14 Speaker 1: Because it's not a rubber I guess I pointed out, it's not a rubber stamp committee. Yeah, And there's a lot of things, like you know, like a president of an organization, like they have to make a higher. Of course they want some input. By that point, the person needs to be able to make the damn higher, yep. They that could spend six months arguing about it. Like at some point you're like, okay, you got what you need, you know, make your decision. We're gonna agree with your decision and move on or spending or like they're gonna switch from that. You know, they're gonna switch from this lease to that least. It's like let your opinion, you known, let the person do their job. But there's some issues I and you know, there are some issues that become like you know, there's things that are wound up being very long term discussions about how to approach issue and that is carried on. 00:34:58 Speaker 2: Right, We're gonna make a a national level policy on we just talked about like emerging technologies, right, and it's like, well, okay, if we want to make that policy on a BHA national level, that may not sit very well with our corporate partners who make that particular technology. 00:35:23 Speaker 1: Yeah, are we. 00:35:25 Speaker 2: Taking that into consideration and how do we feel about that? Right? 00:35:28 Speaker 1: Yeah? That would be just speaking generally of conservation organizations, that might be one up being like a pretty interesting litmus test if you're in a if you're in the at a board level, the conservation group is when you do wind up in a situation where you need to take a policy position that's going to sit at odds with a major contributor. Yep, and listen, man, I'm not discrediting either of these perspectives because they're real. The real is do you say, you know, there's plenty of other stuff we can do. Why have the friction? Why upset a corporate sponsor? We have our our second and third most important issue. Let's just pursue those and not upset this balance. We have a funding or. You can say, we need to do what's right by our mission, what's right by you know, the people, all the thousands of individual donors we have, and we're gonna do this thing that's going to make a corporate sponsor uncomfortable. That's tough, man. And like I said, I'm not saying that. You know, it's simplistic to say you should always go it should always go one direction or the. 00:36:44 Speaker 2: Other, that that one direction of what's right could also be unattainable, and the others and the B and c's are like going to create a greater good for the long run in and of themselves. So yeah, it's not the classic black and white right. So what's your elevator's speech for TRCP, Like if you bump into somebody at the airport and you're on your way to the board meeting and they're like, oh, why would buy throw a couple of bucks towards. 00:37:20 Speaker 1: TRCP advocating on behalf of hunters and anglers in DC with federal politicians and federal policy. 00:37:27 Speaker 2: Makers boots on the ground in DC. 00:37:30 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that we're here here, the policy makers, lawmakers, legislators are hearing the perspective of hunters and anglers from a measured, balanced, intelligent organization that is not looking to play gotcha, not looking to embarrass you, right, not looking to make a big, a big press release trying to shame you, but like, how can we work together? Here's the thing that are important to us. Which of these things in front of you can we both win on and be helpful partners. That's there's a lot of things like that. Is not to discredit people out rolling up old fence and doing grasslands work and doing wetlands work and putting in boat launches, right, all of that's important. All that's important. 00:38:28 Speaker 2: And you're not saying you can't contribute there too. 00:38:30 Speaker 1: Right now. It's just that like this organization is doing an essential thing which is guiding federal policy, influencing federal policy and being you know, boots on the ground in DC. 00:38:46 Speaker 2: And is there a thing at the at the DC level right now that you feel strongly about or people should be aware of. 00:38:55 Speaker 1: Yeah, a lot of involvement, just some just recently. Some things that there's been a ton of involvement on is like the perennial Farm Bill, so getting conservation money and also federal access dollars, So federal dollars to increase access for hunters and anglers, getting appropriate thing for getting CRP or Conservation reserve program stuff in place. Helping private landowners who want to do the right thing by conservation on their private lands, helping them have funding and expertise to do private lands wildlife conservation. And again most of the country it's private property. We spent a lot of time in the West time about public lands, public lands, public lands. But meanwhile, east of the Mississippi, let's be honest, conservation happens on private ground. Okay, So having dollars, yeah, you know, having that expertise there anir thing with Again, another big thing was infrastructure. Another big thing is climate spending. So and I don't give you how you feel about climate spending. Money is getting spent on alternatives, Okay, we're they're doing solar, they're doing wind, and there's a lot of federal money going to subsidize those industries. Are those industries and this explosion of spending around renewables, Are those renewable dollars going to be used in a way that is less harmful to wildlife? As we develop resources, develop landscapes for alternatives, how can we guide this in a way that's beneficial or less destructive on wildlife habitat. That's a big thing happened at the federal level right now. 00:40:40 Speaker 2: And last thing, all of which I should say everything that Steve just said hundred percent, like you have got to be the classic saying of like if you're not at the table, you're on the menu. Every single one of those points that Steve are issues that Steve just brought up is something we all need to be paying attention to and weigh in on. But the last thing, if somebody were to approach you and say, hey, do you want to be on the board for this nonprofit? What would be your two cents? 00:41:20 Speaker 1: Like, would you say, I would be you're talking from an advice standpoint. Yeah, man, I would do this. I would get really granular about expectations and a realistic look at what you can do and is what exactly is being asked to me? How will I succeed? And then a self examination of am I going to be able to deliver that? And go into it where you understand what's being asked of you and you know that you have the capacity to deliver on it because you don't want to become a you don't want to become dead weight on an organization. You're filling up a seat and you're not bringing it. So like, man would love to help. What are you thinking here? My like, how can I be most beneficial? And then ask yourself can I deliver on that promise? And also you should probably familiarize yourself with the policy stances right and know what you're getting into. 00:42:30 Speaker 2: Now, where's the organization at what's the health of the organization? 00:42:33 Speaker 1: Yeah? And then and then you know, can you do you feel that you can be generally supportive of the organization or do you feel that the organization would need to change fundamentally in order to make you comfortable? And then are you really in the position to change an organization fundamentally, or are you able to come on board and be comfortable support in the organization and not become on board and be like yeah yeah, but yeah but all the time. Yeah, and sometimes that's helpful, but like coming in the door, you know, it's probably a good idea to be comfortable with the organization. 00:43:10 Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, because you're you're expected, if you're going to be at that level, to be an overall supporter of the organization and be able to like wear that on your sleeve, right Yeah, yeah, yep, because kind of recruitment for what the organization does and kind of like that. Grassroots marketing is a very base level ask so much so that it's it's very much inferred, right, So Steve, you got to go, man, I gotta go. Thank you so much, uh Gang Teddy Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, and keep writing in and asking what you want to know and who we need to talk to a s k c a L. That's Askcal at the meat Eater dot com. Thanks again, We'll talk to you next week. 00:43:59 Speaker 1: Guys. 00:44:02 Speaker 2: Expect at a t in action after the DATASA

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