UPSA Presidents letter……April 2008
Directly following our January meeting I sent letters as
directed by this group, to the Governor, our state representatives, state
senators and MDNR commissioners that requested an investigation into the MDNR’s
funding and agenda. We never did receive any type of communication from the
governor and only learned via an article in the Marquette Mining Journal that
our request was denied. I was personally attacked by a sports writer as having
a personal agenda for taking this action. So be it. The result of this refusal
by the administration led to a series of information meetings to let our
political leaders and U.P. MDNR commissioners see the “rest of the story.
Meetings have been held in Marquette and Gaylord with several hundred
sportspeople attending. Our Marquette
meeting brought five state representatives, our state senator, and our MDNR
commissioners to us. Our MDNR director and other top management have chosen to
remain out of touch. For the most part it has been bussiness as usual for them
and their promise to be more transparent and responsive to sportspeople has
been an insult. We are currently working with our commissioners and our
political representatives to change this and be heard and responded to.
Our new secretary, Paul Polanski, has been an energetic
addition to our staff. He has updated our files and placed them on computer
disks. He has reviewed our charters and all legal documents and has kept us
updated on several items.
Under Paul’s direction a sporting clays shoot has been
scheduled for May 17th. The proceeds will go to our travel fund. We
need the cooperation of all affiliates to pull this off. Paul is requesting
donations for prizes and the participation of as many shooters as possible. He
has setup a web page on the internet which he will discuss today. It is located
at UPMISA.com
There are membership applications available today and we
request that everyone take some and recruit any organization in your area to
join us. We want to represent the voice of sportspeople in the U.P. and need to
have them united with us.
G. Dale McNamee President UPSA