Tucson AZ

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SCI To Move Business Office To Texas

November 16, 2023 by

Safari Club International recently announced their intent to move their business office and member services operation from Tucson to San Antonio, Texas. Speaking with a representative today, I was told that any moves for other parts of the organization were up in the air. Currently, they have their executive offices, museum, business office, and member services in Tucson. They also have a center for their advocacy staff headed by Ben Cassidy in Washington, DC.

Here is their press release on the move:

October 31, 2023

This week, Safari Club International (SCI) announced its decision to relocate its North American office for business and member services from Tucson, Arizona, to San Antonio, Texas, in 2024. This move is a watershed moment in SCI’s history and heralds a new era of growth as we continue to be First for Hunters and champions of wildlife conservation across the nation and around the world. 

SCI’s decision to relocate its Tucson office to San Antonio will enhance its operational efficiency while allowing for a greater strategic focus on SCI’s core mission. San Antonio will provide SCI with a more central geographic location for its stakeholders and membership while simultaneously allowing for even closer collaboration with the advocacy staff of SCI’s Armand and Mary Brachman Advocacy Center – the “Hunters’ Embassy” – in Washington, D.C. 

 “I am excited to make this announcement that reflects months of thoughtful deliberation and discussion,” said SCI CEO W. Laird Hamberlin. “This move will provide SCI with a wide range of benefits, including superior market conditions, the most hunter-friendly political environment, and an advantageous location for coordination with the widest variety of key partners. We look forward to SCI’s bright future in San Antonio!”  

This is just an educated guess on my part but I would say SCI probably has more members in Texas than any other state so this move would make sense. I do not think this move is meant to take anything away from either the Dallas Safari Club or the Houston Safari Club.

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NRA Meeting Rumors

October 9, 2020 by 4 Comments

The NRA Meeting of Members is scheduled for 9am on October 24th in Tucson, Arizona. As noted before, it will be at the Loews Ventana Canyon Resort. Due to COVID-19 restrictions in Arizona, you will need a ticket to be admitted to the meeting. Unfortunately, the meeting is at capacity according to a notice on the ticket website.

That said, even if you don’t have a ticket to attend the actual Meeting of Members, you can still come to the resort, have your voting eligibility confirmed, and vote for the 76th Director.

From the ticket website:

The Voter Verification room will be located in the Ventana Room at the Hotel and will be open Friday October 23, 9am – 8pm, and Saturday October 24 from 8am until the conclusion of the Annual Meeting of Members. All voting booths for the 76th Director will be located in the Voter Verification room.

If you are in the area and eligible to vote, take some time and vote.

As of now, petition candidate Frank Tait is the only declared candidate for the 76th Director. I both gathered signatures for his petition and endorsed him in his run for the Board. I continue to support Frank. He is both a training counselor and an experienced businessman. He would bring a lot to the Board.

Here is where the rumors come in. Anyone of the people who ran for the Board of Directors and failed to be elected is eligible to run for the 76th Director. Thus, Rocky Marshall, Robert Wos, John Cushman, Jim Wallace, Craig Schwartz, Kevin Hogan, and Frank Tait are eligible to run. Rumor has it that the powers that be are seeking anyone other than Frank Tait to be the “endorsed candidate”.

As a reminder, Wayne LaPierre used your membership money in the past to pay for people to campaign for the “endorsed” candidate. Listen again to Dezarae Payne and Michael Schwartz describe how Paul Payne carried out Wayne’s wishes.

It takes nerve, chutzpah, arrogance, and outright disdain for the NRA members to continue in a strategy that has been both exposed and is downright dishonest.

Worse than that, it is stupid.

New York Attorney General Letitia James and her staff have made it plain that they are trying to dissolve the NRA. Stunts like this only play into her hands. If Wayne and his henchmen don’t think they are watching, they are bigger fools than I thought they were.

With no offense meant to any of the directors or candidates, the plain truth of the matter is one director on the bloated 76 member Board of Directors cannot do much. This makes it all the more stupid.

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New Location For 2020 NRA Annual Meeting

August 12, 2020 by 6 Comments

Springfield is out and Tucson is in. The new location for the mandatory 2020 NRA Annual Meeting of Member is Tucson, Arizona on October 24th. The meeting is mandatory due to the bylaws.

An email was sent out today to the candidates for the 76th Director from John Frazer, Secretary and General Counsel of the NRA.

“Dear NRA Board candidate:

The Meeting Site Selection Committee met on Tuesday, August 11, 2020, for the purpose of deciding upon the date and location of the rescheduled 2020 Annual Meeting of Members. The Committee unanimously voted to hold the 2020 Annual Meeting of Members on Saturday, October 24, 2020, starting at 9:00 a.m. local time, in the Kiva Ballroom of the Loews Ventana Canyon Hotel in Tucson, Arizona.

Official notice of the meeting will be published in the NRA magazines and on NRA websites.

Balloting for the 76th Director seat will be held in conjunction with the meeting. Further information about the voting location and hours will follow separately in the near future.

We appreciate your patience throughout this challenging process.

Sincerely,

John”

Of course there is a conflict on that date. The 2nd Annual Rally for your 2A Rights is also scheduled for Saturday, October 24th in Washington, DC. The NRA has a “not invented here” mindset, for the most part, when it comes to other 2A activism. This was seen in Richmond back in January. The NRA held a “Lobby Day” in the State Capitol a week ahead of the long scheduled VCDL Lobby Day

Looking over the Loews Ventana Canyon Hotel website, the Kiva Ballroom can hold at most 1,000 people in normal times. What becomes interesting here is that there is a currently in-force Executive Order from Gov. Doug Ducey (R-AZ) that limits public gatherings to 50 people.

The hotel itself seems very nice. For almost $200 a night it should be nice.

The downside is that it is 18-20 miles away from the airport and a half hour plus drive depending on traffic.

I have fully planned to go to the meeting in Springfield. I had my ticket and my room. Now I am going to have to do some recalculating.

One things for sure – it’s a heckuva lot easier to get to Tucson if you are part of the California NRA Members’ Councils than it is for us folks on the East Coast. It is not named the “Sinister Coast” for no reason.

UPDATE: I have been told by Todd Rathner, who is a Board member and Tucson resident, that the Board of Directors meeting will be on Saturday afternoon. When the meeting was scheduled for Springfield, MO, the Meeting of Members was on Saturday and the Board of Directors meeting was on Monday.

Any committee meetings will be held by phone or Zoom later. Participation in those by non-committee members will be at the discretion of the chairs.

Committee meetings will be held before the Board of Directors meeting on Saturday afternoon. I was just given a correction on that.