Reflecting on the year that has passed since members of the Federal Wildlife Officers Association (FWOA) elected a new Executive Board, I feel a sense of pride for some of the achievements we have made as an organization since last Fall. As I recall, the election came on the heels of a somewhat depressing In-Service where morale was low and our profession was facing attacks from several directions. In my opinion, our immediate remarks to the libelous attack by George Reiger and his column in Field & Stream magazine set the tone for the FWOA over the last year. Quite frankly, we were tired of being pushed around without any apparent defending from our own agency and it was obvious that we needed to stand up for ourselves.

The Board felt a sense of urgency in solidifying the fraternalistic qualities that first created the Association in the 1980s. In order to have strength in numbers, one of our primary goals was to recruit new members to the FWOA as well as bring back former members to the organization. In my opinion, this has to be one of our biggest achievements. Over the last year, our membership has increased significantly and our Charter membership has added over a dozen new agents to our Association, getting us closer to 100% participation. In addition, we have succeeded in getting most members to pay their past and present dues which keeps us viable.

Over the last year, a strong effort was made to recognize our retired agents and increase their importance to the Association. I felt that many of the men and women who devoted their lives in the past to protecting our national resources were being forgotten. In order to include the ideas and opinions of the retirees, I have regular contact with retired agent Jerry Smith who oversees their interests. In the same vein, I wanted to pay tribute to the rich history of wildlife officers and so the wildlife art print titled "Thin Green Line" by wildlife artist Anthony Padgett was created.

I am very proud of our renewed role with the North American Wildlife Enforcement Officers Association (NAWEOA). This past Summer, the FWOA actively participated at the NAWEOA conference in Albany, NY, and the reaction to our presence was very positive. From the responses we heard every day, it was obvious that the FWOA was breaking down years of barriers that have developed between the feds and the states by the lack of interest in the NAWEOA conferences of the past. Nearly a dozen FWOA members assisted in cooking the hog at the Sporting Clays event. This hog roast has fast become the requested attraction at the annual conference and NAWEOA 2001 in Nebraska and NAWEOA 2002 in Indiana have already requested the FWOA to sponsor their hog roasts. We have accepted the invitation and look forward to building on our relationship with NAWEOA and the hundreds of officers that we have met. In addition, the FWOA booth attracted several hundred officers and their families from throughout North America and dozens of prints as well as over $2,500 worth of FWOA merchandise was sold during the conference. We are continuing to increase our exposure nationwide, thus promoting our profession. 

I must say that my proudest moment to date as president of the Association was during the reception we received at the NAWEOA banquet when it was announced that the FWOA was pledging $5,000 towards the North American Wildlife Officers Memorial & Museum being built in North Dakota. As I stood at the podium before several hundred of my peers from around North American, I felt goose bumps as I spoke to the crowd at the banquet and made the pledge on behalf of all of our members. The roar of the crowd reassured me that we were doing the right thing by honoring those killed in the line of duty and it made the countless hours spent raising money through the FWOA raffle and the sale of the "Thin Green Line" seem worth the effort. Our first $1,000 installment was provided to Dilbert Tibke, Director of the Memorial. The recent success of the FWOA raffle may allow us to make our payments earlier than the five year pledge. The FWOA raffle generated nearly $3,700 worth of ticket sales this Summer and another raffle with bigger and better prizes will be conducted next Spring.

I also believe that the willingness for Chief Kevin Adams to meet with the Board over the last year and to discuss important issues has been valuable to the FWOA and speaks volumes on the role of this Association in the eyes of those in Washington. This desire to work with the FWOA is a positive step forward in our history and highlights a Chief who is willing to listen to our members. Being admittedly critical of the Agency at times, I must also give credit where credit is due. When the Board requested that the Agency consider reclassifying our position descriptions to 1811s, Chief Adams was open minded about this request and took it back to Washington. As of today, every indication is that our PDs will soon be changed to 1811s and our future agents will soon be hired under this new job series. The Chief's commitment to replenishing our work force and increasing our budgets have also been top agenda items of our informal discussions. I believe the ability of the FWOA to voice an opinion to the Agency is crucial in perpetuating our profession.

Throughout the year, I have been openly skeptical about the fate of the proposed LE budget that was presented to us last Fall by Chief Adams and Director Jamie Clark. With history being on my side, I felt confident that this year would be no different than the same broken promises we have all grown accustomed to year after year. Acknowledging that the budget has not been signed by the President at this time, every indication from Washington is that LE will make history by finally getting a real budget, around $8 million dollars! That is a far cry from the $990,000 that Congress offered us earlier and speaks volumes on the support and dedication to LE made by Director Clark and Chief Adams and their staffs. A letter of appreciation was forwarded to the Director from the FWOA.

I recognize that most of our achievements have been fraternalistic. Little things such as creating a new logo, developing an awesome banner, providing access worldwide to FWOA officers through the Internet, sustaining one of the top webpages around, raising thousands of dollars through the sale of the wildlife art print, promoting a scholarship fund, etc. I also recognize that there needs to be more done by the FWOA to protect our members, especially in turbulent times as we have experienced through the medical standards fiasco, the budget woes and the torrent of retirements without replacements. One thing is for sure. The FWOA is only as good as the members who participate. It has taken me all year to finally accept the cliché "only 10% of the people do 90% of the work". This probably is true for most organizations, however, rest assured that the officers and the reps on the Board will continue to fight for the wildlife law enforcement profession. Other than the scathing letter that was sent to the FWOA by retired ARD/LE John Gavitt, and a couple other comments from certain managers, I have heard nothing but positive comments concerning our Association and what we stand for. As long as we speak the truth and stand up for what we believe in, then we can continue to look in the mirror and be proud of the job we do.

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