The Middle River Group, LLC

fly fishing, conservation and politics.

OWAA News

Midwinter Board Update

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From OWAA Newsowaa-active-member

In January, when the Board met for the annual midwinter board meeting, I presented a report on the financial and operational status of the organization. Like previous reports, it focused primarily on the financial and membership aspects of OWAA operations. It is my pleasure to share that with you as well.

Even though 2014 saw some cash flow challenges, we are able to present a balanced budget for 2015. The key to our financial security continues to rest on the revenue side of our operations. We can’t “cut” our way to financial security; we need to “grow” our way there. As you will see below, we are making good progress.

Membership is up 10 percent as of December 2014 compared to May 2014 and Supporting Group affiliations are up 18 percent

Since the last board meeting the team at headquarters has been busy on a number of fronts, and here are some highlights of our efforts.

While the presentations were excellent, the attendance at Conference in McAllen, Texas, was a disappointment. There was a big lesson learned: No more conferences close to holidays.

When the U.S. Forest Service initiated a rulemaking on filming and commercial photography in wilderness areas we responded with press statements, columns in Outdoors Unlimited and blog posts. President Mark Freeman and I had telephone conversations and meetings with Forest Service leadership. We submitted written comments for the record. OWAA’ s efforts were acknowledged in USFS Chief Tidwell’s letter to the field clarifying the policy.

In order to help increase awareness of OWAA we sponsored the Press Room at the American Fly Fishing Trade Association’s International Fly Tackle Dealer show which is co-located with the American Sportfishing Association’s International Convention of Allied Sportfishing Trades show.

I joined the Southeastern Outdoor Press Association (SEOPA) and had the pleasure of attending their 50th anniversary conference. It was a great opportunity to visit with past and present OWAA notables. Board member Tim Mead very graciously made my “green ribbon” experience quite enjoyable. Thank you,Tim.

We added the Ocean Conservancy as a new EIC Fishing Category Co-Sponsor thanks to the good works of Brandon Shuler.

Working with the Strategic Planning committee we implemented a revised Strategic Plan -See Strategic Plan 2014 Update 2.

Finally, as we move into 2015 we will be focusing on having a successful conference in Knoxville, Tennessee, and looking at ways to improve member and supporter communications.

As always, your comments and suggestions are most welcome. Call me directly at 406-552-4049 or email me.

Early-bird conference registration Ends March 31

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Register online or download the registration form to send in by mail.

Save the date: OWAA Conference in McAllen, Texas, May 23-25, 2014Back in Texas for the first time in 50 years, the McAllen conference is shaping up to an event to remember. Take advantage of outstanding networking opportunities, as well as ways to enhance your skills and build your business.

Register by Monday, March 31 to receive early-bird pricing for the May 23-25, 2014, OWAA annual conference in McAllen.

Networking – In the age of social media, new media, tweets and posts, nothing still beats face-to-face time. Don’t miss this opportunity to network with some of the best in outdoor media and industry and make the connections that really matter.

Editors Meet & Greet – First, in a Q-and-A session, hear what editors are looking for in submissions and get the inside edge. Along with questions, bring your writing samples, photo portfolios and story ideas for a meet-and-greet following the Q-and-A. Editors from local and national magazines will help you sell you conference stories and more.

Test the latest gear and find the right contact for your product questions. Outdoor gear doesn’t belong on a table! At Demo Day we encourage all of our gear manufacturers to get you using the newest technology and products. See how it works and feels – practice your cast or take a quiet paddle around Town Lake.

Pull the trigger – Join our firearms manufacturers at the Lozano Shooting Range on Sunday for a morning of shooting product demos.

Don’t just hear the discussion, be a part of it at our newsmaker luncheon! Find the table most interesting to you and enjoy some lively conversation with your meal.

Experience the unique charm of South Texas – A welcome dinner hosted by the McAllen Convention and Visitors Bureau will be at Quinta Mazatlan, an historical Adobe mansion converted into a World Birding Center facility with trail and interpretive programs.

We are always looking for ways to make conference as affordable as possible and help new communicators break into the biz – OWAA offers a $75 discount on conference registration to first-time member attendees.

Relax after a long day of sessions at the hospitality suites Friday and Saturday night as outdoor groups, agencies and businesses host attendees for some late night fun and informal conversation.

We already have some great sponsors on board to help make the conference a success, including McAllen CVB, National Shooting Sports Foundation, Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., American Fly Fishing Trade Association, Outdoor Hub, Bushnell, Safari Club International, Hunt’s Photo and Video, and Izaak Walton League of America. More opportunities are still available for companies looking to increase their exposure and help support this important industry event.

Register today!

Bringing you the news from OWAA

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As executive director of the Outdoor Writers Association of America, I know first hand how important our work is. The opportunity to be part of the leadership team at OWAA is exciting, challenging and a career highlight for me.

OWAA is comprised of more than 800 individual outdoor communicators from the broad, modern spectrum of outdoor beats, from shooting to camping, fishing to kayaking, wildlife watching to backpacking. We believe in improving the professional skills of our members, setting the highest ethical and communications standards, encouraging public enjoyment and conservation of natural resources, and being mentors for the next generation of professional outdoor communicators.

We do that by networking with fellow professional communicators, publishing Outdoors Unlimited magazine, offering job and editorial listings in our Outdoor Market and most notably, hosting our annual conference. We offer craft improvement advice, industry news, information on technology trends, available job openings, conservation news, and business advice.

While much of what we do is aimed at our members and supporters, we do share a fair amount of information with the public.

I will be sharing that public information here on Dispatches. My goal is to help spread the news but also to offer you a view into the world of OWAA.

If you want more information about OWAA you can find it at OWAA.org.

If you are interested in learning about joining OWAA take a look at OWAA.org/join.

Change

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Time to turn the page in the Sadler career book.

As you will see below, I have joined the Outdoor Writers Association of America as their new executive director. This is a very exciting opportunity for me, aligning both personal and professional interests and creating a chance to help this storied organization move forward.

OWAA’s mission “…is to improve the professional skills of our members, set the highest ethical and communications standards, encourage public enjoyment and conservation of natural resources, and be mentors for the next generation of professional outdoor communicators.”

I bet you can see why I am really looking forward to working for them.

Our headquarters is in Missoula, Mont. and while I will be traveling there often, will remain based here in Virginia.

OWAA is comprised of more than 800 individual outdoor communicators from the broad, modern spectrum of outdoor beats, from shooting to camping, fishing to kayaking, wildlife watching to backpacking. From these diverse backgrounds and disciplines, members gather beneath the OWAA banner to hone skills, share philosophies, develop profitable business strategies and network with peers, conservation policymakers and industry trendsetters.

Want to join us?

Dispatches will continue but with a more random posting schedule. I will continue to beat the Habitat = Opportunity = Economic Activity drum, talk about tenkara, and share some insights into of life’s more entertaining moments.

Change is good and this is a good change!

OWAA taps Sadler as executive director

MISSOULA, Mont. — The Outdoor Writers Association of America announces the hiring of Tom Sadler as the organization’s executive director.

Sadler is a lifelong outdoorsman and has worked for years in both the conservation and outdoor recreation arenas. A former U.S. Navy Reserve officer and an avid angler and hunter, he lives in Verona, Va., in the heart of the Shenandoah Valley. Sadler replaces Robin Giner, who left OWAA at the end of 2012.

“OWAA is fortunate to find someone of Tom’s caliber to lead our organization into a demanding new era,” said Mark Taylor, OWAA president and outdoor writer for The Roanoke Times. “This era requires that we adapt to an ever-changing media landscape in order to best serve our existing membership and attract new members. Tom is more than equal to the task at hand.

“We had a number of excellent candidates, but Tom’s experience in the outdoor and conservation arenas — complemented by his vast professional network — best positions him to lead the OWAA,” continued Taylor. “I believe he will guide our group to new heights.”

Sadler owns and runs a consulting firm, The Middle River Group, where he focuses on advocating outdoor recreation and conservation. He launched the company in 2008 after moving to Verona from Washington, D.C. Prior to that, Sadler was the director of program development for the Trust for Public Land. He also served as the conservation director for the Izaak Walton League of America and was president of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation.

Sadler has worked as an outdoor columnist for the New Virginian in Waynesboro and writes about the outdoors and conservation on his blog, Dispatches from Middle River (middleriverdispatch.com). He also works occasionally as a fly-fishing guide for Mossy Creek Fly Fishing in Harrisonburg, Va.

Sadler serves on the boards of the American Fly Fishing Trade Association and the National Fisheries Friends Partnership. He also is a member of the steering committee of the Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture, a National Fish Habitat Partnership.

“My passion for the outdoors and conservation are exceeded only by my desire to share those passions with others,” Sadler said.

“OWAA members are the best communicators of those passions. To be able to help OWAA do more of that by growing the membership, increasing our supporter base and helping our members and supporters become successful is really an exciting opportunity.”

OWAA is The Voice of the Outdoors®. The Outdoor Writers Association of America is the oldest and largest association of professional outdoor communicators in the United States. It was organized in 1927 by members of the Izaak Walton League of America and includes professional communicators dedicated to sharing the outdoor experience. OWAA’s professionals include writers, photographers, outdoors radio- and television-show hosts, book authors, videographers, lecturers and artists. The association is headquartered in Missoula, Mont. For more information, contact Outdoor Writers Association of America, 615 Oak St., Ste. 201, Missoula, Mont. 59801; 406-728-7434, info@owaa.org; www.owaa.org. [LINK]

Time to Join the OWAA

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If you are an outdoor blogger you should join the Outdoor Writers of America Association.

My friend Chris Hunt’s recent post for the Outdoor Bloggers Network: “Outdoor Writers Association of America: Outdoor Bloggers Welcome” rekindled the notion of rejoining the OWAA and I submitted my application for membership shortly thereafter.

Since I am writing this post for my blog I am thrilled OWAA has opened the membership to qualified bloggers. More importantly I am delighted that my fellow outdoor bloggers can know take advantage of the myriad resources OWAA has to offer.

During my tenure at the Izaak Walton League of America I had been a member of OWAA, a venerated organization that dedicates itself to helping outdoor communicators improve their craft and the profession. When I left the League I let my membership lapse because I was not engaged as outdoor communicator enough to meet the requirements of membership. Having returned to the journalistic fold a few years ago I began to think I should rejoin but never seemed to get around to it. When I gave up my outdoor column at the News Virginian (Waynesboro), I dropped the idea.

I won’t repeat the many reasons Chris gave for joining, they are compelling in and of themselves. I will happily add my voice to his and say that as outdoor bloggers this is an important opportunity to improve your work and enhance the view of our corner of the blogging community.

Why should outdoor bloggers join?

Do you care about your craft as a blogger or do you just bang away at the keyboard and call it good?

Look at the OWAA’s mission “…to improve the professional skills of our members, set the highest ethical and communications standards, encourage public enjoyment and conservation of natural resources, and be mentors for the next generation of professional outdoor communicators.”

If you are passionate about the outdoors and see your blog fitting somewhere in that mission statement than join OWAA. You will join others who care about professional skills, ethics, conservation and mentoring others. You will benefit from shared experiences, going back 85 years, from the best outdoor communicators in the game.

Was that too highfalutin a reason for you? Do you want to make a little money as well?

For example, OWAA was an invaluable resource for me to find writers for the League’s magazine, Outdoor America. It was the best place to find writers on a wide range of topics. They were part of an organization with professional standards. As a blogger, if you want to be on that list of potential resources, join OWAA. You will be on the same list of the storied veterans of the genre.

Need help with your craft?

As Chris points out, “The friendships I’ve made through OWAA are lasting relationships that are more special to me than any paycheck I might garner from writing about the outdoors.” If you want to build those relationships, join OWAA.

At the League I looked to OWAA members to get some different perspectives on policy issues or to keep a finger on the pulse of the views of outdoor community. After I left, and even today those OWAA members I met or communicated with still are important resources for getting a wider-angle view on issues. If you are looking for background information, help with understanding the complexities of a subject or need to see who has written what about it before, your fellow OWAA members are wonderful, credible resources.

Would you like to visit some trade shows?

The American Fly Fishing Trade Association and the American Sportfishing Association have combined trade shows this year. At a recent board meeting the issue of media credentials for bloggers came up. If you are a member of OWAA you will not have a problem getting media credentials for ICAST or IFTD. I can’t speak for other trade shows but I am sure you will have an easier time proving your bona fides for credentials if you are an OWAA member.

You will make OWAA better!

The outdoor blogger genre is still young but it is growing. You are the early adopters and first followers. As part of OWAA you will become the storied veterans who paved the way and mentored others. You will help sort out the conundrums that will surely face us. You can help OWAA continue its important mission and make outdoor blogging better by your efforts.