Should we move the Westside Winter Rendezvous/Fur Sale ?

[Trapper John]

Hi Guys,
The Biard of Directors will be meeting April 13th.  A lot of topics are planned for the meeting.

It has been brought up that maybe we should either move the Winter Fur Sale somewhere in the middle of the state or leave it alone and make the westside Winter Rendezvous/Fur Sale just a pick-up place to have our guy pick up the Fur and run it over to the Intermountain Fur Harvester Fur Sale in Idaho.

We would still have the winter Rendezvous so it would be a get together, have some Demo's, Lunch and sit around and shot the Bull.

Here are a couples of the problems:
We are never going to get many Fur Buyers to attend our Fur Sale.  One reason is the "Out-of-State Fur Buyers License price.
Second is there is not enough fur to make it worthwhile for Fur Buyers to purchase a Fur Buyers License.
Third is because the sale is over on the westside, the amount of fur, not sure that Fur Buyers would drive all the ways from Montana, Idaho, Colorado, etc. to our sale on the westside.

This has been brought to my attending.  What do you say?

I hope some of you attend the Spring Business Meeting.  The Board of Directors need to hear from you.
JC   

[DishBogget]

If you get rid of the fur sale then what is the point of being a member? Might as well just join Intermountain or ITA


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[JakeLand]

My opinion
1) - have it the weekend before the Idaho sale , I know it’s early but still in March
2)- get all the trappers to go to it and participate “ harder said then done”
    If it works better to central locate like eastern Washington maybe that would attract more fur buyers as there was a ton of fur and quality put up fur at that
We definitely need to keep the fur sale on

[Humptulips]

We need to keep the Winter Rendezvous closest to where the fur comes from to make it handiest to the majority of attendees. So where is our fur coming from. Most I would say is coming from Skagit to Lewis counties. Moving it to the Eastside is going to add quite a bit of travel to most plus there is the wild card of pass conditions that are still going to be a thing at that time of year.
Will we get more fur from the Eastside if we move east. I don't think so. At least 2/3rds of the Eastside are going to go direct to the ID sales no matter what we do IMO. All this is true no matter if we hold a fur sale or just do a pickup. If we just do a pickup for ID sales we might consider doing a couple.
Than we have the problem of a building. I think anyplace along I-90 that is not too far East is liable to be pricey.

If you get rid of the fur sale then what is the point of being a member? Might as well just join Intermountain or ITA


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I would hope trappers see the benefit of membership even without a sale. Whatever though we would be having a WSTA sponsored pickup for the ID sales. I don't see much difference between that and When George picked up for FHA at our event. It looks to me like shipping the fur east makes trappers money and isn't that we should be trying for. Something to be said about choice too so I am not totally opposed to a sale.

[UrbanTrapper]

I do see the value and I support a winter Rendezvous on the West Side regardless of whether there is a fur sale or not.  I want to see my fellow WA trappers and learn more about trapping. Don't forget the value of Steve Brownell's being there so we can get cats and otters tagged. You can't sell or send cats and otters anywhere is they are not tagged.  In the future, please pick a date that does not conflict with ITA and IFHA Idaho fur sales.  Most buyers won't drive past Glenn's Ferry, ID to come to a WA fur sale. Also, I lost money on cats because I attended WSTA Rendezvous instead of the ITA fur sale.

[Frank The Tank]

While I appreciate the thought of those on the East side, the weather, pass and other points lend itself to keeping it on the west side.  That being said, this must be a Rendezvous.  We must make it conducive to those coming to want to come and to come back.  If the fur sale/auction is only part of it, and not going to be the biggest part due to volume, then we all need to make it an event worth attending. Another point is that there are only so many weekends.  It's going to butt up against another auction.  From a business standpoint that doesn't affect most others, this part effects me the most.  I'll save the rest for the meeting. 

Frank The Tank