WISCONSIN WILFLIFE ETHIC VOTE OUR WILDLIFE

A Tutorial on the MOST IMPORTANT ELECTION IN WISCONSIN & Running as a Candidate

Attend and participate in this years ELECTION AND VOTE, to be held on April, 14, 2014. Plan to show up at your County-designated location at 6:30 p.m. so you have time to register AND immediately enter the room to vote for your delegate (the Election of the first delegate starts promptly at 7 p.m.). Every vote is key in determining whether State parks are safe or open to hunting, brutal trapping practices continue, packs of dogs are allowed to run down and kill our wildlife, endangered and rare species are killed for recreation, and we maintain control of our own private land! Whats in a name? Aldo Leopold and others initiated a grassroots effort to obtain citizen input on issues of statewide importance governing our public lands, waterways, forests, air, water, and land quality, and the stewardship of wildlife. The process set up by the hunting/trapping and hounding lobby in the 1930s, when hunters were unchallenged in controlling nature for killing in our state, named it a spring hearing. Over the years, the term hearing was viewed by the general public as an issue-driven process rather than an ELECTION-DRIVEN CITIZEN POWER THAT SHOULD ENGAGE ALL CITIZENS. THE POWER IS ELECTING TWO OF FIVE DELEGATES EVERY YEAR IN EVERY COUNTY. One night each year, the public can stand up for wildlife and their public lands in a way that matters. In aggregate, this elected body (the Conservation Congress), is comprised of 360 delegates (5 delegates/county x 72 counties) from across Wisconsin. The Conservation Congress is the SOLE ADVISORY legislated to represent all of the public. Only the Conservation Congress is recognized by the legislature (where laws are made), the Natural Resources Board and the Dept. of Natural Resources as representing all of Wisconsins residents when it comes to governing nature and wildlife in our state. One of the ways the killing special interests have controlled this Election for a stunning 80 years is by nominating candidates on the floor of the Election, the night of the Election. In any other Election, one would expect that candidates would be nominated months ahead of the vote, so THE ISSUES can be debated publically and the delegates positions are well-known. To those who have not attended this Election and Vote before, the Election seems second priority because it is rushed through first thing, with most of the time spent reading the questions, laboriously, one by one. (FUN if you are the one crafting and benefiting from them.) But it is the Election that holds all of the power.

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Delegates craft the questions that are put to vote, and eliminate any humane proposals. AND even if the public votes against some killing proposal, the delegates can vote any way they want in the annual meeting. This Is What You Can Expect When You Attend:

Registration.
Show up between 6:15 and 6:30 p.m. at the location in your county. BRING an I.D. tying you to your county since you can ELECT only if you attend in your county of residence. If you do not have a drivers license with that countys address, then bring an electric bill or bill addressed to you at your address in your county so you get two ballots one each for the 2- and 3-year delegate positions. Anyone over 18 who attends in their county of residence can vote, but the hunter DNR will check you if they do not know you as a hunter. During registration, you will be given: two ballots and a run-off ballot a questionnaire page to vote on the 58 questions a page to vote on any citizen proposed resolutions for change be they antimining, pro-more killing, or anti-killing.

The Election
After registering, move immediately into the room to elect delegates. That is the most important thing. PLEASE DO NOT SIT OUT IN THE ENTRY WAY FILLING OUT THE QUESTIONNAIRE AND MISS THE ELECTIONS!

The Vote
Complete the questionnaire over the course of the night. Be sure to hand in your questionnaire filled out and resolution form at the end of the night. Expect to spend a couple of hours and please stay the entire night to learn about your state Election and vote process. IMPORTANT NOTE: Any child of any age can vote on the issues but one has to be 18 or over to run for Election or to elect. This is a great civics lesson for children and young adults to vote on the world they are inheriting. Please bring children!
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2014 Election & Vote Tutorial March, 2014

This is What You Can Expect When You Stand Up as a Candidate: Wisconsin Wildlife Ethic is asking our members and anyone who cares about creating humane legislation to steward our wildlife and public lands and waterways and forests to become involved: Step up and nominate yourself, or better yet, bring along a running mate so you can nominate each other for the 2- and 3-year positions that are up for grabs every year. If you attend without another person willing to run and you do not win the first Election, try for the second position. Please contact Patricia Randolph at Madravenspeak@gmail.com to answer your questions regarding becoming a delegate, and if you are interested in putting your hat in the ring. We only want one humane person running for each position so we do not split the vote. You will be asked to give a 2-minute statement of your position. You will want to differentiate yourself clearly from the hunters by stating that you appreciate living wildlife and want to protect intact wildlife ecosystems with the balance of natural predators like wolves, coyotes, and bears and respectfully give nature room to function naturally without constant violence (or such). That will let the people who have come to vote against killing tundra swans, against killing white deer, and against having hunters come on private land following packs of dogs WITHOUT LANDOWNER PERMISSION, a humane alternative candidate to vote in. If you are not used to speaking in public, write down a short statement and take it along and read it. If you run, ask the people up on the podium to assist in counting the votes. It is not good to have the opposition party counting the votes! We need Election monitors. If You Are Elected, This Is What To Expect: Patricia Randolph, was the first delegate ever elected to the Conservation Congres s (euphemism for a Killing Obsessed Congress) to represent the non-hunting majority and living wildlife. She was elected for a three-year term in 1999. Patricia served on the trapping committee and was shocked at how little time it involved: A VERY LITTLE TIME COMMITMENT FOR THE POWER TO HELP: You will be asked to attend four meetings a year. Two of them are just schmoozing with the other delegates in your county and are held locally.

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2014 Election & Vote Tutorial March, 2014

One is a committee meeting. (You can request a committee. Patricia was asked to be on the bear hounding or trapping committee and they gave her trapping.) That meeting is probably held in Stevens Point an evening in the fall. The last of the four meetings is the annual meeting, held in May centrally in the state, and is over a Saturday/Sunday. This is where they review their conquests and plan new ones. This is where you can learn about the next plans of grabbing power from the 90% majority of citizens who do not kill wildlife, but who buy our public lands, Stewardship lands that are now prioritized to killing wildlife, and new weapons, and species for killing.

If you have a conflict with one or more meeting, you can tell the Chair that you cannot make that meeting. It is suggested that the delegate prioritize the committee meeting and the annual meeting. Your Participation is So Important! This may be a year of high attendance, both hunter and non-hunter, since the issues are foreboding and terrible, and the general public is beginning to wake up. The usual attendance the past decade has been about 5,000 mostly hunters and trappers. But they are recruiting and organizing. You can find out what the attendance was in your county and how people voted there on key issues at this link on the DNR web site: http://dnr.wi.gov/about/wcc/Documents/spring_hearing/2013/2013_CountyResults.pdf There are many key issues on the docket this year, including: Do you want legislators to authorize hunters to enter private land without landowner permission to retrieve their dogs? Do you want legislators to authorize the DNR to create a tundra swan hunt? Do you want to strip protection from the rare albino deer (ghosts of the forest)? Do you want to eliminate any hours restrictions on trapping so that trappers can trap all night in our state parks, Stewardship lands, former wildlife refuges and all publicly purchased lands?

That means they will come out in force. The year after Patricia was elected, instead of the usual 5,000-7,000 hunters and trappers, they came out 20,000 strong. Even though the public showed up 8,000 strong to stand against killing mourning doves, they were no match for the hunter organizational force.
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2014 Election & Vote Tutorial March, 2014

Over 5.6 million people live in Wisconsin and we are second in the Country in birding. With your help, we can establish an extensive network consisting of family, friends and othersspreading the word that this is the most important Election in the state (so named by the hunters). With your help, we can tie this Election to the county elections the week before ensuring a fair and open Election process for the most important reality we have nature and our ever precious wildlife.

Contact Patricia Randolph at Madravenspeak@gmail.com to answer your questions.

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