The BASS Federation Inc. (TBF Inc.) president Robert Cartlidge said today that the boards of directors (club presidents) of several state Federations voted last weekend on whether to maintain their affiliation with BASS or accept a proposal from FLW Outdoors chairman Irwin Jacobs. He said Colorado and Montana voted for the new BASS Federation Nation proposal and Alabama opted for the FLW proposal.
Wisconsin also confirmed its decision to go with FLW through a vote. President Mike Hoffman had supported the FLW plan at the recent presidents' meetings in Celebration, Fla.
Thirty state presidents voted for the FLW proposal at the meetings. Three (Texas, New Mexico and the Canadian province of Ontario) supported BASS and there were 15 abstentions. Montana and Missouri did not have representatives at the meetings and were given automatic abstentions.
South Dakota was also scheduled to vote over the weekend, but Cartlidge said he's been unable to obtain the results. Other states that abstained have yet to vote.
Cartlidge had originally listed West Virginia and Ohio as states that had abstained during the vote at the presidents' meetings and still hadn't officially pledged their support for either plan, but he called BassFan later today and said they were among the 30 that had voted for the FLW proposal. Minnesota had been left off the original abstention list.
"It's going to be a longer process for a couple of those states (that abstained)," Cartlidge said. "They have bylaw problems as to when they can meet and how."
He said there's been an "overwhelming" response from Texas anglers to form a TBF affiliation in that state (Texas has never been part of TBF Inc.), and also a strong response from Colorado. "We haven't heard much yet from New Mexico," he said.
Colorado president Jay McMillan said the vote in his state was unanimous in favor of the BASS proposal. "We had a majority of the clubs in attendance, and it was 100 percent to stay with BASS," he said.
