"Do we stay or do we go" week for the BASS (or Bass?) Federation started this past weekend, which happens to be the weekend before the BASS Federation National Championship at Florida's Harris Chain of Lakes.

It was anticipated that Federation presidents and the now-banned-from-BASS The Bass Federation Inc. (TBF Inc.) officials would hear proposals from several industry parties, and that has happened. On Sunday

FLW Outdoors chairman Irwin Jacobs made a multi-million-dollar proposal (details not yet confirmed), according to TBF Inc. officials. Jacobs declined to discuss the details, but stressed that he has no intention of acquiring or owning the Federation.

BassFan CEO Jay Kumar made an unrelated proposal to assist the Federation with its media, and to explore ways of working with the Federation to enhance Federation member benefits through the Skeeter BassFan Army and the Skeeter BassFan Army Weekend Warrior Championship. All BassFan programs would be free to Federation members, and would not in any way be exclusive of other programs with other organizations. (Editor's note: According to the parties, the FLW Outdoors and BassFan proposals were separate, and the two companies are not working in concert.)

BassFan is unaware if any other parties will make formal offers to the presidents while they are in Florida.

For its part, BASS had several days of meetings scheduled with the presidents at BASS headquarters in Celebration, Fla. The first meeting was today, and according to several Federation presidents who spoke to BassFan, it got off to a less-than-amicable start.

"Both the morning and afternoon could best be described as confrontational," said Mike Hoffman, president of the Wisconsin Federation, echoing what other presidents described as the general tenor of the meeting. "BASS handled it very poorly," he added. "It was obvious that they came in with a chip on their shoulder and they were going to flex their muscles."

Washington Federation president Gary Morris agreed that the tone of the early part of the meeting was adversarial. "As soon as (BASS VP and GM) Don Rucks started speaking, it was set that way," he said. "Things settled down toward the end, but for a while you could have cut the tension with a knife."

Hoffman added: "We as presidents had an idea of what they were going to do, and we knew the places where we weren't going to bend."

George McNeilly, BASS senior director of communications, was not present at today's meeting, but he said BASS had no intention to create a hostile, take-it-or-leave-it atmosphere for the event.

"I would say that the Federation presidents were invited to meet for open, candid dialog and to hear the BASS plans for the future," McNeilly said. "BASS is fervently committed to the guiding principles of the BASS Federation – conservation, stewardship, youth programs, tournaments and caring for our natural resources.

"We completed the first day of meetings, and most of the assembled presidents (were) having dinner with the very same officials they met with this morning. What took place (at the meeting) is clearly subject to individual interpretation."

That said, several Federation officials noted that Rucks made it clear from the outset that things were going to change. As Morris said, "When we talked about voting for things, he (Rucks) said this wasn't the old BASS, it was the new BASS. Things weren't going to be voted on the way they were in the past."

If true, that should come to light tomorrow, when Rucks will reportedly lay out BASS's new master plan for the Federation. Hoffman said it's been rumored that the plan is set in stone and the presidents can either accept it or "pack our bags and go home."

"I tried to come in with an open mind," Hoffman noted. "I thought it was only right to listen to all the proposals and make a decision that was best for my state and my Federation. But right away these (BASS) people were belligerent and confrontational. They profess to be working for the future, but there isn't any trust. I don't see how we can go forward from here."

Dual Presidents?

Early in the morning session, Mark Heckaman, who assumed the Pennsylvania Federation presidency just last week, was stunned to find out that fellow state resident Rick Anderson was at the meeting in the same capacity. Heckaman succeeded Mike Dunkerley as the elected Pennsylvania president. Dunkerley is one of the six divisional representatives who were dismissed by BASS in November.

Heckaman said Anderson received all of the same materials for the meeting that he did and was being treated as if he were Pennsylvania's true delegate at the meeting. He said Anderson was dismissed from the Pennsylvania Federation last month for reasons that he can't disclose on the advice of the state Federation's attorney.

"I stood up and ranted a little bit," Heckaman said. "I requested that either (Anderson) leave the room or I would. Then (BASS director of angler and Federation relations) Gary Jones said any interested member was allowed to be there."

Heckaman got up and left the room and several other presidents joined him. As many others prepared to do the same, BASS determined that Anderson would be the one to leave and Heckaman was brought back in.

"I thought it was very disrespectful for BASS to do that," said Washington president Morris. "A few guys went out with (Heckaman), and most of the rest of us were packing up our briefcases. If they hadn't straightened it out, I'd say probably 60 to 70 percent of us would have left right there."

A BASS spokesman said that Anderson paid his own way to Florida, and that the meeting was open to any Federation member "with a vested interest."

No Ray

Just before lunch, a motion was made to have the presidents meet in an executive session – meaning no one else in the room. Everyone affiliated with BASS left the room except Ray Scott, who along with several BASS editorial personnel, had been attending the meeting.

Scott "just sat there," Hoffman said. "We told him, 'Ray, you're a part of BASS and you're not a president.' He finally got up, but he was muttering all the way out the door. He couldn't believe we were asking him to leave. Other than that, he didn't say a single thing all day."

Godleski Takes Over

After lunch, ESPN Outdoors VP and GM Christine Godleski reportedly took control of the meeting. She asked the presidents to use an electronic device to vote on possible solutions to issues regarding the BASS-Federation relationship, but the presidents declined.

Hoffman said several options were given as answers for each question. "I think the whole thing was designed to show how we were divided and how we couldn't agree on what should be done," he said. "All of the votes would have been captured on a computer and the percentages would have been locked in. We didn't like that at all."

McNeilly said the procedure wasn't meant to gather statistics that could later be used to show division among the Federation leadership, but rather to allow less-vocal presidents to make their wishes known.

"BASS utilized some computerized polling mechanisms to try to eliminate any peer pressure and to better gauge the individual and ultimately the collective priorities of the Federation presidents," he said. "The idea was to poll presidents for their views on how to best facilitate communication, which (all agree) required enhancement.

"We wanted to afford the presidents the opportunity to answer a series of questions so we could best gauge what's most important to them, and to facilitate optimum communications in the short time that's available."

Notable

> The word from those who attended the meetings was that Godleski told the presidents that any state Federation that aligned itself with BassFan for media purposes could not remain in BASS's Federation. "It was a shock," Wisconsin's Hoffman said. "She tried to defend it by saying there were conflicting sponsors and things like that, but I think what it comes down to is you guys (BassFan) are doing a magazine." Godleski could not be reached for comment, but McNeilly had this response: "Again, I was not present at the meeting, but we have been told that a number of organizations are making overtures toward Federation members, and I would have to think that if this indeed was said, it was cited as an example."

> BassFan had been told that ESPN president George Bodenheimer was at the meeting, but a BASS spokesperson pointed out that he was not in attendance. BassFan regrets the error.