Striper Talk Striped Bass Fishing, Surfcasting, Boating - View Single Post

BasicPatrick · 05-31-2005, 08:39 PM

Here we go again so I will jump in on this one. I will qualify by saying that I have been chair or on a committee of at least 4 different types of club/team/organization tournaments and have had this conversation more than five times. Here is my opinion.

The tournament committee must set the rules before the tournament is announced and in those rules need to be some sort of definition/qualification defining what makes up a "club". Both MDA and RISAA have bee very poor in this aspect with both of these tournaments.

As far as how you determine what is a "club", I see this as easy. A "legitimate" club is required by LAW to be registered both with the IRS and with a regulatory agency of their particular state. In MA it is the Office of the Attornety General. Hence forth, the easiest way to define a "club" is to require the confirmation/registration letters from both the State & Feds to be part of the application. The problem this brings up is that very very few clubs are truely legit. I suspect that some of the smaller clubs in RI have not filed in years. I know that this is the case here in MA. This is truely the best way to be covered by your insurance company and to avoid controversy with regard to who is and is not a club.

My second favorite way to define "club" is any and I meany any group of fishers that says they are a club and pays into the tournament. Now this is truly an open tournament that will maximize revenue for the charity. This is why it is my second choice.

Any other set of criteria will fall in between and is open to a lot of controversy because many clubs operate in many different ways.

As far as as clubs I belong to and who I am fishing for there is large controversy around this also. I belong to 4 "clubs" entered in this weekends MS tournament and can choose to weigh fish for either. MDA closed this loophole last year by making clubs submit names of participants ahead of time. this was a very smart rule and made anglers choose what club they are fishing for prior to the tournament.

Bottom line is that thiese questions should have been adressed prior to the announcement of the tournament and creating rules that exclude anglers after the fact is just pleain wrong.

05-31-2005, 08:39 PM	#2
BasicPatrick M.S.B.A. iTrader: (0) Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: I live in the Villiage of Hyannis in the Town of Barnstable in the Commonwealth of MA Posts: 2,795	Here we go again so I will jump in on this one. I will qualify by saying that I have been chair or on a committee of at least 4 different types of club/team/organization tournaments and have had this conversation more than five times. Here is my opinion. The tournament committee must set the rules before the tournament is announced and in those rules need to be some sort of definition/qualification defining what makes up a "club". Both MDA and RISAA have bee very poor in this aspect with both of these tournaments. As far as how you determine what is a "club", I see this as easy. A "legitimate" club is required by LAW to be registered both with the IRS and with a regulatory agency of their particular state. In MA it is the Office of the Attornety General. Hence forth, the easiest way to define a "club" is to require the confirmation/registration letters from both the State & Feds to be part of the application. The problem this brings up is that very very few clubs are truely legit. I suspect that some of the smaller clubs in RI have not filed in years. I know that this is the case here in MA. This is truely the best way to be covered by your insurance company and to avoid controversy with regard to who is and is not a club. My second favorite way to define "club" is any and I meany any group of fishers that says they are a club and pays into the tournament. Now this is truly an open tournament that will maximize revenue for the charity. This is why it is my second choice. Any other set of criteria will fall in between and is open to a lot of controversy because many clubs operate in many different ways. As far as as clubs I belong to and who I am fishing for there is large controversy around this also. I belong to 4 "clubs" entered in this weekends MS tournament and can choose to weigh fish for either. MDA closed this loophole last year by making clubs submit names of participants ahead of time. this was a very smart rule and made anglers choose what club they are fishing for prior to the tournament. Bottom line is that thiese questions should have been adressed prior to the announcement of the tournament and creating rules that exclude anglers after the fact is just pleain wrong.
	"It is impossible to complain and to achieve at the same time"--Basic Patrick (on a good day)