Thursday, April 03, 2008
Bill Cochran's Outdoors: Turkey federation slow to come clean on what's going on
Bill Cochran is a Roanoke Times outdoors columnist.
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“Personal and family reasons.”
Those are the words being used to justify the resignation of Rob Keck, 57, who jolted the turkey hunting world last week when he stepped down as CEO of the National Wild Turkey Federation after 27 high-profile years in that position. Those words don’t tell us much when you factor in that Keck has been the face of the organization for most of its existence.
Keck wasn’t fired, assures Peggy Anne Vallery, NWTF president.
“He resigned his post under his own will,” she said, adding that “his presence within the ranks of the NWTF will be sorely missed.”
Keck told the federation’s 550,000 members to “take a deep breath and devote yourself to moving us forward.
“NWFT has a history of doing well both in good times and bad,” he said in a prepared statement. “I have complete confidence in the future of the NWTF, that it will remain dedicated to our mission.”
He plans to stick around until June 1.
NWTF officials have been slow to tell members what the heck is going on. After all, members are the organization’s stock holders. They provide the funding that pays the bills. They have advanced the enthusiasm and support that has made the NWTF a huge success since its origin 35 years ago.
On Wednesday, Vallery posted a bit more information, saying, “No allegations of criminal activity have been made.” In a rather confusing statement she implied that the most recent NWTF annual audit had revealed that the organization’s books are in good order.
Vallery has emphasized that the organization “has undergone change.” That appears to be at the heart of what is going on.
As I mentioned in my column last week, written just hours before Keck’s resignation was announced, the NWTF has struggled a bit while moving from a mission of stocking turkeys, which pretty well has been accomplished, to one of propagating habitat and hunters. In other words, the organization’s product has changed and become more difficult to sell.
We don’t know if Keck’s resignation has to do with a change in philosophy or mission or what. NWTF hasn’t come clean on that. So that leaves Web sites to fill in the gap, and they say Keck was peeved over the recent firing of two long-term, high-level, heavily involved staff people: chief operating officer Carl Brown, with 28 years of service, and vice president of sales and marketing Dick Rosenlieb, with 19 years of service.
Why were they fired? The lack of vision? Unbending allegiance to the old way of doing things? Something even worse?
The NWTF isn’t saying, nor are Keck, Brown and Rosenlieb.
“I think it is a sad day for the federation, and the future for the organization right now is very unclear,” Brown told the Southern Sporting Journal.
This brings the question: Will the NWTF survive? Should it survive?
No question, it should and will, although in the future it may not be the glittering giant it once was. Most likely it will be leaner, with fewer members, a smaller budget, less staff, and a lower profile. But it is too important to be lost.
“We’re an organization that will emerge from this and move forward into an era of conservation success,” said Vallery. She told members Wednesday: “We hope you’ll take that journey with us.”
Already word has been dispatched that a new CEO is being sought. There is not much chance another Rob Keck will be found, a man who was equally at home in a turkey blind or board room.
Keck came along at just the right time and rode the wave of the return of the wild turkey, making huge contributions to the restoration effort, but often getting the spotlight that really belonged to the hard-working staff of natural resource agencies.
In Virginia, that included:
>Dr. Henry Mosby, pioneer researcher at Virginia Tech.
>Andy Huffman, who helped prefect the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries’ trap-and-transfer method of expanding the range of turkeys; and, later, Kenny Sexton.
>DGIF biologists Charles Perry and Joe Coggin who directed research and wrote a book titled “The Wild Turkey in Virginia.” You can add their bosses and a host of game wardens and wildlife biologist assistances.
>DGIF biologist Kit Shaffer, who forever will be Virginia’s Mr. Turkey.
> Current DGIF biologist Gary Norman, who helped advance research to the level of science.
These field soldiers never received the high salaries and the perks of the NWTF, but they largely are responsible for the toms you hear gobbling on the ridge tops and in the swamps on these spring morning.
