For James Fischer,

I would like to personally thank you for your thoughtful and well informed post on the Bee Lab Funding and would just like to let you know that I had been in preparations for submitting the information regarding such but due to In-laws being here for the weekend and working on a newsletter just didn't have the time to get it going.    I am glad those circumstances prevented my composition as I could not have handled this subject in as thorough a manner and followed up with your answers as eloquently with the real facts and substantiated information as you have.   Thank you!

<Perhaps if someday the ABF and the AHPA could learn to play nice with at least each other, they might demonstrate the organizational maturity to present a cohesive united front on some issue and thereby be taken seriously by elected representatives.>

I have had a genuine appreciation for your feelings regarding the above comment and for 8 - 10 years opted to sit and listen to the animosity, accusations, and rhetoric that was flying around and chose to not be a part of either association for a lack of an ability to fairly judge, due to my own ignorance, what group to be a part of.
I do feel that if this industry is to survive, we have to play the game that has been laid out before us by our legislative congresscritters, lobbyists and the eschalon of empowered elite that require a constant feeding of our well earned dollars in order to make the wheels turn.  We might accurately describe this bunch as grubs that grow fat with the constant attention of those with interests and the bribes to fuel their approval.  In any event, that is our system and to get anything done we have to be nurse bees and hope we have the means for providing  enough bee bread to inniate a positive response.
About five years ago, I decided that this business was where I wanted to spend my efforts for my remaining years after selling my pest control business (yes, I made far more money killing bees) and enjoy my toil and sweat as it was the first thing I've done in my life that I had a genuine passion for.   I knew that if I sat and watched on the sidelines for another 8 - 10 years  and did nothing that my hopes for "living in my bliss" would be imperiled and I'd have no justification for complaining having provided no efforts whatsoever to avoid the grim reapers call for yet another american industrys date with demise.
I still remain skeptical and yet hopefully positive that we might arrest the continual downward course our industry is in and it will take many people like yourself to avoid the future that awaits us if we choose to do nothing.  It was because of this that I became involved with the ABF and did so after talking with friends from the AHPA that really indicated that in regards to educating the novice beekeeper I had made the correct decision as the AHPA is focused on the commercial producer.  Which brings me to the crux of the matter of my ramblings here.   I really feel, as you do also, that we need to at least work together and I would tell you that both boards of the two groups are better attuned to this need to at least attempt to work together in a spirit of cooperation. About five years ago, I decided that this business was where I wanted to spend my efforts for my remaining years after selling my pest control business (yes, I made far more money killing bees) and enjoy my toil and sweat as it was the first thing I've done in my life that I had a genuine passion for.  

I still remain skeptical and yet hopefully positive that we might arrest the continual downward course our industry is in and it will take many people like yourself to avoid the future that awaits us if we choose to do nothing.  It was because of this that I became involved with the ABF and did so after talking with friends from the AHPA that really indicated that in regards to educating the novice beekeeper I had made the correct decision as the AHPA is focused on the commercial producer.  Which brings me to the crux of the matter of my ramblings here.   I really feel, as you do also, that we need to at least work together and I would tell you that both boards of the two groups are truely of the same mind.   I have spent hundreds of hours talking with members in regard to the need for unifying legislative, educational and promotional efforts in hopes of eliminating a duplication and waste of those dollars spent for such.  We are too small an industry to waste a single dime.  As a member of the board of the ABF, I  have made this my primary iniative for the direction of my time and will continue to do so as long as I am a member.   As such, I introduced a resolution for a Common Meeting Site for a 2008 Convention Committee with representatives from both Associations.   This resolution was also introduced at the AHPA business meeting and was passed with a few ( was informed less than 10) objections.   It was passed unanimously by those present at the ABF general meeting.   While this does little to resolve many of the ills that have been plaguing our industry, it is a start and a modest beginning for working on a common platform.   It is hoped that the meeting will take place in Sacramento and it will, if those of us supporting it work hard, be at least a portal for future common efforts.
It will only be successfull if  the many who have sat undecided on the sidelines become involved and "make it so".
While the problems that face our country are decidedly gargantuan in proportion, and the macro-economic trends that are in place will present many challenges for us all, we have to at least make an effort to minimize the negative forces that are slowly devouring us.  Yes, there are times when it is easier to do nothing and avoid the
risk of the ridicule of those uninvolved but then we are nothing but slaves to the system.  
"How much easier our work would be if we put forth as much effort trying to improve the quality of it as most of us do trying to find excuses for not properly attending to it."  George W. Ballinger
Thanks again for your excellent information and would hope that all take the time to send a hand written letter to our "congresscritters" to assist in this important topic. Tim Tucker

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