I sent my renewal in a few months ago so they got me for another $35. Oh well, I got way more back over the years from the forum, loads more than $35 worth of great advice each year. I've been a member for about a decade and honestly my interaction with the org was about 99% on the forum. The magazine was well done but I still preferred the forum.
I've tried to take this all in and let a little time pass before making a decision. I'm actually going to a FREE seminar this Saturday put on by a local chapter here in western PA. Erich Long will be the guest speaker and will be talking about hunting & holding mature deer on small properties. Plus I'm going with a good buddy who I respect as a habitat manager and enjoy his company.
Let me tell you what I think is the final nail in the coffin for my membership. Yep, I'm still pissed about the forum and pissed about how it was handled. But I was at Walmart yesterday with the family getting their back to school supplies. I always walk through the hunting stuff, well I'm sure you all do too. I saw a very popular buck on bag clover product from one of QDMA's biggest sponsors. It was originally $11.99 but was on clearance for $4.00. It was only a 2 pound bag but $2 a pound ain't bad for a clover mix. I saw the test date was 4/16 and thought about gathering up the last 3 bags. Until I got to the line that said inert matter...39% of the 2 pound bag was inert matter. So QDMA wants $35 from people for a membership plus they want them to support their sponsors that want to charge hard working folks $12 for a 2 pound bag of clover seed that is almost a pound of inert matter. So much for the free exchange of ideas and education for the betterment of the whitetail deer. The old forum was closed down because we were freely sharing ideas and promoting cost effective ways for guys like me on a budget to do this stuff without having to buy overpriced seed, equipment, trees, etc. from QDMA sponsors.
I cannot support an organization with a mission like that. I'm tired of a lot of people in the "hunting industry" selling an empty shell of hunting to new generations of hunters who think you need to spend thousands of dollars and kill giant bucks to enjoy hunting.
I couldn't help myself.
