Crews on PAA...

6/18/2009 8:04:27 AM

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PAA State of the Association Address

By John Crews

As the newly elected President of the Professional Anglers Association, it is my duty to communicate the state of the organization. The PAA has accomplished many goals in the past year that have taken many previous years to build. My job will be to continue our success and growth to assist the PAA in serving our members. In case anyone has any doubt, the members of the PAA are the benefactors since we are a nonprofit organization. The members elect the Board of Directors and the Board elects the officers. It makes me very proud that I have been elected the President of the PAA.

What has the PAA done?

One year ago I was elected to serve a three-year term on the Board of Directors. Over the past year, I have been closely involved with the operations of the PAA. I served as the Secretary under President, Tim Horton, and Vice President, Chad Morgenthaler. The accomplishments of the Board this past year are hard to deny.

The PAA Corporate Cup was created in 2008 to encourage more companies to get involved in the sport of tournament bass fishing. This unique event makes it possible for endemic and non-endemic sponsors to learn more about professional bass fishing by experiencing it themselves. Since the inception of the PAA our members have requested more events to fish, so the E21 Carrot Stix PAA Tournament Series was created in 2009 to add more tournament events and bring more exposure to our members, sponsors and the sport itself at tournament events around the country as well as on television and through live webcasts of the events on www.fishPAA.com. The Carrot Stix PAA Tournament Series qualifies anglers for the 3rd annual Toyota Texas Bass Classic (TTBC) with a $500,000 purse and no entry fee which will be on televised on CBS.

The PAA also created the PAA Payday tournament bonus program to give our non-Tour members another benefit in addition to the Affinity Partner Program. The PAA Payday program awards bonus amounts starting at $125 to $100,000 for anglers winning or qualifying for sanctioned events (see www.FishPAA.com for more details). The FishPAA TV show airing the entire year of 2009 on WFN is helping to spread the word about the PAA and educate anglers on how to catch more fish. The Board has been extremely busy growing the PAA and producing what our members have requested.

Now what?

The PAA will continue to build on what we have done over the past 12 months, again, which took years to make happen. The Board and newly hired Business Development Manager, Danny Blandford, have been working on a three-year event plan. The plan should be released this summer. It will give our members, potential members, sponsors, the fishing industry, and the rest of the world a look into our plans for events in the future. It will be very important to let everyone know our intentions. The PAA is very excited about this “road map” of where we are headed. We will continue to improve and make the best events and benefits we can for our members.

Outside of our events, the PAA will continue to offer our current programs and explore more opportunities for our members. The PAA Payday program will continue to pay members who are successful and our website (www.FishPAA.com) will have more and more unique content. Be sure to check our website frequently for updates and information occurring weekly. We plan on trying to get the PAA and our members as much TV exposure as possible through our very popular FishPAA TV show airing on WFN through 2009 as well as our tournament events airing on WFN, Versus, the Lonestar Network and the TTBC event also airing on CBS. The PAA also intends on working with any organization that has similar goals to the PAA in a synergistic relationship.

How can you help?

If you not are a PAA member, it is simple - the first step is to JOIN. If you are a PAA member, there are a couple of ways to help. Email or call the PAA office to inform them of things you would like to see the PAA accomplish. We want you to hear your brilliant solutions rather than just problems. The PAA also needs our members to promote the PAA and help recruit more members. Every PAA member should have pride in our organization. It is simple. The more members we have; the more benefits we can offer to our members. The bottom line is that becoming a PAA member is really helping to promote, preserve, and grow the sport of bass fishing.