There have been attempts in the past to form these types of organizations. NRAAC comes to mind right away. I can think of two organizations that might suit your needs that currently exist.



The Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council (PIJAC, www.pijac.org) is a well established national pet lobbying group. PIJAC represents pet stores and others in the industry and are well known in the industry. They do not represent only herp interests, but they do try and defend against lawas against herps since it does affect the pet industry



The National Amphibian and Reptiles Owners Aliance (NAROA, www.naroa.info) is a grass roots organization. NAROA is still small but is dedicated. I don't think they have much pull in the national arena yet, but I know they were participating in Chicago with the proposed ban there. They are not big yet but could grow one day.



As previous people have mentioned, your local herp society is a great place to start. I've always thought that some national organization of herp societies would be benificial. This way you are tapping into the built in organization of local herp societies to fight local or regional issues and still have the full force of members of all herp societies for national issues. The problem is that no such organization exists at the momment.



Any new organization is going to need money. Raising money through memberships (and ideally organizational memberships that could cough up a relatively large amount of money) is probably the best way to do this. If you expect people and organizations to spend money on a membership you are going to have to offer something in return. Something like a newsletter with legislative alerts and other articles or an annual conference with known and respected speakers. Obviously this would consume a ton of time, some startup cash, and you would need help from many volunteers to get it off the ground. It's not a task for the faint hearted.



Well, I'm done rambling on this subject. Whatever you decide, good luck to you.


-----
A.J. Sokolik

asokolik@wnyherp.org

Western New York Herpetological Society

[ Show Entire Thread ]