By Sven K. Lindquist, SCI President
In most things, both the devil and the salvation are in the details. For SCI, attention to detail is our salvation.
SCI is moving forward in a lot of ways that don’t normally make headlines yet are critical to the health and well-being of the organization. We’re talking about what it takes to make our mission a reality.
Our mission: SCI is the leader in protecting the freedom to hunt and promoting wildlife conservation worldwide. That’s nice, but there is a lot that has to happen between saying it and realizing it. It’s where the rubber hits the road when we find out whether our efforts gain traction or are little more than skid marks on the highway of life.
SCI is not spinning its wheels. We’re going forward at warp speed against a backdrop where much of the world is chaotically out of control. How do we do this? By having a plan and working that plan.
SCI President-Elect John McLaurin has been the champion of SCI’s long-range planning efforts for a number of years now, and the organization continues to do a better and better job of executing on that plan.
Much of the success in this arena comes from the tireless work of our Chapters, our Regional Representatives and our Directors-At-Large.
These groups are more engaged now than ever before and we are seeing positive results because of their involvement. A steady increase in membership overall is but one example.
Recently, I had the honor of attending the Italian Chapter’s 35th Anniversary celebration. This is an extremely active chapter that helps SCI live the mission in many ways. Also recently, Regional Representative Emilio Paris has been working hard to offer more information about SCI and hunting in Spanish by expanding the coverage in the Argentina Chapter’s publications and then circulating copies of those publications to members who prefer to read articles and updates in Spanish.
And last month, Texas Trophy Hunters Association held its three annual Hunters Extravaganzas — in Houston, Dallas and San Antonio on successive weekends. These events are extraordinary, and it makes us all proud to have TTHA as part of the SCI family.
The 20th SCIF African Wildlife Consultative Forum recently took place in Mozambique. AWCF is a great example of how SCI and SCIF are leading the world in addressing meaningful wildlife conservation.
SCI will also have a large presence this month at the 19th Conference of the Parties to CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
What all of this means is that SCI and SCIF are continually involved anywhere and everywhere that hunting and wildlife conservation are considered.
To do this, we, as an organization, must be nimble enough to navigate whatever roadblocks come our way from anti-hunters and the like, and we must be solid enough to stand the test of time.
With the help of our volunteer leadership on the policy front and our professional staff on the operational front, SCI is now bigger and stronger than ever before. And we’re not going to stop here.
Our work is cut out for us, no thanks to the growing threats from anti-hunters and others who want to see our hunting culture and everything we stand for erased from the face of the Earth.
With this in mind, I invite all members to become more involved with SCI and help this great organization be even better. Together we will win. I thank all members for being a part of SCI and invite everyone to attend the SCI Convention Feb. 22-25, 2023 in Nashville. It promises to be the biggest and best ever.
