March 23, 2021 • 49 mins
On this episode, Ben and Phil break down the creation of regional chapters for THC and what it means for the future. The guys are joined by Nebraska chapter leader Luke Reeves to give everyone all the details they need to join. Enjoy.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, Phil, Hey Ben, what's up? We got a new song?
Remember that song from Kayla Ray that we said we
were going to play. Yeah, I was. I was wondering
because this episode just started without the theme song, and
I was really confused. Yeah, I know you're confused. Behind
the scenes, it's ready. Have you listened to it? Yes?
I have, and it's beautiful. She's great. I made She's great,
(00:21):
You're great. I'm not sure about me, but it is
a beautiful song. We're gonna play it in its entirety
for this episode, just so you guys get a flavor
of it, and we'll we'll splice it up to make
a little shorter for future episodes. But here it is.
Do we have a name for the song? Phil, what's
the name of the song? I don't know. Did Kayla
not name it? Come on, man, well I'm Phil the
(00:43):
anthem of Phil t Engineer. Here it is no here,
it is here, it is your bow Where the Hunt
clip show, Colin Hunters New and All Hunt clamp show,
Working he can Shuttle or working Ben in hand we
(01:03):
congregate nice lovers of the lame. I'm full and we're focused.
We're just living for the search and dreaming of the
fire and a salty Gilburn. But we ain't coming back
till it's colden Lake, taking it slow so we can
choose straight, clean your gun, Tune your Bowl, where the
(01:25):
Hunt Collected show, Calling Hunters new and all ain't no
cold time told, We're no one's too good, We're all good.
No we got guilty engineer calling any cheers, blow hard
times calling, and bitter vegans crying. Remember there's always been
(01:45):
old Bright ruled by reason. Is our collective bay taking
it slow so we can cheer straight, clean your gun
in Tune your Bowl, where the Hunt Collective show and
calling Hunter is new and all un collective show with
thanks for fanks that opinions are subjective. You're listening to
(02:12):
the collecting. Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of The
Hunting Collective. I'm, of course Benjamin, Patrick O'Brien and Philly
engineers here. Phil say hello, Hey, Ben, how are you.
I'm good. I'm good. I'm feeling really excited about this episode,
but I do need We've just listened to Kaylor Ray's
(02:35):
uh the ode the anthem of Filthy Engineer for the
very first time. I'm that that just like gets my
blood up. I'm ready. It's almost like a goblin turkeys
at like eight yards and we just gotta get him
the rest of the way. That's what this show is
gonna be for me. But um, I just gotta tell
you this is this show is a little bit different.
We're not going to have like a real uh, We're
(02:56):
not gonna have a guest from Cornell University. Let me
just say that our guest is probably smarter than than
one James Tantillo. But we're not going to have the
regular show format. We're going to talk about I feel
the need, Phil to address the chapter formation of THHC.
The chapters that have formed, and almost a ton of
(03:16):
states will find out the exact numbers here in a minute,
but I feel a need to address that topic and
give everybody all the information they need, probably too much
information to join these chapters if you would like, and
then we can move forward from there. But I just
felt like we need to have a whole episode really
talking about what's happening over on Mark Zuckerbert's Facebook. Um, Phil,
(03:39):
have you joined the Montana chapter yet? No? I am
not on Facebook, son of a bitch. What in the hell, Phil,
are you would you would you consider lighten up a
Facebook page just for this purpose, Like fill the Engineer
probably gonna need to have a fan page or maybe
some sort of live video game streaming thing that you do.
(04:00):
I I'm I'm willing to create kind of like a
pseudo very light account for this for this purpose, I'm
not gonna there's that there will be no pictures of me.
I won't even use my real name. I don't even
think you can do that on Facebook. But I'm gonna
about Mango. What about Mango get to be in there.
If you see Mango Mango T Engineer on Facebook, that's
actually me, Mango T Engineer. That's a that's a T shirt.
(04:24):
Maybe we have so many talented illustrators out there. If
somebody wants to illustrate Mango T Engineer, I would happily
make a T shirt out of that. But that's what
we're gonna do, Phil, So we need you to get involved.
At this point. I've kept you at arms lengths from
the chapters because I didn't want you to get too
excited about what we were doing and um and try
to take control, because I now that's how you like
to do. But it's happening. It's happening. It's like an
(04:47):
underground movement, but a lot of people are talking about it.
So I'm i'm I want to keep it underground. But
for the listeners of this podcast, we're gonna we're now
joined by Now I'm not sure how to introduce this guy, Luke,
I'm not sure how to introduce you. You did tell
me that you and your lovely wife Lisa are the
first family of THHC. Do you want to expound upon
(05:11):
that at all? Well, I'm just uh, I just don't
think that any of the other guys that are running
these state chapters probably even ran by who they were
going to marry, you know, to you or Phil. I mean,
how many of their wives do you know, I dedicated?
I wouldn't call that dedication. I mean a point, they
could have just married any any old lady and just
(05:31):
with without even consulting you. And I mean, I just
I don't think that that would be the proper thing
for a follower of his cult to do. Yeah, No,
I agree with you. I agree with you a lot.
I mean, even if people came to be followers of
the cult with current wives, we should have some sort
of review process, uh to approve those wives. So you know,
(05:52):
I know you did call out air call as as
not having done that. So I do want to officially
say you're well, you're well welcome if you'd like it
to the first family Moniker now and you know, if
you should have additional offspring in the future or offspring
you know, your first offspring. We can then talk about
how that works at that point, but you you're welcome
(06:14):
to have that. So that let's make that official. Phil,
Can you give your blessing please? Oh? Of course, yeah,
thank you. Phil. So Luke Reeves in Nebraska, you are
the officially the Nebraska chapter leader UM and the first
father of THHC, the first Yeah, that's fine, that's fine,
(06:35):
let's go with that. So tell you like you're here too.
I asked on our we've created a Facebook page just
for the leadership of our chapter group and are called
and I asked you to represent that leadership group that
I think now is thirty people something like that, to
to address the entire audience about what's going on, what's
(06:56):
been progressing here, how the other people can get involved.
There's a lot of questions that we have people. I'm
sure we'll have, What is this? Why are you doing it?
The question I've asked many times is it legal? Are
we in any legal trouble? Um? Can we all get arrested?
And is there cool it? All these things that we
need to be asking. So I did send you like
(07:16):
a list of questions, but first just describe, like why
you want to do that, why you want to be
a part of this thing that we're that we're embarking on,
and what it means to you. Because there were a
lot of people, more than I thought, posting on our
little Facebook group about how much this meant to them,
And I take that, you know, take that very seriously,
take that to heart. As much as it's hard for
(07:38):
me to be serious on this topic, I do take
the heart that you know, people gathering and connecting over
this particular topic is important. UM, So give the people
kind of how you came to want to I want
to do all this well. Um, I grew up in
a small town in Nebraska. Um, just about everybody that
I was friends with, UM grew up on ing. Uh
(08:01):
you know, I went out with my dad and did
that kind of that kind of thing. But as we
grew up, UM, you know, around there it's all everybody
goes out to you know, their uncle's pasture or their
you know, their cousins got of cornfield where they accidentally missed,
you know, the Auger wagon with the combines. So there's
a nice grain pipe out there, and and essentially kind
(08:21):
of it, uh kind of turned into basically wherever you
could park your truck. You know, if you could park
your truck closest to the grain pile, you'd be the
guy that the guy that got the best deer. And
uh so I just kind of got kind of got
away from it as I got older, um got out
of hunting and everything. Actually majored in Wildlife and Resources
at the University Corny because I met a group of
(08:44):
guys there when I went I did like hunting, and
they kind of had the same sort of way I
like to look at the same sort of way. You know,
didn't it wasn't fun just to go out and shoot
your you know, it wasn't fun just to go. It
wasn't just about that. It was going and being in
the nature is kind of getting back to the old
ways of hunting, where you know, you went a lot
(09:04):
of spotting stock. I don't even have very many friends
and hunt more. So I really like that. But then,
of course, you know, uh I grew up watching them.
I'd wake up on Saturday mornings and watch all the
hunting shows and kind of the hunting media that was
out there, and uh, you know, there's only so many
episodes you can watch the guys, you know, Thanking the
Good Lord, that the Big Why they walked up under
(09:27):
their feet, and you know, they just can't keep doing
those same episodes. But then, uh, you know, I actually
saw you on Joe Rogan and telling the story about
seeing that baby up in the mountains and the wolf
that wasn't and uh so that actually drew me to you,
um through Joe Rogan. So I started listening to the
Hunting Collective as soon as you started posting enough episodes
(09:48):
and stuff. I think I've had it on my phone.
I think it's one of my longest recurring podcasts. And
you know, I'm obviously a member of like BHM, remember
Rocky mount Help Foundation, from a Wild Turkey Association, all
those things, and you know there's even some local ones,
um like the Nebraska Big Game Conservation Association and things
like that, and uh, I always kind of like those
(10:11):
but they always kind of all think, uh to be
the same thing. You know, it's come by a raffle
for a gun, eat a meal, and that's pretty much
what it is. And what I saw was this was
an opportunity for us to uh, you know, really have
a bunch of like minded individuals get together and focus
on what we really want to do, which is to
recruit keep people hunting. I think, uh, if I would
(10:33):
go as far as to guess what our goal would
be for this group, it would be that, um, you know,
in a couple of years, we can look and note
the difference of the amount of hunters that are out
there in every state, about the people that are actually
starting hunting from new you know, to be a new hunter.
And that's kind of what I'm what I'm going for
in it, and what brought me to it is the
opportunity to just get people out hunting and get people
(10:54):
back into it. Because that's what it did for me,
is it got me back into it and showed me
how great it can be. Look guys through a different
lens and a more educated kind of, like you said,
a more nuanced way of looking at hunting, And I
would like to you know, bring that to as many
people as we can. Yeah, yeah, I mean it. We
were talking about this on that on our Leader admin
(11:15):
page there about how it's kind of hard to see.
I mean, it's hard to see generational change in anything
really until you're a few, maybe at least a few
generations out from that change. Then you can start to
see how things have shifted. But from from the work
that I've done in the seat that I sit in,
I can tell you that there is real shift coming
(11:35):
from emerging hunters and people that are ran new and
bringing their own heritage to it. That's way different than
what I came up in or what even you came
up because I also watched ESPN outdoor shows every Sunday
morning when they came on, and I remember the day
when those got canceled, and I remember thinking, you know,
things are changing. I was just newly in the hunting
(11:57):
industry in fact when they got canceled, and so I
feel like things have changed for you know, for many years.
But now and what we've seen with this show and
with other other things that we do, Uh, there's a
lot of you you out there listening that are brand new
to this, and so every every step you take towards
our community with your own perspective, you're gonna change the tide.
(12:18):
You're gonna change the foundation on which we stand. So
that's I think that's a big part of of why
anybody would want to join something like this. So I
appreciate I appreciate that, and we're we're saying that. Jim
Fleischer on he wrote a message about that last night
to us um about exactly that. So that's so if
you want to be let's let's start by saying, if
(12:38):
you want to be a leader, you you won't find me,
particularly personally. Maybe you'll find Mango the engineer on some
of these chapter pages. Feels you feel like when you
create your page that you'll visit the chapter pages and
grace them with your evervescent presence and soul. Yeah I know, Yeah,
of course I'll check in and see what's up, say hey, uh,
(12:59):
this whole thing is just yeah, it's really it's really cool, Ben,
And I think I don't know, no, if I'm going
too far is to say it might be the coolest
thing to come out of this podcast. I don't know, Man,
you're pretty cool, Like, oh, yes, that's right. I did
come out of this podcast. You're right, yeah, you were
nothing before this. Um. But you know what, it's also
(13:20):
cool you get to play video games with That is
that came out of I take it back, me me
me finding a Destiny two friend to play with. That
was the coolest thing to come out of this podcast. Yes, Um,
all right, man, Well let's try to start at a
point that makes sense again to recap for everyone. We
(13:44):
made a joke about possibly having a regional chapter when
we had a gentleman in the Blue Ridge Mountains that
needed help and we had so many people put their
hand up to help him. I made the joke at
all that could be our first regional chapter. And UM,
fast if you allow me to fast forward to this moment,
here we are. Um, that's that's how this began. Now
where we are. You're here Luke to to represent all
(14:06):
the leaders of our chapters. So we have a lot
of questions about like where are we I lost track
of where we were long ago. UM, and I'm hoping
you've got some you've been keeping track how many actual
Facebook pages are out there that are hunting collective chapters?
We have we have thirty nine pages. Um, but Nevada
as a chapter leader without a page yet. So that'll
(14:28):
bring us to forty. Um, so then we only have
ten states that weren't represented. Shout out to Patch from
Alabama for throwing together our Google doc sheet that's got
all of our information with track all that stuff. Can
you believe that, Phil, we got a Google doc? Wow?
Would you like to be a part of that Google doc?
I mean you're welcome to You're invited. You don't have
(14:50):
to be, it's just it's an open invite. If you
would like to be added to the Google duck. Oh yeah,
of course, throw me on, Throw me on that dock, baby,
all right, remember getting somewhere? All right, Look, so we
have forty pages now, um, do we have like a
total membership number? Now? I would counsel. I have yet
to counsel all the leaders that I do feel as
(15:10):
though we should grow very slowly, like we should take
this very We don't want this to be a thing
just for anybody to come in that wants to as
we've we've seen already like get dope on a good
hunting spot or um or just you know, just come
in to sell their wares or whatever it might be.
So I would counsel everyone. Let's let's let's grow slowly. Um,
(15:31):
but we gotta start somewhere. So where are we right
now with those pages? Well, I actually posted that on
our our admin Facebook group, and we had a guy
that was already trying to schedule a local public lands
clean up, and I said, I don't even think we
know how we're supposed to get members yet, let alone, uh,
you know, get people to go and clean public lands.
(15:52):
So I think you should slow down. But as of
right now, we're at eight hundred and sixty total members.
California's leading that with two members, and that's a shout
out to Jordan Rigsby and Nury Home. Um. After that,
we got Wisconsin with eighty seven, Arizona's got eighty four,
and then Washington and Colorado both have seventy six. Um,
(16:16):
those are the that would be the five biggest chapters.
Here in Nebraska, we've got three. Um. I've noticed a
lot of guys in the bigger states with a lot
of members are starting to double up or even some
chapters were talking about getting three guys to be kind
of the admin, uh, the kind of the mentors of
the mentors. What I did in Nebraska is um. Everybody
(16:38):
I added when I started the group was somebody who
and I consider I would consider an expert in some
aspect of the outdoors. Um I got. I got really lucky.
Of one of my older old friends is a guy
named Jordan Dameth and he actually works with He's worked
with Cabela's and he works with Pheasants Forever and he's
(16:59):
got his own I think they got their own clothing
brand called out the Obsession. But he's a you know,
he's worked with these big companies before, and he knows
how to kind of draw members and stuff like that,
especially coming in from Pheasants Forever. And uh, he's a
huge fan of the podcast. And so when I reached
out to him and talk to him about kind of
helping me with his page, he just freaked out. And
(17:19):
so it's pretty he's pretty excited, and I'm pretty excited
about that because he's one of the best hunters I've
probably probably ever met in my life just in the
way he does it. He's got young kids and he
finds a way to get them out there into the
outdoors with them and they have success. And I think
just a lot of people our age well who are
wanting to get into emergent hunting will be able to
learn a lot from him. And I know a lot
(17:40):
of other guys and other chapters are starting out doing
that too. Is they're trying to reach out to guys
who know probably more than them. Almost everybody I reached
out who knows more about hunting or fishing or anything
than me. Um, nobody in Nebraska knows more about gardening
and canning than me, though, So I can be the
expert in that and help people with that stuff. That's right, man,
(18:02):
that's that's yeah. Right. I'll just like stumble through how
to articulate how cool that is. But it is very cool. Um.
We've had a lot of people across like a lot
of people over time trying to even have people say like,
here's the manifesto, here's the roadmap, here's what's possible. Right,
And obviously, when you start something like this, you and
(18:24):
you don't really know what the roadmap looks like. There
are a number of questions, right, Uh, what are we
trying to do? Like, what do we actually do? Are
we just a bunch of people I want to hang
out and go hunting? Have you thought about that at all?
Have you talked to any other leaders of other chapters
about this kind of stuff, because I have, Like I said, uh,
there's lots of posts on our Facebook page of people
(18:46):
want wanting to answer those things. Well, Um, what I
always kind of went back to was that outdoor recreation
adoption model, you know, the recruit, retain, recactivate, And I thought,
if we were going to take and look at anything
in you know, our group, it would be just focus
on the recruit and then the reactivate. You know, our
biggest focus would be on recruiting new people. And I
think the best thing to do would be to for
(19:08):
people in these states. You know, the more experts you recruit,
you have those experts go out and find people or
you know, they know people. Now with social media, you know,
everybody's got a thousand friends out there, and you'll be
able to find, you know, people that are interested in
some aspect of what we're doing in these groups. And
I think that's a better way to grow organically than
to just get on and add all your friends. And
so I think that's what we're trying to do into
(19:31):
recruit new members and then people who who are like me,
who used to hunt when they were little kids. You know,
they'll say, hey, there were these guys are starting this
group and this is kind of what it's all about,
and so they'll get back into it. Yeah, I like it.
I mean I did send out to all the leaders
a few rules we live by and some of our
rules for hunting conservation. Again I was I'm gonna say
three four white clause. Deep can put these together as
(19:53):
a bullet points. So Phil, I'm gonna need your reaction
to this as well, if you'd like to add anything.
I really just want to engage you in this process
this because right now I feel like you're on the
outside looking in and I need you here. I need
you to be my confidant. An then, I I appreciate
you reaching out, but I, as I said on the podcast,
probably too many times, I don't know if I'm the
(20:14):
person fail doing that. I want this there there there,
there's a time and place for the non hunter's perspective.
Uh this further this, I'm gonna step aside. I'm gonna
step aside. I'm gonna tell you, I'm gonna tell you
to be quiet right now, and then I'm gonna bring
you back in later and you're gonna have a different attitude. O, yes, sir,
(20:36):
all right, come back later when you're ready to play ball.
Luke's ready, he's ready. He's like calling his friends up. Man.
I love that. You need to be doing the same.
You need to just say you need to. I'll get
you a shirt. You need to be if you could
take mango to the veterinaria. You need to be recruiting
people in all areas of your life. Uh, and it
needs you to be fired up. But anyway, here are
the rules we live by, at least I live by
(20:56):
and if other people would like to live by them,
that's fine. Uh. The number one and again, I was
half lit when I wrote these. Always actively challenge your
own beliefs and the beliefs of your community. Remain open
to nuance and skeptical of pandering bullshit. Seek out your
own biases and understand their impacts on your worldview. And uh, finally,
never take yourself too seriously because those first three can
(21:16):
be real problematic if you yourself are an asshole. So
don't do that. Uh. Here are the rules. When I
think of hunting a conservation, this is how I personally
think of it. When it comes to wildlife conservation. We
use the North American model as our guide, as in
the Guardrails, not the not the Bible, but the Guardrails
certainly is imperfect model, so we can kick it in
(21:38):
its teeth when we need to. Uh. Second to that,
as a hunter's goal should be to maintain the health
of the ecosystem in which he or she hunts. Pretty simple.
We must prioritize fair kill over fair chase, never shy
away from discussing the ethics and morality of our actions.
Number four, hunting should always be viewed as the sustainable
use of a natural resource. And number five, the hunting
(21:59):
community should strive to inclusive by promoting a diversity of
ideas and backgrounds. Uh. Yeah, So those rules govern the
way I've come to think of it. Those rules are
subject to change daily, hourly. Should Phil send me a
cool link of something to read, I'm going to change
them at any time. But that's that's how I approach
(22:19):
them at this point. And um, I think it's it's
as we start these chapters and we start down this road,
it's important to understand kind of the origin story of
why we are doing this. So what other what other
things we need to do? Do on here, Luke, what
(22:40):
do we need to tell people? We need to tell
people how to find these pages, that's for sure, and
how they can get up and who the leaders are.
You want to just run us down the list of
let's call out our chapter leaders if we can, do
you have that and then also kind of how they
can search and find their state chapter page. Give me
us a second here, Phil, you fill in this moment,
(23:04):
fill with some commentary. All right, So quiet quiet Phil,
Let Luke talk. Stop interrupting him. So we got these
now in alphabetical order. Alabama, you're gonna go with Patrick Ray,
and that's gonna be You're gonna all of these are
gonna be called the Hunt Collective and then your state's chapter.
(23:27):
Outside of UM. You know we have the Blue Ridge,
we have the Coastal Plains North Carolina, UM, mid Atlantic,
we have a military chapter, UM, the Mountain West, New England.
Those are all gonna be grouped together, and those are
all gonna have specific leaders as of right now. UM,
Like as of right now, we don't have any leaders
for either of the Dakotas. So what we've been talking
(23:48):
about is me taking over to the South Dakota one
until we can find somebody get up there. We're also
thinking about putting North Dakota in with Minnesota. But I'll
read you guys the the states and their leaders. Now
we have Alabama, we have Patrick Ray Alaska. We have
A B. Rich Arizona. We have Mark Dill Arkansas. We
(24:10):
have Jacob Davis Blue Ridge. That's North Carolina. We have
Eric Hall, the man, the myth, the legend himself. That
would probably be your inaugural chapter. That would be the
Phil Taylor Memorial chapter. Um, yeah, hold on, hold on, memorial.
I don't know what do you call it when they're
still alive? All I know is memorial. I don't know.
(24:32):
How do you how do you want someone that's awesome
and still alive? But I don't know. I like memorial.
That's it's looking into the future. It's just planning for
the future. Hey, I'll tell you what, When you name
your first turkey, then that inaugural chapter will be named
after your first turkey and it can be the Blank
Turkey Memorial chapter. Luke for the ideas, Hey, Luke, have
(25:00):
any engineering skills podcast? Absolutely none. I like what you're
bringing to the table here. Okay, continue, please continue, but
then you know, California right now is our heaviest hitter. UM.
It's got literally a quarter of our total membership is
just out of that state. UM. And they've got Jordan
Rigsby and Nuri Hong. Nuri Hong is also a member
(25:20):
of the Nebraska chapter. He's got a Facebook page called
Emergent Hunter Phil Yea And so I want to read something.
Thank you for that, because I want to read something
that he wrote here when you're done. But I was
one I was going to ask you who that exactly was. Yeah.
He because I blocked him like three times and I
was like, no, license, stay out of my page? Isis
this is so fake that doesn't even make sense? But
(25:42):
it wasn't. He does. Okay, it's good. It's good to
know that's who that is, because I because he has
been posting it a couple of times that I didn't
I didn't know. Yeah, And if we have we actually
so we do have chapters down here in the United States.
We also are a multi nage group. It would be
multinational group because we do have two Canadian chapters. Uh.
(26:05):
They're led by Dave Campbell and Dan Koehler. Uh. Then
we have a Coastal Plains of North Carolina chapter, which
is read Darrel. We have Colorado that's Ryan. I'm a
butcher's last name, Supena. I'm just saying, like I know,
I'm just that's how just how I say it. I
(26:26):
don't know, that's just how I say. Florida has got
a guy named Mark Ernest Phil He did actually just
start Facebook for this group. He is one of the
few people that I actually didn't I didn't let him
in the admin group because I was like, oh, created
nineteen minutes ago with zero friends, you're definitely not a bot.
So I blocked him. So people are doing that field.
(26:47):
It's all a cool thing. It's worth it to let
the government track you to be a part of this group. Uh.
Georgia's leader is Mike Morris, and then we go all
the way down to Iowa and that is Jim Slicener.
We got Kansas as Kelsey guy. We've got Michigan that's
Keith Sprague. Our military chapter is Eric Jobber. We've got
(27:10):
Minnesota that's UM Derek Storical. Missouri is Greg Moon and
Ben Peterson UM Nebraska, which, uh, it'll be it's just
me as of right now, but I will probably ask
a guy named Jordan to help me with that, especially
if we take over South Dakota, which probably way Shamon
Spencer near Hearth I don't know still still ran away,
(27:33):
but I was gonna say if he did end up
giving one of those cuzies from our wedding, take it
back because he doesn't have a group, so he can't.
I was very surprised, And let me just say that
I may have missed the email from someone in South Dakota.
Like I had a lot of emails, so there may
be somebody that if you're listening to this and you're
mad at us, like just just right back in and
tell me, hey, I had my hand up and you
(27:53):
missed me. Um. But I haven't seen anything from either
of the Dakotas, which I love hunting in your eights,
especially the southern one. And uh, I was very disappointed
in all of you in the Dakota sam Soholt is
over there. I just I don't understand. I understand. I
have a friend that played was actually Carson Wentz is
(28:14):
backup in North Dakota State, and uh, he hunts and stuff,
and he I said him all the information about it,
and he hadn't done anything, so well, maybe we'll get
Carson Wentz. We get Carson Wentz eventually his TV show. Yeah,
man can dream man. I think he wears Sitka through
to that. I can't do that. Hey. Oh, by the way,
(28:34):
I'm looking at my emails now we have an Australian
somebody with her hand up in Australia. Luke, I'm gonna
connect you with Zach. He's awesome Arrow On Instagram he
said a good day Ben. I'm not gonna read it
in a but he said good day Ben, so I
just have to say it that way. He emailing about
we're coming to the the chapter leader of Australia. Mate. I've
been listening since episode three or four, and think discussions
(28:56):
you have the people you have on are very beneficial.
I don't always agree with him, but I love what
you're doing. I'd like to be part of it. So
I'm gonna say to his email, Luke, all right, we
will throw that shrimp on the barbie. And then we've
got uh Nevada. Their leader is Jared Adams uh then
New England is Dwayne Tribner and ab Rich. I imagine
(29:17):
that they will probably end up getting some guys to
help them as that's four states they've got in there.
New Mexico is Michael Nass and Sean Manucci. It's a
good one. New York is Martin Resnick, Ohio is Brian Howell,
Oklahoma is Aaron Shaw, Pennsylvania is Mike Barrick, South Carolina
(29:37):
is Ryan Waters. Tennessee it's cal and Harrold. Utah is
b J. Trickler, Washington is Chris Stalker, and Wisconsin are
Mike Peterson and John still Flew. And that would be
all of your chapters that are up and running right
now as of today on Facebook. So yep. And I
(29:59):
don't like Phil, we could I mean, we chose Facebook
just because it's the easiest thing. But Phil, I mean
we could do something different for you. We're willing to
change this up. Like it's all about I. I will
make a a th HC chapter burner account. I'm fine.
I'm totally fine with that. Okay, good Man, go the engineer.
(30:21):
I like it all right. Well, that's that's awesome, man.
I mean for that to come together that quickly, it
is amazing to me. And I was telling Eric Hall
doing some message back and forth him that he said well,
you didn't know you were so popular. It was like,
I don't know if that's the case, but I feel
I feel like this is a good representation of where
a lot of people are at in our space and
(30:42):
when we try to and we try to define like
our own lane within hunting, this is a good way
to to define the fact that a lot of people
are either looking to bring in new folks or are
new folks themselves that would have that are in need
of a mentor um and so I know we're talking
about how you get that generational perspective of where you
(31:03):
sit in and what you bring to the party. Um.
I think this particularly is something that shows exactly what
a lot of people need and what they want and
where their heads are at. I'm gonna find this post
by Nary Hong. Um I would like, I said, I
was confused that it was a mergent Hunter for a while,
and like, I wonder who that is. But I think
(31:23):
Neary made a good post about a manifesto or a
roadmap for what's possible. He said. Um, if I if
I may be so bold, I'd like to posit a
scaffold for an ambitious vision. This is coming from the
perspective of a non hunter aspiring to be a future mentor.
I believe my journey and my evolution in beliefs and
perspectives represent a data point of and equals one for
(31:48):
the feasibility of this plan. I like his approach. I
I am assuming this data point will be explained in time.
He said. One. Establish ourselves become the regional platform for
new hunters. Ben the leader, has outlined the core principle
we will live by. The group has already begun to
do amazing things in less than seventy two hours. Our
mentorship is exponential at this point and we need to
(32:10):
keep going. Thanks to Patrick Ray for creating an amazing tracker.
We've We've mentioned that uh number two build the army
mentor and educate emergent hunters on all aspects of hunting, conservation,
land policy, environmental policy, wildlife management, ethics, etcetera. Within our network,
we will be the leading hunting mentors and conservations each
regional Slush State chapter. We will actively recruit these people
(32:33):
to join. At some point our mentor our membership will
become compelling for others to use as a platform for education. Three.
Deploy the Army. Let's be honest. Emerging hunters are often
stereotyped as democratic hunters. This is true for a state
like California, where I live. I was called this once
by a very generous local mentor. He loves folks like us,
(32:56):
quote unquote, and has taken many on hunts, even ones
who who wore man buns in their hair. His words,
not mine. I do not rock a man bun. That's
good to know. Although this is a judgment free zone
all the way around, man mun's are welcome, right Phil,
I would say they're encouraged from here on out. Okay,
I'm adding. I'm adding to the list bullet point seven,
(33:18):
man bun required. No, Luke, that's don't let him. I
can go video games, but I can come man buns.
So Nuri. Nuri continues the point of all of this,
Our army is a bridge to people who do not hunt,
(33:39):
We do not understand, who do not understand hunting ethics,
who do not understand how conservation works, who do not
understand land policy, and do not do not understand everything else, etcetera. Essentially,
this was me before I started this journey. What I've
learned has changed my worldview. We can use this army
as a voice for educating others and crossing the political bridge.
(34:00):
We can unite what is divided in the name of
conservation and wildlife management policy. We don't have to convert
everyone to become hunters, we don't want that. But we
can get them to like us and to become allies
on common causes. We can use our army to achieve this.
Create the th h see emergent hunting training ranches for
(34:22):
wilder conservation, think back forty for new hunters. Establish a
new nonpartisan political movement, the Land of Nature Party. Elect
the presidential ticket of Ronnello Slash a lot being eagle
in select bend the leader for Secretary of Interior? Who
is in? Uh? Phil? Are you in for all of that?
There's six six really important points there? But yeah, yeah, sure,
(34:45):
I mean I think that there might be there might
be some competition for Secretary of the Interior. Um who
was second? Is that cow? It was it? I was
thinking Caw for Interior. That doesn't mean yeah, I'll be
maybe Uh, I don't know what I'll be. I'll just
be in there somewhere, hanging out. I'd like to be
maybe a lobbyist. You'll you'll you'll be transportation like Pete
(35:06):
Bododa Buddha. They just throwing him a bone. Here you go,
you get transportation, Secretary of Education. Well a lot of that,
even though number six I probably am not into the
other the other things, maybe not even number five. I
don't think we need to start a land nature party,
although that'd be fun. Um, particularly what nerd he's saying
(35:27):
around deploying this activity is important to me and to
get it out there and have people understand that there's
a common cause here, regardless of however you label yourself
or are labeled by others. Uh So, I like that.
There's a bunch of other really important messages from people
who are just talking about how this is has made
(35:49):
them feel. Um, I want to read John Stealth, You
Stealth Lou. I'm sorry everyone, I'll always get your name wrong.
That's just how it is. It's kind of a right
of passage here for me to funk up your name.
I said, hey, everyone, I just want to take a
minute and talk about what has happened in the last
few days. I've been doing this hunting and fishing thing
for about forty years. This quote unquote thing has re
(36:11):
energized me. I was telling Mike Peterson, the other Wisconsin
chapter leader, that I'm as excited for this as I
was when I booked my first paying guide date for
muskie fishing years ago. As the last few days have
went on, I feel like every one of us could
show up at an outing and shake hands and talk
like we've been friends for years. I think we're all
(36:32):
coming at this hunting and fishing thing from just about
the same place. Thanks for doing this. I'm I'm likely
the old man river in this group, but hey, someone
has to be. I really believe we can make a difference,
even if it is just picking up some trash in
a parking lot. This is going to be a hell
of a lot of fun. Uh yeah, man, I I
(36:53):
just want to make sure that like, those words are
probably more important than any words that I could say. Um,
and I said this on the page there, that I
that that gives me a little bit of a little
bit of hope for the future and some satisfaction in
the work. So I hope that does for everybody else. Now,
anything else that I'm missing, Luke, Before we get to
our little uh the way, We're gonna round this all
(37:15):
out and give people a chance to do something cool. Um,
No you miss anything here. I think we got it
pretty much all squared away. One thing UM I had
talked about doing with Jordan here in Nebraska that I
was going to try to get your blessing for or
see what you thought about it is UM, a lot
of guys just on the group have been talking about
(37:37):
how to get membership and things like that. And Uh,
I happen to be lucky enough that just through the
kind of connections I made in college and stuff, I've
got friends that work in the Rocky Mountain Help Foundation
and then at work and fettans for everything's like that.
And so what Jordan and I were thinking about doing
is either for having like a podcast or a blog
that would just be talking to these groups about how
(37:59):
to how they recruit, you know, how how do you
go about having an auction, how do you go about
having a fundraiser, How do you work on your membership?
When do you start you know, when do you start
looking for When do you start you know trying to
you know, actually like a have projects that you're gonna
do that will be in your name? Do you need
to be an LLC? All those kinds of things that
(38:19):
that you don't really think about when you just want
to get a bunch of people together who like to
hunt and to get people to start hunting. So I
don't know, Um, it would be one of those things.
We'd probably just make it available to the guys that
are on our our Facebook pages and on on our thing,
and we would just talk to them and like that
would just kind of be a thing we would do
to try to make it easier because I don't know
have any mostly for me, because I don't have any
(38:40):
idea how to recruit. I don't know how to do
anything like that it knew people to come on. I
think that's the problem is, Yeah, a lot of us
are really good at kind of understanding what this is about,
but not a lot of us really know how to
go about making it happen. And so that's kind of
something that I would like to learn how to do
because I think this could be huge. I think this
could be our version of the Rocky mountainel foundation of
(39:01):
that we could be. We could be that big just
with the momentum that we have kind of with everything
that you guys going, I think we could draw in
members the right kind of members and do just huge things.
I mean, look at the way that we affect the
ballot box. Now, just why you guys bringing up and
stuff you know on your podcast And just imagine now
if you've got a whole group to go besides go
(39:23):
with that podcast to help get these you know, the
bad bill around up, get all of those thrown out.
And I just think that, you know, this guy could
really be the limit with this and I'm just so
excited to be a part of it. I'm just just
super phil Phil. Uh, do we need to get We
should probably get a lawyer on legal representation? Yeah, Luke. Uh,
(39:44):
the ambition is incredibly inspiring. That's I mean, I I
at first I was gonna like say something sarcastic here
about a lawyer and how you know, meat Eater should
probably probably have a meeting with with Steve or somebody.
But I don't know, man, That's just that's just a
great thing to to to strive for. And I don't
I don't have anything. I don't have anything snarky to say.
(40:06):
I don't I don't listen this. Uh, when you start
down a path like this, you just gotta keep going forward.
That's that's the best you can do. That's about all
you can do. UM. So we'll keep doing that. But yes,
we're absolutely want to feed I. I sit on the
board of directors for b h A and we've seen
this exact thing happen in that group. Like you get,
(40:27):
people are passionate about this thing, they're passionate about gathering
UM and you just have to let that passion lead
the way. And you know, every once in a while
you'll trip and fall down, but as long as you
have that passion, you can get back up. So one
thing that we're going to try to do for everybody
is we're gonna have a little we're gonna call it
a Field Days program because obviously this all started because
(40:49):
somebody needed a mentor and everybody listening to this podcast
wanted to step up or or a large number of
people wanted to step up. So that was yeah, kind
of the beginning here. So hat tip to that beginning,
we started we want to start a Field Days program. Now,
this is each of the chapter leaders will be running
this themselves and they'll be compiling things. So if you're
(41:10):
not in these Facebook pages and part of the conversation,
you're gonna miss out. But we do this at Meat Eater,
and we did this with First Light um internally, but
it's something I think we can we can make work
for this whole thing. And basically, um, we're going to
do something called I guess i'll call it Field Days.
What we could be? Tell me it's right into t
(41:32):
a c to meet here and tell me that could
be something cooler for a name. Maybe Phil has a name.
The Inaugural Filthy Engineer Mentor Contest Memorial Tournament. Yeah, we'll
we'll turn that into a an AFRONAM. It'll be fine. Well, yeah,
we'll workshop it. We'll workshop it anyhow. What this is
gonna do is incentiveive people go out there at the
(41:52):
very at the very least, go out there and teach
people what they need to know about hunting. Bring bring
new people in and then teach them. That's that's basically
what we're gonna do as a foundational effort here. So, UM,
here's what's gonna work. If you go out if you're
are a member or are you're part of a Facebook
page for one of the forty plus the chapters we've
(42:14):
got going out there, uh, and you join and you
take someone hunting someone brand new. They don't have to
be brand new, they have to be in need of membership.
But brand new would probably be what we're shooting for.
But somebody is in need of mentorship, and you're out
there and you're willing to do the mentoring, join one
of these chapter pages. Take that person or person's hunting,
(42:36):
Take a picture of yourself, send it in to that
Facebook page that's associated with the state or regional chapter.
Once you've done that, describe the hunt, what was the
hunt about, Where did you go? How long? If you
do an all day hunt, you accumulate what's called two
raffle tickets. If you do a half day hunt or
a part of a day hunt, you get one. Over time,
(43:00):
each chapter will amass a number of let's say raffle
tickets or days in the field, and each chapter will
then be able to come to us at the end
of the year and say we've counted this many days
mentoring in the field, and we will have five awesome prizes,
including all types of things we're currently working out. Some
chapter leaders had a bunch of good ideas for prizes,
(43:21):
but at the end of the year, we'll draw these
prizes based on the number of field days total for
each chapter will be the number of raffle tickets you
get in the hat. So then we will draw raffle
tickets out of the hat, and if the chapter is drawn,
the top mentor of that chapter will get that prize.
So hopefully that's that's a little bit convoluted field. Does
that make sense to you? I know this is the
(43:42):
first that you're hearing it, so as always, you're my
proxy for everyone else listening. No, that's a great idea. Okay,
Now we have a reason for being right. We have
the general reason that that these chapters are built to
mentor people, built to bring in new hunters along the way.
As Luke mentioned, we're we're gonna go probably down a
million rabbit holes and have all kinds of things to
(44:02):
figure out. But but that's the basis. So if you
joined one of these Facebook pages, it doesn't take much.
If you have to make a Facebook page, just do it.
It's fine. Turn off the tracking and the data, don't
watch what's that, don't watch the social media dilemma or
whatever that. Don't watch that because you won't want to
join um. But get in there and join, and then
all you gotta do is track your hunting with a
(44:23):
new hunter and you'll be entered to win some cool
stuff and um, you'll be entered into an awesome program
that kind of knows where it's going, but you'll be
a part of the beginning of it. Any commentary, Phil
official comments, Uh, as an employee of Meeting Incorporated, No,
this was I still can't believe this is happening for
(44:44):
something that started as a joke about a cult. Um.
I got so many messages from people back then saying,
please tell Ben to stop with the cult bullshit. Um,
but I think it's flowered into something real and uh
and you know, just below cult status. So I think
(45:05):
we're in. I think we're clear. I think we're in.
We're still green. Everything's fine. Um, but it's it's just
it's really it's I mean, honestly, it's wild to see
this happen. Sometimes I forget the reach of your show,
Ben and everything that everything that you've talked about on
this podcast throughout the last couple of years. So it's
(45:26):
it's cool, It's it's awesome, Okay, Luke anything. Well, Actually,
we had some guys get locked out of their pages
and stuff for using the cult language, I know came
back to bite as finally, So uh, to go back
to what you were we were talking about at the beginning,
um with you know, the First Family and everything. You've
had one guy on the page who said that we
should change the name, and then you had another guy
(45:49):
on the page who posted a gift of William Wallace
yelling hold and said never give in to Facebook. And uh,
I would think that the guy who posted a gift
of William Wallace would be your the guy you'd want
to follow, you know, the leader probably of those fans,
not the guy who's just changing the name. Yeah, I'm
picking up who that guy might have been. Yeah, I
(46:09):
mean you know what I'm talking about. Yeah, listen, I
I you know, I'm not gonna let Zuckerberg hold us
down if we want to be A cult is just
a word. It doesn't have to be. It's a bad connotation,
you know, just like air fifteen or trophy hunting. It's
just a word. Was a group of crows is called
a murder, No one gets at them for that be Yeah,
we wouldn't be you know, THHD murder. Yeah, like we're
(46:32):
not doing that, So you can be grateful for that's
all right, Well listen if you're here for some kind
of like you know, in depth conversation about a very
important issue. I'm sorry we took a break from that,
but we felt like this needed to be addressed, This
needed to be explained away, and we need to kind
of set a path forward. So what we're gonna do
from now on in the show is give weekly updates.
(46:54):
We're gonna bring somebody on that's a leader, can ask
him what the hell is going on, what they're doing,
why they're doing it, um, and where to continue our
little field days competition throughout the year. And we'll continue
checking in and seeing where this goes. Uh. Eventually we
may have to have a lawyer on to give an
official statement on behalf of Phil and I. We may
(47:16):
I may and be in j I may be jailed
and you guys may have to bail me out. You
might have to raise money via some sort of Venmo
account or something. I don't know. Uh, these are this
is just me. I'm just talking out loud. Phil, just
talking out loud. Okay, we got anything here? Well, I
mean I gotta say this. You say you're just talking
this out that that was a lot of detail. It's
almost like you've kind of this is premeditated, like like
(47:39):
you've you've you've you've run this through your head and
you've got some sort of master plan. Unnever you speak
on that, please no comment. But every call has a martyr,
and Uh, if I gotta go down, I'll go down
the swinging alright, Phil, it sounds great. I'll miss you. Alright, Well,
say bye to everybody and listen to for the second
time in this uh brief episode, Kayla Ray singing the
(48:04):
Phil t Engineer memorial theme song. I swear to gay,
but I swear to God benefit if if someone plays
us at my funeral, I'm gonna be curious. Say bye, Phidbye, Clean,
You're gone, and tune your bowl Where the hun clecked
show calling Hunters New and all the Hunt collect show,
(48:28):
Working pig and shovel or working paining hand. We call
agate nice lovers. I'm Bela and we're focused. We're just
living for the search, dreaming of the fire and a
saltic gilburn By. We ain't coming by to hell. It's
colden Lake taking its slow, so wen shoes straight. Clean,
(48:52):
You're gone. Tune your bowl Where the Hun clecked show,
calling hunters new and all ain't no cold, I'm told
we're knowing's too good. We're all good. No, we got
fuelty engineer calling any shooters, blow ared times calling and
bitter vegans crying. Remember there's always been Old Brian ruled
(49:16):
by reason. Is our collected bay taking it slow so
we can shoot straight? Clean your gun to your ball.
Where the huncollective show and calling hunters new and all
the uncollective show where facts or facts and opinions are subjective.
(49:39):
You're listening night to the Collecting
Hey, Phil, Hey Ben, what's up? We got a new song?
Remember that song from Kayla Ray that we said we
were going to play. Yeah, I was. I was wondering
because this episode just started without the theme song, and
I was really confused. Yeah, I know you're confused. Behind
the scenes, it's ready. Have you listened to it? Yes?
I have, and it's beautiful. She's great. I made She's great,
(00:21):
You're great. I'm not sure about me, but it is
a beautiful song. We're gonna play it in its entirety
for this episode, just so you guys get a flavor
of it, and we'll we'll splice it up to make
a little shorter for future episodes. But here it is.
Do we have a name for the song? Phil, what's
the name of the song? I don't know. Did Kayla
not name it? Come on, man, well I'm Phil the
(00:43):
anthem of Phil t Engineer. Here it is no here,
it is here, it is your bow Where the Hunt
clip show, Colin Hunters New and All Hunt clamp show,
Working he can Shuttle or working Ben in hand we
(01:03):
congregate nice lovers of the lame. I'm full and we're focused.
We're just living for the search and dreaming of the
fire and a salty Gilburn. But we ain't coming back
till it's colden Lake, taking it slow so we can
choose straight, clean your gun, Tune your Bowl, where the
(01:25):
Hunt Collected show, Calling Hunters new and all ain't no
cold time told, We're no one's too good, We're all good.
No we got guilty engineer calling any cheers, blow hard
times calling, and bitter vegans crying. Remember there's always been
(01:45):
old Bright ruled by reason. Is our collective bay taking
it slow so we can cheer straight, clean your gun
in Tune your Bowl, where the Hunt Collective show and
calling Hunter is new and all un collective show with
thanks for fanks that opinions are subjective. You're listening to
(02:12):
the collecting. Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of The
Hunting Collective. I'm, of course Benjamin, Patrick O'Brien and Philly
engineers here. Phil say hello, Hey, Ben, how are you.
I'm good. I'm good. I'm feeling really excited about this episode,
but I do need We've just listened to Kaylor Ray's
(02:35):
uh the ode the anthem of Filthy Engineer for the
very first time. I'm that that just like gets my
blood up. I'm ready. It's almost like a goblin turkeys
at like eight yards and we just gotta get him
the rest of the way. That's what this show is
gonna be for me. But um, I just gotta tell
you this is this show is a little bit different.
We're not going to have like a real uh, We're
(02:56):
not gonna have a guest from Cornell University. Let me
just say that our guest is probably smarter than than
one James Tantillo. But we're not going to have the
regular show format. We're going to talk about I feel
the need, Phil to address the chapter formation of THHC.
The chapters that have formed, and almost a ton of
(03:16):
states will find out the exact numbers here in a minute,
but I feel a need to address that topic and
give everybody all the information they need, probably too much
information to join these chapters if you would like, and
then we can move forward from there. But I just
felt like we need to have a whole episode really
talking about what's happening over on Mark Zuckerbert's Facebook. Um, Phil,
(03:39):
have you joined the Montana chapter yet? No? I am
not on Facebook, son of a bitch. What in the hell, Phil,
are you would you would you consider lighten up a
Facebook page just for this purpose, Like fill the Engineer
probably gonna need to have a fan page or maybe
some sort of live video game streaming thing that you do.
(04:00):
I I'm I'm willing to create kind of like a
pseudo very light account for this for this purpose, I'm
not gonna there's that there will be no pictures of me.
I won't even use my real name. I don't even
think you can do that on Facebook. But I'm gonna
about Mango. What about Mango get to be in there.
If you see Mango Mango T Engineer on Facebook, that's
actually me, Mango T Engineer. That's a that's a T shirt.
(04:24):
Maybe we have so many talented illustrators out there. If
somebody wants to illustrate Mango T Engineer, I would happily
make a T shirt out of that. But that's what
we're gonna do, Phil, So we need you to get involved.
At this point. I've kept you at arms lengths from
the chapters because I didn't want you to get too
excited about what we were doing and um and try
to take control, because I now that's how you like
to do. But it's happening. It's happening. It's like an
(04:47):
underground movement, but a lot of people are talking about it.
So I'm i'm I want to keep it underground. But
for the listeners of this podcast, we're gonna we're now
joined by Now I'm not sure how to introduce this guy, Luke,
I'm not sure how to introduce you. You did tell
me that you and your lovely wife Lisa are the
first family of THHC. Do you want to expound upon
(05:11):
that at all? Well, I'm just uh, I just don't
think that any of the other guys that are running
these state chapters probably even ran by who they were
going to marry, you know, to you or Phil. I mean,
how many of their wives do you know, I dedicated?
I wouldn't call that dedication. I mean a point, they
could have just married any any old lady and just
(05:31):
with without even consulting you. And I mean, I just
I don't think that that would be the proper thing
for a follower of his cult to do. Yeah, No,
I agree with you. I agree with you a lot.
I mean, even if people came to be followers of
the cult with current wives, we should have some sort
of review process, uh to approve those wives. So you know,
(05:52):
I know you did call out air call as as
not having done that. So I do want to officially
say you're well, you're well welcome if you'd like it
to the first family Moniker now and you know, if
you should have additional offspring in the future or offspring
you know, your first offspring. We can then talk about
how that works at that point, but you you're welcome
(06:14):
to have that. So that let's make that official. Phil,
Can you give your blessing please? Oh? Of course, yeah,
thank you. Phil. So Luke Reeves in Nebraska, you are
the officially the Nebraska chapter leader UM and the first
father of THHC, the first Yeah, that's fine, that's fine,
(06:35):
let's go with that. So tell you like you're here too.
I asked on our we've created a Facebook page just
for the leadership of our chapter group and are called
and I asked you to represent that leadership group that
I think now is thirty people something like that, to
to address the entire audience about what's going on, what's
(06:56):
been progressing here, how the other people can get involved.
There's a lot of questions that we have people. I'm
sure we'll have, What is this? Why are you doing it?
The question I've asked many times is it legal? Are
we in any legal trouble? Um? Can we all get arrested?
And is there cool it? All these things that we
need to be asking. So I did send you like
(07:16):
a list of questions, but first just describe, like why
you want to do that, why you want to be
a part of this thing that we're that we're embarking on,
and what it means to you. Because there were a
lot of people, more than I thought, posting on our
little Facebook group about how much this meant to them,
And I take that, you know, take that very seriously,
take that to heart. As much as it's hard for
(07:38):
me to be serious on this topic, I do take
the heart that you know, people gathering and connecting over
this particular topic is important. UM, So give the people
kind of how you came to want to I want
to do all this well. Um, I grew up in
a small town in Nebraska. Um, just about everybody that
I was friends with, UM grew up on ing. Uh
(08:01):
you know, I went out with my dad and did
that kind of that kind of thing. But as we
grew up, UM, you know, around there it's all everybody
goes out to you know, their uncle's pasture or their
you know, their cousins got of cornfield where they accidentally missed,
you know, the Auger wagon with the combines. So there's
a nice grain pipe out there, and and essentially kind
(08:21):
of it, uh kind of turned into basically wherever you
could park your truck. You know, if you could park
your truck closest to the grain pile, you'd be the
guy that the guy that got the best deer. And
uh so I just kind of got kind of got
away from it as I got older, um got out
of hunting and everything. Actually majored in Wildlife and Resources
at the University Corny because I met a group of
(08:44):
guys there when I went I did like hunting, and
they kind of had the same sort of way I
like to look at the same sort of way. You know,
didn't it wasn't fun just to go out and shoot
your you know, it wasn't fun just to go. It
wasn't just about that. It was going and being in
the nature is kind of getting back to the old
ways of hunting, where you know, you went a lot
(09:04):
of spotting stock. I don't even have very many friends
and hunt more. So I really like that. But then,
of course, you know, uh I grew up watching them.
I'd wake up on Saturday mornings and watch all the
hunting shows and kind of the hunting media that was
out there, and uh, you know, there's only so many
episodes you can watch the guys, you know, Thanking the
Good Lord, that the Big Why they walked up under
(09:27):
their feet, and you know, they just can't keep doing
those same episodes. But then, uh, you know, I actually
saw you on Joe Rogan and telling the story about
seeing that baby up in the mountains and the wolf
that wasn't and uh so that actually drew me to you,
um through Joe Rogan. So I started listening to the
Hunting Collective as soon as you started posting enough episodes
(09:48):
and stuff. I think I've had it on my phone.
I think it's one of my longest recurring podcasts. And
you know, I'm obviously a member of like BHM, remember
Rocky mount Help Foundation, from a Wild Turkey Association, all
those things, and you know there's even some local ones,
um like the Nebraska Big Game Conservation Association and things
like that, and uh, I always kind of like those
(10:11):
but they always kind of all think, uh to be
the same thing. You know, it's come by a raffle
for a gun, eat a meal, and that's pretty much
what it is. And what I saw was this was
an opportunity for us to uh, you know, really have
a bunch of like minded individuals get together and focus
on what we really want to do, which is to
recruit keep people hunting. I think, uh, if I would
(10:33):
go as far as to guess what our goal would
be for this group, it would be that, um, you know,
in a couple of years, we can look and note
the difference of the amount of hunters that are out
there in every state, about the people that are actually
starting hunting from new you know, to be a new hunter.
And that's kind of what I'm what I'm going for
in it, and what brought me to it is the
opportunity to just get people out hunting and get people
(10:54):
back into it. Because that's what it did for me,
is it got me back into it and showed me
how great it can be. Look guys through a different
lens and a more educated kind of, like you said,
a more nuanced way of looking at hunting, And I
would like to you know, bring that to as many
people as we can. Yeah, yeah, I mean it. We
were talking about this on that on our Leader admin
(11:15):
page there about how it's kind of hard to see.
I mean, it's hard to see generational change in anything
really until you're a few, maybe at least a few
generations out from that change. Then you can start to
see how things have shifted. But from from the work
that I've done in the seat that I sit in,
I can tell you that there is real shift coming
(11:35):
from emerging hunters and people that are ran new and
bringing their own heritage to it. That's way different than
what I came up in or what even you came
up because I also watched ESPN outdoor shows every Sunday
morning when they came on, and I remember the day
when those got canceled, and I remember thinking, you know,
things are changing. I was just newly in the hunting
(11:57):
industry in fact when they got canceled, and so I
feel like things have changed for you know, for many years.
But now and what we've seen with this show and
with other other things that we do, Uh, there's a
lot of you you out there listening that are brand new
to this, and so every every step you take towards
our community with your own perspective, you're gonna change the tide.
(12:18):
You're gonna change the foundation on which we stand. So
that's I think that's a big part of of why
anybody would want to join something like this. So I
appreciate I appreciate that, and we're we're saying that. Jim
Fleischer on he wrote a message about that last night
to us um about exactly that. So that's so if
you want to be let's let's start by saying, if
(12:38):
you want to be a leader, you you won't find me,
particularly personally. Maybe you'll find Mango the engineer on some
of these chapter pages. Feels you feel like when you
create your page that you'll visit the chapter pages and
grace them with your evervescent presence and soul. Yeah I know, Yeah,
of course I'll check in and see what's up, say hey, uh,
(12:59):
this whole thing is just yeah, it's really it's really cool, Ben,
And I think I don't know, no, if I'm going
too far is to say it might be the coolest
thing to come out of this podcast. I don't know, Man,
you're pretty cool, Like, oh, yes, that's right. I did
come out of this podcast. You're right, yeah, you were
nothing before this. Um. But you know what, it's also
(13:20):
cool you get to play video games with That is
that came out of I take it back, me me
me finding a Destiny two friend to play with. That
was the coolest thing to come out of this podcast. Yes, Um,
all right, man, Well let's try to start at a
point that makes sense again to recap for everyone. We
(13:44):
made a joke about possibly having a regional chapter when
we had a gentleman in the Blue Ridge Mountains that
needed help and we had so many people put their
hand up to help him. I made the joke at
all that could be our first regional chapter. And UM,
fast if you allow me to fast forward to this moment,
here we are. Um, that's that's how this began. Now
where we are. You're here Luke to to represent all
(14:06):
the leaders of our chapters. So we have a lot
of questions about like where are we I lost track
of where we were long ago. UM, and I'm hoping
you've got some you've been keeping track how many actual
Facebook pages are out there that are hunting collective chapters?
We have we have thirty nine pages. Um, but Nevada
as a chapter leader without a page yet. So that'll
(14:28):
bring us to forty. Um, so then we only have
ten states that weren't represented. Shout out to Patch from
Alabama for throwing together our Google doc sheet that's got
all of our information with track all that stuff. Can
you believe that, Phil, we got a Google doc? Wow?
Would you like to be a part of that Google doc?
I mean you're welcome to You're invited. You don't have
(14:50):
to be, it's just it's an open invite. If you
would like to be added to the Google duck. Oh yeah,
of course, throw me on, Throw me on that dock, baby,
all right, remember getting somewhere? All right, Look, so we
have forty pages now, um, do we have like a
total membership number? Now? I would counsel. I have yet
to counsel all the leaders that I do feel as
(15:10):
though we should grow very slowly, like we should take
this very We don't want this to be a thing
just for anybody to come in that wants to as
we've we've seen already like get dope on a good
hunting spot or um or just you know, just come
in to sell their wares or whatever it might be.
So I would counsel everyone. Let's let's let's grow slowly. Um,
(15:31):
but we gotta start somewhere. So where are we right
now with those pages? Well, I actually posted that on
our our admin Facebook group, and we had a guy
that was already trying to schedule a local public lands
clean up, and I said, I don't even think we
know how we're supposed to get members yet, let alone, uh,
you know, get people to go and clean public lands.
(15:52):
So I think you should slow down. But as of
right now, we're at eight hundred and sixty total members.
California's leading that with two members, and that's a shout
out to Jordan Rigsby and Nury Home. Um. After that,
we got Wisconsin with eighty seven, Arizona's got eighty four,
and then Washington and Colorado both have seventy six. Um,
(16:16):
those are the that would be the five biggest chapters.
Here in Nebraska, we've got three. Um. I've noticed a
lot of guys in the bigger states with a lot
of members are starting to double up or even some
chapters were talking about getting three guys to be kind
of the admin, uh, the kind of the mentors of
the mentors. What I did in Nebraska is um. Everybody
(16:38):
I added when I started the group was somebody who
and I consider I would consider an expert in some
aspect of the outdoors. Um I got. I got really lucky.
Of one of my older old friends is a guy
named Jordan Dameth and he actually works with He's worked
with Cabela's and he works with Pheasants Forever and he's
(16:59):
got his own I think they got their own clothing
brand called out the Obsession. But he's a you know,
he's worked with these big companies before, and he knows
how to kind of draw members and stuff like that,
especially coming in from Pheasants Forever. And uh, he's a
huge fan of the podcast. And so when I reached
out to him and talk to him about kind of
helping me with his page, he just freaked out. And
(17:19):
so it's pretty he's pretty excited, and I'm pretty excited
about that because he's one of the best hunters I've
probably probably ever met in my life just in the
way he does it. He's got young kids and he
finds a way to get them out there into the
outdoors with them and they have success. And I think
just a lot of people our age well who are
wanting to get into emergent hunting will be able to
learn a lot from him. And I know a lot
(17:40):
of other guys and other chapters are starting out doing
that too. Is they're trying to reach out to guys
who know probably more than them. Almost everybody I reached
out who knows more about hunting or fishing or anything
than me. Um, nobody in Nebraska knows more about gardening
and canning than me, though, So I can be the
expert in that and help people with that stuff. That's right, man,
(18:02):
that's that's yeah. Right. I'll just like stumble through how
to articulate how cool that is. But it is very cool. Um.
We've had a lot of people across like a lot
of people over time trying to even have people say like,
here's the manifesto, here's the roadmap, here's what's possible. Right,
And obviously, when you start something like this, you and
(18:24):
you don't really know what the roadmap looks like. There
are a number of questions, right, Uh, what are we
trying to do? Like, what do we actually do? Are
we just a bunch of people I want to hang
out and go hunting? Have you thought about that at all?
Have you talked to any other leaders of other chapters
about this kind of stuff, because I have, Like I said, uh,
there's lots of posts on our Facebook page of people
(18:46):
want wanting to answer those things. Well, Um, what I
always kind of went back to was that outdoor recreation
adoption model, you know, the recruit, retain, recactivate, And I thought,
if we were going to take and look at anything
in you know, our group, it would be just focus
on the recruit and then the reactivate. You know, our
biggest focus would be on recruiting new people. And I
think the best thing to do would be to for
(19:08):
people in these states. You know, the more experts you recruit,
you have those experts go out and find people or
you know, they know people. Now with social media, you know,
everybody's got a thousand friends out there, and you'll be
able to find, you know, people that are interested in
some aspect of what we're doing in these groups. And
I think that's a better way to grow organically than
to just get on and add all your friends. And
so I think that's what we're trying to do into
(19:31):
recruit new members and then people who who are like me,
who used to hunt when they were little kids. You know,
they'll say, hey, there were these guys are starting this
group and this is kind of what it's all about,
and so they'll get back into it. Yeah, I like it.
I mean I did send out to all the leaders
a few rules we live by and some of our
rules for hunting conservation. Again I was I'm gonna say
three four white clause. Deep can put these together as
(19:53):
a bullet points. So Phil, I'm gonna need your reaction
to this as well, if you'd like to add anything.
I really just want to engage you in this process
this because right now I feel like you're on the
outside looking in and I need you here. I need
you to be my confidant. An then, I I appreciate
you reaching out, but I, as I said on the podcast,
probably too many times, I don't know if I'm the
(20:14):
person fail doing that. I want this there there there,
there's a time and place for the non hunter's perspective.
Uh this further this, I'm gonna step aside. I'm gonna
step aside. I'm gonna tell you, I'm gonna tell you
to be quiet right now, and then I'm gonna bring
you back in later and you're gonna have a different attitude. O, yes, sir,
(20:36):
all right, come back later when you're ready to play ball.
Luke's ready, he's ready. He's like calling his friends up. Man.
I love that. You need to be doing the same.
You need to just say you need to. I'll get
you a shirt. You need to be if you could
take mango to the veterinaria. You need to be recruiting
people in all areas of your life. Uh, and it
needs you to be fired up. But anyway, here are
the rules we live by, at least I live by
(20:56):
and if other people would like to live by them,
that's fine. Uh. The number one and again, I was
half lit when I wrote these. Always actively challenge your
own beliefs and the beliefs of your community. Remain open
to nuance and skeptical of pandering bullshit. Seek out your
own biases and understand their impacts on your worldview. And uh, finally,
never take yourself too seriously because those first three can
(21:16):
be real problematic if you yourself are an asshole. So
don't do that. Uh. Here are the rules. When I
think of hunting a conservation, this is how I personally
think of it. When it comes to wildlife conservation. We
use the North American model as our guide, as in
the Guardrails, not the not the Bible, but the Guardrails
certainly is imperfect model, so we can kick it in
(21:38):
its teeth when we need to. Uh. Second to that,
as a hunter's goal should be to maintain the health
of the ecosystem in which he or she hunts. Pretty simple.
We must prioritize fair kill over fair chase, never shy
away from discussing the ethics and morality of our actions.
Number four, hunting should always be viewed as the sustainable
use of a natural resource. And number five, the hunting
(21:59):
community should strive to inclusive by promoting a diversity of
ideas and backgrounds. Uh. Yeah, So those rules govern the
way I've come to think of it. Those rules are
subject to change daily, hourly. Should Phil send me a
cool link of something to read, I'm going to change
them at any time. But that's that's how I approach
(22:19):
them at this point. And um, I think it's it's
as we start these chapters and we start down this road,
it's important to understand kind of the origin story of
why we are doing this. So what other what other
things we need to do? Do on here, Luke, what
(22:40):
do we need to tell people? We need to tell
people how to find these pages, that's for sure, and
how they can get up and who the leaders are.
You want to just run us down the list of
let's call out our chapter leaders if we can, do
you have that and then also kind of how they
can search and find their state chapter page. Give me
us a second here, Phil, you fill in this moment,
(23:04):
fill with some commentary. All right, So quiet quiet Phil,
Let Luke talk. Stop interrupting him. So we got these
now in alphabetical order. Alabama, you're gonna go with Patrick Ray,
and that's gonna be You're gonna all of these are
gonna be called the Hunt Collective and then your state's chapter.
(23:27):
Outside of UM. You know we have the Blue Ridge,
we have the Coastal Plains North Carolina, UM, mid Atlantic,
we have a military chapter, UM, the Mountain West, New England.
Those are all gonna be grouped together, and those are
all gonna have specific leaders as of right now. UM,
Like as of right now, we don't have any leaders
for either of the Dakotas. So what we've been talking
(23:48):
about is me taking over to the South Dakota one
until we can find somebody get up there. We're also
thinking about putting North Dakota in with Minnesota. But I'll
read you guys the the states and their leaders. Now
we have Alabama, we have Patrick Ray Alaska. We have
A B. Rich Arizona. We have Mark Dill Arkansas. We
(24:10):
have Jacob Davis Blue Ridge. That's North Carolina. We have
Eric Hall, the man, the myth, the legend himself. That
would probably be your inaugural chapter. That would be the
Phil Taylor Memorial chapter. Um, yeah, hold on, hold on, memorial.
I don't know what do you call it when they're
still alive? All I know is memorial. I don't know.
(24:32):
How do you how do you want someone that's awesome
and still alive? But I don't know. I like memorial.
That's it's looking into the future. It's just planning for
the future. Hey, I'll tell you what, When you name
your first turkey, then that inaugural chapter will be named
after your first turkey and it can be the Blank
Turkey Memorial chapter. Luke for the ideas, Hey, Luke, have
(25:00):
any engineering skills podcast? Absolutely none. I like what you're
bringing to the table here. Okay, continue, please continue, but
then you know, California right now is our heaviest hitter. UM.
It's got literally a quarter of our total membership is
just out of that state. UM. And they've got Jordan
Rigsby and Nuri Hong. Nuri Hong is also a member
(25:20):
of the Nebraska chapter. He's got a Facebook page called
Emergent Hunter Phil Yea And so I want to read something.
Thank you for that, because I want to read something
that he wrote here when you're done. But I was
one I was going to ask you who that exactly was. Yeah.
He because I blocked him like three times and I
was like, no, license, stay out of my page? Isis
this is so fake that doesn't even make sense? But
(25:42):
it wasn't. He does. Okay, it's good. It's good to
know that's who that is, because I because he has
been posting it a couple of times that I didn't
I didn't know. Yeah, And if we have we actually
so we do have chapters down here in the United States.
We also are a multi nage group. It would be
multinational group because we do have two Canadian chapters. Uh.
(26:05):
They're led by Dave Campbell and Dan Koehler. Uh. Then
we have a Coastal Plains of North Carolina chapter, which
is read Darrel. We have Colorado that's Ryan. I'm a
butcher's last name, Supena. I'm just saying, like I know,
I'm just that's how just how I say it. I
(26:26):
don't know, that's just how I say. Florida has got
a guy named Mark Ernest Phil He did actually just
start Facebook for this group. He is one of the
few people that I actually didn't I didn't let him
in the admin group because I was like, oh, created
nineteen minutes ago with zero friends, you're definitely not a bot.
So I blocked him. So people are doing that field.
(26:47):
It's all a cool thing. It's worth it to let
the government track you to be a part of this group. Uh.
Georgia's leader is Mike Morris, and then we go all
the way down to Iowa and that is Jim Slicener.
We got Kansas as Kelsey guy. We've got Michigan that's
Keith Sprague. Our military chapter is Eric Jobber. We've got
(27:10):
Minnesota that's UM Derek Storical. Missouri is Greg Moon and
Ben Peterson UM Nebraska, which, uh, it'll be it's just
me as of right now, but I will probably ask
a guy named Jordan to help me with that, especially
if we take over South Dakota, which probably way Shamon
Spencer near Hearth I don't know still still ran away,
(27:33):
but I was gonna say if he did end up
giving one of those cuzies from our wedding, take it
back because he doesn't have a group, so he can't.
I was very surprised, And let me just say that
I may have missed the email from someone in South Dakota.
Like I had a lot of emails, so there may
be somebody that if you're listening to this and you're
mad at us, like just just right back in and
tell me, hey, I had my hand up and you
(27:53):
missed me. Um. But I haven't seen anything from either
of the Dakotas, which I love hunting in your eights,
especially the southern one. And uh, I was very disappointed
in all of you in the Dakota sam Soholt is
over there. I just I don't understand. I understand. I
have a friend that played was actually Carson Wentz is
(28:14):
backup in North Dakota State, and uh, he hunts and stuff,
and he I said him all the information about it,
and he hadn't done anything, so well, maybe we'll get
Carson Wentz. We get Carson Wentz eventually his TV show. Yeah,
man can dream man. I think he wears Sitka through
to that. I can't do that. Hey. Oh, by the way,
(28:34):
I'm looking at my emails now we have an Australian
somebody with her hand up in Australia. Luke, I'm gonna
connect you with Zach. He's awesome Arrow On Instagram he
said a good day Ben. I'm not gonna read it
in a but he said good day Ben, so I
just have to say it that way. He emailing about
we're coming to the the chapter leader of Australia. Mate. I've
been listening since episode three or four, and think discussions
(28:56):
you have the people you have on are very beneficial.
I don't always agree with him, but I love what
you're doing. I'd like to be part of it. So
I'm gonna say to his email, Luke, all right, we
will throw that shrimp on the barbie. And then we've
got uh Nevada. Their leader is Jared Adams uh then
New England is Dwayne Tribner and ab Rich. I imagine
(29:17):
that they will probably end up getting some guys to
help them as that's four states they've got in there.
New Mexico is Michael Nass and Sean Manucci. It's a
good one. New York is Martin Resnick, Ohio is Brian Howell,
Oklahoma is Aaron Shaw, Pennsylvania is Mike Barrick, South Carolina
(29:37):
is Ryan Waters. Tennessee it's cal and Harrold. Utah is
b J. Trickler, Washington is Chris Stalker, and Wisconsin are
Mike Peterson and John still Flew. And that would be
all of your chapters that are up and running right
now as of today on Facebook. So yep. And I
(29:59):
don't like Phil, we could I mean, we chose Facebook
just because it's the easiest thing. But Phil, I mean
we could do something different for you. We're willing to
change this up. Like it's all about I. I will
make a a th HC chapter burner account. I'm fine.
I'm totally fine with that. Okay, good Man, go the engineer.
(30:21):
I like it all right. Well, that's that's awesome, man.
I mean for that to come together that quickly, it
is amazing to me. And I was telling Eric Hall
doing some message back and forth him that he said well,
you didn't know you were so popular. It was like,
I don't know if that's the case, but I feel
I feel like this is a good representation of where
a lot of people are at in our space and
(30:42):
when we try to and we try to define like
our own lane within hunting, this is a good way
to to define the fact that a lot of people
are either looking to bring in new folks or are
new folks themselves that would have that are in need
of a mentor um and so I know we're talking
about how you get that generational perspective of where you
(31:03):
sit in and what you bring to the party. Um.
I think this particularly is something that shows exactly what
a lot of people need and what they want and
where their heads are at. I'm gonna find this post
by Nary Hong. Um I would like, I said, I
was confused that it was a mergent Hunter for a while,
and like, I wonder who that is. But I think
(31:23):
Neary made a good post about a manifesto or a
roadmap for what's possible. He said. Um, if I if
I may be so bold, I'd like to posit a
scaffold for an ambitious vision. This is coming from the
perspective of a non hunter aspiring to be a future mentor.
I believe my journey and my evolution in beliefs and
perspectives represent a data point of and equals one for
(31:48):
the feasibility of this plan. I like his approach. I
I am assuming this data point will be explained in time.
He said. One. Establish ourselves become the regional platform for
new hunters. Ben the leader, has outlined the core principle
we will live by. The group has already begun to
do amazing things in less than seventy two hours. Our
mentorship is exponential at this point and we need to
(32:10):
keep going. Thanks to Patrick Ray for creating an amazing tracker.
We've We've mentioned that uh number two build the army
mentor and educate emergent hunters on all aspects of hunting, conservation,
land policy, environmental policy, wildlife management, ethics, etcetera. Within our network,
we will be the leading hunting mentors and conservations each
regional Slush State chapter. We will actively recruit these people
(32:33):
to join. At some point our mentor our membership will
become compelling for others to use as a platform for education. Three.
Deploy the Army. Let's be honest. Emerging hunters are often
stereotyped as democratic hunters. This is true for a state
like California, where I live. I was called this once
by a very generous local mentor. He loves folks like us,
(32:56):
quote unquote, and has taken many on hunts, even ones
who who wore man buns in their hair. His words,
not mine. I do not rock a man bun. That's
good to know. Although this is a judgment free zone
all the way around, man mun's are welcome, right Phil,
I would say they're encouraged from here on out. Okay,
I'm adding. I'm adding to the list bullet point seven,
(33:18):
man bun required. No, Luke, that's don't let him. I
can go video games, but I can come man buns.
So Nuri. Nuri continues the point of all of this,
Our army is a bridge to people who do not hunt,
(33:39):
We do not understand, who do not understand hunting ethics,
who do not understand how conservation works, who do not
understand land policy, and do not do not understand everything else, etcetera. Essentially,
this was me before I started this journey. What I've
learned has changed my worldview. We can use this army
as a voice for educating others and crossing the political bridge.
(34:00):
We can unite what is divided in the name of
conservation and wildlife management policy. We don't have to convert
everyone to become hunters, we don't want that. But we
can get them to like us and to become allies
on common causes. We can use our army to achieve this.
Create the th h see emergent hunting training ranches for
(34:22):
wilder conservation, think back forty for new hunters. Establish a
new nonpartisan political movement, the Land of Nature Party. Elect
the presidential ticket of Ronnello Slash a lot being eagle
in select bend the leader for Secretary of Interior? Who
is in? Uh? Phil? Are you in for all of that?
There's six six really important points there? But yeah, yeah, sure,
(34:45):
I mean I think that there might be there might
be some competition for Secretary of the Interior. Um who
was second? Is that cow? It was it? I was
thinking Caw for Interior. That doesn't mean yeah, I'll be
maybe Uh, I don't know what I'll be. I'll just
be in there somewhere, hanging out. I'd like to be
maybe a lobbyist. You'll you'll you'll be transportation like Pete
(35:06):
Bododa Buddha. They just throwing him a bone. Here you go,
you get transportation, Secretary of Education. Well a lot of that,
even though number six I probably am not into the
other the other things, maybe not even number five. I
don't think we need to start a land nature party,
although that'd be fun. Um, particularly what nerd he's saying
(35:27):
around deploying this activity is important to me and to
get it out there and have people understand that there's
a common cause here, regardless of however you label yourself
or are labeled by others. Uh So, I like that.
There's a bunch of other really important messages from people
who are just talking about how this is has made
(35:49):
them feel. Um, I want to read John Stealth, You
Stealth Lou. I'm sorry everyone, I'll always get your name wrong.
That's just how it is. It's kind of a right
of passage here for me to funk up your name.
I said, hey, everyone, I just want to take a
minute and talk about what has happened in the last
few days. I've been doing this hunting and fishing thing
for about forty years. This quote unquote thing has re
(36:11):
energized me. I was telling Mike Peterson, the other Wisconsin
chapter leader, that I'm as excited for this as I
was when I booked my first paying guide date for
muskie fishing years ago. As the last few days have
went on, I feel like every one of us could
show up at an outing and shake hands and talk
like we've been friends for years. I think we're all
(36:32):
coming at this hunting and fishing thing from just about
the same place. Thanks for doing this. I'm I'm likely
the old man river in this group, but hey, someone
has to be. I really believe we can make a difference,
even if it is just picking up some trash in
a parking lot. This is going to be a hell
of a lot of fun. Uh yeah, man, I I
(36:53):
just want to make sure that like, those words are
probably more important than any words that I could say. Um,
and I said this on the page there, that I
that that gives me a little bit of a little
bit of hope for the future and some satisfaction in
the work. So I hope that does for everybody else. Now,
anything else that I'm missing, Luke, Before we get to
our little uh the way, We're gonna round this all
(37:15):
out and give people a chance to do something cool. Um,
No you miss anything here. I think we got it
pretty much all squared away. One thing UM I had
talked about doing with Jordan here in Nebraska that I
was going to try to get your blessing for or
see what you thought about it is UM, a lot
of guys just on the group have been talking about
(37:37):
how to get membership and things like that. And Uh,
I happen to be lucky enough that just through the
kind of connections I made in college and stuff, I've
got friends that work in the Rocky Mountain Help Foundation
and then at work and fettans for everything's like that.
And so what Jordan and I were thinking about doing
is either for having like a podcast or a blog
that would just be talking to these groups about how
(37:59):
to how they recruit, you know, how how do you
go about having an auction, how do you go about
having a fundraiser, How do you work on your membership?
When do you start you know, when do you start
looking for When do you start you know trying to
you know, actually like a have projects that you're gonna
do that will be in your name? Do you need
to be an LLC? All those kinds of things that
(38:19):
that you don't really think about when you just want
to get a bunch of people together who like to
hunt and to get people to start hunting. So I
don't know, Um, it would be one of those things.
We'd probably just make it available to the guys that
are on our our Facebook pages and on on our thing,
and we would just talk to them and like that
would just kind of be a thing we would do
to try to make it easier because I don't know
have any mostly for me, because I don't have any
(38:40):
idea how to recruit. I don't know how to do
anything like that it knew people to come on. I
think that's the problem is, Yeah, a lot of us
are really good at kind of understanding what this is about,
but not a lot of us really know how to
go about making it happen. And so that's kind of
something that I would like to learn how to do
because I think this could be huge. I think this
could be our version of the Rocky mountainel foundation of
(39:01):
that we could be. We could be that big just
with the momentum that we have kind of with everything
that you guys going, I think we could draw in
members the right kind of members and do just huge things.
I mean, look at the way that we affect the
ballot box. Now, just why you guys bringing up and
stuff you know on your podcast And just imagine now
if you've got a whole group to go besides go
(39:23):
with that podcast to help get these you know, the
bad bill around up, get all of those thrown out.
And I just think that, you know, this guy could
really be the limit with this and I'm just so
excited to be a part of it. I'm just just
super phil Phil. Uh, do we need to get We
should probably get a lawyer on legal representation? Yeah, Luke. Uh,
(39:44):
the ambition is incredibly inspiring. That's I mean, I I
at first I was gonna like say something sarcastic here
about a lawyer and how you know, meat Eater should
probably probably have a meeting with with Steve or somebody.
But I don't know, man, That's just that's just a
great thing to to to strive for. And I don't
I don't have anything. I don't have anything snarky to say.
(40:06):
I don't I don't listen this. Uh, when you start
down a path like this, you just gotta keep going forward.
That's that's the best you can do. That's about all
you can do. UM. So we'll keep doing that. But yes,
we're absolutely want to feed I. I sit on the
board of directors for b h A and we've seen
this exact thing happen in that group. Like you get,
(40:27):
people are passionate about this thing, they're passionate about gathering
UM and you just have to let that passion lead
the way. And you know, every once in a while
you'll trip and fall down, but as long as you
have that passion, you can get back up. So one
thing that we're going to try to do for everybody
is we're gonna have a little we're gonna call it
a Field Days program because obviously this all started because
(40:49):
somebody needed a mentor and everybody listening to this podcast
wanted to step up or or a large number of
people wanted to step up. So that was yeah, kind
of the beginning here. So hat tip to that beginning,
we started we want to start a Field Days program. Now,
this is each of the chapter leaders will be running
this themselves and they'll be compiling things. So if you're
(41:10):
not in these Facebook pages and part of the conversation,
you're gonna miss out. But we do this at Meat Eater,
and we did this with First Light um internally, but
it's something I think we can we can make work
for this whole thing. And basically, um, we're going to
do something called I guess i'll call it Field Days.
What we could be? Tell me it's right into t
(41:32):
a c to meet here and tell me that could
be something cooler for a name. Maybe Phil has a name.
The Inaugural Filthy Engineer Mentor Contest Memorial Tournament. Yeah, we'll
we'll turn that into a an AFRONAM. It'll be fine. Well, yeah,
we'll workshop it. We'll workshop it anyhow. What this is
gonna do is incentiveive people go out there at the
(41:52):
very at the very least, go out there and teach
people what they need to know about hunting. Bring bring
new people in and then teach them. That's that's basically
what we're gonna do as a foundational effort here. So, UM,
here's what's gonna work. If you go out if you're
are a member or are you're part of a Facebook
page for one of the forty plus the chapters we've
(42:14):
got going out there, uh, and you join and you
take someone hunting someone brand new. They don't have to
be brand new, they have to be in need of membership.
But brand new would probably be what we're shooting for.
But somebody is in need of mentorship, and you're out
there and you're willing to do the mentoring, join one
of these chapter pages. Take that person or person's hunting,
(42:36):
Take a picture of yourself, send it in to that
Facebook page that's associated with the state or regional chapter.
Once you've done that, describe the hunt, what was the
hunt about, Where did you go? How long? If you
do an all day hunt, you accumulate what's called two
raffle tickets. If you do a half day hunt or
a part of a day hunt, you get one. Over time,
(43:00):
each chapter will amass a number of let's say raffle
tickets or days in the field, and each chapter will
then be able to come to us at the end
of the year and say we've counted this many days
mentoring in the field, and we will have five awesome prizes,
including all types of things we're currently working out. Some
chapter leaders had a bunch of good ideas for prizes,
(43:21):
but at the end of the year, we'll draw these
prizes based on the number of field days total for
each chapter will be the number of raffle tickets you
get in the hat. So then we will draw raffle
tickets out of the hat, and if the chapter is drawn,
the top mentor of that chapter will get that prize.
So hopefully that's that's a little bit convoluted field. Does
that make sense to you? I know this is the
(43:42):
first that you're hearing it, so as always, you're my
proxy for everyone else listening. No, that's a great idea. Okay,
Now we have a reason for being right. We have
the general reason that that these chapters are built to
mentor people, built to bring in new hunters along the way.
As Luke mentioned, we're we're gonna go probably down a
million rabbit holes and have all kinds of things to
(44:02):
figure out. But but that's the basis. So if you
joined one of these Facebook pages, it doesn't take much.
If you have to make a Facebook page, just do it.
It's fine. Turn off the tracking and the data, don't
watch what's that, don't watch the social media dilemma or
whatever that. Don't watch that because you won't want to
join um. But get in there and join, and then
all you gotta do is track your hunting with a
(44:23):
new hunter and you'll be entered to win some cool
stuff and um, you'll be entered into an awesome program
that kind of knows where it's going, but you'll be
a part of the beginning of it. Any commentary, Phil
official comments, Uh, as an employee of Meeting Incorporated, No,
this was I still can't believe this is happening for
(44:44):
something that started as a joke about a cult. Um.
I got so many messages from people back then saying,
please tell Ben to stop with the cult bullshit. Um,
but I think it's flowered into something real and uh
and you know, just below cult status. So I think
(45:05):
we're in. I think we're clear. I think we're in.
We're still green. Everything's fine. Um, but it's it's just
it's really it's I mean, honestly, it's wild to see
this happen. Sometimes I forget the reach of your show,
Ben and everything that everything that you've talked about on
this podcast throughout the last couple of years. So it's
(45:26):
it's cool, It's it's awesome, Okay, Luke anything. Well, Actually,
we had some guys get locked out of their pages
and stuff for using the cult language, I know came
back to bite as finally, So uh, to go back
to what you were we were talking about at the beginning,
um with you know, the First Family and everything. You've
had one guy on the page who said that we
should change the name, and then you had another guy
(45:49):
on the page who posted a gift of William Wallace
yelling hold and said never give in to Facebook. And uh,
I would think that the guy who posted a gift
of William Wallace would be your the guy you'd want
to follow, you know, the leader probably of those fans,
not the guy who's just changing the name. Yeah, I'm
picking up who that guy might have been. Yeah, I
(46:09):
mean you know what I'm talking about. Yeah, listen, I
I you know, I'm not gonna let Zuckerberg hold us
down if we want to be A cult is just
a word. It doesn't have to be. It's a bad connotation,
you know, just like air fifteen or trophy hunting. It's
just a word. Was a group of crows is called
a murder, No one gets at them for that be Yeah,
we wouldn't be you know, THHD murder. Yeah, like we're
(46:32):
not doing that, So you can be grateful for that's
all right, Well listen if you're here for some kind
of like you know, in depth conversation about a very
important issue. I'm sorry we took a break from that,
but we felt like this needed to be addressed, This
needed to be explained away, and we need to kind
of set a path forward. So what we're gonna do
from now on in the show is give weekly updates.
(46:54):
We're gonna bring somebody on that's a leader, can ask
him what the hell is going on, what they're doing,
why they're doing it, um, and where to continue our
little field days competition throughout the year. And we'll continue
checking in and seeing where this goes. Uh. Eventually we
may have to have a lawyer on to give an
official statement on behalf of Phil and I. We may
(47:16):
I may and be in j I may be jailed
and you guys may have to bail me out. You
might have to raise money via some sort of Venmo
account or something. I don't know. Uh, these are this
is just me. I'm just talking out loud. Phil, just
talking out loud. Okay, we got anything here? Well, I
mean I gotta say this. You say you're just talking
this out that that was a lot of detail. It's
almost like you've kind of this is premeditated, like like
(47:39):
you've you've you've you've run this through your head and
you've got some sort of master plan. Unnever you speak
on that, please no comment. But every call has a martyr,
and Uh, if I gotta go down, I'll go down
the swinging alright, Phil, it sounds great. I'll miss you. Alright, Well,
say bye to everybody and listen to for the second
time in this uh brief episode, Kayla Ray singing the
(48:04):
Phil t Engineer memorial theme song. I swear to gay,
but I swear to God benefit if if someone plays
us at my funeral, I'm gonna be curious. Say bye, Phidbye, Clean,
You're gone, and tune your bowl Where the hun clecked
show calling Hunters New and all the Hunt collect show,
(48:28):
Working pig and shovel or working paining hand. We call
agate nice lovers. I'm Bela and we're focused. We're just
living for the search, dreaming of the fire and a
saltic gilburn By. We ain't coming by to hell. It's
colden Lake taking its slow, so wen shoes straight. Clean,
(48:52):
You're gone. Tune your bowl Where the Hun clecked show,
calling hunters new and all ain't no cold, I'm told
we're knowing's too good. We're all good. No, we got
fuelty engineer calling any shooters, blow ared times calling and
bitter vegans crying. Remember there's always been Old Brian ruled
(49:16):
by reason. Is our collected bay taking it slow so
we can shoot straight? Clean your gun to your ball.
Where the huncollective show and calling hunters new and all
the uncollective show where facts or facts and opinions are subjective.
(49:39):
You're listening night to the Collecting
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