Quail Unlimited faces bleak financial outlook

http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/20 ... 4902.shtml

Quail Unlimited, the nation's largest conservation group devoted to bobwhite quail, has shut its doors, furloughed its 24 remaining employees and put its national headquarters in Edgefield, S.C., up for sale to resolve what board members say are catastrophic financial problems.

"It is bleak," said Bill Bowles, a member of the organization's national board of directors and an officer on the board's executive committee for financial matters." On Oct. 27th we realized we couldn't make payroll for the 31st. How do you ask someone to stay when you can't pay them?"

The organization, founded in 1981, has about 30,000 members and an annual budget just shy of $6 million that is generated from sponsors, banquets and fundraising programs nationwide.

Although conservation groups everywhere are struggling with declining membership and the impacts of an economic downturn, the problems at Quail Unlimited were compounded by internal strife and a lack of communication with the volunteer board of directors, which meets just twice a year, Bowles said.

"The financial position of the organization was in a steady decline," he said. "We were reaching critical mass and it is hard for a board of very, very smart businessmen to give guidance and leadership to a nonprofit conservation organization if the board is not shown accurate financial data."

Leadership within the group has shifted in recent months. In late March, longtime president Rocky Evans stepped down for health reasons and Craig A. Alderman -- the organization's marketing director since 2006 -- was appointed by the board to replace Evans on an interim basis. After seven months, Alderman was dismissed in a split board vote, Bowles said, and at least six board members have subsequently resigned.

"When the board called for a meeting to discuss placing Alderman back in his marketing position and bringing in another interim president -- and at same time hiring an outside financial consultant to tell us where we were -- there was dissension among the ranks. Some wanted Alderman to remain."

Currently, efforts are under way to save Quail Unlimited and put its employees back to work. The current furlough will last two weeks but could be extended.

"We can spend all day looking in the rear view mirrors and that does not help us tomorrow," Bowles said. "We have to turn around, quit worrying about the personalities here, face the music and pull ourselves up by the bootstraps if we are to save this organization."

He said he does not believe bankruptcy will be necessary.

"The organization is not bankrupt," he said. "We are asking state chairmen of the organization to support the board and work with the board -- instead of being divided -- so that the funds from the local chapters will continue to come in to the organization."

According to a listing with Mathis Realty, of Edgefield, the group's national headquarters, warehouses and 75 acres are being offered for $650,000.

"There is equity in the property," Bowles said. "The sale could at least get the organization partly out of the hole. We don't have to have 75 acres and a warehouse to run a conservation organization."

There is also uncertainty over where Quail Unlimited will be headquartered in the future. "At this point we don't know if it will stay in Edgefield or even in the Augusta area."

"We are working to get our staff back to work and make sure they have a paycheck, and to make sure we have a future for this organization," he said. "We can't turn all this around in two weeks, but we can put a tourniquet on it and go from there."

Jerry Allen, who founded Quail Unlimited in 1981 but is no longer a board member, said he hopes the organization will recover and survive -- and stay in Edgefield.

"It breaks my heart to see what has happened," he said. "I put my life into this thing."

The organization has a long history of helping natural resource agencies and landowners figure out ways to make their habitat a better place for quail. Quail Unlimited's many accomplishments include spreading its chapters to areas as far away as Oregon and New Mexico -- and convincing the U.S. Forest Service and other federal agencies to adopt quail management programs.

More than anything else, the group has worked hard to convey that everyone should care about quail, whose presence in a healthy ecosystem typically shows that all is well. It would be a shame, Allen said, for that message to be lost.

this is a sad thing for the many volunteer folks who have spent a lot of time and effort to make this work. In some areas it is very healthy at the local level. There is another organization called Quail Forever that is an poffshot of Pheasants Forever that is trying to capture some of hte momentum and volunteers of the QU organization for the QF local chapters in the future. Having known long time volnteer national board members of QU for some time I think they feel very badly about what is ahppening to the organization. I feel bad for them. Truth is QU or QF is fighting a VERY tough road in trying to save or restablish quail populations in the southeast. IMO anyway. Even in SE areas with great habitat in the plant world there is an overwhelming animal predator situation that essentially destroys any quail populations that has survived. The Tall Timbers research (seeTalltimbers.org website ) has shown that native bobwhite quail can survive and prosper under ideal conditions but not under margainnal conditions. In my area QU gave away tons of food plot seeds every year and the loss of that fro all game will be significant if some other organization does not pick up that project. All my opinions . not based on facts, just obervations of perceived facts.

GN, You're not making me feel good about the quail I'm turnign loose on out place.
I know it's probably a futile effort, but I'm trying for several reasons. We'll see how it works...

That's bad news. They were fighting an uphill battle.

My discussions last night with a perservering and continuing National Trustee (board memeber) of QU indicate they are working their way back to a survival mode. Apparently there have been some power play moves by some of the staff an that has caused the problem on the financial end to become more muddled. I suspect this organization will succeed and survive. Iwas also told that Rumors about "loose" gun law compliance and IRS problemns apparently are untrue as federal authorities were invited in to examine records of firemarms issues and concluded organization was clean in that respect. Same thing happens about everytime a church fires a preacher.