WE NEED YOUR HELP!!!

[Capt. Keith]

WE NEED YOUR HELP!!!

We are working on getting the money to hire the lobbyist. Ron McManus
as been out beating the bushes and got $1,500.00 and I have got
$1,000.00. We are $2,500.00 short of our goal for this month. We need
the rest of the money by next Friday, the 11th of March. If you can,
or know of anyone that can, help out please let us know or ask them
yourself.

Cameron Sebastian and Kim Stevens will also be helping raise some
money for us next week. We still need a few more fishermen to help out
with this. We have to raise an additional $45,000.00 so we have the
Lobbyist working for us for 10 months. We need someone to go and see
the boat dealer, tackle stores, marinas, motels, restaurants, golf
course, and any other place that the closings will affect.

The lobbyist is the only way we will be able to get changes made to
the MSA and Oppose Catch Shares. The lobbyist will be working for us
in Washington DC 8 hours a day 5 days a week.

If we can not raise the money from our group we have to go to North
Carolina and other groups in South Carolina to help with it. The
problem with that is the more group we have doing this the hard it
will be to get this done, because each group has a view they want to
see get done.

Thanks
Keith




I have been talking with some more Congressmen and Senators from other
states the last few days. One thing they all keep bringing up to me
is we need a lobbyist that is working for us in DC. I have known this
for some time from talking to other people about how things work in DC
to get bills passed. In our talks they are tell me it will take about
10 month to get the bill passed. I just did not want to see it come
down to us having to raise money or find way to hire a lobbyist. I was
hoping we could do this with our voices and numbers.


The RFA has some lobbying for them. I talk to Jim Donofrio the
executive director of the RFA. He said he wish that ever state would
hire a lobbyist to fight form them. This would go a long way in
getting a bill passed. The more lobbyists we have the better change we
have getting a bill passed.

This is where we are. I have been talking to a lobbyist in DC for
sometime. To get him to lobby for us will be $5,000.00 a month for
about 10 months at least to get this bill pass. He will lobby for us
to oppose catch shares and a bill to admen the Magnuson-Stevens Act to
suit our needs. The lobbyist will answer to us.

This is what I need. Need to see if anyone wants to step up and head
the effort to raise the money to hire a lobbyist. The lobbyist will
bill us every month. This will make it easier to try to raise the
money and get him started fighting for us right away.

This is the problem we have now. He needs to start with in two from
today. This is due to some vote that will be going on in a few weeks
that has to do with the budget of NOAA. He needs to get his foot in
the door at the start of this to make it easier to get a bill put in
place. So we need to raise $5,000.00 in two weeks. I have some idea on
how to this if some want to help. I can not do this by myself. If you
know anyone who want to or can help donate the money to get it going I
will be glad to talk to them and tell them what is going on and what
we need.

If we can not hire a lobbyist this year will end like last year with
no bill to fix the Magnuson-Stevens Act and we might end up with Catch
Shares.

If you want to know more info about this, give me a call at
843-907-0064.

Thanks
Keith