I have set up a major category grouping of forums entitled
Laws, Legislative Issues & Alerts which will be on the main page of the forums. I'm not sure this is best, but my gut feeling is that these sorts of problems need to reach a broader audience than just the herp community. We're just too blasted small to make a dent anywhere. Of course, on this site, it is the largest community here, but I still lean towards making the forum group visible outside of this group. I am still open to opinions on this point.
I haven't opened it up yet, as I am still trying to got some feedback as to what is best to do. But in any event, this particular forum we are in right here will eventually be merged into the other category I just created.
As for posting in the BOI about this issue, I am ambivalent about that. Yes, by far it gets the most traffic over all of the other forums combined here, but I believe that most people going to the BOI will not be interested in messages of this sort. But I can put up a notice at the top of the forum that would redirect anyone interested in legislative issues to the new forum group. In any event, I would like to make an effort to get people going to the rest of this site anyway. Otherwise I can just start lumping all of the messages together into one HUGE single forum and call it all the "BOI".
Anyway, I have broken down the legislative category into multiple forums. One will be THIS forum, as a general discussion forum, then a forum for USA National issues. The rest of the category is composed of an individual forum for each of the states.
What I recommend is for each state forum to be populated with the following information:
- Existing laws on the books NOW.
- Links to the state legislature's information site
- Contact info for all state and local representatives
- Contact information for any herp societies or other animal clubs or groups
- Contact information for ANYONE within that state willing to act as a local liaison
This information can be stuck at the top of the state forum as a basic information resource guide.
Further, check with your local legislative information office. I believe that lobbyiests have to be registered with the legislature. See if you can get a list of lobbyists. Is there anyone lobbying for the pet trade? If so, whom do they represent? Might be worth contacting them to see if your help will get their help.
I can make changes as deemed prudent and logical to the structure, layout, or location of the forums. Right now, I don't know what will work best, so I'm shooting from the hip. Suggestions are welcomed, and participation is pretty much mandatory if you all want this to mean anything worthwhile. If you wait for the other guy to do it, it will all fail.