Extravaganza 2008 Keynote Speaker Announced!

Extravagant Ones:

I am pleased to announce that, concurrent with the arrival of Group One this year and setting the tone for this year's sixth foray into the wilds of Montana, Extravaganza 2008 will be anointed by our first-ever keynote speaker, National Wildlife Federation Regional Representative (resident in Missoula) Land Tawney (see picture above and bio below). Land's five hour PowerPoint presentation will be delivered and video taped at Extravaganza Headquarters immediately upon the arrival of Group One and PRIOR to the opening of the liquor cabinet, wine cellar and/or beer chest.

His speech, entitled "A Long (And Lengthy) View Into the Merits of Conservation," will be supplemented and followed by a shorter, 1 1/2 hour, presentation by his Montana counterpart and fishing partner, Ben Lamb, National Issues Coordinator of the Montana Wildlife Federation. Ben's talk will be a most appropriate one, considering his audience of the swaggering [staggering?] members of Group One: "You, Booze and the Great Outdoors...How Abstinence Leads to Longevity."

Each nationally renowned in his respective field, both Land and Ben will be available for a question and answer session after their presentation, whereafter the traditional, official, symbolic candle representing the formal commencement of Extravaganza 2008 [akin to the Olympic Torch] will be lit by Group One's own Extravaganza 2007 Twenty-Inch Club Member and Yellow Hat Winner Mary "Don't Tread On Me" Reilley, whereafter the bar will then be officially opened (christened?!?).

Thanks to both Land and Ben for participating in Extravaganza 2008...be prepared, however, for a baptism by fire as you are introduced to the ignoble ones of Group One, particularly when you reconfirm to the assembled Ones that the bar, indeed, is to remain closed during the tenure of your presentation(s).

Rock Creek Ron

p.s. There will be a written quiz after each presentation.

LAND TAWNEY

Land is a 5^th generation Montanan who garnered his conservation ethic in duck blinds on warm water sleughs in the Bitterroot Valley, on the end of a rod during the salmon fly hatch on the Big Hole River, and chasing the wiley wapiti in Cinnabar Basin. Land received a BS in Wildlife Biology from the University of Montana in 2000. Fresh out of school, he worked for a newly formed sportsmen organization called the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership as their National Grassroots Coordinator. After four years working for TRCP, Land joined the staff of the National Wildlife Federation as Regional Representative in Missoula, Montana in October of 2004. As Regional Representative, Land works with the Montana Wildlife Federation in building grassroots and organizational capacity to help make them more effective at a local, state, regional and federal level. In 2007, Land initiated the first Montana Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus with strong bi-partisan participation…22 Republicans and 23 Democrats.

In his spare time, Land sits on the board of the Phil Tawney Hunters Conservation Endowment and Hellgate Hunters and Anglers. Land is in his second term on the Private Land Public Wildlife Council and was appointed as Chairman by Governor Schweitzer for his current term. Any other spare time is spent on the stream, in a duck blind, or chasing big game. Land enjoys anything outside with his expecting wife, Glenna, and two labs…Gabriel, ”The Arch Angel of Ducks” and Triple “T”, Teller Turk Tawney.