What began as a potentially hot button issue for Maine sportsmen has quietly slipped from the minds of most. RESTORE-SAM announced the opening of its brand new website back in April. It’s purpose seemed hopeful to some.
Mission Statement: It is the goal of RESTORE SAM to restore the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine to a group that reflects the traditions of Maine. We expect SAM to represent the average sportsmen, women, and children of this great State, not just the special interest groups as it is now. SAM has an outstanding history of representing Maine’s outdoor heritage. RESTORE SAM’s task is to return the organization to those roots.
RESTORE-SAM is a secret. Nobody seems to know much if anything about who is behind the effort as they are choosing to remain anonymous. I’m not sure whether it’s an individual, a group of individuals, an existing organization or as some have speculated, it may even be the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine trying to right itself.
In a previous article, I expressed my concerns over whether RESTORE-SAM was doing enough fast enough to sustain an effort that would have much effect on sportsmen in Maine.
It appears that the only presence that RESTORE-SAM has is via the Internet. This presents a challenge for even an experienced Internet entity. Cyberspace moves at lightning speed and this is what users expect when they go there. My own experience has taught me that any website that essentially remains dormant, quickly becomes a dead duck.
The competition is fierce and if you are not providing fresh information daily or at a minimum every other day, interest wanes quickly. RESTORE-SAM has done little since it announced its effort to keep any of us interested informed. It took three weeks from the time they announced the opening of their website to make any other real contact with the outside world.
On April 23 they updated their website seeking input from anyone about Sunday hunting in Maine, an issue that just doesn’t seem to go away and RESTORE-SAM believes that continued insistence on passing a Sunday hunting bill is hurting the hunter’s image. Two weeks have passed since that update and still the website remains a cemetery with no activity.
I had encouraged through my articles for RESTORE-SAM to open up a line of communication. I suggested a blog or a message board where they could keep those interested updated but that hasn’t happened and I don’t know if it has even been considered. When RESTORE-SAM made its announcement, they did so through the New England Outdoor Voice, owned by Butch Moore. In their insistence to remain anonymous, they claimed that NEOV was the only place that would allow them to do that. Even with that stage to communicate they have done very little.
It is my opinion that unless RESTORE-SAM mounts a better PR and communications campaign, they will have a difficult time in getting enough people behind their effort to make any change. I think most sportsmen in Maine are at least intrigued by this effort but aren’t yet willing to climb aboard to make SAM the best representative of the Maine sportsmen it can be.
I suppose time will tell.
If you haven’t been to the RESTORE-SAM website to tell them how you feel about the Sunday hunting debate, you can click this link and then click the email response link at the bottom of the page.
Tom Remington
