George Blitch: 0:14

Hey Joe, welcome back to the Son of a Bleach podcast. How are you today, man? I'm good, George. How are you doing? Doing great, doing great. Well, you know, you guys just wrapped up an amazing 2026 Houston Safari Club Foundation convention. Uh man, it was an amazing thing to be a part of. Uh, just as you're kind of dealing with the the smoke finally clearing the room and uh, you know, kind of all the things you had to kind of earmark and finish up there, tell me your thoughts, man. Uh, how did you feel that the convention went this year?

SPEAKER_00: 0:46

It went uh it went really well. I know everybody's gonna say it went really well, but you know, as you as you know, we had some extenuating circumstances. We had a potential ice storm that was gonna hit us. And so there was a lot of uh, I think there was a lot of panic. You know, when you're when your mayor uh comes out and says everybody needs to hunker down Thursday through Tuesday, you and you see that on the news, you worry. Um, you know, we opened convention officially, the expo opened on Friday and closed on Sunday, and a lot of our exhibitors uh we we assembled as a team and had a game plan because luckily we missed the ice and the bad weather. It was it was more north of us. Um, but you know, we had to scramble at the last minute on Saturday to let our exhibitors know and talk to them. And they were like, we want to stay open tomorrow. If it's not, let's shut down. We're we're we want to be open. So everybody stayed open. The traffic was a little bit lighter on Sunday, but I thought, you know, Friday and Saturday, um, people, our exhibitors are saying, Man, we're closing deals, we're making sales, um, we're busy. Um, our our our convention banquets and our auctions went extremely well. Um, we raised a lot of money for our scholarship program and for our for all of our other programs as well. So considering that there was Sunday was gonna be an unknown. I think a lot of people came and showed up on Saturday thinking, well, I probably won't be able to get out tomorrow. So um we had a we had a really big crowd, had a good Friday crowd and a really big crowd on Saturday. Sunday was a little slow, of course, but um people north of us couldn't get into town and and other people I think were just like, man, I'm gonna build a fire and stay home and watch TV.

George Blitch: 2:17

So yeah, well, I mean, it seemed like it was really good numbers all around. Like I, you know, I see Sundays, usually the tail end of the conventions, people are kind of wrapping up, doing their stuff. If they've had a long night on Saturday, maybe they're sleeping in a bit. But I mean, yeah, every time I was walking through the convention halls, there was people there at the exhibition there hall. Everyone was around talking to people. It looks like, like you said, deals getting done. People were booking hunts. Everyone seemed very excited about it. I mean, there was a lot of energy in the rooms. Um, you know, and especially the the different nights, man, the banquets, uh, the gazelles luncheon, uh, Saturday Banquet was great, the live auction. Um, you know, we'll kind of dive into the details, but there was one specific auction item that I thought was really cool with the Texas Parks and Wildlife. And I'd love for you to maybe talk about that because that was uh one of the big uh uh you know fundraising uh events of the night. And uh it just seemed like there was a lot of energy in the room for that. So I don't know if you want to kind of talk about that and what was special about it. Sure.

SPEAKER_00: 3:15

So um I consider the Texas Desert Bighorn Sheep Program the Um probably one of the most successful uh recovery programs in the U.S. back, you know, back in the days, if you can ever imagine that you know we were worried about whitetail and and turkeys in this country. Um, you know, the the the conservationists at that time did a phenomenal job in bringing back the turkey population, especially. And Texas Parks and Wildlife um has dedicated a lot of time and effort and resources to bringing back desert bighorn sheep. It's not an easy thing. They continue to fight against um, you know, odd ad overcrowding and forage and that sort of thing, but um it's a program that the Houston Swart Club Foundation really believes in. We've provided grants in the past, uh actually pretty much every year we provided grants for different aspects of that program. And we were blessed this year to get um about well, once a year, if the population is supportive of it, the sheep population, uh, parks and wildlife will allow a nonprofit to auction off a sheep tag in the state of Texas. And we were blessed that this was our year. Uh, we hadn't had it in about six years. Um and so there was a lot of buzz around that. In fact, you'll see um you'll see brokers or representatives in the room on behalf of other sheep hunters who couldn't make it down or online or whatever, and they're it's it's a very coveted tag because it's almost a it's almost a guaranteed success hunt. Um, and it's gonna be a really great sheep, and it's guided by parks and walleye personnel, usually on Elephant Mountain in West Texas. Um, it's not an easy hunt, but um it's if you're gonna get a big desert bighorn sheep in Texas, that's the way to do it, really. Um so the program's been highly successful. Um the way the program works is um we get the tag, we auction it off for as much money as we can raise, and 10% of it goes back to us um for our fundraising efforts, but 90% goes directly back to the sheep program in the state of Texas. So that's really cool to see that. Um we had the um the uh head of the program here and a couple of his buddies were here as well talking about it. And we um we raised, you know, we did 175,000, 170,000. We were 5,000 off the record. Um so we missed, we missed the record by 5,000. Um, but we were happy with what we raised. The the department was happy about it. And um, I talked to the gentleman who actually who actually bought it, and uh he was thrilled. He was thrilled. So um, because he, you know, he has a conservationist heart. He wanted to shoot the sheep, of course, but he's like, man, this is this is so cool that it's gonna help this sheep program in the state of Texas. So that was very exciting. It was it was fast and furious for a while, the bidding on that, and there was a lot of back and forth, but um we finally got it sold and we're we're very happy with the outcome.

George Blitch: 6:03

Well, it there was a lot of excitement in the room. I know online there's people there that were kind of going and bidding as well, too. So you had like the online portion of it, and it just kept building. The excitement was there, it was very palpable. Uh, and what I really love too, that the gentleman who came in from Texas Parks Wildlife who kind of you know gave a little bit of one-on-one on the program and and the tag and what it meant, you know, one of three this year. And, you know, he was a recipient of one of the scholarships too from the Houston Safari Club Foundation years ago. And I just want to tie that in to the idea of, you know, for those who may not know where what a lot of this fundraising does, it's not just to like uh run the you know executive things behind the the you know the scenes there. Of course, there there are some costs there too, but how much you guys have in scholarships and where the fundraising goes to help all these programs, especially youth hunting and different things there too. So I'd like for you to just take a little bit of time to talk about where that support ends up in the hands of those who need it and what are those programs you guys are doing.

SPEAKER_00: 7:05

Yeah, it's ironic that the guy who's head of the sheep program now is actually a former recipient of our scholarship program when he was getting his uh master's and PhD, I believe. Um, and then you got this guy, and I call him a kid because I'm an old man. You got this kid that stands up on stage, he's running the sheep program in the state of Texas, and he's like, Oh, yeah, and by the way, um part of the way I got my degree to get this far in my career was from the scholarship that I got from you guys years ago, several years ago, not too too long ago, but um, you know, for people who aren't familiar with the organization, uh, scholarship program is kind of our benchmark program. It's what we're really known for. We've done 17, 717 scholarships now. Um, I think the total right now is sitting at about 3.38 million. Um, we'll give out, actually, the scholarship period is open. So if you're watching this or listening to this, you can go to the go to our website at wehuntwe give.org and click on the scholarship page. And if you're in a Texas university, you can apply for the scholarship if you're majoring in wildlife management, range management, whatever. And that'll be open here for a couple more months. And then in July, June, July timeframe, we'll award our next round scholarships. Um, but yeah, we're starting to see agency leaders, thought leaders, key decision makers, scientists, researchers, and those people are all popping up and they're like, oh yeah, I was a two-time recipient of the uh the Dan L. Duncan Houston Safari Club Foundation scholarship way back when, or whatever. And that's pretty cool to see. Um we do a youth education program. Um to date, we've educated, uh, we've provided outdoor experiences to over 300 students at the high school level. Um, so we're looking at expanding that program to uh summer camps, summer conservation camps, as well as hunting programs. We're gonna we're gonna expand the number of youth hunts we're gonna do next fall um and start doing some classroom stuff as well. Um and then we have our grants program, and the grants program funds everything like the sheep program in Texas to uh programs internationally. Um so um, you know, we we review grants on a quarterly basis, and if it falls in line with our mission statement, somebody's gonna get some money to help them with either habitat or wildlife management um or conservation of some sort. Um, so those are our three main things uh grants, youth education, and of course the scholarship program.

George Blitch: 9:17

And the grants too. It's another one of those things that's been four plus million dollars. I mean, this is no small task, no small thing at all. You guys have given so much back uh to conservational, educational awareness things, and it's just a great thing to see. And it was one thing that I really took home from the experience of being a part of this was the community and the family feel of just walking through and getting to know people and see them again throughout the weekend and seeing the excitement that everyone had about being a part of something larger than themselves. And I it just to be able to see kind of those earmarks of those successful uh, you know, whether campaigns or, you know, whether it's a a grant or uh youth scholarship or whatever it is to see those things and then kind of have those people filter through uh, you know, from years past. It was just a really cool thing. And it that really just the community vibe in that family uh really kind of stuck out to me of how close-knit everybody was from the people who are walking through to the exhibitors to the people who are working. And I'd love for you to just kind of you know share your thoughts on on that idea of that community, that family feel that you know you see on your end of things.

SPEAKER_00: 10:27

Right. Yeah. You know, there's a lot of outdoor and hunting related conventions out there, and there's some really big ones. Um, but we're not we're not trying to be the biggest. Um, you know, we we're we kind of feel uh feel like our uh annual convention is more of a reunion. It's a reunion of the people we haven't seen for the past year. Maybe we only see people once or twice a year. Exhibitors, the same thing. We a lot, we have a lot of exhibitors and new exhibitors too, but it's kind of like, oh, hey, uh Bruno from Spain, I haven't seen you, you know, in a year other than an email, or maybe we texted each other. Um it's it we have a couple of hundred exhibitors. We do the banquet thing like everybody else does, we do the auction and raffle thing like everybody else does. But we like being at the woodlands uh where we are because there's a lot of stuff for families to do. If you know, kids get tired of walking convention hall floors. So mom wants to take them out for ice cream or they want to go shopping, they're steps away from a ton of stuff to do. Um it's in a hotel um setting that it's a convention center. So if you want to go upstairs and go to your room and take a break for a minute or just get off the floor, you can do that. Um we have exhibits, as you know, you saw your upstairs and downstairs. But it's not, we're not trying to be the biggest. Uh what we want to do is we want to offer a quality um three to four-day experience where people can reconnect. Um, they go shopping, whether it's gear or hunts or whatever like that, or whether they're just trying to reconnect with people they haven't talked to in a while. And you'll when you know, you you talk to several of our exhibitors, you find a lot of times you're like, um, oh yeah, I'm uh uh I'm pretty much booked up because the five guys that hunted with me last year dropped by again this year and they're booked up again, you know, for next year. And they're like, I'll just wait to the Houston Safari Club show and I'll go see so-and-so, and I'll just go ahead and rebook my hunt there. So, yeah, it it's it's a smaller convention comparatively comparatively to some of the larger uh conventions. We like it that way. Um, we think it allows us to give more personal attention to the attendees as well as our exhibitors. Um, you know, we have food trucks outside, so the exhibitors don't have to leave the floor for very long, especially if it's a mom and pop organization with just two of them in the booth. One of them can run out and grab something to eat, come back in, and and uh the hotel's really nice. And it's just more of an intimate deal. It's more of a family. I know that people use that cliche term a lot, but it is. We have it's more of a reunion families type type feel for us anyway.

George Blitch: 12:50

Well, that's what a lot of the exhibitors talk, you know, when I did some of these interviews, it was the same thing I kept hearing. And those people who kept coming back, they are talking about how they're excited to see everyone again and other exhibitors they've met. And then, you know, people who are coming back and hunting, like I talked to some folks, like, oh yeah, I've gone there to New Zealand and hunted with them two different times, and then they recommended this other place over here. I'm gonna go fishing over here in Costa Rica, and everyone was just kind of working together. It didn't seem like, you know, I've seen some where things are competitive, right? Like they want to get the people over, and there's people that are kind of prescripted of what they're gonna say and do. And it I didn't see that. It just felt very like natural. And uh, you it one of the things I like about having a convention that is a little smaller is that you could actually go and ask those questions, get those answers, become more educated about that particular uh you know, outfit or that, you know, pH or whoever may be out there, whatever you're learning, or the product or whatever they may have, you get the time. You're not like waiting in line and you got a little second and they're on to the next person. Uh, I I think that that's an important thing that you guys have that you know that's the benefit of having things a little bit more smaller and intimate in that say sense.

SPEAKER_00: 13:59

Yeah, you I don't know if you've ever done SHAT Show.

George Blitch: 14:02

I have not yet, but it's well, it's the meat finder.

SPEAKER_00: 14:05

Yeah, and you could be there the whole time and not cover the entire floor. And that's I understand the the size of it because it's you know, every every firearms manufacturer and optics manufacturer in the world on top of some outfitters and things like that, it's hard to cover the ground. So I think you make a valid point. Um our show format and style allows people to sit down, actually sit down with the outfitter get to know them. And let's be honest, if I'm gonna take time off from work and spend a lot of money to go somewhere, whether it's I'm gonna shoot a big white tail in Texas, or if I decide I do want to go to New Zealand or Spain, I want to get to know the person I'm gonna be hunting with, you know. Um and we we really, I mean, there are new people that come along and we do our best to try to vet them. We vet them on experience, we vet them on recommendations as far as our exhibitors and outfitters go. Um, we're not perfect, but a lot of the people that are there have been there a long time. They're reputable, or they've been referred there by somebody who's been with us a long time. And so uh, you know, we and we, you know, sometimes we'll get emails after convention when somebody's had a bad experience. It happens. You know, we've all had bad hunting experiences. And we dig into both sides of the story and find out what happened and talk to them. And we find out if somebody's maybe not a reputable outfit or something, you know, maybe that's not who needs to be part of our show. Very, very seldom does that ever happen. And and sometimes it's just extenuating circumstances where it just didn't work out. But we we try to do our very best to make sure that the people that are there on the floor um are representative of us and that they're that they're professional and that they're that they're good people.

George Blitch: 15:39

Well, it it seems that way. That that's something that I I appreciate that it's it's the value is in the experience and the people and not over, you know, it's it's that is over the dollar, right? Because you can fill up the vendor booths with all sorts of people, but you want to get the right people there, and that's what helped, and that's what that community thing, and have people keep coming back for more. Um, and and on that note, too, I know the dates are out there for the 2027. Um, and you know, I know that there's already excitement that that's being built for, you know, that I know I'm excited to come back. Um, and I just wanted to kind of give people a little bit of format because, you know, you kind of mentioned it being like a four-day thing. You know, and on Thursday night, things kind of kick off. You guys have a cocktail party, and then you have the hunting in the photo awards banquet. So let's just kind of walk through a little bit of day-to-day. I want to spend a ton of time, but I want to let people know uh as far as what that looks like and some of the events that you guys have throughout those four days there. So let's start off with that. How did that go? And and uh, you know, for those who haven't been there, maybe give them a little bit of uh background on that uh, you know, banquet.

SPEAKER_00: 16:37

Yeah. So um, so the way it works is uh it's not open to the public. We really kind of unofficially kick it off on Wednesday night um uh over at Condor attack Sodermy. They've got a giant trophy room. So we get uh we do what we call an exhibitor volunteer appreciation party. We run shuttles to and from the hotel, and it's a chance for everybody just to hang out, kind of have a beverage, have some food, uh, and kind of unofficially kick off the week. Um, and then we're when you know we the staff gets there Wednesday morning early, and we're moving in Wednesday and Thursday and until the show opens Friday morning, getting exhibitors moved in. And that's something that's unique is that we actually help our exhibitors move in. We'll help them haul carts and stuff like that. Um that's another thing that's kind of unique to us. And uh Thursday night's the unofficial or Wednesday night's the unofficial kickoff, and then Thursday night we do the hunting and photo awards, cocktail reception, and then um people um apply for hunting awards before convention. So they'll send in their entries for their uh uh the animals they've hunted over the past two years, as well as their photos, two distinct categories, and we present awards for uh outstanding photos, outstanding um uh uh hunting memories, as I call them. Um, and then we recognize, uh typically recognize our outfitter of the year and our conservationist of the year, uh somebody who's done a lot of work in the in the in the areas of area of conservation, wildlife and habitat management. And so it's it's a it's a little more laid back. It's it's a little bit smaller banquet. Um it is more of a recognition of achievements over the past year. We try to get most of those done on Thursday night, um, with the exception of a couple of awards that we do on Saturday night. And then the expo hall opens on Friday around you know late morning and runs that evening. And Friday night, we do a casual event that's um it's uh banquet, entertainment, and then we have a live auction on Friday night. Typically runs till about 10 or 11. Um Saturday, our ladies' group, the gazelles, has their luncheon that starts around uh 10:30 and runs until about 1.30 or two. Um, and that is banquet, silent auction, live auction and entertainment. Um they're dressed to the nines, guys and gals. People sometimes people go, oh, it's the ladies' luncheon. No, it's put on by the ladies, but there's just as many men there. Yeah, it's probably one of our more popular events. And then, of course, all during this time the expo hall is open. And then Saturday night, we have our grand gala, which is a black tie optional. Um, it's uh, you know, everybody puts on their fancy duds. I've seen camo tuxedos, I've seen just about everything. Um, uh big banquet, big gala, a couple of acknowledgements from the stage for a couple of our uh awards like President's Award and and a couple others. And then we have our our big uh our big auction, probably our cream of the crop, if you will, auction items typically go on Saturday night. Um and uh oh, but let me back up, I forgot something. On Friday night, Friday night's focus is really scholarships and youth education. So we focus on our scholarship program. We have a past scholarship speak recipient speak, who is now actively out there in their career. We have uh usually an academic academic advisor speak, and then we bring up all of our winners that are in town from the previous year, and they get to talk as well. So scholarship and youth education is really the Friday night focus. Um, and then Sunday we open the expo hall up again, and then we do our big raffle drawing on the floor um at uh two o'clock and then shut the convention down at three on Sunday. This year was a little light because of the fear of the weather. We had a lot of typically we have hundreds of people gather around the raffle area and most of the winners are there and they're like, all right, I got this gun or I got that scooter or whatever. This year was a little light because a lot of people uh were kind of hunkered down on Sunday. But um it that's kind of how the weekend goes. And then, you know, we're there till Sunday night helping everybody get moved out and everything. Hopefully we got everybody moved out by at the latest uh Sunday night, late or Monday morning. So and then and then we sleep for two days and then Wednesday uh we start planning for the next one.

George Blitch: 20:34

Yeah, but no rest for the weekend, man. You guys are right back at it. I mean, and it's there's still a lot of things you guys are organizing right after, as far as, you know, hey, this person won the hunt. Working on the floor plan right now for next year. Yeah, and it and it was packed, and I I know that there was some, you know, I I was curious whenever you hear all this nose coming as far as like are there exhibitors all gonna be there? And I think almost every single one showed up. And like you said, too, it's I think there was that window of time because it was it rained Sunday morning and it was gonna maybe come back again Sunday evening. So a lot of people were trying to like maybe hit that window and get out of town where the you know it's it's not like Texas is usually the best at uh keeping care of the highways and it snows as opposed to the east coast or whatever, like they're dealing with now. But you know, it it it was it was still well attended on on a Sunday, even for that, you know, maybe not as as like past years, but it was great to just see everyone uh all around, man. Every day there were so many people that uh I got to talk to and just everyone had just the best time. And uh the exhibitors are great, the staff was amazing. I'm just all around, Joe. It was uh it was quite an event and it was great to be a part of. And you know, for those who are listening now who are thinking about it, you need to come to this convention uh in January 2027. Uh it'll be at the same place, yeah? Yep, yeah, we'll be there through 2030 actually. Some night. That's the Woodlands Waterway, Marriott Hotel and Convention Center there. And Woodlands just outside of Houston. It's right on the cusp.

SPEAKER_00: 22:03

Yeah, it's it's right outside of Houston. And like I said, it's it's a great area to have a sh have a show. Um it's safe out there. It's you know, they they don't tolerate a lot of stuff out there, the the the the the city of the woodlands. Um and you know, I just just two things actually that I took away from it. It was really cool to see a lot of young kids walking around with their families, uh you know, boys and girls with their families walking around and looking at things. And we have a couple exhibitors that had some surprises. One guy had some baby kangaroos, a couple people brought their dogs. Um, so you never know what's gonna show up there. But, you know, um I always encourage, you know, while we are the Houston Safari Club, you know, uh foundation, the thing that attendees as well as exhibitors need to remember is that it's not just about Africa. We we're always looking for new partners and exhibitors um that are in Texas, that are across the U.S. that want to, you know, tell their story and want to sell hunts. And uh that's that's something we're starting to see more and more of that people are like, oh, it's not just about safaris. It is about, you know, I can book a hunt, you know, I can book a hog hunt in Texas, or I can book an antelope hunt in New Mexico, or I can book a safari in Africa if I want to. Um, and the same thing for the outfitters. We we've had a lot, we've had a lot more North American, you know, outfitters that have expressed interest now. And I've got a right now, I've got a list of we I mean, we're updating our software systems and things, but I'd literally have a page of like 35 exhibitors that are like, you need to email me. I'm ready to sign up for a booth. So um we're excited about what what next year is gonna bring.

George Blitch: 23:32

That's great. Well, Woodlands needs to start expanding so we can get some more folks in there, man. And y'all are kind of busting at the seams on the exhibitors.

SPEAKER_00: 23:40

Well, we're gonna add booths next year. We've already we're like I say, we're working on the floor plan and we're gonna modify and then add some more exhibitors next year. And I don't know, maybe we'll have to put a tent on the parking garage or something at some point.

George Blitch: 23:50

We'll walk out there, yeah. As long as it's not 15 degrees out, you know, we'll be fine. Exactly. You can't ever tell in Texas. You never know. You never know. Exactly. Well, Joe, thank you so much for joining me. It was nice to kind of get a little recap. Um, you know, just a a wonderful organization for those uh, you know, are ready to learn more, uh, get involved, become a member. Why don't you go ahead and give them the socials and uh maybe talk to them a little bit about maybe how how they can become a member and what that looks like for them.

SPEAKER_00: 24:19

Yeah, well, I just want to say we appreciate you being there and all the social media stuff that you did for us and and the podcast. You interviewed a lot of our sponsors and and things like that. I think that that definitely helped us. Um so you can go to we give.org and click on the membership drop-down. There's a variety of different memberships that are available at various price levels on the socials. Just Google Houston Spart Club Foundation. But you can click on the links from the website um to go to Facebook X, uh, Twitter. We have uh sorry, not Twitter, it's X, Facebook X, Instagram, uh, YouTube, um, and then um you can find all those on the website. But the the cool thing about the website is it's kind of our calling card. We've done our uh we've launched a revamped website in the past year, and so we put as much information on there as we can um about the organization, but they can always call the office number that's listed at the bottom of every page if they ever have questions. We'd love to have people join. Um we do monthly events or try to do something at least every month. Um, we're doing a European Tower Pheasant shoot this Saturday. Um we do a clay shoot every year. We got a crawfish bowl coming up. So um big party at Republic Boot Company in June. Um, so we got a lot of stuff coming up, and and we try to do something on a very regular basis for our members just so they can congregate and get together.

George Blitch: 25:32

No, that's great, man. And that that's one of the things I love about that. There's always something going on, there's always a chance to get involved. And if you guys are ever interested in volunteering, there are volunteering needs uh for the convention and for some of these other events too. So reach out, get involved. This is a great organization. I'm uh, you know, just uh it I'm proud to be a part of it. And it was so much fun to uh work alongside you and the great staff there. It was a a sheer joy getting to meet everyone, interview them, and just kind of be a part of it all, man. I cannot wait till next year. So uh thanks again, Joe, for everything.

SPEAKER_00: 26:03

Thank you, George. We appreciate your support. Cheers. Take care. You too.