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The National Leadership Council (NLC) of Trout Unlimited approved the following actions during its meeting on March 19, 2007.
1. Regarding Board of Trustee Resolution #1 proposed by Bob Teufel and Ted Roosevelt in their March 9 memo to the TU Board of Trustees:
"To approve amendments of the 2006 stream access policy as set out and described in the attached materials. The proposed amendments would prohibit TU involvement or participation in disputes that pit claims of public stream access against claims of private property rights."
The NLC unanimously approved the following resolution:
It is the sense of the NLC that the process used to develop the Resolutions was fatally flawed and poor governance. Any significant revision to the existing access policy, which was developed through a cooperative, collaborative process, should go through a similar development. The flawed process was not in the best interests of TU.
The NLC recognizes the importance of the issues raised by the Teufel/Roosevelt Resolution #1 and their salience to many donors, and is willing to enter into a collaborative process which seeks to achieve consensus on changes to the existing TU Access Policy which would address those issues. The NLC would seek to complete such a process by the TU annual meeting in September, 2007, with a vote by the Board at that time.
The NLC submits that the current TU Access Policy should remain in place until modified as above, is opposed to a moratorium against work on legitimate access issues that can be addressed under the existing TU Access Policy, and urges the TU Board of Trustees to defer any votes on Resolution #1 or other changes to the TU Access Policy until after the above-mentioned process has been given a chance to succeed.
2. The NLC endorsed Board of Trustee Resolution #2 proposed by Bob Teufel and Ted Roosevelt in their March 9th memo to the TU Board of Trustees:
"To request that the Stream Access Work Group and the staff to develop, for consideration by the National Leadership Council and the Board of Trustees at their respective September 2007 meetings, a draft of a proposal for a program to encourage and facilitate involvement by TU chapters and councils in voluntary and incentive-based programs to increase public stream access."
The vote was nearly unanimous, with only one member casting a no vote. The sense of the body was that this proposal would finally put the organization in position to execute on the clear guidance provided in the policy when adopted last year and make access a positive engagement for TU, not just a negative one.